Mailing the story:

The iPad has finally landed in the U.K., and I spent much of the past holiday weekend playing with mine. While investigating its use to sys admins, I came across this photo of someone using it to read shared docs from a server room. Trying out GoodReader, I established that you can transfer files from desktop to iPad. However, that's controlled from the desktop end, with the iPad viewed as a network share. I wanted to control the transfer from the iPad -- less forward planning required! You can also do this from an iPhone.