How can you link to a Twitter status with just the mention id?

Question

The format to view a status is:

http://twitter.com/<screen_name>/status/<mention_id>

Is there an alternate that does not require the screen name (or alternatively uses the user_id)?

Answer 1

You can replace the screenname with the user ID and it will work. These two are the same:
http://twitter.com/35943456/status/4831830029115392
http://twitter.com/NZGamerdotcom/status/4831830029115392

If you just want the raw data fields for the status, either of these will work:
http://twitter.com/statuses/show/4831830029115392.json
http://twitter.com/statuses/show/4831830029115392.xml