Remember when time capsules were all the rage. You could bury or otherwise hide objects and documents from the present time in hopes that sometime in the distant future, other beings from other worlds or maybe just future humans would uncover them to help answer questions about life "back in the day." The only problem with time capsules is that they are rather unfulfilling. You could only imagine the curiosity, confusion and shock that some distant traveler might display upon uncovering your boxer shorts with smiley faces.

But if relatively instant gratification is your bag, a Web site called FutureMe.org. is one of a handful of sites that let you send e-mail to yourself in the future.

We're not talking about sending reminder messages to yourself. What is required in this case is the ability to store a message for much longer than most e-mail providers will retain messages and then send it back to you on a specified date.

One problem that I can see is that our e-mail addresses tend to change over time, so we'd need to have access to the same e-mail account at some point in the future to retrieve the message. Maybe that's why most FutureMe customers schedule their e-mails to be sent within three years.

You can also send messages to other people, of course, assuming once again that the addresses are still valid at the time of delivery.

More BlackBerry Stains

We saw new skirmishes in the BlackBerry battle . . . A federal judge has ordered BlackBerry maker Research In Motion and patent-holding company NTP Inc to file court briefs by February 1, and NTP is expected to file an injunction to halt the BlackBerry service if a settlement can not be reached.

Meanwhile the barbs are flying. The Associated Press reports that Research In Motion's chairman James Balsillie accused NTP of abusing the system and decried the mistrust dishonor of threatening a shutdown of the service in front of millions of U.S. customers.

It looks now like RIM will have to shell out a lot more than the original $450 it offer NTP earlier this year to make the suit go away. No one really expects RIM to fight this up to an injunction, but that may not be necessary if the Patent Office contiues to weigh against NTP patents and can make its final decision before U.S. District Judge James R. Spencer rules on the matter of an injunction.

Stay tuned.