I asked Mike for a copy of their support letter for their upcoming service in Dakar, and was rather cryptic about why I wanted it. He asked if I was going to draw glasses and mustaches on their pictures. I wasn't, but with an opening like that, who can resist?

No, what I was really trying to do was this: see if I could put the document online in pdf form. (You have to click the "Download file" link in small print to get it; the preview didn't translate the image correctly.)

If you're trying to do this for free, there are a lot of trade-offs to take into account: Xdrive (an AOL service) offers more permanent service than this one, but they require your viewers to register for an account before they can view your file, which is a hassle. On the other hand, I found some services that allow pdfs to launch in your browser rather than requiring a download, but they're designed for very short-term hosting (e.g., a link in an e-mail that will be opened in the next day or two, not a link that's going on a website). Also, my attempt to register didn't seem to work, so I gave up on even trying it.

So I chose 4shared as a happy medium. Its chief drawback is that the free version requires the registrant to sign on at least every 30 days, or the files will go "poof." Which would be fine if you were going to be using it a lot, but if you're just looking for someplace to park a file or two, it's probably not the best pick.

I haven't taken the time to do full research on the variety of hosting services out there; this was more an experiment to get the lay of the land. Anybody have any favorite file hosting services they want to share?

M&M: let me know what you think. I'll take the file down if you like. Or you're welcome, of course, to use the link yourselves. (But beware that I'm ditzy enough to let it lapse in about a month.)