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I always keep my cell phone on vibrate. However I've have let people borrow it from time to time to make a call, and sometimes they see fit to change my ring tone from vibrate to "crazy chicken" or some other obnoxious tone. Not realizing of course that changing the ring tone on my phone takes it out of vibrate.

So I have had times when I have been in a library, class, or lab and had my phone go off. I quickly silence it, but yeah, it's happened. Man, what an idiot I am for being nice and letting people use my phone. Anyway, I can take a joke, so I don't mind to much, but I have seen people get really abusive when a phone rings where it shouldn't. Not to me fortunately.

Judges aren't the only group of power hungry individuals in this country... I know a lot of professors who will throw you out in a heartbeat if your cell phone goes off in their class. Of course that is almost always an accident, but it doesn't matter to them. I won't take a class from someone like that, assuming I understand before hand that is how they treat their students, but unfortunately you often don't realize that until too far into a course to drop or change it. But tossing people out for not turning off their cell phones doesn't seem to be too effective, cause it will keep happening right up till the end of the semester. A new victim each time though. ;-)

Anyway, forgetting to turn off your cell phone is often an honest mistake. And even if someone was warned about it I can see giving them the benefit of the doubt that they thought it was silenced. So sure, it is a little irritating, for about 3 seconds until someone turns off their phone. People are human, they make mistakes, and I find people that harp over the minor ones more disruptive to society than those making the mistakes.

When my cell phone goes off in a place it shouldn't I'm embarrassed, which I'm sure is the reaction most people have to that situation. That is incentive enough for me to be more careful next time, and I certainly don't need someone being a jerk about it.

-paridel