Don't trust the Alarm!
by Jeff Cadow

My wife and I were in Key West this past January for a vacation. While planning the trip, I booked a return flight that left Key West International Airport at 6 a.m. As I made our arrangements, I entered the info in my Palm m100 (PalmOS 3.5), such as the days we'd be off ('No Time' calendar entries), the flight times, reservation numbers, etc.

On the last night of our vacation, I set the Palm's alarm to go off at 4:30 a.m. to allow plenty of time to rouse ourselves, find the airport, and return the rental car.

I slept OK but lightly through the night, and at some point I had a feeling I might be getting more rest than waking at 4:30 should have given me. I reached for the m100, pressed the time display button, and held it in front of my half-opened eyes: 5:34 a.m.! $*%#!!! The *#@&ing alarm didn't go off!  My wife & I hopped out of bed, threw on our clothes, grabbed the bags we'd packed the night before THANK GOD, ran down the stairs & out of the inn across the street to our rental, threw the bags in, and took off for the airport at 5:38. I tore down Route 1, wound up in a neighborhood, realized I missed the airport, ran a red light & dodged the garbage men to pull a U-turn, whipped back up Route 1, and pulled in front of the terminal at 5:55. My wife hopped out, checked us in, I left the rental at a parking meter, we ran across the tarmac, up the steps, and they closed the door behind us! 26 minutes from paradise back into the rat race!

The problem with the alarm was how OS 3.5 stacks alarms. I'd created a 'No Time' entry for each day of our vacation, which went off, silently, just after midnight. When setting the Palm's alarm, I created another event that was queued behind the 'No Time' event. Because I didn't clear it, OS 3.5 did not set off the 4:30 a.m. alarm.

When I parked the rental, I left $20 in the ashtray as a tip for the rental guys' troubles of having to retrieve it. I called them from the next airport, Miami, as soon as we landed, to explain and tell them to retrieve the 20 from the ashtray. They still charged me an extra day for not returning it to their office, however. I suppose I can argue that OS 3.5 cost me around $80 plus a rude and rapid exit from the first vacation my wife and I had had in 5 years.

I now have an m505 with OS 4.0, which fixed this problem, although my wife will probably never trust any Palm's alarm ever again.

return