Sidewalks, Ringtones, and iOS5

Thoughtful neighbors fill the sidewalk with trashcans

Thoughtful neighbors fill the sidewalk with trashcans

Time for the last walk of the evening for Lexi. Up the street we go … and a couple of nights a week, we actually go up the street, rather than use the sidewalk, because some neighbors can’t help but block the way. I’ve even spoken to them about it, to no avail. Either they can’t remember that I asked, or they’re malevolent. Grrr. I really *want* to tip that stuff all over their lawn in response, but I’m too bloody nice to do that. They do the same thing, only more sprawled out, with bags of lawn clippings. Sigh.

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So, iOS5.

After a bit of finagling, I got it installed on my iPhone 4 last week. I’ve been poking and plinking around the interface in my not-so-spare time, and finally discovered that you (and I) can assign ringtones as Alert sounds. Huzzah! It’s more than just the ability to do that, but now I can create custom loops and assign them to SMS alerts … which is good. The default Alert loops suck for waking me up in the middle of the night when I am on call. So now I have an Alert sound courtesy of The Who, and a default ringtone from Van Halen’s Eruption. Empirically, it appears that the loop length cutoff for using a ringtone as an alert is 30 seconds.

 

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About bilborg

I am who I am, there's plenty of data on this site to tell you more. Briefly, I'm a husband, computer geek, avid reader, gardener, and builder of furniture.

3 Responses to Sidewalks, Ringtones, and iOS5

  1. ScottK says:

    Back when I lived in that vicinity the guy across the street from me (not who lives there now) got sick of teenagers speeding down the street so he heaved his trashcan into the street in front of one. His wife didn’t know what was going on, but heard the argument and was worried, so called the cops.

    Of course, it’s WRONG to throw obstacles in front of cars even if they are speeding, but the cop was reasonable and told him if he’d fix the kid’s car, there would be no charges. Interestingly, the kid never came back to get reimbursed for fixing the car. My theory (and hope) is that when he got home and told his father what had happened the old man had told him he got what he deserved and to pay for it himself.

  2. Don Armstrong says:

    Those bins don’t really belong on the footpath, do they? I think you’d be doing most everyone a favour if they found their way back onto the owner’s property – say, maybe, back in their driveway.

    • bilborg says:

      No, they don’t really belong on the sidewalk. But in the driveway it’d block backing out, and she can’t put them anywhere near the post box or the truck will drive on by – they’ve no mandate to step foot out of their truck to deliver the mail. I guess I was really just venting. I *do* move them out of the way, and the individual is better about it than they used to be…