Infamy Online: TurboTax and BlackBerry
Friday the 13th, considered bad luck in some cultures, went off without a hitch in April.

But then came Tuesday the 17th, a day of pure terror for Internet services. For starters, so many procrastinators mobbed TurboTax that night that the online tax filing system buckled, causing delays in submissions. (Luckily, the Tax Man gave late filers—including Out of Scope's author—a reprieve.) In addition, the BlackBerry network went down, cutting off wireless e-mail to approximately 5.76 million users in North America, by IDC's estimates. Research in Motion, the maker of BlackBerry, later announced that a non-critical system upgrade had caused the crash. Ths service was back up the following day. Also on the 17th, Internet telephone provider Vonage announced that it may face bankruptcy in the wake of a court order barring it from taking on new customers, the result of a patent infringement suit by rival Verizon.

By the Numbers: Customer Service Woes
Status Check: Project Management: Gathering Speed
Striking Out: ESPN.com's Fantasy Baseball League

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