From Peter Drayton:

I don't generally click through ads, but this one piqued my interest: a free three hour trial of a hosted Visual Studio .NET, accessed via Terminal Services Client or the Remote Desktop Connection built into Windows XP. Obviously I already have VS.NET, but the hosted demo approach was interesting enough to make me try it just to see how well it worked. Verdict: a great low-touch/low-risk way to experience a complex piece of software.