I would consider the Star Trek communicator noise, or a bosun's whistle. But I really don't like having things that make noise in my environment. I generally operate computers with the sound turned off, and when I carried a pager, I had it set to vibrate. (Though that can make quite a racket if you leave it on a metal filing cabinet!)
In the case of the cell phone, I've solved the problem by not giving anyone the number.
