fatvegan

I made a gentle alarm with Dell BIOS timed start, TweakUI autologin, Windows Scheduler, iTunes and some nifty COM scripting. It starts playing music really quietly, and slowly gets louder.

/* iTunesAlarm.js / Version 2 */

var WshShell        = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell");
var iTunesApp       = WScript.CreateObject("iTunes.Application");
var mainLibrary     = iTunesApp.LibraryPlaylist;
var mainLibrarySource   = iTunesApp.LibrarySource;
var alertTimeout    = 5;  // seconds
var alarmFadePeriod = 60; // minutes
var alarmClosePeriod    = 60; // minutes

// Turn it right down
iTunesApp.SoundVolume = 0;

// Play the "Alarm" playlist
mainLibrarySource.Playlists.itemByName("Alarm").PlayFirstTrack();


// Slowly fade in over alarmFadePeriod seconds
for (i = 1; i <= alarmFadePeriod; i++) {
    iTunesApp.SoundVolume = i * 100/alarmFadePeriod;
    if(WshShell.PopUp("Do you want to cancel the alarm?", alertTimeout, "iTunes Alarm", 32+4)==6) {
        WScript.Quit(0);
    }

    WScript.Sleep(1000*(60-alertTimeout));  // Quarter-minutely (25 mins)
}


for(i = 1; i <= alarmClosePeriod; i++) {
    if(WshShell.PopUp("iTunes will stop and Windows will hibernate in " + (alarmClosePeriod+1-i) + " minutes. Let iTunes continue playing?", 60, "iTunes 

Alarm", 32+0)==1) {
        WScript.Quit(0);
        break;
    }
}

iTunesApp.Stop();
WshShell.SendKeys("^{ESC}uh{ENTER}"); // Hibernate

I created a better version instead of doing my econometrics homework. This one has notifications which make it a bit more good. It also turns iTunes off (and hibernates) unless I tell it not to, for those days when I stay at mum's and forget to turn off the alarm. I am teh l33t h4x0r.

Update: [2007-08-19] I changed it so that the fade in lasts longer, and it sets the iTunesApp.SoundVolume to 0 before it starts play. Playing computer was sufficiently sleepy this morning that it was playing at full volume for a few seconds before it got to the loop where it reduces the volume. I got a bit of an abrupt wake up.

The old version is over the fold.

/* iTunesAlarm.js / Version 1 */

var iTunesApp = WScript.CreateObject("iTunes.Application");
var mainLibrary = iTunesApp.LibraryPlaylist;
var mainLibrarySource = iTunesApp.LibrarySource;

// get all playlists
var playlists = mainLibrarySource.Playlists;

playlists.itemByName("Alarm").PlayFirstTrack();

for (i = 1; i <= 100; i++) {
    iTunesApp.SoundVolume = i;
    WScript.Sleep(10000*15);  // Quarter-minutely (25 mins)
}