Epic Fail: The Top 10 Most Terrifying Technology Disasters

October 27, 2009 By Nick Mokey

Sidekick Data Losses

Want to store your data in the cloud? Just be prepared for it to rain once in a while – or the occasional lightning strike. In early October 2009, the Microsoft servers containing the data of thousands of T-Mobile SideKick users, including contacts, calendars and notes, went bonkers. Without proper backups to resurrect the data lost in the disaster, T-Mobile has scrambled to offer free service and gift cards as an apology to affected customers. Microsoft has worked tirelessly to dredge up the lost data as well, and claims recovery is on the way, but faith in the company – and the concept of cloud computing in general – has definitely eroded.

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Holiday Gift Guide 2010: Ideas for Tech and Gadget Lovers | Go Lab Studios at 12:13pm 15th November 2010 [...] Epic Fail: The Top 10 Most Terrifying Te… [...]
J. Mintzer at 1:28pm 28th October 2009 Well, that's not entirely fair about Y2K. The argument could be made that it didn't become a big problem specifically BECAUSE massive pre-emptive fixes were created in time. A lot of good people spent a lot of good hours to head disaster off at the pass.It's kind of like building a huge levy to handle a predicted massive storm surge, and then getting pissy when the levy holds.
1. Rusty Shackleford at 3:11pm 28th October 2009 True, but countries that spent almost nothing on Y2K prep, like Italy, experienced just as few problems as countries that spent a bundle. Check out the Wikipedia entry on it.
jonbly at 12:14pm 28th October 2009 Apollo 13? Near miss (but a damn good film).Apollo 1? Direct hit.
Dan Gaul at 2:57pm 27th October 2009 Oh, and the Xbox 360 red ring of death... so many sufferers.
Dan Gaul at 2:56pm 27th October 2009 Copland for the Mac. Most anticipated piece of Vaporware ever!
Greg Mombert at 8:54am 27th October 2009 Vista was so bad that Microsoft should have at the very least gave every Vista user a free upgrade to Windows 7.
1. Ian Bell at 8:58am 27th October 2009 Agreed. I think I actually paid for Vista (well at a discount, but still) and I threw it away as soon as Windows 7 came out.
  1. Rusty Shackleford at 9:53am 27th October 2009 Don't toss it! That worthless Vista key can be downgraded to a valuable XP key! :D
Ian Bell at 8:54am 27th October 2009 I was at CES a few years ago when Microsoft had Conan O'Brien up on stage to help introduce Windows Media Center alongside Bill gates. When they went to show it, the system crashed. Bill looked super embarrassed. Conan at that moment said "...and nine people at Microsoft were just fired". Everyone in the audience started laughing. It was hilarious.
Scott Steinberg at 6:54am 27th October 2009 I remember that Gates incident like it was yesterday - that's an all-time classic!