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Max the Magnificent
Dual alarms are good -- if course the iPhone and iPad type alarms are quite ...
Max the Magnificent
User Interface Design is tricky -- well, creating a goo done is tricky -- ...
The best and worst alarm clocks ever…
Clive Maxfield
3/8/2012 12:38 PM EST
My current alarm clock awoke me with its usual screech this morning. Whoever was in charge of the sound portion of this device had an unusual sense of cruelty. One suspects that this is not the sort of person you would want to hang out with (unless you wanted to instruct them in the error of their ways by strapping them to a chair and making them listen to the insane warbling of their alarm call for an hour … or three).
Of course, it may be that he (or she) was intending something much more pleasant, in which case they are simply not very good on the engineering front and – once again – not the sort of person you want to hang out with.
Actually, I really dislike just about everything there is to do with my current alarm clock … I really need to replace it with something that doesn’t go out of its way to raise my ire and make me gnash my teeth and rend my garb. In fact, as I pen these words, I realize that I really, REALLY hate this clock!
Consider a top-down view of the clock as shown below. The Alarm On/Off control (not shown here) is positioned awkwardly on the side … mounted in such a way that it’s hard to locate and manipulate – especially in the dark. Similarly, the black text printed on the controls means you can’t work out which is which in the dark.
Thinking about it, this is the sort of view of my current clock that I would like to see as it recedes into the distance after being dropped off the top of a very tall building…
Whoever created this beast was obviously trying to cut down on costs by using simple, cheap-and-cheerful push-button switches. The idea is that you use one hand to press-and-hold the Time or the Alarm buttons, and then you use the other hand to repeatedly click – or press-and-hold – the Hour or the Minute buttons.
Another problem is that the Hour and Minute buttons only work in the “Forwards” temporal dimension. So if the alarm is currently set to 6:45 a.m. and you wish it to be set to 6:30 a.m., for example, then you have to click it forward by 45 minutes. And yes, the rate does speed up if you hold the button, but somehow it manages to speed up too slowly or too quickly or something … I can’t explain … but whatever it does, it doesn’t do it in the most optimal way. And if you accidentally skim past your intended time, you have to go all the way around again (arrgghhhh).
As another example, when you press the Snooze button, the alarm re-sounds in 9 minutes time. So if the alarm is originally set to go off at 6:00 a.m. and you press the Snooze button, the alarm re-triggers at 6:09 a.m. If you press Snooze again, the alarm comes back at 6:18 a.m., and so forth. Why 9 minutes? What contemptible creature came up with this odious concept?
Working the controls wouldn’t be quite the pain it is if I only had to do so once in a Blue Moon. It is not uncommon, however, as I finally lay my weary head to rest on my pillow after yet another grueling day, for my wife (Gina the Gorgeous) to say “What time is your alarm set for?” Then, irrespective of my reply, she will say something like “Well, when you get up, can you re-set it to 7:30 a.m. for me?”
Yes, of course she has her own alarm clock sitting on her bedside table. What do you mean “Why don’t you tell her to set her own $%^& clock?” If you have to ask, then you obviously aren’t married (grin).
But we digress… it was while I was contemplating the reprogramming of my existing alarm clock (with a mallet) this morning that I recalled a clock I used to own in England at least 30 years ago. I don’t recall the exact details, but I do recall that it was cube-shaped and that the alarm had a pleasant sound that gradually increased until it was “insistent” without being “obnoxious”.
Furthermore, this little beauty had two separate alarms, so you could set one for weekdays and another for weekends, for example. Alternatively, you could set the first alarm for one person and the second alarm for another. Even better, the controls were GREAT, as illustrated in the top-down view below:
The reason I’ve illustrated the various pieces of text in white – and also the Up/Down triangles on the controls – is that these were illuminated (there was a knob on the side of the clock that allowed you to vary the intensity of this illumination).
Every aspect of this clock was well thought out. The Up/Down controls affected both the minutes and hours settings, for example. If you held the control down the rate of change would speed up; and whatever “envelope” they were using to control the rate of increase worked perfectly for me. Also, if you overshot your target, you could easily reverse direction to return to the desired time.
But wait, there's more, because you had the option of keeping the brightness of the main display full-on throughout the night, or allowing it to gradually fall (over a period of say 20 seconds) to a much dimmer – although still visible – level after the room lights had been extinguished.
It was obvious to me then – and much more obvious to me now – that a lot of thought had gone into the creation of this little beauty. The real genius of the design was that everything was so intuitive – even an idiot like yours truly could determine how everything worked by simply looking at it.
I want my old clock …
If you found this article to be amusing and/or of interest, visit Programmable Logic Designline where – in addition to my blogs on all sorts of "stuff" (also check out my Max's Cool Beans blog) – you will find the latest and greatest design, technology, product, and news articles with regard to programmable logic devices of every flavor and size (FPGAs, CPLDs, CSSPs, PSoCs...).
Also, you can obtain a highlights update delivered directly to your inbox by signing up for my weekly newsletter – just Click Here to request this newsletter using the Manage Newsletters tab (if you aren't already a member you'll be asked to register, but it's free and painless so don't let that stop you [grin]).
Of course, it may be that he (or she) was intending something much more pleasant, in which case they are simply not very good on the engineering front and – once again – not the sort of person you want to hang out with.
Actually, I really dislike just about everything there is to do with my current alarm clock … I really need to replace it with something that doesn’t go out of its way to raise my ire and make me gnash my teeth and rend my garb. In fact, as I pen these words, I realize that I really, REALLY hate this clock!
Consider a top-down view of the clock as shown below. The Alarm On/Off control (not shown here) is positioned awkwardly on the side … mounted in such a way that it’s hard to locate and manipulate – especially in the dark. Similarly, the black text printed on the controls means you can’t work out which is which in the dark.
Top down view of my current alarm clock
Thinking about it, this is the sort of view of my current clock that I would like to see as it recedes into the distance after being dropped off the top of a very tall building…
Whoever created this beast was obviously trying to cut down on costs by using simple, cheap-and-cheerful push-button switches. The idea is that you use one hand to press-and-hold the Time or the Alarm buttons, and then you use the other hand to repeatedly click – or press-and-hold – the Hour or the Minute buttons.
Another problem is that the Hour and Minute buttons only work in the “Forwards” temporal dimension. So if the alarm is currently set to 6:45 a.m. and you wish it to be set to 6:30 a.m., for example, then you have to click it forward by 45 minutes. And yes, the rate does speed up if you hold the button, but somehow it manages to speed up too slowly or too quickly or something … I can’t explain … but whatever it does, it doesn’t do it in the most optimal way. And if you accidentally skim past your intended time, you have to go all the way around again (arrgghhhh).
As another example, when you press the Snooze button, the alarm re-sounds in 9 minutes time. So if the alarm is originally set to go off at 6:00 a.m. and you press the Snooze button, the alarm re-triggers at 6:09 a.m. If you press Snooze again, the alarm comes back at 6:18 a.m., and so forth. Why 9 minutes? What contemptible creature came up with this odious concept?
Working the controls wouldn’t be quite the pain it is if I only had to do so once in a Blue Moon. It is not uncommon, however, as I finally lay my weary head to rest on my pillow after yet another grueling day, for my wife (Gina the Gorgeous) to say “What time is your alarm set for?” Then, irrespective of my reply, she will say something like “Well, when you get up, can you re-set it to 7:30 a.m. for me?”
Yes, of course she has her own alarm clock sitting on her bedside table. What do you mean “Why don’t you tell her to set her own $%^& clock?” If you have to ask, then you obviously aren’t married (grin).
But we digress… it was while I was contemplating the reprogramming of my existing alarm clock (with a mallet) this morning that I recalled a clock I used to own in England at least 30 years ago. I don’t recall the exact details, but I do recall that it was cube-shaped and that the alarm had a pleasant sound that gradually increased until it was “insistent” without being “obnoxious”.
Furthermore, this little beauty had two separate alarms, so you could set one for weekdays and another for weekends, for example. Alternatively, you could set the first alarm for one person and the second alarm for another. Even better, the controls were GREAT, as illustrated in the top-down view below:
Top down view of my old alarm clock
The reason I’ve illustrated the various pieces of text in white – and also the Up/Down triangles on the controls – is that these were illuminated (there was a knob on the side of the clock that allowed you to vary the intensity of this illumination).
Every aspect of this clock was well thought out. The Up/Down controls affected both the minutes and hours settings, for example. If you held the control down the rate of change would speed up; and whatever “envelope” they were using to control the rate of increase worked perfectly for me. Also, if you overshot your target, you could easily reverse direction to return to the desired time.
But wait, there's more, because you had the option of keeping the brightness of the main display full-on throughout the night, or allowing it to gradually fall (over a period of say 20 seconds) to a much dimmer – although still visible – level after the room lights had been extinguished.
It was obvious to me then – and much more obvious to me now – that a lot of thought had gone into the creation of this little beauty. The real genius of the design was that everything was so intuitive – even an idiot like yours truly could determine how everything worked by simply looking at it.
I want my old clock …
If you found this article to be amusing and/or of interest, visit Programmable Logic Designline where – in addition to my blogs on all sorts of "stuff" (also check out my Max's Cool Beans blog) – you will find the latest and greatest design, technology, product, and news articles with regard to programmable logic devices of every flavor and size (FPGAs, CPLDs, CSSPs, PSoCs...).
Also, you can obtain a highlights update delivered directly to your inbox by signing up for my weekly newsletter – just Click Here to request this newsletter using the Manage Newsletters tab (if you aren't already a member you'll be asked to register, but it's free and painless so don't let that stop you [grin]).
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Max the Magnificent
3/8/2012 12:55 PM EST
Re my old clock -- I forgot to mention that the "Snooze" button incremented things by 10 minutes.
Can you think of any improvements that could have been made to that old design?
And can you recommend a new clock for me... I have decided that my old clock is to be retired ("with extreme prejudice" as they say)...
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Max the Magnificent
3/8/2012 1:06 PM EST
Also, the "On" buttons associated with the alarms on the old clock were push-button toggles. One push/click turned it on (and the text lit up) -- a second push/click turned it off. I don't recall how the Off state was indicated visually...
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phoenixdave
3/8/2012 3:29 PM EST
My advice, throw them both out and buy a BIG Westclox Big Ben Twin-bell mechanical alarm clock...
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Max the Magnificent
3/8/2012 3:54 PM EST
So the "tick-tock" can drive me insane? No thanks :-)
When you say "throw them both out" -- the old one is long gone -- left in England 22 years ago when I came over here...
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antedeluvian
3/11/2012 10:15 AM EDT
I have always had problems with sleeping late and I have now got to the age where I don't really need them. I have a travel clock that has the wonderfull feature that the "Alarm Off" function doesn't always work- cured by a spritz of contact cleaner, after the wife's pointed remarks.
There is also a second clock,a Sony with an "Auto Time Set" feature. It doesn't appear to me an Atomic clock cause i have one of those elsewhere and I don't quite know how this works- it automatically finds the time and changes for daylight savings (even after the dates were changed), but is always 5 minutes fast!
Our bedside tables can be as messy as my desk at work and the clock often gets hidden behind the lamp. I wanted to get one of those that project the time on the ceiling, but my better half vetoed the idea.
In my salad days, a friend moved his alarm to the lounge and connected it to his stereo, set to full blast. He woke up, walked the length of the apartment, turned the alarm off, returned to bed and went back to sleep.
Another friend at university could not wake up. Alarm clocks were pointless. We used to try and wake him 5 or 6 times before leaving and he would still miss even exams and then accused us of not waking him. At one point he was busy importing an Alfa Romeo from Italy to Israel. This actually went on for months, I don't remember why. The only way to get his attention was to tell him the ship had sunk.
I had a neighbour in South Africa (across the road and 3 houses down) who hooked up his clock to a siren which went off at 5:30am. Apparently I was only one in the neighbourhood disturbed by it. Had to call in noise abatement. It turns out he was hard of hearing.
In the good old days I actually made my own alarm clock (using a National Semi module) to which I added a mercury switch so that to activate the snooze feature you simply had to vaguely move the clock without having to find the snooze button.
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DavidPK
3/13/2012 9:54 AM EDT
I have a simple travel clock. It runs for about a year on a single AA battery. When the power goes out, it still wakes me up on time. It has a progressive "chirp" alarm that wakes me without scaring the life out of me. The time is easy to change, either way, same with the alarm. The snooze is only 5 minutes and can't be changed. The back light operates by pressing the snooze button.
If I could change 2 things, the snooze time and maybe have a full-time back light, it would be perfect.
When I travel I wake to the same alarm.
If I break one, I have 3 spares.
@antedeluvian, activating the snooze by moving the clock reminds me of one I had years ago where the snooze switch was on the bottom of the clock. You would whack the clock on the top and it would snooze.
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The MicroMan
3/13/2012 11:17 AM EDT
Who wants to be awakened in the morning anyhow?
The worst alarm clocks are the ones in the fancy hotels. They seem to require a PC or a 1/2" user manual to set with all sorts of peculiar functions. No, I'm just staying here a night or two - don't have time to try to figure this fool thing out. Invariably these wake you at 4:04am for some reason - or 6:30 pm. And they're always tuned to the foreign radio station. Better to take your own battery clock or use your cell phone alarm.
I, too, hand-built an alarm clock with the National LED clock module long years ago - used a cardboard box for the case. Nothing has changed much except, as noted, the waking sound options have gotten worse rather than better.
And you know that fewer buttons are cheaper so don't look for up and down buttons to replace the single keep-holding-til-it-comes-back-around button.
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Max the Magnificent
3/13/2012 11:23 AM EDT
Oh so cynical for one so young :-)
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SteveD_Aus
3/15/2012 6:44 PM EDT
The biggest problem about hotel alarm clocks is that the previous occupant had to catch an early flight on his last day...
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seaEE
3/15/2012 9:26 PM EDT
The biggest problem about hotel alarm clocks is that they are always anchored to the night stand three feet away from the foot of the bed, so if you try and groggily breach that chasm with a flailing palm, you are likely to tumble on to the floor.
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Max the Magnificent
3/16/2012 8:33 AM EDT
But on the bright side the alarm clock has done its job because you are now wide awake :-)
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glen.herrmannsfeldt
3/15/2012 7:29 AM EDT
Some time ago, I had the idea of an FPGA demo board designed for implementing a clock radio.
First, it would be able to implement a digital clock, which could be done as an early project for a class. One could then design the clock exactly the way one wanted, including specifying the controls, snooze delay and alarm sound.
Second, it would have enough additional circuitry to implement (I believe misnamed) Software Defined Radio. With a minimal amount of external circuitry, the student would then do the digital design to implement the radio part of the clock radio for a later class project. It should be able to implement an AM/FM radio, though depending on the student's ability maybe only one.
I do remember when digital clock kits were easy to find in mail-order company ads, usually build from the NS5314 series chips. Hard to find now.
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Max the Magnificent
3/15/2012 9:56 AM EDT
This sounds like a GREAT project ... so when are you going to build one and (a) send it to me as a gift and (b) write a "How To" design article about it for me to publish on Programmable Logic Designline?
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Duane Benson
3/15/2012 9:04 PM EDT
You're too logical to make it in the alarm clock design industry. Based on practical experience with a number of different models, I suspect that knowledge of time and any sort of human interface will disqualify you from the job of designing one of these things.
One of the other problems I've had with just about every digital alarm clock I've ever had is the lack of button de-bounce. Use the fast mode to get close, then the slow mode to step to the actual time value. Invariably, a single press of the button will advance the digits anywhere from one to a dozen or more minutes (or hours).
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Max the Magnificent
3/16/2012 8:32 AM EDT
I wish you could have seen my old clock in England -- everything about it was really well thought out and implemented...
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Duane Benson
3/15/2012 9:11 PM EDT
A thought just occurred to me after posting my last comment. Over on Microcontroller Central http://www.microcontrollercentral.com/author.asp?section_id=1741&doc_id=240353 there's a discussion on MCUs that are connected to the cloud.
An alarm clock strikes me as an ideal use for such a connected device - especially a wireless one. I use an old cell phone as my alarm clock these days. It's not set up with any phone system, but it still polls and keeps accurate time. I never have to worry about setting the time or changing it for daylight savings time.
Do something similar to a standard alarm and you've eliminated half of the button madness.
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Max the Magnificent
3/16/2012 8:31 AM EDT
Hmmm -- interesting idea
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seaEE
3/15/2012 9:27 PM EDT
My alarm clock is:
1. Obnoxiously loud
2. You have to fast/slow cycle through both AM and PM times to set the time. Very annoying after a power outage.
I need a new alarm clock I think.
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Max the Magnificent
3/16/2012 8:31 AM EDT
I think you have the same model I do
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Andy_I
3/17/2012 12:26 PM EDT
My alarm clock is 30+ years old, the first electronic digital alarm clock we had. Not ideal, but it still works well enough for me. Its gentle chirping gets me up in the first two or three seconds.
But the wife and son are the type that happily sleep through loud alarms ... forever. She tells me she hears it ringing but is too lazy to hit the snooze button, so she lets it ring until it eventually stops. It is for people like them that the horrible screech alarms were invented.
The buttons on the wife's clock don't make intuitive sense to me, so my usual recourse (when she forgets to turn it off on weekends) is to unplug the clock.
The 9 minute snooze seems to be a standard thing these days. I can only guess that some engineer, years ago, either did a survey or arbitrarily decided that 10 minutes was too long.
The thing to keep in mind, is that the folks who design a clock are not the same ones who design the chip inside the clock. I doubt that the two ever communicated. They undoubtedly work for different companies. The clock designer probably looked up the available chips in a catalog and picked the one that seemed acceptable, based on some limited shopping list of features, and then did not try out half a dozen clock chips in his final design to see which one was really the best.
Consumer product design isn't about making the best product. It's about inexpensively making something that will sell for a year or two before the inventory is exhausted and the next model replaces it. You probably don't go into a store expecting to buy an alarm clock from manufacturer "A" or "B", like you would with a car. You buy whatever your Walmart happens to have on its shelves. Did you really think these product designers put any pride into their products? I don't see it.
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Max the Magnificent
3/19/2012 10:20 AM EDT
"Did you really think these product designers put any pride into their products?" I guess not -- you have a good point about them using an off-the-shelf chip -- I hadn't thought that part out (which was silly of me) -- I suppose that at the back of my mind I was thinking they were designing the whole thing (like we would all like to do really)
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Frank Karkota
6/25/2012 8:14 PM EDT
Alarm clocks can yield very strange results.
Last Saturday, I went hiking on an isolated trail that is rarely travelled. As I climbed the hill, I heard this strange little voice. I looked around and there was nobody in sight. Then I looked down and saw a little cloth bag about five inches long. I bent down and looked carefully at this bag, wondering if it was a joke or some sinister plot to destroy the person stupid enough to open it. So I picked it up and noticed that it was vibrating. I wondered if I had triggered some kind of mechanism that might lead to my ultimate demise. I carefully pulled the zipper and looked inside. I saw a box of cigarettes and a lighter; yes, there was something deadly inside. I removed the cigarette lighter and found the source of the voice and vibration. It was an i-phone. I read the screen. It said "ALARM - 9:02." I figured out how to deactivate the little voice and stop the vibration. I examined the contents of the bag and found a driver's license with the picture of a beautiful woman, maybe even a fashion model. I rushed home and called her so that I could return her bag.
It turned out that she is a college student who frequently looses things, but maybe I have a new friend. Anyway, we were introduced by an alarm clock! How many people do you know can say that?
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Max the Magnificent
6/26/2012 10:56 AM EDT
Hi Frank -- thanks for sharing this story -- you are correct -- not many people have a story like this one :-)
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Max the Magnificent
6/26/2012 10:57 AM EDT
Did you ever ask her why she has an alarm set for 9:02 ... that seems to be a little unusual...
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Frank Karkota
6/28/2012 8:54 PM EDT
I have not heard from her since then, but it could be that the alarm had been buzzing for an hour or two before I came upon it. I am not sure how long the battery lasts.
I am still hoping that she will read my novel. The main character is an engineer!
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Darius Pl.
7/24/2012 3:47 PM EDT
See these alarm clocks :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3Nrn0DR_tE
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Max the Magnificent
8/27/2012 10:44 AM EDT
Great video :-)
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DavidWSmith
8/25/2012 11:59 AM EDT
What about these features:
- thoughtful brightness detection, based on ambient levels (some clocks do have this, but not well implemented IMHO)
- I regularly wake up before my normal time, and would love to 'pre-reset' my currently pending alarm! touch the 'stop' key within X minutes of the alarm and it won't go off at all for that instance! It would resume normal capability from then on.
- I'd love to be able to identify a number of abnormal days where I don't want the alarm to go off, and set those - vacation/days off, sick, etc. without disabling the alarm and perhaps forgetting to reset the alarm for the next regular day
Unfortunately, the issue isn't in locating better functions, it's implementing them all in a dead-easy way with a clean UI... I have an incredibly functional Philips clock that... seriously... has 35 controls. Seriously? a button or knob for each function or setting?
Arghh.
I picture a clock with basic controls that are very clear, then perhaps a BT or Wifi interface with an app that runs all the more interesting controls or settings, in a clear hierarchical way.
I can dream.
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Max the Magnificent
8/27/2012 10:46 AM EDT
User Interface Design is tricky -- well, creating a goo done is tricky -- creating a dreadful one appears to be something of a sport these days :-)
PS 35 controls??? I can just imagine giving my 82-year old mom one of those for Christmas
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DavidWSmith
8/25/2012 12:07 PM EDT
Left a few out that come on some clocks:
- nap button - increments 10 minutes or 20 minutes each push, then wakes you gently?
- dual or triple alarm
- radio or media alarm obviously, in addition to wacky beeping
- incremental alarm volume over some minutes to ease the waking
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Max the Magnificent
8/27/2012 10:47 AM EDT
Dual alarms are good -- if course the iPhone and iPad type alarms are quite useful -- and the user interface is pretty clean
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