The summer of 2008 has been the best of times and worst of times for cloud computing. Many companies –big and small - decided to throw in their lot with cloud computing, betting that it is the future of technology infrastructure. At the same time, cloud computing took its lumps as some of the early large-scale cloud applications hit the skids.

Apple’s MobileMe went on a blink for many while the GMail blackout that left millions angry and frustrated. Even Amazon’s seemingly fool proof S3 service was down for an extended period of time, impacting thousands of their customers. This isn’t the last time we have seen of these outages. As the size and scope of cloud computing grows, so will the problems, and also the need for tools to monitor the clouds.

We have received quite a few submissions for the Startup LaunchPad at our Mobilize 08 conference that is scheduled to be held on September 18, 2008 in San Francisco. I wanted to remind everyone that the deadline for applications ends tomorrow, August 20. We will announce a short list of companies on Monday, August 25.

As a reminder, I want to stress the fact that you don’t need to be a venture-backed company. If you are a single developer with a great app and are ready to show off, you are more than welcome, but you better hurry. You can go here to submit your applications. For those who wish to attend the conference, I just want you to know that our $100 discount ends August 29, so it might be good time to save some cash.

Muxtape, a startup that quickly became a favorite of the Tumblr-set, has taken a nose dive, thanks to the machinations at RIAA. There are lot of folks bemoaning the loss of the service. To them, I have one word: 8Tracks.

I talked to the New York-based startup’s founder, David Porter, formerly of Live365, a few weeks ago and he walked me through the service. I have been using it sporadically and, well, it works better than Muxtape. (Thrillist thinks so, too — take their word over a Web geezer like us.) Essentially, 8tracks allows you to upload your own tracks and create a mix. Of course, you can create mixes from a library of tracks uploaded by others. Drag, drop, play!