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

Question

Format for viewing status:

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

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

Answer 1

You can replace the screen name 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 need the raw data fields for the status, any of them will work:
http://twitter.com/statuses/show/4831830029115392.json
http://twitter.com/statuses/show/4831830029115392.xml