On 17 March 2011 08:37, Dr. Ed Morbius <dredmorb...@gmail.com> wrote:
> on 07:34 Wed 16 Mar, Heddle Weaver (weaver2wo...@gmail.com) wrote: > > On 15 March 2011 23:40, Dotan Cohen <dotanco...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > > On Tue, Mar 15, 2011 at 03:11, Rob Owens <row...@ptd.net> wrote: > > > > I've seen posts like this on Freecycle, and they're almost always > spam > > > > or malware. I haven't looked at this link, and I suggest you don't > > > > either. > > > > > > > > > > The problem here is the use of the redirect service. I also never > > > follow those links. Not only are they "blind links" masking the > > > destination, but why add an unreliable extra link to the > > > already-fragile chain of events that must transpire to access a > > > webpage. What if tinyurl's server is down, or gets hacked, or goes out > > > of business, or becomes malicious? > > > > > > > I only use the service because it saves even short links like this one > from > > getting broken by MUA character limits: > > http://blog.internetgovernance.org/blog/_archives/2011/1/29/4737705.html > > URLs < ~72 characters should be reasonably safe, though that's not a > completely safe bet. > > There are a hell of a lot of really broken content-management systems > which insist on insanely long URLs, often containing characters special > to the shell ('&' and '?' come to mind). In this case, URL shorteners > are convenient, though they raise a host of other concerns. > > > And I only use tinyurl because it's stable, unlike the .ly extensions > which > > are hosted in Libya, > > You're confounding domain registration with hosting site. > > As of a few moments ago, bit.ly resolved to 168.143.172.53, which > appears to be hosted by Verio in Dallas or NTT America, with a postal > address in Centennial, Colorado. Or so suggest mtr, hostname > resolution, and WHOIS records. > I believe a recent change, because of the trouble there. Transfer? I know that bit.ly disappeared when the 'net went black in the initial stages of the conflict. Regards, -- Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful. — Lucius Annæus Seneca. Terrorism, the new religion.
