Published 2025-07-29
tag(s): #yell-at-cloud
I need a tag for "silly". Or "juvenile", to sound a bit more cultured. 🤡
The community we live in has a little barrier for cars at the entrance. I find it silly, because there's a sidewalk in the same place, you can just walk right in. And the barrier is not exactly reinforced concrete...so I am not sure what the point of all that is...except to make me really mad!
Because turns out that the little barrier thingy uses the app ButterflyMX. Yes! I
LOVE IOT IN THINGS THAT DON'T NEED IT![1]
And nothing better than driving and start fumbling with your phone to open the barrier.
Luckily for the kids crossing the street as I drive in, the app has "Siri integration" (it's
unreal how many things that I absolutely love we are fitting in a single post).
Except that the voice command to activate it is "Unlock Residents Gate", so obviously the
first time I tried it I said "Siri (brief pause) OPEN Residents gate" and Siri said "What are
you talking about" (paraphrasing a bit). So I had to unlock my phone and open the app,
as if we were still in the 00s, and swipe the little widget to open the gate.
Also, and this might have to do more with my accent than anything else, but "Unlock residents gate" doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.
Anyway, last night I found out that the Siri integration is through an iOS feature called "shortcuts", and that you can rename them. I was ready to change the shortcut to "OPEN residents gate", but then I figured I can use any phrase I want![3]
This morning I went out with the kiddo to pick some groceries and as we were approaching the
gate I give him a side eye and say...
Siri...let me in
He found it really funny.
I did the same thing when I picked up Maria from the train station later in the day, and she didn't find it that funny. But she was amused at how happy it made me.
It's the little things in life...