CNN is reporting that there has been another Blackberry outage. It was less impactful than the last time around, but at least one question remains: Why does Research in Motion (RIM; maker of the Blackberry) funnel all email traffic through their data centres, rather than having it handled by the individual cellular carriers, which (1) would be like most, if not all, other smart phones, and (2) would provide some diversity?

I’ve told this story in person to a few people today, and every time I have done so, I have had to explain what SlyDial is, so let me start there. SlyDial is a service that is provided by MobileSphere in Boston, and it works like this: First, you call their number. They play an advertisement to you to pay for the service you are about to receive. Next, they prompt you for the phone number of a mobile phone. You punch this in, and they will then take you right to that person’s voicemail box, all without ringing that person’s telephone. It’s a pretty cool service, actually, and a great way to deliver low-priority messages without disturbing the recipient.

I understand the inspiration behind the laws banning cell phones from being used by someone operating a vehicle. I do. I think they are the wrong approach, but I do get it.