Seems like Microsoft Live account services have been down for most of the day. It's strange as I had no idea just how much I relied on my live login. I use it for everything I can, my Microsoft money account, MSN messenger and of course Hotmail. Seems like the case for open Id (myopenid.com) and de-centralised authentication is stronger than ever. At least then if the identity service stops working it's your problem and not the service provider.