Dialing 911 With Siri

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In other news, fellow iPhone 4S users: Siri will NOT dial 911 for you. Keep this in mind if you’re ever in a situation to report an emergency situation and can’t actually operate your phone’s screen.

Some context so folks don’t get too worried about me (I just left a party via my motorcycle): I was getting onto I-5 South via the 220th onramp when out of the darkness a giant cardboard box materialized in the middle of the onramp pavement. I got around it ok, but it was a HUGE box. It would have taken me down, empty or not.

I was, however, listening to tunes and wearing the Iasus throat mic I recently purchased so I could get used to wearing it while riding and having the push-to-talk switch in the finger of my glove. I figured I should do the right thing and report it. So I hold down the switch to summon Siri, and once I got it to finally understand me over the nasal quality of the throat mic, this is the conversation we had:

Me: Dial 911.
Siri: Calling 911… <pause> Sorry Ryan, I can’t call 911.

I’ve researched this a bit online and apparently this is normal. You can’t voice dial 911, and it’s not explained anywhere. Rumor is that when people encountered this with Voice Control (the precursor to Siri and what you get on non iPhone 4S’s), you could get around it by adding 911 as a contact. But I’m getting mixed reports about if that trick works with Siri, and I’m not about to test it by accidentally completing a dial to 911. I do plan to add it into my contacts, anyways, and see what happens the next time I need to report something from the road.

Just something to keep in mind, and I hope Apple removes this restriction.

The Devil is in the Details

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I work in IT.  I really love it when we get tickets like this during a major office move:

Short Description:  My desk phone isn’t working

Description:  I had the move yesterday and my phone is not working.

I’m grabbing something blunt right now.

Seriously, what the fuck am I supposed to do with that?  What’s your extension?  Where were you before you moved?  Where are you now that you have moved?  How is it not working – is it just dead when you pick up the receiver, or do you get an error?  Does anything appear on the phone’s display at all?

Where’s Nic Cage when you need him?

Rinse, Wash, Dry, Wax, Polish…Ride

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After many weekends of trying to get my motorcycle washed, I’ve finally managed it.  An overly busy weekend here, a rainy weekend there…  It was long overdue.  I leave my bike uncovered outside more often than I should, so it’s really needed the treatment.  Not just to look nicer, but to be more protected, as well.

My Thruxie, right after being washed, waxed, and polished, 4/1/12.

I’ve been going through a bit of transformation of attitude when it comes to that bike, too.  I used to hate the idea of getting my hands dirty, greasy, covered in oil.  Didn’t like the idea of turning screws, dismantling.  Lately I’m finding that I want to take the damn thing apart.  I want to learn how it works.  I want to understand how it all fits together, keeps me flying over the pavement.  I want to get my hands greasy, I want to smell the oil, I want to make changes that make it mine.

I’m not ready for that just yet.  Too many tools I need to buy.  Too many things I resources I need to find first.  Too many things I need to decide to do with the little time I have to do them.

For now, the idea of sitting down on the ground next to her and washing as much of the filth away as I can, and buffing and polishing, for now that sounds splendid.  And today I got to do that.  I hadn’t realized how badly I needed to do that, and to be able to just spend some time doing it.

When I got done, I fired her up, got some excellent company, and we went to go check out the cherry blossoms in bloom on the University of Washington’s campus.

It’s been a great day to wash away some very simple little anxieties.