Exchange

In everything there is an exchange of some problems for others, some freedom for others, some limitations for others.

So as you wait for the new thing - a record contract, a home of your own, a wonder-job - see afresh the freedoms you will be giving up, the joys you will lose to memory. By all means, grasp the new thing if you wish, but expect to grieve the old as you celebrate the new.

With new birth comes the death of the old, and the inevitability of more death. We invite it with every breath. But don't be depressed by it, be inspired! Your death will invite new life.

Life is minor and major, stop wishing for utopia and live it.

[Idea] Fie to bit.ly scammers: A public URL database

I've never understood why URL shortening has not become a part of the browser... surely it's easy enough to shorten a URL by compressing it, so the browser could see abc.ly/q2FFqta8ep and decompress it without a single http request.

Still, the world loves ease of use and hence we get the inevitable abuse of URL shortening to send people to spam/scam/phising sites.

So why not have a public URL database, where a people enter the shortened URL and the database either gives them the URL or tells them it is spam/scam etc? Crowd-source it - let people use browser extensions to report bad links.

Importantly, to avoid it just being yet another redirector, the service would need to provide public database dumps so that others could provide competing services, verify the data, etc. Vitally, ISPs could provide access or even use the list to warn the users about the content. Think of it a bit like the freedb or the imdb - public service databases.

It would allow the browser to look up every link on a page to find out where it ultimately points, and take the URL shortening services out of the loop entirely. It could even communicate via the minimal overheads of http error codes - 404 if the link is not known, 307 to provide the correct redirect (skipping advert pages, further pages of redirection), 303 to indicate a dodgy site and supply the URL of a relavant page (e.g. the Dodgy Scammy Warning page).

Come on people, one link gets read thousands of times, so if a small proportion are willing to mark dodgy links, that could save a lot of people a lot of headaches. And we could always use it to tag links, and vive la web semantique.

Take me back

Take me back
to simple.

Take me
and return
to humble and quiet faith.

To quiet and humble
sweet and waiting
patience and hoping
white.

Let my arrogance and force,
my pride and envy
drop from my shoulders
ease my burden.

Give me
gentle joy of being.
No more
fearful waiting.

Soft white curtains billow
in the sanctuary of my mind. Sought
and seeking
to escape frought
and fleeting.

Take me back
freedom.