Real time tracking: Convenience, or work-safe form of Masturbation.

As I write this, I am waiting on a pizza that I have ordered from Domino’s online. The new domino’s system allows me to see, in real time, the progress of my pizza from dough to door.
As if this isn’t enough, the page also tells me the name of the guy who baked my pizza (Peterson… if you must know) and the name of the guy who will be delivering my pizza, (John, a pizza courier so talented that he has been bestowed the prestigious title of “delivery expert” by the powers that be.)
I watch as the “pizza tracker” progress bar gradually fills, counting down the time until that glorious cathartic moment when John will arrive, pizza in hand, on my front doorstep.

I find the complete automation of it all quite intoxicating… to the point where the process feels somehow grander than just ordering a crappy pizza from domino’s.
I did not call anyone, I did not ask anyone’s permission, I did not even have to ask anyone to make it for me. There was no interaction at all… I clicked a button… and then… pizza.
It is as if my will alone has set some wondrous machine into motion that will conjure a pizza out of thin air and place it on my doorstep. Meanwhile, I just sit back and wait as my will becomes manifest, constantly overseeing my creation through a bar shaped window of ubiquity.
Indeed, I am the GOD of my pizza, and domino’s is the engine for my genesis.
(It’s just too bad that the end result of my genesis tastes worse than the cardboard box it came in.)

But enough about my brush with divinity…
I am assuming that many of you have experience with online tracking services like this one. Whether it manifests in the form of stock prices, tracking numbers, bus locations, exit polls… or what have you. almost all of us have felt the urge to hit that refresh button just one… more… time…

So I ask you, fellow denizens of the real-time update era:
What is your opinion of online tracking?
Is it a convenience or is it just a waste of time?
Is there anything that can’t or shouldn’t be tracked in real-time?
And: (At the risk of sounding like a sociology teacher.)
What do you think that all this real-time tracking says about modern society?

and as kind of a sub-question:
what are some interesting events/processes/services that you have found that are tracked in real time?