For Big Ones

Hey, you want a handy Internet service? Let's say you have to send a very large file to one or more people. You could e-mail it to each of them but not everyone's e-mail service will accept large files. Moreover, if you're sending it to ten people, that would mean your computer would have to upload it ten times. So whaddaya do? And yes, I know I'm starting to sound like a damn infomercial about this…

You use YouSendIt.com. This is such a great free service that you figure there's got to be a catch…but as far as I can tell, there isn't. You upload the file (up to 1 GB) to their server and enter the e-mail addresses(es) of its intended recipient(s). The site sends messages out to everyone you specify and gives them a link to come and download the file at their leisure. It remains available for seven days and then it's deleted from the YouSendIt server.

Folks say it's safe and secure but if you're concerned that someone will pry into your file, you can use some sort of encryption on it. The easiest would probably be to put it into a password-protected ZIP file, and then e-mail the password to the recipient. You probably have a ZIP program on your computer even if you don't know about it.

I posted this because I thought some of you could make good use of it, but also because I wanted to have one item up here this weekend that doesn't concern Cindy Sheehan.