8.04?

[Dotan Cohen]

On 05/04/2008, Derek Broughton <news at pointerstop.ca> wrote:
>  > Don't use tinyurl. How do I know it's not pointing to malware? Do you
>  > trust that tinyurl will stay in business for as long as that link is
>  > valid?
>
> Huh?  I'll continue to use tinyurls.  They're more useful than
>  longer-than-one-line urls.  I don't care if they don't stay in use as long
>  as the link is valid - though the odds are that they will actually stay in
>  business _longer_ than most referenced links.

Does the fact that the URL spans more than one line really bother you?
I understand why tinyurl would be useful if one must remember the URL
or say it over the phone. But for transfering over email, are the
security, latency, and reliability problems worth it? That, and you do
not know to where the URL is pointing until you go to the tinyurl
site?

>  > Do you trust them not to deliberately or accidentally try to
>  > pass on some malware en route to the site?
>
> Do I care?  I don't believe they can infect me.  More to the point, I don't
>  believe they can infect most of the people reading this group.

It is true that they cannot infect your computer for the time being.
You should research browser-based attacks, though.

>  > Do you want them tracking you?
>
> They won't be tracking _me_ if I post a tinyurl...

Oh, I see, and what they do to those who follow your link doesn't
concern you. Then why do you care that they will see a long url, if it
doesn't concern you?

>  > Do you want the link to be unaccessible when tinyurl is
>  > performing updates or down for other reasons?
>
> Again, do I care?  Nobody uses tinyurl to point to their own sites, they use
>  them to reference citations.

So the reference citation is only valid when tinyurl is not performing
maintanance?

>  > Is the increased latency and bandwidth necessary?
>
> Is it _noticeable_?

For me at the university, and for many dialup users, yes it is.

>  > There are fifty more reasons not to use tinyurl. I will never click
>  > them. Post the url and be done with it.
>
> Your loss.  There are fifty reasons not to do anything, but the arguments
>  against tinyurl and similar software are specious.

You can be argumentive, I'm trying to help you and those with whom you
communicate. I won't argue with you, though. I can into this
discussion to help someone who is having trouble with hardware that
works for me. You can take my advice or leave it. Either way, I'll do
my best to help.

I hate religious flame wars, and I did not expect to start one over
tinyurl. My apologies. Like .doc files or IE-only websites, I won't
use tinyurl. Those who insist upon using those technologies can do as
they please, I just won't use MS Office, tinyurl, or Internet
Explorer.

Dotan Cohen

http://what-is-what.com
http://gibberish.co.il
א-ב-ג-ד-ה-ו-ז-ח-ט-י-ך-כ-ל-ם-מ-ן-נ-ס-ע-ף-פ-ץ-צ-ק-ר-ש-ת

A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?