i have a new metaphorical hammer. what are some metaphorical nails?

[rmd]

For a variety of reasons that boil down to a combination of convenience and economy and having a multi-line cellphone plan, i've ended up with a cellphone plan that includes way more text messages available than i would ordinarily use in a month. i know fedex/ups will optionally update you on a package's progress via SMS. What other potentially useful SMS functionality is out there?

Comments

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

You could get LJ comment notifications via text, I believe. :)

[evwhore.livejournal.com]

Pretty sure there's text-to-LJ so the reverse makes sense (I don't use it myself)

You can set twitter up so you can text tweets to 40404 (and replies/retweets etc. get texted back to you)

Similarly if you give up your # to Facebook (I *think* you can do it in such a way that it doesn't get revealed to people) you can text status updates to 32665 (FBOOK) and other people's comments get texted back to you. You also used to be able to have FB text you when people sent you a message, posted to your wall, tagged you, pretty much did anything. Idunno if any of that's changed with the recent email I got about how they're consolidating email notifications.

[metagnat.livejournal.com]

You could become a twitter celebrity.

There used to be a semi-famous web guy who had a script running on his web site that would allow random people to send him anonymous text messages and then he'd post the best ones.

Um...

I dunno. I mostly use it to communicate with friends who hate having phone conversations.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

Hack up a protocol for TCP/IP over SMS?

[frotz.livejournal.com]

If you're flying anywhere via airlines, flight delay/change alerts.

[dfjdejulio.livejournal.com]

One I'm fond of is, Discover (the credit card) lets you set up rules relating to payments, and they send you a text message whenever a payment breaks those rules. So, like, I get a text message Every Single Time there's a charge of above $FOO on my card, period, whether it looks "suspicious" or not.

[deguspice.livejournal.com]

Go to your cellphone provider's website. Sometimes they offer to send you news updates on a range of topics.

You can have Twitter forward tweets from people you follow.

Some shops will text discount coupons to your phone if you give them your cellphone number.

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

There's this program where you can send a text message to an artist working in a remote part of Wyoming, and while they can take anywhere from a minute to three hours to never to get actually get transmitted, word is that these things make the artist smile.

[whitebird.livejournal.com]

Twitter now accepts pictures via MMS, does that qualify?

[ceo]

T-Alerts for service interruptions and delays.

[muffyjo]

Wake up calls?

[whipartist.livejournal.com]

My credit card company does fraud alerts via SMS. Got one in Vegas during BARGE. "We have a charge for $X from (auto repair shop). Did you authorize this? Respond with 1 for yes or 2 for no."