Long ago I learned that I retain information best if I study hard for 15 minutes and then take a break for five minutes. So I am constantly looking for a timer that can help me with this. I have tried software and online timers on my PC, but I don't like studying next to my PC. Too distracting. I have tried software timers on my PocketPC. Too hard to work with and too easy to ignore. Kitchen timers proved best but they are by turns cheap, hard to use, loud, fragile and badly designed for the task. But recently I came across Time Tracker from Learning Resources. Neat. Exactly what I was looking. No, better. It's got indicator lights that are easy to be indicated by, it's got different alarm sounds to choose from, it warns me when my time is nearly up, you can program in a preset time, it's easy to use and well ... fun.

The traffic light motif is very useful. 80% of the way through your time it goes to yellow, 95% of the way through it goes to red. Each transition has a sound associated with it. (I think the sounds are: a ticking clock sound, an alarm, a spoken "Times Up", a spoken "Begin", bell and siren.)