Darren Straight's Blog

ICT Enthusiast and photographer.

By - Darren Straight

Nicki Richards back performing with Madonna at Live Earth

If you were wondering what was the obvious answer to the question regarding who’s going to sing backing vocals for Madonna at Live Earth on July 7th, a nice confirmation comes from the official Nicki Richards myspace page. The singer says she will be performing in London with Madonna on July 7th. According to her page, their appearance is scheduled

By - Darren Straight

Third and last UK Microsoft Student Partners Event for 2006/2007

I’m now back home from Cambridge after attending the third and final Microsoft Student Partners (MSP’s) Event for 2006/2007. And what can I say, other than it was absolutely great it’s just a shame it was the last event for the MSP’s of 2006/2007. I arrived in Cambridge yesterday at around 9:00 as myself and Ryan (a MSP) were going

By - Darren Straight

Microsoft Enhances Virtual Earth Product in Great Britain With High-Resolution 3-D Height Data From Intermap Technologies

Microsoft and Intermap Technologies have today announced the launch of Microsoft’s enhanced Virtual Earth 3-D viewing platform based on Intermap Technologies’ highly accurate and up-to-date elevation data for all of Great Britain. Intermap is also creating similar maps for all of Western Europe and the continental United States. The resulting product delivers a more seamless and accurate 3-D experience for all

By - Darren Straight

Live Earth Announces New Talent For Its London Line-Up

Metallica, Kasabian, Pussycat Dolls, and Terra Naomi have all been announced as the final acts to be added to the Live Earth London line-up performing at Wembley Stadium as part of the 24-hour, 7-continent Live Earth concert series on 7/7/07. With an already astounding line up that includes some of the best music acts from around the world, this monumental

By - Darren Straight

Live Earth Shanghai Revealed

Organizers today announced details of the Live Earth concert which will be held in Shanghai on July 7, 2007. The much-anticipated Live Earth Shanghai show will feature top mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan and international artists live on stage. The Shanghai leg of the 7-continent, 24-hour concert will be held on the on the steps of the Oriental Pearl Tower. Performing

By - Darren Straight

Windows Live Platform Discussion with Koji Kato and Danny Thorpe

Windows Live is best known as a collection of end-user offerings like Messenger, Spaces, Search, Hotmail and a whole bunch more.  It’s also in the process of evolving into a platform.  Koji Kato and Danny Thorpe, from the Windows Live platform team, discuss with Catherine Heller a Windows Live Technical Evangelist on Channel 9 their views on internet software and what it

By - Darren Straight

Microsoft launches new-look MSN for mobile phones

The MSN Mobile Team at Microsoft launched a redesigned MSN portal optimized for mobile phones on Sunday, stepping up its offering at a time when more powerful devices increase the demand for richer content on handsets. However mobile Internet use still represents only a fraction of computer-based Web usage, but that could change with companies like Microsoft who see increasingly powerful

By - Darren Straight

Microsoft.com promotes Surface with Silverlight

Just reading my feeds and noticed a post by Mark Johnston who has spotted (thanks to Sean Alexander) that Silverlight is now on Microsoft.com promoting the very cool new product Microsoft Surface. The last time Silverlight was used was to promote the Xbox 360 Elite just after Mix in April. So it’s great to see it Silverlight yet again appear on Microsoft.com. Mark

By - Darren Straight

WebCamera Plus turns your PDA or Smartphone into webcam

Ever wanted to use your PDA or Smartphone as a webcam?, well now you can with WebCamera Plus. Thanks goe’s to Jeremy Cath and Steve Clayton for the find! WebCamera Plus key features: Transforms your PDA or Smartphone to high-resolution web-camera. Can work through any connection: USB ActiveSync, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPRS, 3G, LAN. Compatible with almost all modern Smartphones and PDAs.

By - Darren Straight

Microsoft Research Software for the 21st Century

Just thought id check out the Microsoft Research Website before I go the Microsoft Research Labs in Cambridge next week for my third Microsoft Student Partners (MSP) Event and while on the site I noticed that you can now watch a video of Andrew Herbert, managing director of Microsoft Research Cambridge, who discusses the 20th century computer systems assumptions that are