What is the meaning of the option '-s'?

I copied the instruction from this site - see comment from forumite Helge.
http://www.ghabuntu.com/2009/09/ifus...-touch-in.html

I see from the help above that -s is not a known/valid switch, so I tried:
sudo ifuse /media/iPhone --root
which returned
knoppix@Microknoppix:~$ sudo ifuse /media/iPhone --root
Failed to connect to lockdownd service on the device.
Try again. If it still fails try rebooting your device.