[h2o-discuss] URL's of Unusual Size

["Jon Garfunkel" <garf@look.boston.ma.us>]

j proctor wrote:
>I did some digging about a month ago to help a friend with an idea for a
>science fiction story.  I came up with the following URL, for those of you
>that really want to see the Outer Space treaty:
>
>http://www.treaty.un.org/LibertyIMS::/Key=hkfmjlgibjknbgkmpkekadgbomccpaapg
jinmlgpkcjobhjjpkcbnbojdgkdfdhihccbmegcaaieojcfedmlogekmiacdnplgpghgfnopakcm
ajmbeildmbiibghkhiccbkegehegbjihcjoheplicehbobchmnbhlhfmhacecapkbldgpdcbnhmn
p


Oh yeah? Check out the size of _this_ URL:

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/cpquery/1?cp106:./temp/~cp1067r5L:e32838:||sid
=L5r7601pc_mocnbb591-941pchd-lruÿ/ñü„/ñú@||report=||sel=TOC_32837|

This is the section of the House Appropriations for DoJ, Commerce, State
bill (HR 2670) which specifically denies the DoJ from funding FIDNet out of
the existing Counterterrorism fund.

Who knows whether this URL will be consistently available? Even worse than
that monstrosity from the UN, this URL uses high-bit ASCII (eg, ÿ,ñ,ü).
Maybe that's to thwart non-domestics.

If the above URL doesn't work, you can go to the bill and click on
"Counterterrorism Fund":

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/cpquery/R?cp106:FLD010:@1(hr283):

At least from this URL you can see that it is in the "106th" Congress and
that it is House Report 283.

The use of obtuse URL is frowned upon by the web architects: it is much too
long to be used or remembered; it has conveys no sense of permanancy.

Obtuse links are favored by some commercial websites, as they play a part in
encouraging users to come in through the front page of the site, as opposed
to using their own bookmarks, or that of another site. (see
http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/21010.html for the latest
dispute)

Clear links are a *good idea* for Open Information/Government. The next
steps are to further develop the theory, do some research, audit some public
information sites about the clarity of their URL's.

BTW, thanks for the URL about the space treaty. I got it working, and was
able to leaf through the scanned pages-- once.

Jon Garfunkel
Software Engineer
Route 128, Mass.