We're revisiting two former posts today to see how things are working out…
First, we have birther Orly Taitz. Her frivolous filings have resulted in a $20,000 sanction from judge Clay Land. She has a lot of supporters who I'm sure will raise the cash for her, so I don't think it'll serve as much of a deterrent. But maybe this will; the judge has also referred his order to the State Bar of California.
If you want to read a PDF of the judge's order, click here.
Second, we have the Sidekick smartphone and all of the lost user data. I've been following this story with interest. Microsoft has issued a recovery tool, but it only applies to contacts, not all of the other data such as photos and notes. As expected, class-action lawsuits are flying, but many will fizzle out if the recovery tool works.
At this point, there's no solid confirmation that users have recovered data – or what particular data has been recovered – but there's a moral to this story. It originally hit the news wires around October 10th and the recovery tool was to be available yesterday.
Moral #1: Can you afford to be out of commission for two weeks? When you trust your data to the cloud, make sure it isn't the kind made up mostly of vapor.
Moral #2: Always, always, back up your own data whenever possible.