Stupid App Tricks No. 1 - PleaseRobMe.com

Here's a commandment for the 21st century: Just because something is technologically possible, doesn't mean it's a good idea. Such as letting it be known, through social media channels like Twitter or Foursquare, that they are at the local Starbucks, stuck in traffic, or, better yet, at the airport about to go on vacation.

That will often mean that no one is at home, right? So, yesterday, ironically enough, many of the very same people who make their whereabouts known all day long started buzzing on Twitter about pleaserobme.com, a new site which aggregates tweets and other short-form texts in which people are broadcasting the fact they are obviously not at home. As the site's owners explain (with a tip of the hat to Mashable for finding this fine print first):

The danger is publicly telling people where you are. This is because it leaves one place you're definitely not... home. So here we are; on one end we're leaving lights on when we're going on a holiday, and on the other we're telling everybody on the Internet we're not home. It gets even worse if you have "friends" who want to colonize your house. That means they have to enter your address, to tell everyone where they are. Your address.. on the Internet.. Now you know what to do when people reach for their phone as soon as they enter your home. That's right, slap them across the face.