The evolution of "dining alone"

Since I've traveled on business for much of my adult life, I have had ample opportunities (heh) to dine alone. On some occasions, I enjoy the solace. On others, I read a book between courses. Certain occasions, intentional or not,  reinforce my belief that social engineering is a rather easy art form to master, largely because most people talk to loudly, too long, too intimately, and too oblivious to the fact that in many dining establishments, you are typically inches from other diners, a.k.a., listeners. At some point I should write an article about the worst offenders in both the "too much information!" and "have you any clue how much damage a miscreant could do with the information you just blurted out?" categories. Alternatively, I could write a series for Fox Reality channel.

Some solo dining occasions, however, are simply lonely. On these occasions, I miss my wife, my kids, and my dog. Enter mobile broadband. I'm not dining alone any more! With iChat, I not only have a text channel, but a video stream of a dining partner. I even have voice. Note that the combination of text and voice allows me to type what I don't want to have overheard. (Yes, I can encrypt the chat... )

So I'm not dining alone but instead with my daughter. Admittedly, my technology footprint is out of place in tonight's venue, a restaurant called Mosto in Marina del Rey (very good gnocchi, by the way). On the other hand, my "presence" is nowhere near as annoying to the other diners as the overly loud blonde sitting inches away, extolling her day's frustrations with her BFFL on her iPhone.