Quoted: Shoutomatic uses PHP, .NET, and Java in the cloud, and I use a Python script locally to set up the storage account. I should warn you now that actually building and deploying from the source code I’ve shared is tricky… you’ll need to download a number of dependencies. Let me know if you’re trying this and the instructions aren’t clear.

Quoted: I actually didn’t know these had been released until I started seeing people Tweeting about it. There’s a series of Azure-related screencasts, including five videos (so far) for Windows Azure.

Quoted: While I may have doubted if IBM really “got” cloud computing in the past, a project it detailed in a press release today about a research project in China has me convinced that IBM knows exactly what the cloud is, and plans to capitalize on its name and experience to compete with Amazon for enterprise business. Check it out:

Quoted: Salesforce wants to be the dominant cloud platform for business. Their view is that computing has seen two waves: the first was the mainframe, and then the PC client server, and now the third is cloud computing. They have been consistent about this since their inception in March 1999, so this is no recent bandwagon hopping.
...
They are adding so much functionality and so many partners that they face the danger of users getting confused and going to simpler point solutions. That "hairball-of-complexity" problem bedeviled Microsoft as it grew fast, but Microsoft enjoyed a lock-in that Salesforce cannot count on. The SaaS world is naturally lock-in resistant, with low switching costs. There is no sign of this being an immediate problem for the company, but it is something they will have to look out for.

Quoted: It would take over 4 and a half years before the licensed software became cheaper. By that time, I'm quite sure there would be another solution that could replace SharePoint, and the cycle would start again. We can quibble about the numbers, but you get the point. Plus, the numbers don't reflect that the SaaS solution is likely to improve and innovate faster than the licensed software by a significant amount.

Faving to watch later.

Quoted: Yesterday, an all-star panel at the TechWeb/O'Reilly's Web 2.0 Summit took a closer look at the implications of the current shift towards cloud computing and discussed the possible ...

These several "layers" of functionality potentially differentiate Microsoft from the competition.

Quoted: Our research identifies several layers of functionality ranging from system infrastructure to business process. Microsoft’s offerings include:
- System infrastructure services (Amazon EC2)
- Application infrastructure services (Force.Com & AppEngine)
- Application services (Exchange Online)

Didn't see this coming.

Quoted: Force.com for Facebook is a free set of tools and services that enables developers to harness the power of the Facebook and Force.com platforms to build business applications for Facebook.