Obscure Facebook URL | Hacker News Reader

Obscure Facebook URL

spoiledtechie.com

> https://www.wwww.wwww.wwww.wwww.wwww.0.facebook.com/rdnation

Looks like anything.0.facebook.com is an alias for z.c10r.facebook.com.

So...

  $ host hackernews.0.facebook.com
  hackernews.0.facebook.com is an alias for z.c10r.facebook.com.

  $ host www.xyz.hackernews.0.facebook.com
  www.xyz.hackernews.0.facebook.com is an alias for z.c10r.facebook.com.

It is called a Wildcard DNS record [1], which allows you to have ~.example.com go to a single IP address and have the server handle it. This is really useful for web hosting, etc, and 37signals uses it for hosting basecamp [2], so each customer gets unique name at ~.basecamp.com.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildcard_DNS_record

[2] http://37signals.com/svn/posts/1512-how-to-do-basecamp-style...

I couldn't help but wonder if c10r was an abbreviation (is there a name for this form of shortening?):

  % grep '^c..........r$' /usr/share/dict/words
  cabinetmaker
  calligrapher
  carpetbagger
  cartographer
  cheeseburger
  chiropractor
  collaborator
  commissioner
  communicator
  confectioner
  conquistador
  counteroffer
  countertenor

Yep, numeronyms.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numeronym

I think c10r is probably just c-ten-r => center

Why would you obscure it as such?

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