Darren Straight's Blog

ICT Enthusiast and photographer.

By - Darren Straight

Threadless T-Shirts still only accepts Visa, Mastercard or American Express

Damn it, I’ve seen 3 Threadless T-Shirts I want to buy, but can’t due to Threadless still only accepting Visa, Mastercard or American Express Cards for payment. I really can’t wait until the day that changes, I would love it if I could pay via some other form of payment like Switch/Maestro/Solo or even PayPal. But until then I’ll guess I’ll

By - Darren Straight

The Voice of the London Underground is silenced!

Emma Clark, known to many as the voice of the London Underground due to having voiced most of the in-train and station announcements for the tube, has recently been fired after telling the Mail on Sunday that she thought the transit network was dreadful. “The thought of being stuck in the Tube with strangers for minutes on end and having to listen to

By - Darren Straight

Create secure passwords with Microsoft’s InkBlots

Microsoft Research has just launched a new Web site called InkBlot, which shows, a series of Rorschach Inkblots and helps users create a secure, personal password that is easy to remember. The user is presented with a sequence of random inkblots. Each should remind the user of a word, a butterfly or a pumpkin, for example. For each image, the user

By - Darren Straight

Photo Gallery is now on Microsoft Update

Kristen Miller a Program Manager for Windows Live Photo Gallery, has recently published a blog post in which tells us that the team have recently deployed Windows Live Photo Gallery 2008 via Microsoft Update. So if you have Microsoft Update enabled on your PC and had the BETA installed, then your BETA build should have been upgraded to the final release

By - Darren Straight

Reading and Leeds Festivals part with Carling

Reading and Leeds Festivals will no longer be known as the Carling Weekend. Organisers Festival Republic have confirmed that they have parted ways with the beer giant, who has sponsored the twin festivals for nine years. Carling will also no longer be the official lager of the festivals. In a statement, Festival Republic‘s Melvin Benn said: “It was by mutual

By - Darren Straight

Free Microsoft Exam SCCM 2007

Microsoft is apparently looking for beta test takers for the SCCM 2007 exam. (This is the product that replaces SMS 2003.) The following code below will allow you to take the exam once free of charge. If you pass you will receive credit toward the new Microsoft certifications MCTS and MCITP. If you fail, you can re-take the exam once

By - Darren Straight

Jason Slater reviews my blog

It’s always great to get feedback from others about my blog, so I would just like to say a big thanks to Jason Slater for reviewing my Blog this week as part of his ongoing weekly Technology Blog of the Week Reviews. There are several posts per week, many of which are generally more detailed posts which makes for an

By - Darren Straight

Notable Changes in Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Release Candidate

Good news for those looking forward to Microsoft’s Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1). Microsoft has very recently published a 17 page document detailing notable changes in Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) Release Candidate. Here’s the full list – though beware you may get bored of reading it all! 😉 Hardware Ecosystem Support and Enhancements Adds support for new UEFI (Unified

By - Darren Straight

Microsoft removes MSN Santa

Last year Microsoft created it’s MSN/Windows Live Messenger Santa(northpole@live.com) for children to talk too and ask what they would like for Christmas but now it looks like Microsoft have had to have him removed after he got himself into some trouble! 🙁 The Register reported that one of its readers discovered that a chat between Santa and his young nieces (aged 11

By - Darren Straight

MSN/Windows Live confirmed as staying in RedWest

There’s recently been talk about whether or not the MSN and Windows Live product teams would be moving from the Microsoft RedWest campus to the new Advanta buildings in southeast Bellevue. But it’s now been confirmed by The Seattle Times that the MSN and Windows Live product teams will in fact be staying at the RedWest campus. “It’s true that