Fitness trackers have interested me since the Fitbit Classic was announced in 2008. Two years ago I finally joined the party and purchased the Fitbit Ultra. I was amazed at the amount of data the device was able to capture. Not only did it count steps, it measured distanced, steps taken, stairs climbed, and sleep activity. As someone who loves statistics I was immediately thrilled with the device. Unfortunately the Ultra was a clip on device and I often forgot to wear it. Eventually I stopped using it altogether. At CES this year Fitbit announced a fitness tracker that can be worn on the wrist. I have anxiously been waiting to get my hands on a Fitbit Flex and finally have.

What is a URL Shortening? A way to truncate long URL addresses so they are shorter in length. Why would one shorten a URL? They are easier to share! Twitter for example has a 140 character limit on messages. Shorter URLs mean you can add more text to your tweet.

There are many URL shortening services available, such as bit.ly, ow.ly, is.gd, and Awe.sm. Each have their own take on URL shortening, and work adequately. I was looking for specific features in a URL shortener.

It has been over 20 years since I first connected to the Internet. Things sure have changed. One of my first memories of cyberspace is downloading a picture of troops fighting during the first Gulf War. It took about 7 hours to download on my speedy 2400 Baud modem. It was the most amazing thing ever. For those to young to remember, we had no World Wide Web back then. Instead we had online services with “advanced” graphical user interfaces. In my house we used Prodigy.