Backups - why you need two methods and abundant paranoia

I can't say I feel good about my backups. I believe data wants to die; it wants to be free of the burden of order. Against the despair of data, even the best backup is barely adequate.

Consider tonight, when everything almost failed - Time Capsule and Carbon Copy Cloner alike.

The Time Capsule serves all the machines in our home over a wireless network. I was surprised at first that backup would work over wireless, but it does. Each machine has its own unencrypted disk image; one on the TC's old internal 500 GB drive, two others have images on an external 2TB drive. The TC sits in a closet upstairs;  it's unlikely to be stolen but fire would destroy it. I have done 1-2 file Time Machine restores from that image, so I know it can work. The only test of a backup, of course, is a restore.

I don't trust Time Machine as much as old-time DantzRetrospect, but it seems Apple has gotten most of the bugs out.

I trust Carbon Copy Cloner [3] more. Each day it clones my server, on which all the important data lives. It's more than a cloner; CCC keeps copies of changed or deleted files in "_CCC Archives". I've configured CCC to use an encrypted image it automatically mounts every night. Since that backup is encrypted I can take it offsite, which I do every few weeks. Ok, every month or two. Offsite rotation relies on me, so it's prone to failure. Still, even if the house burns, I am unlikely to lose more than a month of images and videos. I can live with that.

So I have two backup methods, both fully automated, both relatively independent [2]. If each is 95% reliable each day, then the chance both fail on a given day is 1/400. If the daily chance of a server drive failure is 1/1000, the odds of all three failing on the same day are about 1/400,000 [2], [4]

Tonight though, my data got within a few miles of the cliff it wants to meet.

My server has been having worrisome memory exception (EXC_BAD_ACCESS) crashes, and a TV show I  recently downloaded had a file error [1]. There's something wrong on my 2yo i5 iMac; I need to run Apple Hardware Test (again). So I know my server data is at risk.

Time Capsule has had problems too -- it's reporting a "communications error" periodically. I think that error message is  a scarlet herring related to the iMac issues, but clearly I can't trust that backup.

Happily there's good old CCC -- but when I restarted my server for the first time in weeks it reported a problem. The backup drive didn't mount. That was easy to diagnose -- I'd unplugged it. Probably when I was debugging my Aperture crash 3 weeks ago. Why didn't CCC report the error? Maybe it had crashed.

I wasn't that close to data loss -- but I was in a bad neighborhood. As paranoid as I am, I'm almost not paranoid enough.

It's good to have two fully automatic and completely independent backup methods. Data wants to die, and backup is still an unsolved problem.

-fn-

[1] Incidentally, you can't easily report a purchase problem to Apple until they process a charge, and to reduce transaction costs they wait a few days before they process. This is very annoying! Also, the UI for reporting a purchase problem is suspiciously clumsy. More on that experience when I see what they do.
[2] In reality they common failure points of course - me, computer memory, etc. There is the older offsite backup though, so complete and total data loss is probably less than 1/1,000,000.
[3] Donationware. I donated. I wish donation ware apps would let us set a 'reminder' so I could donate yearly. I suppose I should just make donationware donations every year on my birthday against the apps I use.
[4] I'd love to have automated offsite backup too, but I've never foundan offsite vendor I trusted and I expect ISPs to eventually charge for bandwidth use.

See also:

• CrashPlan (or JungleDisk) instead of Retrospect 8? (1/2010)
• Online backup – the security problem (it’s not the encryption)
• backup (50 or so posts on backup)
• Retrospect 8.2 for OS X fails my latest review -- because it's been abandoned (11/2010 - I checked under the latest owner but it felt the same)
• Freeing up Time Capsule space – and documentation for Time Machine and Time Capsule (12/2009 - TM/TC are better quality now, but the documentation still sucks).
• Time Machine, Time Capsule and offsite backup (2/2010)
• My 10.6 iMac is crashing - a debugging exercise (2/2010 - using hardware test)

Update 12/21/2011: I was closer to the cliff than I realized.

Twitter to WordPress via ifttt - limitations

Weeks after Google's Day of Infamy i'm still failing to fully replace Google Reader Shares. Recently I gave up on Tumblr, Posterous, the zombie version of Google Reader, and some screen-scraping attempts to turn G+ streams into feeds.

Lately I've been focusing on my @jgordonshare tweets and tonight I tried using ifttt to create a WordPress feed-equipped archive of tweets.

It was easy to setup the ifttt task to turn the tweets into WP posts. I used a "1 button install" Dreamhost [1] WordPress instance I've been testing. I had to turn on XML-RPC publishing (used by Windows Live Writer, MarsEdit, etc) and provide a WordPress username and password [2].

The ifttt doesn't trigger immediately after tweet creation. I assume it checks the Twitter stream every 15-30 minutes. I manually triggered a check from the ifttt dashboard.

Here's an example of what I got

Just testing iftt tweeting to wp (sorry). http://t.co/GbR8Qdud

... Just testing iftt tweeting to wp (sorry). http://t.co/GbR8Qdud...

Yeah,  not to impressive. The problem is a tweet is simply a string, it has no special structure, no way to distinguish URL from my commentary from page title from annotation (not that there's room for all that). Tweets are much simpler entities than old-style Google Reader shares.

The experiment did work, but the result isn't terribly interesting.

So the quest goes on ...

[1] Use the code "KATEVA" or this link and you are supposed to get 50% off your 1st year costs and I get an equal saving as credit.
[2] Obviously you should create a user for this purpose and create a unique password. IFTTT has to know your credentials.

See also:

• Dreamhost - apparently the kickbacks work 6/2010
• Google reader shared items to Facebook 3/2009 - Google's glory days - before the Fall
• Loving Google Reader - Shared post feed 9/2008 - Google's apex
• My reader shares are back for now - thanks to Keakon 11/2011 - sweet hack, but a bit of a security risk
• Social wrestling: Google Reader, Twitterfeed, Blogger and Facebook 4/2010 - twitterfeed is still around
• Filtering my Google Reader Share with Yahoo Pipes 9/2008 - never quite worked, but an interesting example
• Using Bloggers undocumented label (category) feeds and Yahoo Pipes to create a tech opinion feed out of Gordon's Notes - 2/09 - fiddling
• Tweeting Google Reader Shares and Notes via feedburner 10/2010 - we assume Google will axe feedburner in 2012
• FreeMyFeed - Getting Twitter feed to Google Reader - turning twitter into rss 4/2009
• Microblogging and Google Reader: Tumblr Fails 11/2011
• After the fall of Google Reader: Posterous, Tumblr and Zootool with Twitter on the side 11/2011. I haven't tried Zootool yet.

How to learn what your current AT&T mobile contracted services are

AT&T has the lowest customer service rating of American mobile phone companies. Of course that's like asking what's worse - Ebola or Rabies?

This is not because of their retail staff. They must give them powerful drugs, because, despite working for a moderately evil corporation, they're remarkably cheerful.

Their web site though, that's part of what makes them "Rabies" rather than just "Ebola".

For example, for the past few days I've been trying to follow up on some extensive bill slashing changes. In particular I've been trying to find a current contract summary for our family plan. I think I've found the best that ATT offers, but they have one of the worst web sites I've ever come across. [1]

As of Nov 2011 try this. Don't click on the tabs, but mouse over to see the substructures. Note you may have to authenticate repeatedly.

• Go to your AT&T mobile account page. Look at the top menu structure. It will say myAT&T, with "tabs" like "Overview", "Bill & Payments" and so on. Depending on the services you use some are not useful, but they will still appear. The tabs that are useful for a mobile-only customer are
  
  • Bill & Payments: see current bill statement
  • Wireless: usage and recent activity
  • Profile: user information
• From user information look for "Contract Information". Click Customer Service Summary and Contract. Now you get a popup window. In there you find several options including two that, despite their names, both show a similar PDF (these links may actually work as shortcuts once you're authenticated):
  
  • Wireless customer agreement: This is the real deal. CSS plus six pages that summarize your true contract [2]
  • Customer service summary (wireless): Just the CSS
  • Alternatively, AT&T's "Your Phone CSS" email provides this link with goes to a screen I can't find when I navigate the site, in fact it seems to be a outside of the tabs they define and possibly a separate web site: https://www.wireless.att.com/olam/loginAction.olamexecute?target=CSS. There's a trick here. Unless you read carefully, you'll hit the "continue" button -- that will just take you back to the main site. Instead, look for the link under the wireless number drop down and click that. You get the PDF contract summary.

Note that under the Wireless tab is a "Rate Plan" link, but it only shows voice plan.

So, in summary, to determine your actually currently contracted services for a family plan you need to print/view a PDF for each individual family member and do the sums to produce an integrated view.

I wonder if there's a medical term for the psychosis induced by dealing with AT&T?

Next up: How to track SMS use.

[1] The primary flaw is that AT&T mixes marketing with service. There are other reasons, but that's the primary dysfunction. What I want to know is mixed with what they want to sell me. A secondary reason, is that they choose not to invest in areas that allow customers to see what their contracts are. Those investments have a low return on investment and will not contribute to someone making VP. It's just a happy accident that it works this way.

[2] Update: AT different times I got different PDFs for different users. Only my wife, a secondary number, produced the full six page report when I requested a "wireless customer agreement".

Update 12/11/11: I've studied the PDFs in more detail. They are quite hard to interpret, particularly for a family plan, but, with some study, they do show the current contract. I think the "wireless customer agreement" is a copy of the original contract, but the "customer service summary" is the current contract.

Deleting Google Profile breaks picasa share links

I  recently deleted my Google Profile. The link explains why.

I expected consequences and I am not disappointed.

Today many of my share links to my Picasa albums have broken. The albums are still gone, but the share links don't work.

It's easy to see why. Here's a link I shared last week to one of my recent albums. I've bolded the problem (omitting the auth key)

https://picasaweb.google.com/113810027503326386174/WildcatVsEagleNov2011

Here's today's link to the same album ...

https://picasaweb.google.com/jfaughnan/WildcatVsEagleNov2011

When I deleted my profile I removed my 2007 identity: 113810027503326386174. With the advent of G+ that identifier was the basis of shared image links. When I removed G+, those links broke.

Fortunately I hadn't shared that many albums recently. I got singed, but not burned.

I feel like I escaped the burning house of G+ just in time. Future exits will be far more difficult -- if not impossible.

Google doc share links cannot be changed

Google uses the secret share link feature in a few places. In several places the share link can be changed. I think of that as an essential feature; a way to correct a share mistake or deal with an escaped link.

Google Apps shared item links, however, cannot be changed.

Nobody talks about this.

Sometimes I think I'm the only person in the world who actually uses Google Docs.

Blogger is dying more quickly than expected

I've been expecting Blogger to die, but since Google has been porting it to the "new look" I thought it had a year or two left.

Today when I search in Blogger I'm getting results sorted from oldest to newest, and search ends at 2006. I'm seeing this in both the old and new UI. In the new UI, of course, search is very limited; in particular you can't navigate large numbers of results readily.

Blogger is showing more of these inconsistent and failed behaviors. If Blogger were human, I'd say it had an untreatable cancer.

The good news is that WordPress.com's Blogger Import works fairly well -- though it omits all draft posts.

The bad news is that blogging is tracing the same trajectory I remember with web site authoring. In the 90s web site authoring tools were accessible to relatively non-technical amateurs. By the 00s that market had gone away, and quality "content management systems" were aimed at professionals and businesses. I'm seeing the same thing happening with blogging -- it's becoming a professional activity dominated rather than an amateur form of communication. The number of interesting blogs expressing personal opinions rather than muted convention is also diminishing.

These things are easier to understand if you live in a climate that has ice and snow and darkness.

Lion: Only 3.5 stars on Apple's App Store

I have no compelling reason to move our family accounts from MobileMe to iCloud, though Find My Friends might be nice. Still, I'd probably do it -- except that I want to keep my iPhone and OS X Contacts in sync. Moving to iCloud for my iPhone means I need to move to iCloud on the desktop -- and i have only one Lion machine. Two others are Snow Leopard and a fourth won't run Lion at all.

I'd need to put Lion on the dual core MacBook, where it will run slowly even with encryption off. It should be fine on my i5 memory loaded desktop.

The bigger problem is that I'll need to upgrade software. FileMaker for sure, and probably a few other odd apps need Rosetta. The experience is guaranteed to be painful and expensive.

Apple's App Store is not encouraging. Lion gets 3.5 stars there, and the negative comments (only ones I bother with) are persuasive. That is, they complain about issues I know are real (such as software upgrades).

Meh. I'll wait until March or so. Maybe Lion and iCloud will both look better then.

Standard feeds for G+ Profile streams

When G+ Profiles first appeared, I recall that public posts had feeds.

Those feeds disappeared. Now G+ is more of a walled garden than Facebook.

Russell Beattle created an RSS feed app for G+, but then Google's AppEngine price increases put him out of business.

Now Jeff Turner has one ...

Google+ to RSS Feed

This site is still in beta so it might go down from time to time. If you have any issues please submit a issue to Github Issues. I had to up the cache to 60 minutes so we don't run out of API calls in a single day.

Here's my (100% public) John Gordon feed via nodester: http://googleplusrss.nodester.com/107785880910936077757.

It renders in GR. Next I'll try using http://ifttt.com/  and Feedburner to turn my G+ posts into something I can own and others can consume. I hope Jeff can make a business of this somehow.

Markets route around aberrations, and the Net is routing around Evil+.

Update: I tried a feedburner version of Jeff's converter but IFTTT didn't like it. It complained "Feed has items without valid urls".

On the other hand, ifttt will share G+ Posts to Tweets using yet another G+ to feed service - Plu.Sr. Looks like there are more than a few of these! Talk about routing around evil.

So here I am on Plu.Sr, where first sentence becomes feed title: http://plu.sr/feed.php?plusr=107785880910936077757&short=true.

From this ifttt creates posts on my unused Posterous blog: http://jgordonshare.posterous.com/ -- but only if autopost is turned off.

I tried this one with Feedburner, but it complained: "The URL does not appear to reference a valid XML file. We encountered the following problem: Error on line 77: The reference to entity "T" must end with the ';' delimiter."

It's just for play at the moment, but it looks like we'll have some options. At least until Google terminates my John Gordon Profile.

I've also set up a ifttt action to http://twitter.com/#!/jgordonshare from my G+ shares.

Next step will be to get my wordpress microblog working. Then IFTTT will create wordpress posts, and that will in turn have a feed and a twitter stream.

iOS 5 on a 3GS - not bad

I wiped a 3GS, installed iOS 5, and restored my son's apps and data.

I did it primarily to get iMessage - part of our assault on AT&T.

It's better than I thought. I expected more UI problems. I'm sure there are problems, but I expect those will improve with later versions of iOS 5.

If you have a 3GS I think it's worthwhile, but I'd wait until 5.1.

iMessage use on an AT&T iPhone without a SIM card (iPod Touch mode)

iMessage is a very intriguing product. It's available as part of iOS 5 for iPod Touch, iPad and iPhone 3Gs, 4 or 4S.

On non-phone iOS devices iMessage provides non-SMS (iMessage) texting services to other iMessage users over either WiFi or, if supported, 3G services. That's like WhatsApp.app, but WhatsApp only works on a iPhone with an active voice service!

On iPhones iMessage has two modes.

In standard mode it supports SMS/MMS messaging as well as iMessage texting. iMessaging is the default when it's supported by the receiving device; you can see what will be used before you compose a message.

In an optional mode you can disable SMS/MMS messaging and go purely iMessage. You may want to do this, for example, if you choose not to pay for AT&T's extortionary "unlimited" plans. You will still receive SMS messages (20 cents each, including spam text), but at least you won't send any. (You can tell AT&T to turn off all but 'administrative texting' if you want to avoid spam SMS and spam SMS fees.)

In a world where SMS fees exceed AT&T's mandatory minimal $15/month 200MB/mo data plans, iMessage is subversive [1]. For our family, discontinuing our $30 month texting plan and using a combination of iMessage, Facebook Messenger and Google Voice/Text more than pays for my son's data plan and old 3GS.

Siri is nice (more on that in Gordon's Notes, soon), but iMessage is the biggest thing in iOS 5. I would love to know what AT&T thinks of it, and whether those thoughts are printable in a family blog.

Alas, not everything is quite perfect in iMessage and iOS 5.01. Apple's Discussion groups have many complaints about "waiting for activation". For example:

iMessage waiting for activation: Apple Support Communities

... To update on my iPhone-off contract, even though it says iMessage is waiting for activation, I can still iMessage my friend in Australia (and I am in the USA) So I don't know how it's working, but it's working great!   Also, another one of my USA friends has an iPod touch with iMessage. It is working flawlessly..

We had no trouble at all with 3 iPhones with functional SIMs. In an SIM-free iPhone 4 in use as an iPod Touch, however, we got stuck at "waiting for activation".

The first time I used the device I think it sent messages, despite the notice. The next day, however, it could not send. I tried various tricks to no avail, including:

• reboot phone
• remove and restore my son's iCloud credentials and account.
• play with location and time zone settings
• create a contact card in iCloud with his migrated iCloud ID (@me.com) and specify that in iMessage

Nothing worked. A day later, however, his phone could again send and receive messages -- despite showing "waiting for activation".

I don't know how long it will keep working. Apple doesn't truly support use of a SIM-less iPhone as an iPod Touch, which further reduces the (suprisingly) low value of a used iPhone. I'm somewhat optimistic, however, that the current flaky behavior is a bug or a reflection of overloaded systems. I'll update this post as I learn more.

[1] If Apple integrates it with iChat on OS X, and provides a Windows 7 client ... hmm.

See also:

• Gordon's Tech: Giving your old iPhone to your kid: working around AT&T's mandatory data plan 11/3/2011
• Gordon's Notes: AT&T and the mandatory iPhone tax - even out of contract phones must pay 11/3/2011
• Gordon's Tech: AT&T Smart Limits for Wireless is almost worthless 11/4/2011
• Gordon's Tech: Turning an iPhone into an iPod touch - keep the original SIM! 11/28/2011
• Gordon's Tech: Porting a mobile number to Google Voice 11/21/2011
• Gordon's Tech: Testing Facebook Messenger as a texting alternative (4 and 3G) 11/5/2011
• Gordon's Tech: iPhone alternatives to AT&T's texting fees 11/11/2011
• Gordon's Notes: AT&T’s secret Nov 2009 mobile contract change – Elegant Evil 6/2010
• Gordon's Notes: The fear that's driving AT&T's smartphone data plan policies 11/7/2011
• Gordon's Notes: iPhone micro: How SMS pricing is accelerating the smartphone transition 11/24/2011

Martin's WordPress plugins

I think my microblogging experiments will likely end with WordPress. It's a complex world to learn however. For one thing, there are hundreds of "plugins" available for WordPress, and no obvious way to tell the useful from the disastrous.

So I'm grateful to Martin Steiger for sharing the ones he uses on different sites ...

Essential:

- Chunk Urls for WordPress
- Germanix URL (probably not necessary for you)
- WordPress Database Backup
- WP Super Cache

Essential for sites with comments on:

- Akismet (default WordPress plugin)
- Antispam Bee (in addition to Akismet)
- Subscribe To 'Double-Opt-In' Comments (if you provide comment subscriptions)

Useful / additional features:

- Better Delete Revision
- Better WordPress Recent Comments
- Comment Form Quicktags
- Comment Whitelist
- Contact Form 7
- Country Filter
- Exclude Pages from Navigation
- Get Recent Comments (depreciated)
- Google XML Sitemaps
- Intypo
- Limit Login Attempts
- No Self Pings (maybe no longer necessary)
- Optimize DB
- Posts By Tag
- WP Minify
- WordPress Popular Posts
- Yet Another Related Post Plugin

On the way out:

- AbsoluteRSS (no longer necessary)
- AntiVirus (too many false positives)
- Flattr
- Google Analyticator
- Google News Sitemap
- PubSubHubbub
- Really simple Facebook Twitter share buttons (sharing buttons slow down any site)
- Save Post. Check Links.
- RSS Cloud
- WP SUP

On my latest WordPress-based site, steigerlegal.ch, I use as few plugins as possible. Some are essential and some are needed if you wish certain features. In any case, I carefully read the reviews on WordPress.org and I try to use only plugins in active development. I have trust in some reputable developers such as Sergej Müller. I cannot review each plugin from A to Z but I never get plugins from dubious sources. Up to now, I have never had a security problem with any of my WordPress-based sites (although being careful cannot rule such problems out but it's a start).

iPhone cables and like things - Monoprice

I advertised AT&T's $6.50 iPhone cables on a corporate social site, and a colleague responded with an even better deal from Monoprice: only $3.55 each when QTY 50 purchased. They're a big $4 for less than 10. Monoprice sells a $7 wall charger too.

These aren't no-name or counterfeit cables, Monoprice specializes in this sort of product:

Monoprice, (DBA. MonoPrice.com) Inc. is an eCommerce leader specializing in high quality cables, components and accessories for computer and consumer electronics. Established in 2002, we have built our reputation by the word of mouth of our customers. The Monoprice brand's greatest claim to fame is our consistent ability to deliver premium quality products on par with the best known national brands at prices far below the retail average along with unmatched speed and service...

I'd be willing to try them. I'm told Monoprice's thunderbolt cables are less reliable, but those seem hard for everyone to make. I'll be looking at them for future purchases.

iOS 5 updates and lost game data: wait for iOS 5.1

I don't know how widespread this is, but it happened to us despite having a robust backup ...

Lost game data: Apple Support Communities

I just migrated my son from a 3GS to an iPhone 4 running iOS 5.01. I wiped the iPhone 4, reactivated it, then restored from a complete backup of his 3GS. His Harry Potter Lego saved game setttings were not preserved. He was, understandably, disappointed. I haven't evaluated his other games. In general iOS 5 migrations have been difficult, with more than expected work to reinstall apps, delete crashing apps and resume them, and restore accounts.

I suspect the problem is some combination of ...

• a bug (of course), perhaps related to Apple's confused identity management infrastructure (Cloud ID, AppleID, StoreID)
• a change in how applications are allowed to store data. If an app is not updated prior to updating, and the app stored data in a fashion that's no longer supported, then data will be lost.

I've moved three users from iOS 3 or iOS 4 to iOS 5, and it's been painful each time. Most credentials have to be recreated. ActiveSync account migration doesn't work at all; accounts have to deleted and recreated. Migrating Google Authenticator was particularly difficult (that's Google's fault though). Worst of all, for my son, is this data loss.

I don't know if Apple will fix this, but I recommend waiting for iOS 5.1 if there's no driving necessity to upgrade to iOS 5.

iOS 5 -- What Apple didn't fix

My personal list of things that are still broken in iOS 5 (to be expanded):

• Migration problems: 
• ActiveSync accounts must be removed completely, then restored when updating from iOS 4 to iOS 5 (this may be a new bug)
• My son's Harry Potter Lego game data was not saved when I migrated him a 3GS to iOS 5
• Alerts: Now there is a birthday alert, but it's a 1 week alarm. We need 2 week alarms for all events.
• Colors on Calendars: Still can't control color assignment, still get colliding colors with ActiveSync calendars, color assignment algorithm still doesn't look across multiple calendars

Migrating MobileMe family accounts to iCloud

I've started migrating family accounts to iCloud. This explanation from Apple Discussions is helpful ...

With a Family Pack, the master account holder and the sub-account holders can each migrate to an individual iCloud account by going to http://me.com/move and entering their email address and password (not www.icloud.com). The order they do this in is immaterial; if the master account moves first it can no longer administrate the sub-accounts. If a sub-account moves first the master account cannot create a new sub-account to replace it. Once migrated each account becomes a full iCloud account entirely separate from the others. The master account holder will get the 20GB storage upgrade free until June 30th 2012; the sub account holders will not, and will have only the basic 5GB.

I began with #2, currently using a SIM-less iPhone 4. He's got almost no data to lose.

I want him to continue to use my Apple ID however ...

... iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch must have iOS 5 or later. Note: When you are asked to provide your Apple ID during iOS setup, use your MobileMe email address and password. To use a different Apple ID for iTunes and iCloud, just go to Settings > Store on your iOS device after you've finished the iOS setup assistant...

... Inactive and expired MobileMe accounts do not need to move to iCloud. Simply use your inactive or expired account to sign up for an iCloud account and follow the onscreen instructions. See this article for more information...

and

When you first set up your iOS 5 device, enter the Apple ID you want to use with iCloud. If you skipped the setup assistant, sign in to Settings > iCloud and enter the Apple ID you’d like to use with iCloud.In Settings > Store, sign in with the Apple ID you want to use for store purchases (including iTunes in the Cloud and iTunes Match). You may need to sign out first to change the Apple ID.

Following this path I learned that #2 will still have MobileMe Gallery, iDisk and iWeb Publishing through 6/30/2012 -- even after moving to iCloud. Better than I'd expected. No keychain sync though. I hope that comes back in some form.

I had to enter his iCloud (same as MobileMe) credentials to setup Facetime and iMessage on his SIM-less device. Although the phone doesn't need a SIM for this, it can't be in Airplane mode.

So far, it has gone better than expected.

Update: Thinking this over, I realize I need to update my machines to Lion before I move Emily and I. So this will take a while ...