>I was referring to the words "the cloud". Regardless of who coined it first, or exactly when, it is my sense that Ballmer et. al. have a special meaning behind it (that they are not necessarily sharing with too many people at this point).

I've seen the "clouds" used (extensively) in Windows NT network diagrams (circa 1996) to specifically refer to "Internet or X.25 connection(s)".

Previously, I think the allusion was to "something out there". Now, we're into it (I guess).