Technology: A Posse That Fits In The Palm Of Your Hand

If you have a hard time keeping track of your party people on a Saturday night--and your social life currently centers on Boston, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia or San Francisco--a new service called Dodgeball might be of assistance. After you sign up (free at dodgeball.com) you can text-message the service with @ followed by the name of the local hotspot where you happen to be hanging out. If there's a fellow Dodgeballer in the vicinity who has identified you or one of your connections as a friend, you'll get a message sharing that person's coordinates. You can also use Dodgeball to broadcast messages to all your buddies or just the ones in your area and to look up the street addresses of hard-to-find bars and restaurants. There's a "listening" mode in case you want to find out who's around but stay undercover. Phones that can send text messages to e-mail addresses should be compatible, but older phones may be glitchy. How handy the service is depends on how many people use it. The real friendship test is persuading your posse to get on board.