Yeah, it's a great program. It's what I use for an alarm clock for school. Really much much better than a regular alarm clock.

Also, I'm not sure exactly what you mean by waking yourself up "half-way." Do you mean like, WILD, where you wake up seeing hypnagognic imagery, or what? Basically, waking up is just part of having your senses perceiving too much (defense mechanism pretty much) or becoming rested enough. Also, you can choose to wake up if you have the intention. So any technique that does one of those things partially would work. Anything that gives just enough stimuli to partly wake you up. One thing is becoming too cold. Make it JUST cold enough to partly wake you up. Or have the intention to wake up just enough so your consciousness is "awake."