The Azure solution has been designed to help developers deploy web-based services centred around Visual Studio quickly and easily by not having to worry about the infrastructure costs or overhead that are typically associated with application delivery.

Once a you are ready to deploy you can select how many nodes you want to use in the Microsoft cloud of computing power, you reserve a those nodes and pay for just those node.  As your web service becomes more popular, you can log in to the management web site and increase the node count with just a few clicks.
Windows Azure pricing is based on how much storage, bandwidth and computing time an application uses.

Visit the Windows Azure Community Technology Preview

Read the Microsoft Press Release

The Microsoft service is playing catch up to the Amazon.com service that has been around for quite some time, called Elastic Computing Cloud (Amazon EC2).

The major difference that pushes Amazon.com’s solution ahead of Microsoft is the fact that it is no based on one solution.   With just a few clicks you can deploy a Linux, OS X or a Windows solution with prebuilt images. 

Amazon’s solution is priced according to how much storage (cheap), bandwidth (not as cheap) and computing time (relatively cheap).
To use Amazon EC2, you simply:

• Create an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) containing your applications, libraries, data and associated configuration settings. Or use pre-configured, templated images to get up and running immediately.
• Upload the AMI into Amazon S3. Amazon EC2 provides tools that make storing the AMI simple. Amazon S3 provides a safe, reliable and fast repository to store your images.
• Use Amazon EC2 web service to configure security and network access.
• Choose which instance type(s) and operating system you want, then start, terminate, and monitor as many instances of your AMI as needed, using the web service APIs or the variety of management tools provided.
• Determine whether you want to run in multiple locations, utilize static IP endpoints, or attach persistent block storage to your instances.
• Pay only for the resources that you actually consume, like instance-hours or data transfer.

You can read more about Amazon EC2 here.

You can visit the project page here.

Or you can download the Add-on at Mouseless Browsing.

Feature List:

• Supports numeric as well as character ids; character set configurable
• Option to show ids before entire page is loaded
• Configurable modifiers to open link in new tab/window/Cooliris Previews
• Configuration option to use numpad exclusively for Mouseless Browsing
• Configuration options to define for which elements ids should be shown (form element, links, pure image links, frames)
• Smart positining of ids: Ids for image links, textfields, selectboxes are placed in the right upper corner to minimize the impact on the page layout.
• Possiblity to configure URL specific behaviour (black/whitelist)
• Configurable shortcuts for all Mouseless Browsing actions

It takes a little getting used to but overall is pretty good.  What you need to do is just identify the intended hyperlink by right index number, then use Ctrl + numeric key to bring the cursor to respective positions.

Digsby is a single solution to all your needs like, Instant messaging, Email Notifications and Social Networking. It tightly integrates all these into one single application and hence you don’t need to have multiple clients and applications to manage all of them.
The major players are all supported by Digsby including Gmail, Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter etc.

Configuring Digsby is very easy, just one word of caution some of the programs it wants to install do do targeted advertising.  In my opinion Google Toolbar is targeted advertising so don’t act like it’s a virus or anything, it’s just a little more intrusive than I like.  The Desktop Weather I don’t need either, I just look out the window.

You can download Digsby here!

Watching this development from the outside perspective, it is easy to see the massing of forces, on both sides, for a final technology show down in a few years. The future of the Internet and desktop applications is not going to be in the hands of Linux and Microsoft. Google, with its arsenal of tools, APIs, applications and gadgets is clearly the main threat to Microsoft’s Windows platform. Linux’s growth has been steady over the past decade or so, however, in part thanks to Firefox and the Mozilla Foundation, Google is gaining ground where Microsoft stood supreme.

So what can we expect from Google in the coming months and years. We’ve all heard of the Google Browser (posted on April 1, a few years back), yet over the past two years Firefox has become the new Google’s browser. Then there was talk of the Google OS, again rumors only, but Linux does seem like a solid choice for Google to expand into that market. And with its new Gears API and extension, which allows seem less interoperability between web applications online and your computer, Google might be headed down the road of creating a first Web OS. An operating system which lives entirely on the Web, with built in Google Office applications, games, etc. Your computer would only act as a thin client and a storage for offline data, perhaps, a Linux machine with a Firefox browser. Now that would be a true Google OS.

Since .info and .biz were established for general use in 2000, ICANN has only approved six regional and industry-specific domains, including .asia, .museum and .travel. While it did not offer specifics, ICANN said it would work to make the process smooth such that new TLDs can be created more quickly in the future. However, businesses have complained that more names leads to more cybersquatting, and pointed out that both .biz and .info have failed to take off in the marketplace.

As Windows Live Hotmail begins rolling out on May 7 and continues over the coming days, consumers will be able to visit http://www.hotmail.com to sign up for a new Windows Live Hotmail account. Current MSN Hotmail customers can also update their existing account to Windows Live Hotmail by logging into their account and clicking on the green Join Windows Live Hotmail button.

“We’re thrilled to deliver Windows Live Hotmail to the more than 280 million active MSN Hotmail accounts around the world,” said Steve Berkowitz, senior vice president of the Online Services Group at Microsoft. “Windows Live Hotmail represents an extremely compelling end-to-end e-mail experience that makes it easy for customers to get best-of-breed e-mail access across PCs, mobile devices and the Web. Windows Live Hotmail is a cornerstone online service for Microsoft and a critical part of our online advertising business because e-mail is a key point of influence for consumer purchases. We’re pleased to announce the launch of the service to advertisers in addition to consumers on the eve of the Microsoft Strategic Account Summit.”

Millions of pieces of customer feedback played an instrumental role in the development of the look and feel of the new Windows Live Hotmail. Key customer benefits include the following:

Access: Hotmail, Where You Want It
Today’s Windows Live Hotmail customers don’t necessarily sit behind a computer screen all day; they want flexibility for their busy lives. As a result, Microsoft has developed new technologies to meet their needs:
Outlook Connector. Available later this month in 11 languages worldwide, the new Microsoft Office Outlook Connector beta will enable people to view and manage their Windows Live Hotmail account from Outlook for free, with full contact, e-mail and e-mail folder synchronization.
Mobile. Using Windows Live Hotmail for mobile (http://mobile.live.com), customers can access their e-mail when they are on the go on a Web-enabled mobile phone or PDA. In the future, Windows Mobile® customers will receive a richer online and offline Windows Live Hotmail experience with Windows Live for Windows Mobile, which will ship with Windows Mobile v6.
More to come. In the coming weeks, Microsoft will introduce an additional e-mail client option for Windows Live Hotmail with the release of Windows Live Mail beta, a free consumer e-mail client available via download that will be a successor to Outlook Express and Windows Mail on Windows Vista™.

Productivity: The Power of Desktop Software With Your Personal Web E-Mail
E-mail speed and reliability are critical to consumers. To help maximize productivity in e-mail, Microsoft is offering new features, including the following:

More like Outlook. With right-click and drag-and-drop capabilities, preview pane customization and auto-complete addressing, all designed for optimal productivity, Windows Live Hotmail looks and feels more like the Outlook software millions use at work every day.
More Windows Live services. Windows Live Messenger presence is built into Windows Live Hotmail so customers can see from their inbox if their Messenger contacts are online. If a contact is online, customers can begin a conversation with the contact directly.
The space customers need. Microsoft remains committed to providing Windows Live Hotmail customers with all the storage space they need to remain productive in e-mail. With an inbox storage size starting at 2 GB, Windows Live Hotmail will continue to grow its storage capacity to meet customer needs.

Protection: Safety Made Simple
According to feedback from customers, e-mail safety is one of the most important things to them. Windows Live Hotmail is designed to help protect customers before potentially harmful e-mail messages make it into their inbox, and helps them make better, more informed decisions about the safety level of their e-mail. These are some of the new safety features:

Safety bar. When an e-mail message arrives in the Windows Live Hotmail inbox after multiple safety checks, the safety bar at the top of each e-mail message will give a visual cue of the status of the e-mail: white indicates the e-mail is from a known sender, yellow indicates the e-mail is from an unknown sender and red indicates the e-mail is potentially fraudulent.
Improved spam protection. With one click on the “mark as unsafe” link, customers can automatically delete junk e-mail messages, block any future e-mail messages from that junk e-mail sender, and report the junk e-mail sender to Microsoft’s spam filters to help protect others.
Personalization: Control Your View
As a direct result of customer feedback, Microsoft is providing Windows Live Hotmail customers with more control over the look and feel of their e-mail.

Two views. Customers can choose how they view their Windows Live Hotmail. The classic version looks similar to MSN Hotmail for those who prefer the familiar look, while full version works more like Outlook with more advanced functionality.
Color choice. Customers can make their Windows Live Hotmail inbox their own with a choice of color themes.