High Wired: This message will self-destruct ...

Online Tool of the Week: KickNotes

Remember how the fellows on "Mission: Impossible" (oh, and Inspector Gadget too) used to receive those cool messages at the beginning of each episode that self-destructed right after they finished reading them? Well, great news. Now you can create your very own self-destructing messages.

KickNotes allows anyone to send and receive self-destructing e-mails via the Internet - and the service is completely free. Message senders determine either how many times their message can be read or how much time can elapse after a message has been read before it self-destructs. Then, if someone tries to click on or access a KickNotes message that's deleted itself, he or she is simply told that the message no longer exists. Once the message is gone, it's GONE.

So go ahead and send your own self-destructing message over at www.kicknotes.com. And don't forget to bookmark the site; you never know when a service like this could come in handy.

Definition Clarification of the Week: Uploading vs. Downloading

I hear the terms "upload" and "download" misused much, much too often. The difference between the two is simple, and I'd like to share it with you today in hopes that you'll be able to avoid sounding silly in the future.

When you download a file, you're pulling it from the Internet/from a website DOWN onto your computer. You can download almost anything - documents, music, photos - as long as you're grabbing it from somewhere else and putting it onto your computer, you're downloading.

Conversely, if you have something on your computer and you're putting it UP onto the web, you're uploading. You upload a file from your computer to a site where it didn't exist before.

So, as an example, when I put photos from my computer onto my online Flickr photo album (at www.flickr.com), I'm uploading them to the web. If I'm browsing Flickr and I come across a shot of a friend that I really like, I can download it from the web onto my computer.



Three Links of the Week:

• http://www.coverpop.com/wheeloflunch - Not sure where to eat lunch or dinner? Enter your zip code and then give the wheel a spin (Wheel-of-Fortune-style) to let this little game of chance make the decision for you.

• http://tinyurl.com/2catob - If you've got a folder on your computer overflowing with various PDF documents, check this link out; let LifeHacker teach you how to use iTunes (yes, that's right - iTunes) as your personal PDF manager/organizer.

• http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page - Almost too good to be true! The Wikimedia Commons site contains hundreds of thousands of free, modifiable media files you can use on your website. And yep, you can even use them on your commercial site if you'd like. All media items are tagged and categorized by users, so it's easy to find just about anything you're looking for. Need a sunset photo for your latest blog entry? You now know where to go (without having to worry about copyright, expensive fees, or usage rights).

Have a great week, everyone, and see ya next Monday.



<i>Based in Frisco, eRin pheiL is the primary creative force behind timeforcake (www.timeforcake.com). She can be reached via phone at (970) 668-0709 or e-mail at info@timeforcake.com.</i>