Devoid of Anything Useful

This is a problem I had yet to address, but I've been driven up the wall after so long.

Please remove useless query strings from URLs you share.

A very good example is this:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWKfYa3oBSU&feature=player_embedded

Its only purpose was to tell Youtube that you reached the page from an embed player, and not others potentially following your link.

If you still do not know what I am talking about, here are a few more examples.

- http://science.slashdot.org/story/09/09/04/229204/-Code-Breaking-Quantum-Algorithm-On-a-Silicon-Chip?from=rss

- http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/09/steel_velcro.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egUDYu_qmL0&feature=related

They serve no purpose for others, increase their length, decrease their readability, add another entry to URL-shortening and Online bookmarking services, and screw up what the website put them there in the first place for.

Of course, please use your own brain and test those query strings to see if they are useless. If they are required to show the particular page you are linking (eg. ?page=2 ) then obviously leave them there.

Another thing is that occasionally, there are also cases when a page can be linked by ID alone. Examples include:

- http://gizmodo.com/5353104/steel-velcro-made-by-germans-supports-35-tons-heat-at-up-to-800-degrees-celcius

- http://lifehacker.com/5352974/this-weeks-most-popular-posts

They can be removed very safely, and the only reason you would ever want to leave them there is to let people know where it leads to. Which is quite pointless since they are usually truncated anyway.

So, make the tubes a better place to be in.

EDIT: Apparently, someone else had written a similar post before me.
http://engtech.wordpress.com/2007/02/28/how-to-save-urls/
Go read that too.

I got kwokshungit. others had better plans.

WTH:
http://www.facebook.com/retard
http://www.facebook.com/slashdot
http://www.facebook.com/parody
http://www.facebook.com/rickroll

http://www.facebook.com/touhou
http://www.facebook.com/reimu
http://www.facebook.com/sakuya
http://www.facebook.com/patchouli
http://www.facebook.com/cirno

http://www.facebook.com/toradora
http://www.facebook.com/shana
http://www.facebook.com/index
http://www.facebook.com/mikuru
http://www.facebook.com/suzumiyaharuhi
http://www.facebook.com/caramelldansen
http://www.facebook.com/evangelion
http://www.facebook.com/kanaria
http://www.facebook.com/suiseiseki
http://www.facebook.com/souseiseki

Some Sense:
http://www.facebook.com/Portal
http://www.facebook.com/fakku
http://www.facebook.com/Microsoft
http://www.facebook.com/windows
http://www.facebook.com/haruhi
http://www.facebook.com/hatsunemiku
http://www.facebook.com/fatetestarossa
http://www.facebook.com/photoshop
http://www.facebook.com/suigintou

not taken? (as of 20090613 1900h):
http://www.facebook.com/kyon
http://www.facebook.com/tsuruya
http://www.facebook.com/nagatoyuki
http://www.facebook.com/asahinamikuru
http://www.facebook.com/izumikonata
http://www.facebook.com/gundam
http://www.facebook.com/4chan
http://www.facebook.com/google
http://www.facebook.com/yahoo
http://www.facebook.com/error
http://www.facebook.com/darthvader
//anyone after shinku

redirects to home for some strange reason
http://www.facebook.com/flandre
http://www.facebook.com/pidgin

but I really think that some things just can't be shared.

yoinked from http://lists.ethernal.org/oldarchives/cantlug-0211/msg00174.html

There is an entire development methodology (whose name escapes me at the moment) that makes use of that very phenomenon.

We called it the Rubber Duck method of debugging. It goes like this:

1) Beg, borrow, steal, buy, fabricate or otherwise obtain a rubber duck
(bathtub variety)
2) Place rubber duck on desk and inform it you are just going to go over
some code with it, if that's all right.
3) Explain to the duck what you code is supposed to do, and then go into
detail and explain things line by line
4) At some point you will tell the duck what you are doing next and then
realise that that is not in fact what you are actually doing. The duck
will sit there serenely, happy in the knowledge that it has helped you
on your way.

Works every time. Actually, if you don't have a rubber duck you could at
a pinch ask a fellow programmer or engineer to sit in.

Andy

And of course, since I'm at it I might as well...
http://adam.blog.heroku.com/past/2009/3/16/push_systems_vs_pull_systems/
(nice comment later on)

http://scienceblogs.com/goodmath/2009/02/stepping_up_divison_by_zero_to.php
(I'm surprised people can actually come up with that)

http://www.presidiacreative.com/57-wallpapers-you-must-see/
(The link says it all)

http://dollarstorecrafts.com/
http://www.realsimple.com/
(nice)

http://pythonide.blogspot.com/2008/10/how-to-make-money-with-free-software.html
(uber)