I am currently without workstation because my MacBook is back at the shop after the last repair that broke both sound and the trackpad button, and now to top things off my Mac Mini wouldn’t boot again.

I have narrowed down one of the problems to a broken hard drive, so if anyone has an old 2.5″ IDE drive lying around that I can take over or borrow, I would be a very happy geek. Untill then I will be basically offline except for those few things I can do on my iPhone (like blogging).

Quite a few people have been asking me recently how I do my backups, either because they are geeky enough to want to know another geek’s opinion, or because they simply have no idea where to start. So here is my view on making backups and a little insight into my backup strategy.

A bit of “theory”

The reason for making backups should be obvious to all, but apparently it isn’t so here is a little reality check. Let me put it simple: unless you have your data at least twice, you don’t “have” it at all. Whatever media you use to store your data on, it is not a question of “if” that data will ever be lost, but the question “when” it will. If a hard drive dies and you permanently lose some data, it’s your fault, not the disk manufacturer’s or anybody else’s.

Do realize that “backing up” your data to CD or DVD and then deleting the data from your hard drive does not count as properly backing up. You need to have every data twice!

So I need two versions of all my data?

Theoretically, yes. Having your data twice protects you against any of these 2 versions getting lost. In practice though, your main data storage (your pc or notebook) and your backup (your external drive) will often be in the same place together (your house, flat, office, studio). This means that you only need one flood, fire, thief or other disaster to destroy all your versions.

So, to cut to the point you better make sure you also have a second off-site-backup at a different location.

So if I backup I can retrieve any of my data I ever had?

Most backup solutions don’t offer backup versioning. To put this in human terms, this means that you can only go back in time to the last backup you made, nothing before that. Every backup in these cases overwrites the previous backup. There are backup solutions though that offer versioning like Subversion, CVS and the Apple Time Machine software.

The problem of versioning backups is that they tend to grow quickly when your data changes a lot. This is because every change is saved. In other words: if you download loads of videos per week and watch them the same week and trow them away, your disk space might stay constant but your backup will grow fast as it is saving all those videos. Versioning is often only used on very small (but important) data like documents because these sizes tend to be manageable.

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So I have been playing with the iPhone 2.0 firmware update all afternoon today because the iphone-dev team finally managed to release a 20 compatible version of their Pwnage tool.

As a added bonus I was therefore able to play with all the applications in the Appstore. I only tried free ones until now but I think they were pretty impressive. Here is a quick write up of what i think were the most interesting free applications.

Truly Useful Applications

Google Mobile App is a little tool that works a lot like the Google Suggestions website but then in an app. it saves you the time from having to load various google pages before you found the link you were actually looking for. On a mobile device, the less work you need to do the better.

Remote is an app build by Apple themselves and it just rocks. it allows you to control any iTunes or AppleTV on your wifi network from your iPhone. I already used it to control my podcasts from the couch. The only thing that is missing is a little button to make stuff go fullscreen on your Mac.

Pocketpedia does for Amazon what the Google Mobile App does for the generic internet. It allows you to quickly search in Amazon and then browse details, covers, etc.

Utilities

Shazam is a small and handy app that can tell you what song it is hearing. Handy for when you are in an elevator wondering where you know that music from.

Last.fm has released their scrobbler and radio stations app for the iPhone. Listen to your Last.fm recommendations or neighboring tracks. Handy for when you got bored with the 4, 8, or 16GB of music on your iPhone.

WritingPad is a little tool that allows you to write notes and emails using an alternative input method where you “draw” the words by just flowing from character to character on the keyboard. I must admit it results to way faster writing.

Talking Italian Phrasebook allows me to expand my Italian vocabulary with audio examples and text. Handy for those holidays in Rome.

Twitterific is our favorite desktop Twitter client brought to the iPhone. I would rather have used Twinkle but somehow the Twinkle in the Appstore seems to be way different in functionality and stability than it was as a illegal third party app.

Evernote has released an iPhone client for their Evernote service. I hadn’t used the desktop/web app yet but i think this will be one f my new favorite apps. Just make note of anything and instant sync it across all your devices.

Truphone is VOIP alternative to your standard way of making calls. It could be really useful for international calls but I haven’t tested the reliability or costs yet.

AIM is the AOL instant messenger brought to the iPhone. Although still on my phone I doubt it to be that useful in the end. 

Games

Cube Runner is very simple game where you have to dodge the cubes using the internal accelerometer. Quite fun but I don’t think it will last.

Tap Tap Revenge is for the iPhone what Guitar Hero, Singstar, and many of those other games are for the mature gaming platforms. You beat the screen, and shake the phone on the beat of the music and score points. Loads of fun!

PhoneSaber is basically what it says it is. it gives you a lightsaber on the phone that makes noises when you shake the phone. I just kept it on my phone for my nephew who will love it.

Spinner is one off many maze games that uses the accelerometer, but this one makes it a bit more enjoyable than most others. In this one you don’t control the speed of the arrow that has to reach its goal, but you turn the screen 360 degrees to move the walls around the arrow. Very much entertaining.

I used to have this crystal clear case for my iPhone, which protected all but the screen and looked incredibly bulky. Still, I thought it necessary as I didn’t want scratches on my precious iPhone. The problem with almost all enclosures though, is that they result to the iPhone not fitting into any accessories (e.g. the dock). As I got tired of removing the case every time I wanted to put my iPhone in any dock, I decided to get something a bit less visible. In comes the Invisible Shield.

The Invisible Shield is pretty cheap ($24.95 and free shipping worldwide), covers the entire phone, takes a moment to apply, and seriously rocks. I can now use my iPhone as if it was a bare naked iPhone, without being afraid of damaging it with my keys or other sharp objects. Below are the photos.

Obviously I didn’t get a contract with my brand new iPhone, simply because I don’t have the budget to spend £35 a month on a contract. Maybe in the future I will buy a contract anyway, but for now I am basically stuck with my expensive Dutch contract. In other words: I had to hack my iPhone. With doing this I ran into some issues, which I will try to highlight in the following article, giving some reference for all you other people that are thinking of buying a UK iPhone.

Defining “UK iPhone”

Let’s start by quickly explaining what I mean with the “UK iPhone”. This is kind of important as there are different iPhones out there. With the UK iPhone I mean the iPhone that is currently (January 1st, 2008) sold in the UK that ships with the 1.1.2 firmware (see here to learn how to check firmware you have). iPhones shipped with this firmware Out Of the Box (commonly called OOB or OTB) ship with a new bootloader/baseband. This new bootloader has some repercussions that I will get to later.

Everything I will tell in this article might also hold for the US, German, or French 1.1.2 OOB phones, but I don’t know for sure because I don’t have these phones.

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