Gadgetopia

If you have a four-digit name (or less), there’s a new pastime called “Vanity TinyURL.” If you remember, TinyURL is a redirection service that cuts down any URL by keying it to a code at the root of the TinyURL site. They’re up to four characters now, so you can stick some meaningful names in there to see where you go.

Enter “http://tinyurl.com/[your name]” and see where it takes you. I’ve taken the liberty of trying it out on four of our Gadgetopia authors.

• Rob: a book at Amazon called “Doing Rude Things: History of the British Sex Film,1957-81” (laughing…so…hard…can’t…type…)
• Joe: a 404 at a college I attended for one semester — Iowa State University
• Dave: a page on “Downloading Music in Canada”
• Matt: an unavailable product at “Buddies Pro Shop — The Place All Bowlers Shop.” (the URL teases us with “pf_id=USRagingInferno??” — yeah, that’s Matt all right)

Silly way to spend your time, but that one for Rob made it all worthwhile.