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Re: SPAM SPAM SPAM !!! Re: Sip?



on 07:34 Wed 16 Mar, Heddle Weaver (weaver2world@gmail.com) wrote:
> On 15 March 2011 23:40, Dotan Cohen <dotancohen@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > On Tue, Mar 15, 2011 at 03:11, Rob Owens <rowens@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.

-- 
Dr. Ed Morbius, Chief Scientist /            |
  Robot Wrangler / Staff Psychologist        | When you seek unlimited power
Krell Power Systems Unlimited                |                  Go to Krell!


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