I'm just drinking...

Ok. Everyone has seen this. And the Office, a show which I’ve never watched, has parodied it.

Easy enough to do. Bunch of white people dancing to black music — how funny.

But what strikes me about this is the authenticity of the act, the celebration of joy. I just love that shit.

My favorite parts are when the groom comes out, and straightens his tie, and then when the bride comes out dancing.

People, we all need to dance our way through our lives! Don’t let the parodies put you down. Dance! Love! Live! Life!

There’s bad news for Sidekick users today: T-Mobile has announced that it was unable to recover Sidekick data after a server failure at Microsoft subsidiary Danger. This means any data not stored on your Sidekick but residing in the “cloud” has been lost.

Sidekick users are advised to keep their devices powered up and not conduct a reset or remove the battery: a power-down would mean any data still on the phone is lost. T-Mobile will provide an update on the situation on Monday, but things are looking very bleak indeed.

In T-Mobile’s words: “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.”

The story is a jarring one for those storing increasing amounts of data in the “cloud”: as we become more reliant on servers to house our data, such losses can be catastrophic.

The full press release is below (via Engadget).

T-Mobile Press Release on Sidekick Data Loss

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.

The danger of the cloud…