Does your mobile phone wake you up with the tune of your choice?

And do you press 'snooze' several times before you finally get out of bed?

A look at how people used to wake up before alarm clocks were invented reveals some far-fetched solutions.

A lit candle, placed in a metallic plate, had nails pierced into it at regular intervals. When it melted to reach the nail, it would clatter down, waking people up.

The 'Knocker up' was a real job for people . They went around knocking on doors in the mornings as human alarm clocks in the early industrial era

The factory whistle was a loud, high-pitched sound that could be heard far away. It must have been the most hated sound of its time.

Bladder control was a thing for a time. People figured out how much water they had to drink every night before the pressure to relieve themselves snapped them awake. The ultimate personal alarm system.

Whatever the method, the snooze button on alarms was probably the most gratifying innovation - introduced by GE in the 1950s

We may have our favourite alarm tunes but we still want those precious additional minutes every morning.

Gamers have competition. Blockchain miners

As usual, competition comes from the places you least expect.

Gamers now compete with miners for high end laptops.

Their objectives could not be more different.

Gamers want to have the best sensory experience.

And blockchain miners want the firepower to crack complex algorithms to  authenticate Ethereum transactions.

As elements along blockchains get more valuable, the resources required to mine them have risen.

The miners are after PCs with Nvidia RTX 30 series GPU to give them an edge.

The gaming PCs are connected in stacks and play another game altogether - away from the public eye.

Market demand is unpredictable and this is a quirky example.

Nvidia is creating GPUs to enhance the gaming experience but they're being used to solve complex algorithmic puzzles.

The miners are willing to outbid gamers in order to lay their hands on the GPUs

They have to constantly reinvent themselves as cryptocurrency mining is energy intensive - first, they had to find the countries with spare capacities or where power is cheap.

Now, they have to compete using superior processing power

It's Ethereum mining vs Geshin Impact and Guild Wars

And there's no end game in sight - or rules. It's winner take all.

Training the mind to win

2020's French Open champion came out of nowhere in October

She was ranked 54 but she didn't lose a single set in all the matches she played.

Then she won the championship.

Iga Swiatek is from Poland. But the most unusual thing about this 19 year old?

Her association with a sports psychologist from the earliest stages of her career.

We've gone past the era of coaches who drilled hard work and methodical progress to get to the top.

It's now a mind game as much as a physical one 

What separates the top seeds now is not technique or game play alone but tenacity.

And that comes from shaping the mind to win.

The sports psychologist she works with builds her emotional anchors. A former sailor, she's at the helm of bringing sports psychology into the mainstream for sports in Poland.

It won't be long before other countries jump on the bandwagon.

The retinue for a champion is going to grow.

Raw talent will be molded, shaped and directed to victory.

So, the ones who seek to win on sheer talent may have a bigger mountain to climb.

The focus will shift to subtleties of the mind game.

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