I found a nifty program that allows you to sync notes to and from the iPhone (on OSX): iPhoneNotes.app (downloadable from here:
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/27064/iphonenotes)
For me (running a JailBroken 1.1.3 iPhone), it works great, allowing me to pull Notes off the iPhone and add new notes FROM my computer back to the iPhone.
A friend of mine also has a JailBroken 1.1.3 iPhone; however, the application doesn't work at all for him (he can't pull notes off the phone or add new notes to the phone), even after confirming the IP address, "root" username, and "alpine" password.
Using MobileFinder we've confirmed the permissions for the MobileNotes.app on the iPhone are identical.
Any ideas?