[iand]

You seem to be using the word REST as though you have never read any of the foundational material behind it. If you had then you'd have found that hypermedia links are an essential part of the REST philosophy and that formats like HAL are simply expressing REST concepts in JSON.

[MattRogish]

Good point; when I say "REST", I really mean: "DHH's version of REST as implemented in Ruby on Rails"

[masklinn]

AKA "not REST in any way, shape or form" AKA "good old RPC over HTTP".