Been meaning to post something about the iPhone purchasing experience. On the day the iPhone 3G was released, I went to an AT&T store and placed an order for two phones, and received them 3 days later. The salesperson I dealt with was an absolute professional, and a pleasure to work with during the provisioning and transfer process (I was formerly on Verizon). Overall, it was just about the easiest process ever, which is why I've been confused by reports of people having a difficult time or still waiting in line. There's a simple remedy: go to an AT&T store.

While the iPhone is an Apple product, it's a phone. You'll get the same product at an AT&T store that you will at an Apple store. Also, since it doesn't seem to matter who you know at Apple, there's no reason to stress over going to the store itself.

I have to get the store manager's name and write a letter praising the salesperson I dealt with, as I'm sure they hear the negative side all too often.

Dell had submitted an application to trademark "Cloud Computing." While Dell may participate in this space, the term didn't originate with Dell. Thankfully, this request was turned down by the USPTO. Is that the difference between engineers and (some) businesspeople? Engineers just want to create and release those creations, but the businessperson wants to bottle these up control access? I'm not sure what it is, but there are some fundamental differences.

For a long time, the USPTO was completely ineffective at deciding what tech innovations are worthy of a patent or trademark, and which weren't (basically, non-innovations). I'm really glad to see some sanity coming back into the process.

For everyone getting ready to rid themselves of an iPhone (for whatever reason), please remember: inside the iPhone is simple flash memory. This memory is fairly recoverable, even when a restore is run to "wipe" the contents. WIth the ability to "jailbreak" an iPhone and access the filesystem, the problem of leaving sensitive data on the device becomes a little more problematic.

At this stage, I'd recommend waiting until the version 2 software ships and seeing if there's a true secure wipe before flipping a used iPhone.

One of the fun parts of the book was the acknowledgements page. Thinking back to why and how I am where I am, and who inspired me and spurred me along was a lovely exercise. So, if you purchase the book or not, if you know me at all, you should probably know that there are too many people for me to thank. Here’s the acknowledgements page from the book. In some off chance that any of these people perform a Google vanity search on themselves, I hope they notice this and decide to contact me.

First: “I” did not write this book. There are too many contingencies that allowed its creation. Overall, I merely stood on the shoulders of the giants that precede me.
There should also be two other names on the cover: Matthias Fricke and Patrick Gallagher from the Advanced System Administration “team,” without whom this book would be about half the volume, and no training course would exist. Thanks also to Ben Greisler for stepping in very late into the process to calm nerves.
At the top of my specific list, I need to thank my immediate family, my daughters Emily and Lily, and particularly my wife Dorothy, who took on (even more of) the household burden while I wrote. Also, thank you for having enough sense to force me to stop writing and periodically look at the world.
Thanks to my parents for inspiring a young mind and providing it with the tools to learn. Thanks also to the teachers that inspired and prepared me along the way, particularly Ken Graham, Marsha Cohen, Dr. Barry Dutchen and Dr. Robert Marose.
Thank you to Neil Ticktin for providing me with opportunity and generally having faith in me.
Thanks to Schoun Regan for being Schoun Regan.
Thanks to the crack team at Peachpit. Judy Walthers von Alten, you have made this an immeasurably better product.
Shane Ross, you kept me sane. I hope I did not have the opposite effect on you.
Thanks to everyone at Google, particularly Clay Caviness, Joseph Dries and Nigel Kersten who put up with my random ramblings and status reports on my progress.

Thanks again to everyone: you make the universe what it is, and helped shape this small piece of it.