On macOS you can replace printf '\a' with something nicer like 'say Lunch time!', or accept a query param and 'say $msg' while true; do echo Coming! | nc -l 80

On macOS you can replace printf '\a' with something nicer like 'say Lunch time!', or accept a query param and 'say $msg' while true; do echo Coming! | nc -l 8000; for i in 1 2 3 4; do say "Lunch time!"; sleep 1; done; done If you are on the client end of the equation and have ssh access to their mac: ssh user@host say "get your ** here right now"