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My name’s Rose Vines. I’m an Australian writer, editor and activist, working in New Orleans. I write for computer magazines in Australia and the US and act as the technical dogsbody for the Death Penalty Discourse Network and Sister Helen Prejean. I’m interested in making technology accessible to people and helping people use technology to make the world a better place.

I’m also a sponsor of four girls at the Mehan Orphanage run by the extraordinary Afghan organisation, AFCECO. I’ve built a website for AFCECO sponsors, called Hope for Afghan Children.

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If you find the articles on Geekgirl’s blog and website useful and would like to show your appreciation, please think about making a donation to the AFCECO orphanages in Afghanistan, or consider becoming a child sponsor. These orphanages don’t just provide food and shelter for hundreds of girls and boys, they provide education and an environment of mutual respect. They are raising a generation of Afghan leaders.

Visit Hope for Afghan Children to learn more, or click one of the buttons below to make a donation directly.

 

 

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Bits & Pieces
« Teleconferences: Inside the cone of silence | Main | Office for Mere Mortals »
Wednesday
02Apr2008

Meaningful, short URLs

I’ve been a fan of TinyURL for some time, and I blogged about it recently. TinyURL converts long, unmemorable web addresses into tiny web addresses. For example, TinyURL converts the address:

http://www.rosevines.org/blog/2008/1/25/troubleshooting-a-google-slow-down-makes-me-think-about-dump.html

into:

http://tinyurl.com/ytgp26

That’s much easier to type correctly into your browser and works well in email, where long addresses are often broken. The TinyURL is also permanent: once you create it, it can be used by anyone, anywhere, at any time; if you try to create a TinyURL for a previously-Tiny-ed site, you’ll be given the same shortcut URL.

The only trouble is, these short URLs are just as unmemorable as their long equivalents. If you want to return to the site, you’ll need to have stored or written down the TinyURL.

Moourl performs the same miniaturisation trick as TinyURL, but goes one better. It generates a small, randomly generated series of characters, such as:

http://moourl.com/bgw81

and it then gives you the option of assigning your own 20-character Moo address as well. So that initial long address could end up as:

http://moourl.com/blogslowdown

Now that’s short and easy to recall.

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Reader Comments (1)

I do lik ethe idea and the technique to remember these blog names, but then again.....they are not as effective in search engines this way !
November 18, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterHome Staging Toronto

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