Occasional Observations

Dodgeball.com puzzles me. The idea: send a text message announcing your arrival at a given location. This is broadcast to your friends' cellphones, via the site - and checkable online. But why? Surely going to a new place means you might actually interact with the others in your vicinity? If they're not cool/hip/interesting/attractive/young/old/weird enough then why go there?

Is Dodgeball for people who are scared of being alone, for boasting ("I'm at billg's for dinner") or, worse still, frightened of being Off The Grid?

At least someone in the US has found a use for SMS messaging. GPS/3G-equipped PDAs can also use SMS for IM - which sounds like it could be expensive.

/Old duffer