Why the cloud Sucks

**Flyin2low** · 10/12/2009, 10:11 AM

NEW YORK -

Owners of Sidekick phones, made by a Microsoft subsidiary and sold by T-Mobile USA, may have lost all the personal data they stored on the phone, including contact numbers.

The companies say the data is "almost certainly" gone after a failure of servers operated by Microsoft wiped out the data. The companies said they hoped to update customers on recovery efforts Monday.

The phones have been troubled by data outages for more than a week. Some users attempted to restart their phones by removing the battery, which erases data on the device. Normally, the data is then restored from servers, but with the server data gone, the device is left empty.

**cgardnervt** · 10/12/2009, 10:13 AM

They posted this on the front page of PC.net. Also yes it does suck for sidekick users.

**billybennett** · 10/12/2009, 10:17 AM

The cloud does not suck. We have copies of our contacts on our phone and the side kick would constantly get updates without storing them locally I thought.

**urkel** · 10/12/2009, 10:19 AM

Anything that fails sucks. It's okay to admit that.

**StarDestroyer** · 10/12/2009, 10:32 AM

This should probably be titled "Why the cloud should not be your only source of storage"

Though I'm as guilty of this as the next person... my 5+ years of email archives are entirely and exclusively stored on Google's servers. I'd be in a world of hurt if gmail went away for some reason.

**mrloserpunk** · 10/12/2009, 10:34 AM

its not the cloud that sucks, its Microsoft/Danger and their outsourcer (hitachi?) that sucks. And right now they Suck big time!

**dbdoinit** · 10/12/2009, 11:07 AM

Originally Posted by StarDestroyer

This should probably be titled "Why the cloud should not be your only source of storage"

Though I'm as guilty of this as the next person... my 5+ years of email archives are entirely and exclusively stored on Google's servers. I'd be in a world of hurt if gmail went away for some reason.

Like mama used to say: "Never put all ur eggs in one basket".

**Se7enth** · 10/12/2009, 11:14 AM

Originally Posted by StarDestroyer

This should probably be titled "Why the cloud should not be your only source of storage"

Though I'm as guilty of this as the next person... my 5+ years of email archives are entirely and exclusively stored on Google's servers. I'd be in a world of hurt if gmail went away for some reason.

Enable the "Gmail Offline" feature through the Labs tab in settings. It will download 3 years (or is it 2 years) of message onto your computer. It's not all, but it's something until a real archive download solution is presented.

**Ripcode** · 10/12/2009, 11:14 AM

Didn't Danger have backups??

I mean if the servers crashed, what about the backups??

**Slayix312** · 10/12/2009, 11:16 AM

Originally Posted by Ripcode

Didn't Danger have backups??

I mean if the servers crashed, what about the backups??

No they didn't that's why it's so sad.

**Se7enth** · 10/12/2009, 11:19 AM

Lets just hope other companies (Google & Palm included) take note of this & make sure they have multiple backups. Even if the device like the Pre stores info locally. If their main premise is moving towards the cloud, then backup! =]

**sacherjj#AC** · 10/12/2009, 11:21 AM

Originally Posted by Urkel

Anything that fails sucks. It's okay to admit that.

But vacuums fail if the DON'T suck. Weird.

**deltatko** · 10/12/2009, 11:33 AM

My GF had a Sidekick, when this outage happened it wiped her phone clean, when she finally regained service, her contacts were still MIA. She is now the proud owner of a Blackberry Tour (she couldn't be talked into a Pre) on Sprint after we got T-Mobile to let her out of her contract w/o the early termination fee. I suggest anyone who you know that is effected by this to complain until they are let out of their contract.

**johnston23** · 10/12/2009, 11:35 AM

Anytime technology fails it is a problem. How much do we rely on media for storing personal items? When they fail it is a problem.

**johnston23** · 10/12/2009, 11:38 AM

Originally Posted by deltatko

My GF had a Sidekick, when this outage happened it wiped her phone clean, when she finally regained service, her contacts were still MIA. She is now the proud owner of a Blackberry Tour (she couldn't be talked into a Pre) on Sprint after we got T-Mobile to let her out of her contract w/o the early termination fee. I suggest anyone who you know that is effected by this to complain until they are let out of their contract.

Cool, so if they fail then they will let us out of our contracts. Wait, I don't want out of my Sprint contract, I like my bill every month where it is at, please don't let the pre servers crash.

I tried to get my wife to get the pre also, she opted for the Blackberry Curve, women.....

**fid** · 10/12/2009, 12:19 PM

Originally Posted by billybennett

The cloud does not suck. We have copies of our contacts on our phone and the side kick would constantly get updates without storing them locally I thought.

Its not that the phone didn't store data, it does. It's that the 'cloud' overwrote data (deleting contacts, photos, etc.). It's methodology more than the technology.

Google phones also stores data in the cloud but are (supposedly) less susceptible to this problem.

What about WebOS, does anyone know?

**LupeValenz** · 10/12/2009, 01:07 PM

Your contacts are on your device. If you don't have net connection, you still have access to your contacts, they are not loss at all. No reason to be scared on the Pre.

**urkel** · 10/12/2009, 01:18 PM

Originally Posted by LupeValenz

Your contacts are on your device. If you don't have net connection, you still have access to your contacts, they are not loss at all. No reason to be scared on the Pre.

If you delete a single address book entry on the cloud (google contacts) it syncs to your pre and deletes it locally. So if they blank out the entire contact/calendar/email database it syncs back to the pre and you lose everything.

The solution here (and the gigantic problem for Pre users) is to backup. But since Palm offers no easy desktop sync solution then average users or people who blindly trust the cloud are screwed.

**wodin** · 10/12/2009, 01:19 PM

Originally Posted by billybennett

The cloud does not suck. We have copies of our contacts on our phone and the side kick would constantly get updates without storing them locally I thought.

Yup, that's the point! The constantly get updates part! It's broke! And not likely to get fixed!

If I lose my data on MY phone, I can restore it from PC.
If my PC HD crashes, I can restore it from my external HD
If I have a fire or tsunami or other disaster, I can restore it from my off site backup service.

Off site backup is the only part that I have to rely on someone Else's service to protect my data, and my data is the only thing that is REALLY valuable. Everything else is replaceable.

The cloud not only sucks, The cloud is EVIL!

**davis.rob** · 10/12/2009, 01:31 PM

Originally Posted by Urkel

The solution here (and the gigantic problem for Pre users) is to backup. But since Palm offers no easy desktop sync solution then average users or people who blindly trust the cloud are screwed.

You can easily export your Google Contacts and Calendar to your local system. This gives you a pretty nice and effective backup if you do it each day (could probably be automated somehow).

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