Blackberry Blackout

Last week's stupendous Blackberry outage provided an opportunity for some rhetorical reflection about the genres of communication it engenders and the discourse practices surrounding it. Under the heading, "Tethered," The New York Times published "It Don't Mean a Thing if You Aint Got That Ping." Pseudonymous blogger Twisty Faster described sending a Blackberry message asking for advice on extricating a three-year-old from a fast food play area sandbox and then having to improvise in the absence of responses. My UCI colleague Peter Krapp opined that the Blackberry was not a "mobile computing device" despite its "gadget appeal."