There are plenty of places that will host your files for free. Many of them, however, have bandwidth limits or size restrictions, or are just too darn complicated to bother with. s4ve.as offers the basics I want from a free host and is dead simple to use.

As Jay mentioned to me, it's kind of like a beefed-up Senduit. While Senduit offers customizable time-before-self-destruct, it's got a 100Mb limit. That's just not enough in a lot of cases. s4ve.as does away with size limitations, so you're free to upload whatever the heck you want.

Simplicity is key here - browser for any file, and click upload. When the transfer is complete, integrated bit.ly support gives you an automatic short url to paste into sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Just make sure you tell your pals to grab it within 24 hours. After that, it's gone, daddy, gone.

Thanks for the tip, Scott!

There are plenty of "read it later" options around - like Read It Later, for example. ListMixer provides another way to create non-permanent bookmark lists in any browser (leave a mix unatteded for 30 days, and it's automatically deleted).

Add the ListMixer bookmarklet to your browser, click it once, and your unique ID is created. There's no registration required to start adding links. Once your mix has been created, you can add sites to it by clicking the bookmarklet.

You can add a tag items to group them on your mix page. Only a single word or phrase is supported, but it's enough to get the job done. Tags you've used previously appear in a drop-down box when adding a new link. Descriptions can also be added to your items.

ListMixer also supports hotkeys: holding 1 down while clicking will add a page to your mix and immediately return you to that page. Holding 2 down automatically adds the page and then displays your mix. To view your mix without adding a page, hold 3 while clicking. If you'd rather just click away, additional bookmarklets are provided to perform the same actions.

An RSS feed is also provided for your mix, and there's also a handy tool for creating a linkroll to embed on your blog.

If you're looking for a little anonymity and security when signing up for download links or invite codes, a disposable email service is a good option. Instead of providing one of your working email addresses, just grab a meaningless temporary one from any of these sites and keep your identity hidden.

These five sites all provide RSS feeds for your address, which is handy. No need to return to the site after registration, just subcribe with your favorite newsreader.

MailCatch - Choose your own address or roll the dice. MailCatch also provides an iGoogle gadget and creates a subdomain (using your address) for quick access to your web inbox. MailCatch also provides temporary forwards, and they've got an FAQ and forums.

MyTrashMail - Offers password protected temporary accounts in addition to the traditional public variety. Note that the Firefox "toolbar" they offer requires you have the Google toolbar installed first. FAQ and about links are prominently displayed.

If you've ever wanted to sign up for a website just to check it out, but were hesitant to surrender your e-mail address for the fear of worthless e-mails filling your inbox to the brim, there is a solution as elegant as disposable tissues - and it's called Guerrilla Mail.

Now you may have already done something smart like create an e-mail account for the specific purpose of receiving confirmation e-mails and other internet formalities. A good solution, but cumbersome because you still have to login to "confirm" the address and all that other jazz.

This is where Guerrilla Mail shines. Go to the site, click on "give me temporary e-mail," and you have an e-mail address that is all yours for the next fifteen minutes. Receive the e-mails you need to confirm at the address, and voila, forget about it. The beauty of disposable e-mail. No login, no password, just a quick way to deal with the trash. And if you find that you need a little more time, you can always get an extra fifteen minutes.

Obviously, as cool as it is, not too good for important stuff like bank accounts or online transactions - not everything in life is disposable.

Craigsnumber's tagline is simple and to the point: "Listing online? Protect your privacy." And that's all there is to it. Craigsnumber is a dead simple online service that will give you a disposable phone number for conducting business online. Want to provide a phone number on your eBay auction, but don't want your real number out there forever? Just go to Craigsnumber, enter your real number and when you want the disposable number to expire (one hour, one day, or one week), and you'll be assigned a Craigsnumber (which is an ordinary phone number and extension) that will forward calls to you only until it expires. When someone calls your Craigsnumber, they'll be prompted to record a greeting before they're connected, which allows you to screen incoming calls. If you want the number to be in a particular area code, you can choose from between San Francisco, Dallas, and Washington, D.C. One feature that would be nice to have is finer-grained control over expiration times. Being able to set it to 10 days or two weeks would be very welcome.

So, where's the business model? I have no idea, but it's a neat service that doesn't require any registration, another big plus for the privacy-conscious. As a big minus, however, the site doesn't appear to have any privacy policy. I've put in a query to the site's creators about that, and will update this post if they reply.

Update: The Craigsnumber folks e-mailed me to let me know that you can see the privacy policy by mousing over the asterisk next to the field where you enter your phone number. It says: "We do not sell, rent, or lease your phone number to third parties. Any companies or individuals employed by us are bound by law to protect the confidentiality of your information." Since my original post Craigsnumber has also added an FAQ that addresses privacy.