Okay, here’s a little internet quiz. How many of you have seen URL’s (universal resource locators, internet speak for a web address) like this?

http://www.ryansaghir.com/archives/www.thelongestdomainnameintheworldandthensomeandthensomemoreandmore.com

Or maybe this?

http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?ovi=1&mqma
p.x=300&mqmap.y=75&mapdata=%252bKZmeiIh6N%252bI
gpXRP3bylMaN0O4z8OOUkZWYe7NRH6ldDN96YFTIUmSH3Q6
OzE5XVqcuc5zb%252fY5wy1MZwTnT2pu%252bNMjOjsHjvN
lygTRMzqazPStrN%252f1YzA0oWEWLwkHdhVHeG9sG6cMrf
XNJKHY6fML4o6Nb0SeQm75ET9jAjKelrmqBCNta%252bsKC
9n8jslz%252fo188N4g3BvAJYuzx8J8r%252f1fPFWkPYg%
252bT9Su5KoQ9YpNSj%252bmo0h0aEK%252bofj3f6vCP

Yeah one of those broken web addresses you have to copy by hand into your browser to make work. Always a barrel of laughs those are.

So what to do?
Well shrink the multi-line monstrosity above to this:

http://tinyurl.com/6

Sound appealing doesn’t it? The tool to use is called TinyURL and it takes super long URL’s and makes them shorter. You can try it out yourself at http://www.tinyurl.com We think you’ll find it handy and helpful.

But are there any downsides?
Not really as far as we can tell but then again somedays we don’t get quite enough caffeine to make our brains work properly. But others have found a voiced a key concern that being it’s poor writer etiquette to make your reader wonder where it is your new shorter, spiffy link is taking them. With phishing in vogue today that’s a valid concern of course. So a possible compromise is to show the longer link so your readers see the original and post the shorter for their web surfing convenience. Another option is, presuming your readers trust you (you are the honest type are you not?) you simply put a descrtiption near the link such as, “Click over to the wikiepdia by going to this link here” where “here” is the link to the Wikipedia article or other locations.

Are there any alternatives?
Why yes there are! DoIP will do essentially what TinyURL does with one simple twist: you can choose the suffix or last part of the new shorter URL you create. For example, a standard URL to an article in the Boston Globe looks like this:

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2005/11/03/plaintiff_alleges_alito_conflict/

Using TinyURL it looks like this:

http://tinyurl.com/2lntfq

Using DoIP it looks like this, based on your choosing the suffix:

http://doiop.com/bostonglobe

So, readers know they are going to see the article you referenced in the Boston Globe. It’s a nice touch.

“Too complicated, gotta do it on the fly from my browser”
Always a naysayer in this crowd but we’ve got you covered as well. Firefox has a addon that allows you to use TinyURL right from the browser. You can get to that add-on at this link here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/126

Like all things frugally at the Frugal Tech TinyURL is a bargain in price and usablity.  It’s free and easy to  use so it meets our tightwad desires well.  So bring back web address elegance with TinyURL, your readers will be happy they don’t have to cut and paste your long URL’s again!

At the Cafe we own a Wii. The thing really is fun, in fact, it’s so fun we’re considering keeping the patrons usage TIMED so that everyone gets a chance to use it. The free Wii Sports pack, particularly the Bowling, is the big hit here, as is YouTube on the Wii. Yes, the Wii streams video and audio.

So it was a natural to see how the Wii does with browsing the Internet. Frankly, it works just great. Nintendo has released it’s final version of it’s Internet for Wii and we like it. You can sit back with a latte, browse the net, and watch it on your TV. A few years ago this was possible of course, but, not nearly as useful, primarily due to lack of content. But now with more streaming video, audio and yes news and features, such as Beck’s Cafe, browsing and using the net from your couch isn’t such a weird idea.

We think the Wii will do a few things to change life as we know it on the planet – or at least the game console buying planet. First, the whole virtual reality part of gaming and entertainment is now very accessible to Jane Doe. It’ll take some fancy programming, good marketing, and some inexpensive hardware but, predicted here, a virtual reality setup for Wii shouldn’t be more than 12 months away. The Wii’s revolutionary motion sensing technology makes it possible. And, not too long ago, one of Beck’s Cafe’s writers helped develop micro-screens for eyeglasses (think a computer screen on the inside of your sunglasses). Put those together and you may be running from PacMan rather than just playing him on the screen!

Over at GigaOM, Wagner James Au has his own thoughts on what the Wii will do in his article, “Wii will remake the web?” here’s some of his thoughts to tease you to go read the whole article:

…according to a recent Merrill-Lynch study, by 2011, an astounding 30% of American households will own a Wii. If that estimate holds up (and given the Wii’s still-thundering sales figures, there’s no reason to doubt it), about one out of every three U.S. homes will soon have a new kind of Web browser sitting in their living room.

One in Three…think about those numbers Mr. and Mrs. Marketeer! Oh and how about this?

The obvious immediate objection, or course, is “who’s going to browse the Web without a keyboard?” The most obvious immediate answer: the very young, who already send text messages over their cellphones

If it was as easy to use the Wii controller as it is a keyboard, why wouldn’t you just chose the easy option? From our experience at the Cafe, about 10% of the time, patrons chose to use the Wii over the computers we have installed for surfing and email. Interesting huh? We thought so.

Look out, there are changes coming in the way we reach the internet which has become highly necessary to much of the world to get information and to communicate. And it’s not all through the PC. Is it any wonder Intel, Microsoft and everyone else is vying for the living room now?

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Okay, if you’ve had your coffee here’s a riddle…

• What is one of the simplest things you can do for another person but it’s impact is larger than you’d expect?
• Takes two minutes to write but two days to fret over what to say?
• Can be sent fastest electronically but best by postal mail

Figure it out? Well it’s the simple “thank you”.

The “thank you note” seems to be fading into the distance as a standard tool of communication in business and inter-personal relationships but it’s one of the most important tools to strengthen a relationship with someone in any sphere (staff at Beck’s Cafe take note!!)

According to Kim Izzo, etiquette columnist, during an interview with Oprah on Thank You notes (see that interview at Oprah’s site here), “It’s making the effort. People really appreciate getting mail that’s not a bill, for one thing, and just taking that extra bit of time to write a thank you note really means everything.”

So how do jumpstart this so you to can say “thank you”?

• Do it right away: That’s right, as soon as you’ve got a minute (and think consciously about making that minute by the way) do it. What’s the max time you can wait and send a Thank You? According to Ceri Marsh, etiquette columnist, “give yourself a week because if you wait longer then you put it off another week and then you feel dumb about acknowledging it. People like a thank you note more than they even like a gift”. (source: Oprah: Thank You Note Etiquette)

• Write it by hand That’s right, even if you scrawl like a physician do it the old fashion way; pen to paper IF you know their snail mail address. If you don’t, then an email or e-card are reasonable fall-backs. According to Jill Bremer of Bremer Communications, a professional image development and presentation skills coaching firm, “The impact of a handwritten thank-you note is often overlooked in today’s fast-paced “why-write-something-when-I-can-email-it” world. A note written promptly and sincerely is an important ritual of etiquette that is much more effective and appreciated than a phone call or electronic message. Yes, we have a lot of technology at our fingertips, but just because we can do that way doesn’t mean we should”. (source: Thank-You Note Etiquette, Jill Bremer, AICI, CIP, Bremer Communications )

• Do it for gifts, acts of kindness or friendship, or just because. Often times we don’t do it as we aren’t sure how. And usually the ideas on how to do it are tailored only for thank you notes for gifts. But substitute “gift” for act of kindness or friendship and any concepts on how to write a thank you note applies. Susan Dunn, MA, A Professional Life Coach has this advice (remember substitute the word “gift” for some other act of kindness and her advice applies universally too), “When you write the note, mention the gift or gifts specifically. Mention some way that you will use it, or what it meant to you, how much you love the color red, or how you’ve been wanting to read that book”. (source and examples: “How to write a Thank You note and Why“, Susan Dunn, MA, Professional Life Coach, Emotional intelligence & Etiquette

So get your pen in hand and paper on the desk today, you’ll improve your relationships with this simple act.

Thank You for reading

I am unwritten, can’t read my mind, I’m undefined
I’m just beginning, the pen’s in my hand, ending unplanned

JPMorgan Chase has done some interesting work on the actual cost for transexual healthcare we just stumbled on here at the cafe. It’s a good read over your monring coffee. They presented the eye opening facts at the 2006 Out and Equal Workplace Advocates Seminar.

If at first blush your response is, “I didn’t know this wasn’t covered” or “Why the heck should it be covered” consider this:

• Most health plans do not cover transexual health care

• Employers considering including such benefits are concerned the cost is either unknown or simply too high to be able to afford

• No good data exists on the actual costs to be able to make an informed decision

The slide deck, in pdf, is an interesting read well worth your time. It covers data that was collected on what the costs are, what some major companies actually paid out for health benefits for the transgender community, assessment on prevelance rates and more.

So go see our barista, grab a mug (this one is on the house) and have a read of the deck, “The Cost of Transgender Health Benefits” by JP Morgan, by going to the Out and Equal link HERE.   As of 10/30/2010,  The presentation was actually removed by Out and Equal, so we dug it up at transexualia.org in Spain and we are now hosting this study here at Beck’s Cafe.  You can download the pdf slidepack of the study by clicking to:  The Cost of Transgender Health Benefits