The Cone of Uncertainty

If you're anything like Houstonist, you're attached to Twitter like a three-year-old in one of those creepy, monkey-shaped baby harnesses. It's your safety blanket and your connection with something important (us: our friends; babies: their moms), yet also prevents you from doing important things (us: work, real-world forms of socializing; babies: putting small objects into their mouths, knocking over store displays). Yes, it's an annoying leash, but we still can't live without it.

And if you're anything like Houstonist, you've noticed that we've been let off the leash today. There's a new Fail Whale in town, and it's called the Caterpillar Cone.

Reactions to the Caterpillar Cone have been varied. Some appreciate seeing something other than the ubiquitous Fail Whale, while others are simply creeped out by the picture of a browbeaten caterpillar being yelled at by an angry, anthropomorphized frozen yogurt. Everyone, however, seems to be frustrated by the unplanned downtime.

Twitter -- which has been struggling to keep up with its exponentially-increasing popularity -- has been having serious growing pains lately, which range from the banal (Twitter searches lagging slightly) to the serious (complete network failures). Today's downtime was finally addressed on the Twitter Status site around 11:00 a.m. this morning, in a short apology that stated they're "conducting an extensive review of the problem." And as of noon, that problem seemed to have been corrected and Twitter is once again back in commission.

So tell us, Tweeple, what industrious tasks did you accomplish today (or what shiny things did you put into your mouth) while you were off your leash?

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Picture courtesy of Flickr user Photo Mojo.