Have you seen this? This family needs to get a life, they are just copying everything we say here.
Category: Web
TypeKey Comments
With the new blog upgrade, the old password thing doesn’t work anymore. Jeb is experimenting with junk filters and not using a password at all. But I set up my blog to use TypeKey which is a free service from the blog makers (Movable Type) to allow people to register and comment on any blog. I kind of like that because it lets people outside the family add comments, but it should stop junk (I guess if someone posts blog spam their TypeKey account is revoked, but if they are just obnoxious then I can put a block on that person).
I don’t think there is a way to do both, so if you would like to be able to post comments on my blog you will need to sign up for a free TypeKey account and log on when you comment. Please try it out. It only takes a few minutes to sign up, then you have to respond an e-mail to activate your account. The only problem is you have to use the same name all the time instead of getting to make up a name depending on whose blog you are commenting on (like “Mom” or “Gramalie”), so now I will just be “brted” (my usual internet alias) instead of “UT”.
Anyway, the TypeKey thing is working already because a guy made a very good comment to my entry about Mom’s new notebook computer.
New Web Page
Last year I wrote a blog entry about connecting an iPod to my car stereo. Sony had come up with an ingenious system for the CD changer to talk to the stereo, but it was proprietary and made connecting 3rd party sources difficult. Some newer car stereos (like Aiwa) have an input jack right on the front so you can connect any source you want. Anyway, after using a cassette adapter for a while, I decided to spend my as yet unpaid Ad Sense money (I might get my first $100 check at the end of this month; stay tuned) on an adapter.
Short URL’s
Some time ago, Jeb wrote a post about TinyURL, a web service that takes a long web URL and gives you a tiny one. This is useful for e-mailing someone a URL because if you just give them the whole URL it will be broken onto two lines and no longer work. Though I knew about TinyURL for a while, for some reason I didn’t use it for a long work web address and I would get people who would say it didn’t work because the very last letter had wrapped to the next line. I sent out an e-mail yesterday and got three comments about the links not working so I decided it was time.
I entered in the long address and TinyURL, as always, gave me a very short link that takes people to their website before instantly forwarding them to my site. The shortcut always starts http://tinyurl.com/ (not even a www, which shows how serious they are about short URL’s) and then has five (used to be four) random numbers and letters.
Well, the shortcut it gave me ended with 3 letters of a 4-letter word I would rather not repeat here. Being a smart guy I thought I would just enter it again and get a new TinyURL. But TinyURL, being even smarter than me, spit back the exact same nearly indecent URL.
I figured TinyURL was such a great idea that somebody had probably copied it. I searched for an alternative and soon found URL123. They have essentially the same service (except one less letter!) and I wound up with the much more pleasant:
