Darren Straight’s Blog

Microsoft has recently announced The Ultimate Steal, a limited-time promotion for college students starting today in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and starting September the 20th in Spain, Italy and France.

The Ultimate Steal Promotion offers students who are actively enrolled at eligible educational institutions to opportunity to acquire Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 via the Web at a low student price of US$59.95, CA$64 , £38.95,

And for those of us outside the US, a one-year subscription license will also be offered for £12.95/€ 18.00/C$22.00 in addition to the perpetual license.

The Ultimate Steal promotion will expire on April 30, 2008. So if you’re a student then why not treat yourself! :p

Seize the deal! Get Microsoft® Office Ultimate 2007 for just £38.95. It’s a total steal: save time and money with this premium offer. Office Ultimate 2007’s brand new features and fresh look will help you organise and get all your work done in the blink of an eye. The Ultimate Steal is finally here, so grab it now!

Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 (£38.95) Perpetual license, includes the following applications:

• Access™ 2007
• Excel® 2007
• InfoPath® 2007
• Groove 2007
• OneNote® 2007
• Outlook® 2007 with Business Contact Manager
• PowerPoint® 2007
• Publisher 2007
• Word 2007

Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 Subscription-1 year (£12.95) 12 month license from date of activation, includes the following applications:

• Access™ 2007
• Excel® 2007
• InfoPath® 2007
• Groove 2007
• OneNote® 2007
• Outlook® 2007 with Business Contact Manager
• PowerPoint® 2007
• Publisher 2007
• Word 2007

• http://www.theultimatesteal.com/
• http://www.theultimatesteal.co.uk/
• http://www.theultimatesteal.ca/
• http://www.office30elode.it/
• http://www.daelgolpe.es/
• http://www.officepourlesetudiants.fr/

Microsoft’s Windows Live division has recently launched a website called Real Live Moms from Windows Live which allows all thoses caring moms/mums/mothers out there to create a personalized Windows Live Space from which they can network with other mums.

Here’s a small list of stuff Real Live Moms from Windows Live can let moms/mums/mothers do:

• Create Windows Live Spaces Blogs
• Create scrapebook slide shows
• Chat on Windows Live Messenger
• Email with Windows Live Hotmail
• Find local parks (for the kids) and day spas (for mom) using Live Search Maps
• Learn how to easily share photos
• Read helpful parenting tips
• Design and print free mom business cards
• Find fun mom-centric gadgets to add to your space

Check it out at http://www.reallivemoms.com/

Via: Mashable | InsideMicrosoft

Monday was a sad day for many Back to The Future Fans as the Universal Studios Hollywood ride “Back to the Future - The Ride” closed forever to visitors at 8:00pm.

It’s a real shame to see Hollywood’s “Back to the Future - The Ride” close forever just like it did at Universal Studios Florida, luckily there’s no plans yet to close the last Back to The Future Ride at Universal Studios Japan, though I bet that won’t last forever either.

Replacing “Back to the Future - The Ride” at both Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Studios Florida will be a Simpsons Ride, which  involves a simulator ride similar to the Back to the Future - The Ride. It will use 80 foot screens to give the rider a virtual-reality trip through a cartoon theme park called “Krusty Land.” Sideshow Bob will be a part of the ride though it’s not mentioned how.

Mel Kirk from Carson Systems who is responsible for coordinating the Future of Web Apps Event (FOWA) told me that I wouldnt dare post a video of her singing along to “All By Myself by Celine Dion” on my blog “haha, you wouldn’t dare :)” after I told her that maybe I should post it here on my blog “Maybe I should post this on my blog see what my readers think!” but as she has kind of dared me!

I thought I would post it for a bit of fun!

Brad Abrams, Group Program Manager, .NET Framework and developer technology enthusiast will be on the Second Life Microsoft Island Theater on Thursday, August 30th, 3 PM SLT.

He has grown up with the .NET Framework from the early days of just getting Fibonacci to work on the first CLR before Console. WriteLine() was written. Nowadays, Brad’s work is about ASP.NET, AJAX, and Silverlight. He has some great demos showing Silverlight in action! So if you can come then please do - I’m sure you’ll enjoy it!

Event Details:

Guest Speaker: Brad Abrams, Group Program Manager, .NET Framework

When: Thursday, August 30th, 3 – 4 PM PST

Where: Visual Studio Island Auditorium in Second Life

How to join the event:

If you’re already a member of Second Life, you can teleport directly to the Visual Studio Island via this link; http://slurl.com/secondlife/Microsoft/101/123/30/

If you’re new to Second Life, you’ll be guided through the Second Life registration process and will need to set up an Avatar; visit http://www.secondlife.com/ then go to http://slurl.com/secondlife/Microsoft/101/123/30/

Bebo, the global social networking site, and Microsoft today announced an alliance to bring the Windows Live Messenger service, the world’s largest consumer instant messaging (IM) network, to Bebo users. Additionally, Bebo and Windows Live will allow users to seamlessly exchange their contact information to invite and connect through their respective services.

This deal marks the first time Microsoft has partnered with a social network for instant messaging and contacts.

The groundbreaking interface will enable all 36 million Bebo users worldwide who use Windows Live Messenger to display their Messenger presence and IM with their Bebo friends directly on the Bebo service.

Equally, the partnership offers Bebo the opportunity to grow its network through the Windows Live Messenger user base. Windows Live Messenger is free to download, is available in 26 languages and is used in more than 60 countries by more than 280 million active users each month. Additionally, this partnership includes the use of the Windows Live Contacts API. This API allows users the ability to freely import and export their contacts and relationships between the services, ultimately giving users the choice where and how they wish to use their social network.

Bebo users with Windows Live Messenger will add an “IM Me” icon which will appear on their profile page. In displaying their presence, all Bebo users – regardless of whether they have a Windows Live ID or not – will be able to, with one click, begin an IM conversation with each other.

Bebo is confident the new feature will lead to an even greater user engagement with the site, which is already the leading social networking site in the UK with 10.7 million unique users in July.

Welcoming the partnership, Joanna Shields, President, International at Bebo said:

“Social networking is emerging as the new form of self-expression, allowing people to communicate their passions and express their identity to one another. Our agreement with Microsoft Windows Live delivers a powerful, new way to instantly update and keep in touch with friends and serves to make the Bebo user experience even more compelling and interactive.”

Brian Hall, General Manager, Windows Live said:

“We’re excited to be working with Bebo to provide an innovative communication feature to one of the world’s leading social networking services.Within the suite of Windows Live communications services ”IM Me” allows individuals to richly communicate and keep in touch with the people who are important in their lives.. The global nature of both the Windows Live Messenger service and Bebo makes this relationship a perfect fit.”

An international initiative of bloggers known as “Blog Action Day” launched today, with the aim of uniting thousands of blogging voices, talking about one issue for one day. This year on Blog Action Day, which is slated for Oct. 15, 2007, bloggers will be discussing the environment.

Major blogs have signed up to participate, including Lifehacker, Dumb Little Man, Lifehack.org, Get Rich Slowly, Web Worker Daily, GigaOm, The Simple Dollar, Zen Habits, Freelance Switch, LifeClever, Unclutterer, Pronet Advertising, Wise Bread and many more.

“For just one day, we’d like to unite as many of the millions of bloggers around the world and speak about one issue - the environment,” said Collis Ta’eed, an Australian blogger from FreelanceSwitch.com, and a cofounder of Blog Action Day. “We want to display the potential and the power of the blogging community, which is a disparate community but one with an amazing size, breadth and diversity. By bringing everyone together for one day, we can see just how much can be achieved, and how much we can be heard.”

Just a freindly reminder that the first London Blog Drink is happening on Thursday the 6th of September from 7:3opm at the Prince Regent, 25 Gloucester Road, SW7. (Live Maps | Google Maps)

Recommandé par des Influenceurs

See a list of whos going so far here and here.

Paint.NET v3.10 Beta 2 is now available. Check it out at http://www.getpaint.net

Changes include:

• Changed: Increased max brush size to 500, as per forum members request
• Fixed: Some layout issues with the Save Configuration dialog and the DDS configuration control
• Fixed: In some cases, undoing an action that removed a layer would result in the un-removed layer not showing up until you resized the Layers window (“ghost layers”)
• Fixed: Pressing F1 from the main window would launch the online help in two browser tabs
• Fixed: Adding a new layer now adds it above the currently active layer instead of at the very top of the layer list
• Fixed: Merge Down now activates the merged layer instead of the one above it
• Fixed: Put the ‘x’ close button back in the Layer Properties window (managed to fix the bug w/o necessitating removal of the ‘x’)
• Fixed: In Vista, clicking on a URL link from the installer will no longer launch the web browser with inherited, elevated privileges

How many times have you had to hard reset you’re Windows Mobile Smartphone, Pocket PC or PDA just to find that you couldn’t backup/archive you’re text messages?

Well if you look around like I did, you’ll find that there are quite a few applications and websites out there that allow you to back/restore you’re text messages, contacts, appointments etc on your Windows Mobile Smartphone, Pocket PC or PDA.

But from looking around on the web I found that the problem is that none of these seem to be free. I was beginning to think that I would have to possible pay for an application/service which I might only use every so often. That was until I found The PIM backup application tool…

The PIM backup application is a tool that allows too backup/restore personal information such as contacts, appointments, tasks, text messages and calls logs stored on windows mobile based pocket devices.

The backup is totally independent of the version of Windows Mobile (Windows Mobile 2003, 5 and 6) running on the device and independent of the device itself (e.g. T-Mobile MDA Vario II). In fact the backup is also independent of the language used on the device. So you can easily backup on a Chinese device and restore in a German one.

There are two kinds of backups. The binary based backup which has been implemented in order to have a backup/restore process which is fast and more reliable, though this imposes the disadvantage that the backup contents cannot be easily modified or viewed. While the second backup method is the text based backup which has been implemented in order to see/edit the contents on a pc for instance.

I myself think that The PIM backup application tool is one of the best, if not only freeware applications out there that allows you to easily  backup/achieve/restore personal information such as contacts, appointments, tasks, text messages and calls logs stored on Windows Mobile based pocket devices.

Keep up the good work Fred!

Download PIM backup v2.5 for WM5 & WM6
Download PIM backup v2.5 for WM2003SE