Re: Carnegie again

[Colin McHenry <cmchenry@westserv.net.au>]

S.Green wrote:
> I have no relationships whatsoever in this company.
I just tried using it on some links that our intranet teaching site 
always stuffs up - it is actually quite useful.  You just go to 
tinyurl.com, paste in your link, and it gives a nice short url.  I don't 
know how long they last for, though.

> It is my belief after about 50 years of efforts, that responsibility 
> for good communications starts with the writer.
> If that person elects to put energy into projecting their ideas 
> clearly, then the reader is much more likely to receive those ideas 
> accurately -- the first time -- and is more likely to make an effort 
> to do so.
Although I concede this point might be relevant some of the posts I have 
made on this list in the past, what has this got to do with posting 
links that other's might find of interest?

> I think that too many people today try to get by the easiest way they 
> can -- hoping that the receiver will interpret and interpolate his 
> ideas accurately.  Unfortunately, this fails to happen much to often.
>
> In this case (and many others on this site) the writer can't be 
> bothered to simplify the URLs that they send.  Its okay to let the 
> reader screw around pasting multiple lines into their browsers rather 
> than the writer taking 30 seconds (that's all!) to goto "TinyURL" and 
> create a small and easily used web address. 
> Of course, often this URL stands alone without the writer taking the 
> time to even provide a minimal summary of the article they are 
> submitting.

Yeah, right.  And in the real world, this would mean that I (and I 
suspect many others on this list who do post links they find) would 
never get around to doing it.  Why summarise when you can go straight to 
the source?  Some people on this list do take the trouble to summarise 
new papers, and this effort is very useful for those who can't get the 
pdfs, but do you have to summarise a yahoo page?  Life's too short.
> In my way of thinking this is just being lazy, and very non-professional.
Hang on, are you accusing Dan Varner of being lazy and 
unprofessional??!.  I can assure you that he is neither.

Thanks for the tip on the tinyurl, though.

Cheers
Colin

--
*****************
Colin McHenry
School of Environmental and Life Sciences (Geology)
University of Newcastle
Callaghan NSW 2308
Australia
Tel: +61 2 4921 5404
Fax: + 61 2 4921 6925

******************