Teleflip: Texting computer>mobile

I had a big tech geeking weekend with my folks last week (and they're here in NYC this weekend too!). I set up an airport express for Wi-Fi, network printing and music streaming for them, helped my dad do some movie editing in iMovieHD (astoundingly easy!), and got my mom up to speed for some online commerce and her own gmail account. We even talked about text messaging (which Judy is pretty good at).

But one question was left unaswered: How can one send text messages from a computer?

Well today lifehacker had this cheatsheet, which seemed ok, if you knew what carrier the phone number is on--but how likely is that? Too headachy, so I dug a little deeper and found Teleflip.

I tested it out on myself and works as promised and free. But I'm still not sure how legit/kosher it is. I found variations of this article, but not much in mainstream press. I'm a little concerned of the potential for abuse, but if it works as promised... it's awesome. Just send an email to: phonenumber@teleflip.com

Just imagine, towards the end of the work day, you're at your computer, you're about to meet someone, but you can't get through (maybe they're on the train, maybe in a meeting, maybe sitting in church) so you send an text message... "running late" , "I'm wearing the bunny suit", "pick up some milk" Done. And with a full keyboard.

But why haven't more people heard of it? Anyone else know? So far so good.