Here’s a way to do it.

You’ll need Skype installed, and some SkypeOut credit (which you only need to make a call to a real ‘phone, this won’t cost any money).

#!/bin/sh
osascript -l AppleScript -e "tell application \"Skype\" to get URL \"callto://+447967XXXXXX\""
sleep 30
killall -m "Skype"
exit 0

Save the above somewhere handy in your path as ringring, do chmod 755 ringring so you can execute it.

Now all you have to do to get your ‘phone to ring for 30 seconds is type ringring in the Terminal, or, to make it even easier, you can set up a Quicksilver trigger to run the command whenever you hit a key combination.

Mere words cannot express how happy this makes me!

Admittedly, wodging some Applescript inside a bash script, then killing Skype to stop it from connecting and wasting your money on a silent ansaphone message isn’t very pretty. But I’m not clever enough to work out how to make Skype hang up after a set interval with AppleScript, and this way works, so it’ll have to do.

Also, if you happen to be both a member of MetaFilter and someone who writes fiction, the embryonic MetaFilter Writers Group may be of interest.

Update: and now I have a telephone again. Aside from being sort of scammed by Orange—to get a replacement ‘phone, I had a number of choices, the cheapest involving a one-off payment of £100 and a few quid on my monthly bill until the ends of time—I’m amazed at how slick a process getting a fresh Nokia N70 was. No faffing around wasting police time getting a crime number, all my web and email services just worked. After a quick blast of iSync, and installing Opera Mini, the new model is indistinguishable from the old (except it isn’t scratched to pieces and doesn’t crash all the time, yet).

Er, more interesting weblog posts to follow shortly: I’m having a meeting tomorrow about curating a show, which I’ve not done before, and which looks likely to be an interesting little project.

It’s a free service that lets you synchronise your mobile telephone’s address book, contacts, calendars with the Mobical website.

Setup is a cinch - feed the site your ‘phone number, and it texts you your password and the settings required to start synching. Start a synch from the ‘phone, and your contacts, calendars and the like wend their way via GPRS to Mobical. Once there, you can view your calendars, add new contacts, or synchronise data with your ‘phone.

This is pretty bloody handy - it doesn’t matter now if I lose my ‘phone or fry the memory card on the same day my computer explodes and I forget to pay my .Mac subscription, as, even if I have to change ‘phone numbers, all my contacts are safe and sound.

The only downside is Mobical’s sparse documentation - when trying to work out how to start my first synch, the only instruction was, ‘Synchronization is started from your ‘phone’ and it was left to me to guess that I should probably head for the Sync application in the Connectivity folder on my 7610.

Other than that, highly recommended.

(The service also makes me wonder why, if a free website can make the synchronisation process so smooth and painless by using SyncML, Apple and Nokia haven’t yet given iSync proper support for the protocol.)

This device is tracking my position all day today by logging the WiFi nodes I pass. (I’m not entirely sure why.)

And, for added geekiness, I’m posting this from my telephone. It’s like being in the future, eh?

This is the first photo with my new Nokia 7610, click the image above to see the whopping great 1 megapixel images it takes. Oh, and the pretty flower lives in my back garden, the only speck of prettiness in an otherwise grim yard.

The excellent Salling Clicker allows you to control iTunes or DVDPlayer from your ‘phone, among many other things. Romeo has similar functionality, and an ever-expanding feature set thanks to user-contributed plugins. The Address Book has caller ID functions, and lets you carry on SMS conversations from your computer, and a new application called BluePhoneMenu expands on these features.

But I still can’t find an application that will let me make my ‘phone ring so I can find the bloody thing.

Given that all the applications mentioned above can do all manner of wild and wonderful things, I can’t imagine it would be impossible for a canny developer to whip up a menu item, dockling or what have you, that, with a single click or key combination, would cause my t610 to ring.

I would gladly pay for such a thing - not much, admittedly - since I lose track of my ‘phone at least three times a day, and having to dial my mobile number from my land line is such a chore.

I will ping the LazyWeb with this post, in the vain hope that someone awfully clever will hear my anguished cry, and make me the application of my dreams. I even have a crappy name prepared: RingRingFindMyBloodyPhone.