It shouldn’t take nearly 6 hours to update your iPhone to the 3.0 OS, but it did for me.

It started downloading the update and seemed to receive that just fine, and it claimed to have backed up my iPhone before installing the update, but somewhere in that mix the iPhone became completely deactivated and insisted on being connected to iTunes. You know – that annoying screen on the iPhone where it shows a USB plug.

It wouldn’t give me the restore from backup option, either. It was a core restore to the “original settings”. To me that means complete data loss without even the benefit of the 3.0 OS.

So I did what any other person who’s sipped from the Pierian spring does… I pressed ALT-CTRL-Shift while clicking the Restore button. Voila! A file dialog box asking me which firmware file to use. I pointed it to the update that just downloaded and it seemed to go well … except during this process it neglected to restore all my 3rd party apps and their data.

I was furious, then I tweeted, then I denied it, then I tweeted, then I cried (I didn’t tweet that)… but you get the point. I looked long and hard and the only restore point that iTunes offered was right before this happened even though I did manual backups a couple of weeks ago.

After a bit of research, I came across a tidbit that said the restore only restores data involving Apple’s iPhone apps. You have to restore songs and video clips separately. That got me to thinking … what if 3rd party apps somehow bind their data to the app during a sync in such a way that syncing the apps would also restore their data.

So I began that process … and iTunes decided to do a freaking backup! I’m thinking this would take no time at all – it’s only 300 megs… but it took nearly an hour. Suspiciously the same amount of time it would take when my iPhone was 4 gigs full. So maybe when the firmware installs, and when we do a restore, the data is present but not accessible until the application that calls it is installed on the iPhone.

I don’t know exactly what happened to fix it, but I have nearly all my data back.

Again, the steps – not recommended, but if something goes wrong for you, who knows…

1) Downloaded new Firmware Update
2) Installed new Firmware on iPhone (first generation)
3) iPhone went wonky
4) Restored the last available backup (this surprisingly did *not* revert to the prior iPhone OS)
5) Resync’d the iPhone apps
6) Waited two hours until I got sick of the whole ordeal.
7) Slid the “Slide to Cancel” switch on the iPhone
Like magic, the apps were there with their data.

Hope this helps someone else out there. Better yet – hope you don’t have to go through the same ridiculous install.

Cheers!

In a recent brief facebook encounter with Rabbi Daniel Lapin, he addressed the issue of IQ.

Rabbi: Fortunately, ancient Jewish wisdom rates Wisdom as far more important than IQ, as our IQ is fixed but our wisdom can be increased. No word for “intelligence” in Torah. Wisdom is “chochmah”. Increase wisdom? Sure, see tomorrow’s Thought Tool.

I then asked about skill, since some people equate skill or talent with IQ:

Me: What about the word for skill? I know artisans were called by their skill to build the Ark. And I noticed more than one hebrew word for skill. What’s the difference between “biyn” or “yada”?

He then kindly addressed, not the issue of skill, but of meditation!

Rabbi: There are three terms in descending order chochmah, bina, and da’at (the etymological root of data). Bezalel is spoken of as having chochmah for building the tabernacle. There’s much more I’ll treat in future Thought Tools which I hope you receive. Otherwise go to www.RabbiDanielLapin.com

The Rabbi is careful not to say anything without much forethought. He had to have a purpose in his answer, and I think it’s starting to gel together. Skill is not based on experience as much as it’s based on wisdom and meditation.

Wikipedia isn’t the best source to get ancient Jewish wisdom, but I wanted some answers and needed to start somewhere.

Wikipedia: Chochma (lit. wisdom) is the mind’s ability to come up with a new insight into a concept that one did not know before. Binah (lit. understanding) is the mind’s ability to take a new insight (from Chochma), analyze all of its implications and simplify the concept so it is understood well. Daat (lit.knowledge), the third stage, is the mind’s ability to focus and hold its attention on the Chochma and the Binah.

Oy! My brain pretty much stops mid Binah. No wonder I hardly ever gain focus and meander from one thought to another! Perhaps this is also the key to a good memory since my Binah is so short term.

So let’s see what the actual Hebrew words are:

• Chochma – חכמה
• Binah – בינה
• Daat – דעת

It will be interesting to read what Rabbi Lapin has to say about these words and how they identify the potential of man.

Great ideas come scribbled on paper cafe napkins. That’s when our souls aren’t stiff with starch or choked with a tie. That’s when we relax with our friends and a cocktail drink. That’s when we don’t care how stupid the idea seems. There’s magic when the logic is gone.

This spot on the web is my paper napkin in hopes to find that great idea; at least in hope to discover myself. This journey will help to define partly who I am, and in that there is hope to glimpse the meaning of life and what lies beyond.

Music, code, love, food, philosophy, paranoia, responsibility, passion, art, faith, desire, fear: they pull my life into every which way, often times at conflict with each other. It’s a bumpy napkin and rips are bound to happen.

Million Dollar Napkin Idea