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  • Crackberry Users in Withdrawal

    ...some users resorting to normal human interaction...

    RIM reports "critical" BlackBerry outage

    By Wojtek Dabrowski, Reuters

    TORONTO — A major outage hit BlackBerry users in North America on Monday afternoon, cutting off wireless e-mail for everyone from busy executives to political campaign staff on the eve of three U.S. presidential primaries.

    The problem, which BlackBerry owner Research In Motion described as a "critical severity outage" affecting users in the Americas, once again raised concerns about the stability of the e-mail service 10 months after a widespread crash last April.

    Carmi Levy, senior vice-president of strategic consulting at AR Communications, said reliability is a serious concern for companies like RIM because if problems become routine, they can drive customers away.

    "It's a big issue and it's a growing issue," Levy said, adding that huge outages could prove to be "a major Achilles' heel" for RIM.

    RIM's U.S. shares fell as much as 1.3 percent on the news, after closing up 5.3 percent in regular Nasdaq trade. On the Toronto Stock Exchange, the shares finished the day C$4.73 higher at C$94.62.

    RIM notified its clients of the outage in an e-mail, but officials at the Waterloo, Ontario-based company were not immediately available for comment.

    "This is an emergency notification regarding the current BlackBerry Infrastructure outage," RIM support account manager Bryan Simpson said in an e-mail sent to large clients.

    The notice gave no details on the cause, when service might be restored or how many people could be affected.

    The last big outage in April 2007 provoked an angry backlash from more compulsive users, who have dubbed the device "CrackBerry" due to its drug-like addictiveness. At the time, co-Chief Executive Jim Balsillie said such incidents were "very rare" and RIM was taking steps to prevent it from happening again.

    RIM's worldwide subscriber base reached about 12 million people by late last year, mainly executives, politicians, lawyers and other professionals who rely on the BlackBerry to send secure e-mails. Sleeker new models are also catching on with students and others outside professional circles.

    Jen Psaki, a spokeswoman for Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama, said, "While the outage did confirm our widespread addiction to BlackBerry service, fortunately it did not cause more than a temporary inconvenience."

    Voters go the polls on Tuesday in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia, the latest battleground in a tight race between Obama and Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination in November's election.

    By about 7:00 p.m. Eastern time -- about three hours after RIM notified customers of the problem -- some users said a few e-mails were trickling through. Others, however, continued to be without service.

    U.S. mobile phone service provider Verizon Wireless said the outage was affecting all carriers' BlackBerry email service in North America. It said Verizon Wireless customers can still make calls on their BlackBerry.

    Some appeared to enjoy a respite from a device.

    "It made my life a little bit easier, since I didn't have to reply," Liberal Party spokesman Jean-Francois Del Torchio said from Parliament Hill in Ottawa.

    "But when I arrived at my desktop and I saw all the e-mails I received, I was like, 'Oh, I still need to work'," Del Torchio told Reuters.
    Apolyton's Grim Reaper 2008, 2010 & 2011
    RIP lest we forget... SG (2) and LaFayette -- Civ2 Succession Games Brothers-in-Arms

  • #2
    Linky
    Apolyton's Grim Reaper 2008, 2010 & 2011
    RIP lest we forget... SG (2) and LaFayette -- Civ2 Succession Games Brothers-in-Arms

    Comment


    • #3
      "It made my life a little bit easier, since I didn't have to reply," Liberal Party spokesman Jean-Francois Del Torchio said from Parliament Hill in Ottawa.

      "But when I arrived at my desktop and I saw all the e-mails I received, I was like, 'Oh, I still need to work'," Del Torchio told Reuters.

      Government workers.

      And I'm perplexed why those twits in Waterloo don't implement backup systems by now.
      "The issue is there are still many people out there that use religion as a crutch for bigotry and hate. Like Ben."
      Ben Kenobi: "That means I'm doing something right. "

      Comment


      • #4
        We build circuit boards for RIM.
        Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.
        "Hating America is something best left to Mobius. He is an expert Yank hater.
        He also hates Texans and Australians, he does diversify." ~ Braindead

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        • #5
          our backwater gets Blackberries in a week. How different/better are they than say Nokia Communicators or bigger nokias & Ericssons Ų QTeC's with pushmail & 3.5G?
          Originally posted by Serb:Please, remind me, how exactly and when exactly, Russia bullied its neighbors?
          Originally posted by Ted Striker:Go Serb !
          Originally posted by Pekka:If it was possible to capture the essentials of Sepultura in a dildo, I'd attach it to a bicycle and ride it up your azzes.

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          • #6
            This seems almost equivalent of TeliaSonera email 'service' in Finland/Sweden!

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            • #7
              Originally posted by Saras
              our backwater gets Blackberries in a week. How different/better are they than say Nokia Communicators or bigger nokias & Ericssons Ų QTeC's with pushmail & 3.5G?
              All of the Nokia QWERTY devices I've ever seen are utter ****. So I'd imagine it's better.
              "The issue is there are still many people out there that use religion as a crutch for bigotry and hate. Like Ben."
              Ben Kenobi: "That means I'm doing something right. "

              Comment


              • #8
                Because they are cheap!

                Originally posted by Asher
                And I'm perplexed why those twits in Waterloo don't implement backup systems by now.
                Backup systems cost money that they would rather be spending on executive bonuses!
                “It is no use trying to 'see through' first principles. If you see through everything, then everything is transparent. But a wholly transparent world is an invisible world. To 'see through' all things is the same as not to see.â€

                ― C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man​

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by Asher
                  And I'm perplexed why those twits in Waterloo don't implement backup systems by now.
                  That's b/c they didn't hire you when they had the chance.
                  "I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure." - Clarence Darrow
                  "I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it." - Mark Twain

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                  • #10
                    I wouldn't be surprised if it was just Waterloo arrogance again. They are very haughty when I interviewed.
                    "The issue is there are still many people out there that use religion as a crutch for bigotry and hate. Like Ben."
                    Ben Kenobi: "That means I'm doing something right. "

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      RIMshot!
                      I'm consitently stupid- Japher
                      I think that opinion in the United States is decidedly different from the rest of the world because we have a free press -- by free, I mean a virgorously presented right wing point of view on the air and available to all.- Ned

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                      • #12
                        The better joke is RIM Jobs.
                        "The issue is there are still many people out there that use religion as a crutch for bigotry and hate. Like Ben."
                        Ben Kenobi: "That means I'm doing something right. "

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Saras
                          our backwater gets Blackberries in a week. How different/better are they than say Nokia Communicators or bigger nokias & Ericssons Ų QTeC's with pushmail & 3.5G?
                          Did you mean Qtek? See the tech forum for a discussion of Windows Mobile devices.

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