TinyURL down and out?

If you've ever tried to cut and paste a web link that runs two or three lines long, you know why so many online writers use TinyURL for shortened links.

Since yesterday, though, I have not been able to open any pages at TinyURL.com, including their home page. I thought it was just me, so I systematically disabled all my security software (want a list? too long for this post...). And I still had the problem. Then I found this post from Marshall Kirkpatrick:

TinyURL Outage Illustrates the Service's Risks - ReadWriteWeb

Frankly, I think his take on it is too harsh. TinyURL is a free service. And they have been more dependable than some expensive software I use. Even Gmail has gone down (with no warning or explanation to users). We expect everything on the Net to be free and reliable. Is that fair? What do you think?