There is an alternative for that, it's a site called
Birthday Alarm. Basicly what you do is sign up and send your friends an e-mail to enter their birthday for you (you can put em in yourself too if you wish). A week before their birthday you will get the first e-mail reminder, you will recieve a second one a few days before the actual birthday. You can also choose to send e-cards from there (some are free, some are not). If you use the e-mailaddy you use for MSN you will notice the e-mails for certain