I signed up with Hotmail soon after launch in the late 90s- I can't even remember my address now, it might have been "bhouston@hotmail.com" which was a pretty good one I thought.

We moved countries from Japan to the US, and it was invaluable to have an email address that was not tied to an ISP - a real innovation at the time.

Microsoft bought Hotmail while I was living in LA. I was using my work email as my primary email and sometimes didn't log into my Hotmail account for a week or so. Around the time that MS came up with the wonderful "Passport" feature of Hotmail- they decided to delete Hotmail accounts that have not been accessed for more than 14 days. I went over that limit.

We're planning a holiday to Japan now- I have friends there that I've lost because their address was in Hotmail - safe I thought.

I curse you Microsoft and your short-sighted corporate wankery. A pox on your software house.