Microsoft's Danger Loses All Data re: T-Mobile's Sidekick Smart PhoneService

From: http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/25.81.html

Date: Mon, 12 Oct 2009 18:54:31 -0400
From: "John F. McMullen" <johnmac13@gmail.com>
Subject: Microsoft's Danger Data Service disrupts users

[From Johnmac's blog: <http://johnmacrants.blogspot.com>]

T-Mobile's Sidekick Smart Phone Service, powered by Microsoft's Danger
Data Service has been out of commission for over a week and now the
users
are warned that their data, stored on Danger's Servers, may have been
lost
and that the data that remains on their Sidekick devices is at
jeopardy,
putting customers contact and calendar information at risk to
disappear.

Some johnmac comments:

1. There was never a problem like this prior to the Microsoft
acquisition
of Danger.
2. There has been little media coverage of this problem although I
suspect
that multi-thousands of users are affected.
3. It would seem that, given all of its technical expertise, Microsoft
could
come up with some way to replicate the original Danger SideKick to
Danger
backup. Failing that, it should be able to provide a USB backup to
Outlook.
4. Perhaps Google can jump in with a Sidekick to G-Mail, G-Calendar,
etc. If
so, game over and a lot of Androids get sold.*

- - - - - - - - - - - -

The latest missive:

Sidekick customers, during this service disruption, please DO NOT
remove
your battery, reset your Sidekick, or allow it to lose power.
Updated: 10/10/2009 12:35 PM PDT

T-MOBILE AND MICROSOFT/DANGER STATUS UPDATE ON SIDEKICK DATA
DISRUPTION

Dear valued T-Mobile Sidekick customers:

T-Mobile and the Sidekick data services provider, Danger, a subsidiary
of
Microsoft, are reaching out to express our apologies regarding the
recent
Sidekick data service disruption. We appreciate your patience as
Microsoft/Danger continues to work on maintaining platform stability,
and
restoring all services for our Sidekick customers.

Regrettably, based on Microsoft/Danger's latest recovery assessment of
their
systems, we must now inform you that personal information stored on
your
device - such as contacts, calendar entries, to-do lists or photos -
that is
no longer on your Sidekick almost certainly has been lost as a result
of a
server failure at Microsoft/Danger. That said, our teams continue to
work
around-the-clock in hopes of discovering some way to recover this
information. However, the likelihood of a successful outcome is
extremely
low. As such, we wanted to share this news with you and offer some
tips and
suggestions to help you rebuild your personal content. You can find
these
tips in our Sidekick Contacts FAQ. We encourage you to visit the
Forums on a
regular basis to access the latest updates as well as FAQs regarding
this
service disruption.

In addition, we plan to communicate with you on Monday (Oct. 12) the
status
of the remaining issues caused by the service disruption, including
the data
recovery efforts and the Download Catalog restoration which we are
continuing to resolve. We also will communicate any additional tips or
suggestions that may help in restoring your content.

We recognize the magnitude of this inconvenience. Our primary efforts
have
been focused on restoring our customers' personal content. We also are
considering additional measures for those of you who have lost your
content
to help reinforce how valuable you are as a T-Mobile customer. We
continue
to advise customers to NOT reset their device by removing the battery
or
letting their battery drain completely, as any personal content that
currently resides on your device will be lost. Once again, T-Mobile
and
Microsoft/Danger regret any and all inconvenience this matter has
caused.

Service Disruption FAQs| Disruption Credit FAQs| Disruption Discussion
Password/Sign-in Text Message FAQs | Password/Sign-in Discussion

[One of my closest associates reacted to this, and said,
"Who would want to use a system called `Danger'?" PGN]

johnmac@acm.org johnmac13@gmail.com johnmac@sdf.lonestar.org
johnmac@panix. com, johnmac@echonyc.com johnmac13@mac.com
jmcmullen@monroecollege.edu johnmac@alumni.iona.edu [...]

[Johnmac's message also included an incisive item by Robert X.
Cringeley,
Microsoft screwup puts T-Mobile users in Danger. PGN]
http://www.infoworld.com/d/adventure...ogs_2009-10-12

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 12 Oct 2009 19:22:50 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: Microsoft's Danger SideKick and cloud computing (Daniel Eran
Dilger)

Daniel Eran Dilger, Microsoft's Danger SideKick data loss casts dark
on
cloud computing, 11 Oct 2009
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2009/1...oud-computing/

Microsoft has demonstrated that the dark side of cloud computing has
no
silver linings. After a major server outage occurred on its watch last
weekend, users dependent on the company have just been informed that
their
personal data and photos "has almost certainly been lost."

Microsoft's Danger SideKick data loss casts dark on cloud computing

While occasional service outages have hit nearly everyone in the
business,
knocking Google's Gmail offline for hours, plunging RIM's BlackBerrys
into
the dark, or leaving Apple's MobileMe web apps unreachable to waves of
users, Microsoft's high profile outage has impacted users in the worst
possible way: the company has unrecoverable lost nearly all of its
users'
data, and now has no alternative backup plan for recovering any of it
a week
later.

The outage and data loss affects all SideKick customers of the Danger
group
Microsoft purchased in early 2008. Danger maintained a significant
online
services business for T-Mobile's SideKick users. All of T-Mobile's
SideKick
phone users rely on Danger's online service to supply applications
such as
contacts, calendars, IM and SMS, media player, and other features of
the
device, and to store the data associated with those applications.

When Microsoft's Danger servers began to fall offline last Friday
October 2,
users across the country couldn't even use the services; even after
functionality was beginning to be brought back on Tuesday October 6,
users
still didn't have their data back. This Saturday, after a week of
efforts to
solve the crisis, T-Mobile finally announced to its SideKick
subscribers:

"Regrettably, based on Microsoft/Danger's latest recovery assessment
of
their systems, we must now inform you that personal information stored
on
your device - such as contacts, calendar entries, to-do lists or
photos -
that is no longer on your Sidekick almost certainly has been lost as a
result of a server failure at Microsoft/Danger."

A new report from Engadget says that T-Mobile has suspended sales of
its
SideKick models and is warning: "Sidekick customers, during this
service
disruption, please DO NOT remove your battery, reset your Sidekick, or
allow
it to lose power." ...

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 12 Oct 2009 23:01:13 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: Microsoft's Sidekick due to dogfooding/sabotage (Daniel Eran
Dilger)

Daniel Eran Dilger, Microsoft's Sidekick/Pink problems blamed on
dogfooding
and sabotage, 12 Oct 2009

Additional insiders have stepped forward to shed more light into
Microsoft's
troubled acquisition of Danger, its beleaguered Pink Project, and what
has
become one of the most high profile Information Technology disasters
in
recent memory.

The sources point to longstanding management issues, a culture of
"dogfooding," and evidence that could suggest the issue was a
deliberate act
of sabotage.

AppleInsider previously broke the story that Microsoft's Roz Ho
launched an
exploratory group to determine how the company could best reach the
consumer
smartphone market, identified Danger as a viable acquisition target,
and
then made a series of catastrophic mistakes that resulted in both the
scuttling of any chance that Pink prototypes would ever appear, as
well as
allowing Danger's existing datacenter to fail spectacularly, resulting
in
lost data across the board for T-Mobile's Sidekick users. ...

http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2009/1...-and-sabotage/

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 11 Oct 2009 15:43:17 -0400 (EDT)
From: "David Lesher" <wb8foz@panix.com>
Subject: Cloud Danger, literally... M$ loses T-mobile data

T-Mobile's "Sidekick" mobile service uses a backend system provided by
Microsoft, and seemingly aptly named "Danger." [Will Robinson was not
mentioned, but...]

Danger has lost ALL the customers' stored data. The only copy
remaining
is that remaining on the mobile device itself.

"our teams continue to work around-the-clock in hopes of discovering
some
way to recover this information. However, the likelihood of a
successful
outcome is extremely low."

RISKS:

Backups are good, working backups *far* better.

If you run a cloud-based service, you can ruin *many* more people's
days
than anyone with a mere departmental failed server ever can.

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 11 Oct 2009 14:32:34 -0400
From: David Lesher <wb8foz@panix.com>
Subject: Excess CAT scan radiation -- the return of Therac 25?

The *LA Times* reports that patients at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
were hit
with excess radiation from CT brain scans.

The FDA has issued an alert "Over an 18-month period, 206 patients at
a
particular facility received radiation doses that were approximately
eight
times the expected level. Instead of receiving the expected dose of
0.5 Gy
(maximum) to the head, these patients received 3-4 Gy."
<http://www.fda.gov/medicaldevices/sa...rtsandnotices/
ucm185898.htm>

A) Old Risks come back Yet Again; note this went on for 18 months.

I assume the employees around such emitting devices still wear film
badges or other dosimeters; maybe patients should do so as well....

[Also noted by Brian Harvey and Lauren Weinstein. PGN]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...pid=sec-health

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 10 Oct 2009 03:37:27 -0700
From: Ron Garret <ron@flownet.com>
Subject: A Time Machine time bomb

From the better-late-than-never department:

http://rondam.blogspot.com/2009/09/t...time-bomb.html

Summary: plugging in a new ESATA drive can cause you to silently lose
ALL
your Time Machine backups.

------------------------------