Wake-N-Bacon: alarm clock that wakes you to the smell of cooking bacon | Hacker News Reader

Wake-N-Bacon: alarm clock that wakes you to the smell of cooking bacon

mathlete.com

21 pointstimr23 comments

Michael Scott: I enjoy having breakfast in bed. I like waking up to the smell of bacon, sue me. And since I don't have a butler, I have to do it myself. So, most nights before I go to bed, I will lay six strips of bacon out on my George Foreman grill. Then I go to sleep. When I wake up, I plug in the grill. I go back to sleep again. Then I wake up to the smell of crackling bacon. It is delicious, it's good for me, it's the perfect way to start the day.

And then he steps on the grill one day, no? Haha! Bad idea...

Unless that thing has a refrigeration unit that wasn't mentioned, it's a really bad idea. You can't let a frozen piece of meat sit out for hours, and then just cook it and it's ok. I used to be a meat cutter and had to do this training where they show you how fast bacteria builds up, and it's really fast. There'd be more microorganisms on that thing within a half hour of thawing than there are humans on the planet.

What's the problem? Microorganisms are not bad in general. And they will be killed by the cooking anyway.

People used to store beef for several weeks to let the microorganism improve the product.

If that's the case, then why bother to refrigerate anything you're going to cook? Why did people put it in salt (which kills bacteria in the olden days?

The reason is that microorganisms leave behind toxins that don't cook away.

Yes, and cooking also aids digestion and taste. But not all (in fact only a few) microorganisms are bad for you.

Most of the time bacon is already smoked or cured anyway.

> Once the alarm goes off, the clock it sends a signal to a small speaker to generate the alarm sound. We hacked the clock so that the signal is re-routed by a microchip that in responds by sending a signal to a relay that throws the switch to power two halogen lamps that slow-cook the bacon in about 10 minutes.

I'm pretty sure I could accomplish the same thing by plugging my old foreman grill into a $3 light timer.

Of course, it might also prove hazardous to my feet.

Wait a minute. It's possible to cook bacon with halogen lights?

Normal light bulbs might be even better - they turn more power into heat that halogen lights. But they are also bigger.

Doesn't this belong on the bacon subreddit?

(Looks around.)

Oh, wait...

Jim Gaffigan on bacon: http://vodpod.com/watch/683907-jim-gaffigan-bacon

I think I'd throw up after day 20 (and I looove bacon).

Lightweight!

You'd throw up on day 1 because you just ate a piece of meat that sat out overnight.

You underestimate my bacon eating prowl. :-D

nice 'hack' on cooking bacon and waking up (mashup?)... guessing a lot of people will have more free time to hack around - after some job cuts :(

Before clicking, I fully expected some sort of synthetic bacon machine integrated into an alarm clock.

But it's just ... bacon.

Hilarious.

Cool idea, only I don't like bacon that early in the morning.

Better to use smell of coffee. No issues with germs either.

Bacon: The best thing ever made. Ever.

want.

Also known as the "diet buster".

Not if you're on the Atkins diet.

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