the colorful parts of the puzzle

I am busy doing a backup of my mobile phone. Yesterday, I was too close to losing all my phone book, including some nostalgic SMS I kept for years. The phone just fell out of my bag on the beach, and I discovered its absence few hours later. As you may understand by now, I am holding the mobile phone again in my hands, but the story of how I got it back is interesting.

First I'll describe the backup (while doing it). Reference for me and for others.

I dug my cable box, and found my old Nokia cable. It is a serial cable that connects to a Nokia phone. It seems that my new phone does not fit to this cable, so I had to take my old phone for the backup. I just disconnected my old Nokia 6150 from the asterisk (I may explain some other time on the asterisk-mobile hack), connected it to the cable, and since I don't have a serial, I just found an old USB hub which contains a serial connection, plugged the cable and phone on one side, and a USB cable on the other side which connects to my laptop that runs Ubuntu 7.04. The serial-usb thingy just works out of the box.

sudo apt-get install gnokii

and I have the application (GNOKII Version 0.6.14)

I update /etc/gnokiirc to include:

port = /dev/ttyUSB0

model = 6150

connection = serial

and I try:

gnokii –identify

and it just works

cool, now I want to get all the memory.

gnokii –getphonebook SM 1 end –vcard > addressbook.vcard

gnokii –getsms SM 1 end > sms

That's it. The data of the SIM is saved.

So now, back to the story how I lost and got the phone back (and explanation how the sand toy set is related). So Kathi and I were walking yesterday along Palmachim beach. It was a windy day – just think of load noisy waves, making it impossible to hear anything. We had a short stop every some time, enjoying the sea, and letting Mia discover few more amazing facts about life. Kathi found a sand toy piece left on the beach, and then another, and another, until we gathered a whole set. Enjoying these findings, I didn't know then that it is only a sign for the future to come – a finding day. At home, I discovered that the mobile phone is gone. Thinking back, I've understood that it must have slipped out of the bag somewhere on the beach. It was already 22:00, but I decided to drive back to the beach. With the help of Chello our beloved dog (that have records of finding lost things) and my dad (who brought flashlights), we drove to the beach. We didn't even get to the previous parking place before soldiers that blocked the road, stopped us, and said that the beach is closed. That was already a reason to make a reality test (just to verify that I am not dreaming). They explained that an army exercise is being held on that exact spot, and within few hours we'll be able to go there. Well, that's only my fault that I chose Israel as a place to live in. To make a long story short, we got a special permission and were escorted with an armed soldier walking in a straight line – Chello, me, my dad and the soldier, heading the beach. The night was very dark, and my hope was that while calling the phone, it would blink in such a way that I see it from far. Well, that's exactly what happened. I just had to locate it from far on the beach (it just fell on the "right" side – with the butter up), and I collected it. Everyone was surprised by this quick finding, and since it will probably happen again soon, I make a backup now. Normally, one doesn't get a second chance with these kind of things.

So just a minor hint to the guy that writes this script which runs my life – get more creative. I could have thought myself on better plot changes, like Chello finds the phone while rescuing a lost baby, or somebody interesting finds the phone, calls me, and the second part of my life starts. Never mind – this version is also nice. At least it's a good reason for a blog post.