So, without further ado…

My personal opinions

Before it became reality, my favourite things about the iPhone were all the myths & rumours about what it would or could be like. Now that the iPhone exists it's funny to see how wrong some people were. The best, I think, is that one of Rex's predictions for 2007 is wrong already: "And the iPhone? Nope, never. Why? Cuz the iPhone is like God — if it really existed, you wouldn't care that much." Heh.

I hope sites like the blog dedicated to pictorial guesses of what the iPhone might be like, continue to exist. For more iPhone myths, see Tao of Mac: iPhone speculation since 2004.

My favourite things on the real Apple iPhone

• The amazingness of web browsing: the page changes orientation automatically, you can zoom in, scroll with your finger… Watch the official video.
• It just looks so cool! The interface looks clean, clear, simple, elegant… All the things you expect from Apple.
• Did I mention how utterly, uberly pretty it is?!

Some notes

Please correct me if I'm wrong. Update: Thanks, Ian, for corrections!

• Not available yet. Due June, US; October-ish, UK.
• Only available on Cingular network.
• Price & memory: $499 for 4GB / $599 for 8GB
• Battery life: 5 hours of talk or video and 16 hours of audio
• No removable battery, no removable memory.

Better, more informed articles about the iPhone

• MobileWhack: Apple iPhone: Overview
• Endgadget: 10 iPhone articles &co & Endgadget: First iPhone pics! (So pretty!)
• Signal vs Noise: How can you dial the iPhone without looking at it?
• NY Times: It feels amazing in your hand… typing is difficult
• Jobs unveils iPhone to 4,000 drooling fans See their 'Related stories' for more.
• Pandagon: CNET notes that while Jobs refers to it as the iPhone, Cisco owns the trademark
• Wired: iPhone Takes Apple on New Path
• iPhone is awesome (restrictions apply): The main issue seems to be the 'closed' nature of the iPhone, i.e. the fact that you can't put your own software on there, unlike with a Blackberry. Check out the comments for some informative discussion.

Hope that was helpful! Do let me know either way.

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On Thursday, 9th November, the hosting came back, sans content. Ian & I contacted our hosts who restored as much as they could.

On Friday, 10th November, I had the exciting task of restoring the vast majority of my content from scratch: My database (for entries, comments etc), my files (for themes etc) and all my settings (for email etc). This took quite some time. Luckily, as I backup often it wasn't too much of a headache. It was stressful though, because I don't backup enough and I'd never tested my backups.

Over the next couple of days, I'll be making my disaster recovery strategy more apparent. In the meantime, I won't be ranting and raving about my hosts because I haven't got the full story yet (when I've got it; I'll share it). Instead, I'll be doing something altogether more karmic, sharing what I've learnt:

How to take the sting out of hardware failure: My advice and the lessons I've learnt

Backup! Backup! Backup!

Backing up: Some quotations & links to get you started

Deciding what to back up is highly personal. Anything you cannot replace easily should be at the top of your list. Before you get started, make a checklist of files to back up. This will help you determine what to back up, and also give you a reference list in the event you need to retrieve a backed-up file.

Microsoft: How to decide what data to back up

Backup refers to the copying of data so that these additional copies may be restored after a data loss event… to restore a computer to an operational state following a disaster (called disaster recovery) [or] to restore small numbers of files after they have been accidentally deleted or corrupted.

Wikipedia: Backup

"Why Smart People Do Dumb Things" (Like Not Backup Their Hard Disk), by Guy Kawaski. Read this, it's so excellent: It's all gold dust; I couldn't possibly quote it.

Backing up, WordPress-specific guides, including tutorials, plugins etc.

• WordPress Database Backup Plugin, by Skippy
  Quick, easy backups of your database
• WP-Cron Plugin, by Skippy
  Use in conjunction with the above plugin for automatic backups of your database
• WordPress Backup Recommendations, by Kathleen

Seven rules for backing up your data

1. Coverage: Backup ALL your data
2. Frequency: Backup frequently
3. Separation: Take some backups offsite
4. History: Keep some old backups
5. Testing: Test your backups
6. Security: Secure your backups
7. Integrity: Perform integrity checking

See also, The Tao of Backup Excellent, humorous, witty. Highly recommended!

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As part of Bright Resources: free Guide to Technology for Technophobes, I've written a straightforward definition of RSS & web feeds, including the benefits & how to use them.

I've also edited the Wikipedia entries for RSS, web syndication & web feed & to incorporate this information, as what was there before was far too complicated for those new to syndication.

Email me if you have any questions about it at all and I'll do my very best to help.

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From my experiences working in a government organisation and for a non-profit organisation, I know that many (if not most) people find working with technology a battle, never knowing when it will suddenly crash or fail in some other way. The most common frustration seems to be with technology not doing what we're telling it to do (we think) – it seems to have a mind of its own.

To this end, today I launched Bright Resources: free Guide to Technology for Technophobes.

Of course, the field of technology is a vast one and it would be impossible to cover everything, so I'm sticking to select areas, chosen on the basis that a) understanding them would be very valuable to people generally, b) I'm passionate about researching these areas, and c) I feel I can write about them in a straightforward way.

The first part of the guide is Blogging with WordPress for ABSOLUTE Beginners, which I feel qualified to write about having installed it five times, added a vast variety of different customisations (known as 'plugins' and 'themes' – explanations coming) and both created my own design for WordPress from scratch (new site due for release by 1 September 2006) and tweaked numerous designs (e.g. for this site).

I welcome all questions & suggestions, from geeks and non-geeks. No question is silly or too simplistic: If something is unclear to you that shows I'm at fault – please help me to help you by letting me know.

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