Danger Will Robinson! Do Not Approach the Sidekick!
by John Paczkowski
Posted on October 12, 2009 at 4:23 PM PT
A quick update on the Microsoft/Danger Sidekick fiasco.
T-Mobile has pulled its Sidekick handsets off the market following a back-end server failure that resulted in many users losing their personal data. Surf over to the carrier’s Web site and you’ll find that it now lists the entire Sidekick line of devices as “temporarily out of stock.” Evidently, T-Mobile would prefer to resolve the current service issues before it resumes selling the Sidekick–not that anyone would buy one right now anyway.
Microsoft (MSFT) and T-Mobile still haven’t explained why the server failure occurred and more importantly, why they don’t have a backup of lost user data. Meanwhile, speculation is mounting that the failure was caused by an attempted storage area network transition without contingency plans.
Comments
Some people think sabotage.
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/.....-sabotage/
Whether deliberate or accident: it is a black mark for cloud computing.
Whether deliberate or accident is a double black mark on the “permanent record” of the total idiots in Redmond [Microsoft].
Posted by Dave Barnes at October 12th, 2009 at 7:32 pmIf you use any Microsoft product or service, you deserve to lose all your data. I just read an article about Windows malware doing online banking and basically turning the Windows user upside down until all the money falls out. This happens regularly. The author recommends a Linux Live CD for your online banking instead. You could also use a $199 iPod, which offers secure online banking as a free feature with the music player, and there are even custom apps from the banks.
I sympathize with Sidekick users. Microsoft bought the back end and wrecked it, and there is no excuse at all for a company with billions of dollars in the bank to lose user data. Sidekick users are perhaps the least-deserving of Microsoft’s unreliability plague.
However, part of capitalism is competition. The user’s responsibility is to identify good and bad products and vendors and to reward the good ones with their business and avoid the bad ones. During the 21st century, Microsoft have shown they cannot even compete with the 20th century Microsoft that made XP, and the only thing they have invented recently is the botnet, which has cost the whole world billions if not trillions of dollars in lost Internet bandwidth alone. Their reputation is MUD and has been for years. If you put your eggs in their basket, you have no right to expect to get them back.
Possibly some good can come from this, and Microsoft users will get a clue. I won’t hold my breath.
Posted by Fred Hamranhansenhansen at October 12th, 2009 at 8:00 pmA sidekick ironically is often a powerful kick in martial arts that can leave whoever is hit breathless
Posted by Sam Harrison at October 12th, 2009 at 8:12 pm