Darren Straight's Blog

ICT Enthusiast and photographer.

By - Darren Straight

Universal Studios Hollywood closes Back To The Future The Ride

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. šŸ™ 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

By - Darren Straight

Update to management of the Microsoft adCenter trademark policy

Just a reminder that onĀ  the 10th of September 2007, Microsoft will update theĀ management of the adCenter trademark policy. Here are some key points that outline these changes. The heart of the trademark policy is unchanged.Ā Microsoft adCenter disallows trademark infringement, and forbids advertisers from bidding on or using trademarked terms in a way that constitutes trademark infringement. Advertisers may not

By - Darren Straight

Mel Kirk from Carson Systems sings All By Myself!

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

By - Darren Straight

Microsoft registers Windows Live Translator Domain Names

Within the last 10Ā daysĀ a number of newly registered or recently transfered domains have made their apperance on MSFT name servers. A list of many (not all) follows. The highlights feature both domains with the terms translation (Windows Live Translator) and television (Microsoft Portable TV). WindowsLivetranslator-int.com, .net., .org windowsLiveTranslatorV.com windowslivetranslator.com, .net MicrosoftPortableTV.com microsoftTelevision.com SimplifyYourWork2008.com., .net, .org Surface.info zunedownlaod.com zunesdownload.com zunesubscription.com TheUltimateSteal.net,

By - Darren Straight

Video Search Platform, ClipBlast!, Partners with MSN Video

Video search platform, ClipBlast!, has struck an alliance with MSN Video, wherein ClipBlast! will automatically index MSN Video content as it becomes available. By indexing new clips from MSN Video on www.clipblast.com, ClipBlast! will enable viewers to browse news, sports, lifestyle and entertainment content streamed from more than 50 sources, including NBC and MSNBC, Food Network, HGTV, National Geographic, MTV

By - Darren Straight

Microsoft puts Office Open XML format up for international vote

After months of debate and controversy, Microsoft will reach a pivotal moment this weekend in its effort to win approval of its Office Open XML document format by a key international standards organization. The process won’t end there, but the result could play a big part in determining how things play out in the months ahead. The national bodies taking

By - Darren Straight

Family Guy Episodes Coming to Xbox Live

Microsoft and 20th Century Fox have announced that starting this Monday the 2nd of September, the first two seasons of the popular american animated tv show Family Guy will be available on Xbox Live Marketplace. Xbox 360 owners will be able to purchase each of the episodes from the first two seasons as well as the straight-to-DVD film “Family Guy

By - Darren Straight

Brad Abrams to demo Silverlight in action in Second Life Microsoft Island Theater

Brad Abrams, Group Program Manager, .NET Framework and developer technology enthusiast will beĀ 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,

By - Darren Straight

CJReport.com launches

A Big Congratulations goes to my fellow friend Laurent Van Winckel from Brussels in BelgiumĀ and his colleague Prameya BhandariĀ from Syracuse, New York. As they as founders of CJReport.comĀ have finally launched CJReport.comĀ liveĀ (previously yunar.com) CJReport.com is a citizen journalism website which is purely democratic. The CJReport.com Founders hope that with this new democratic news system, they can stop governments and authorities around

By - Darren Straight

Reading Music Festival 2007 Review

Hey all – did you miss me? šŸ™‚ I’m now back from Festival Republics Carling Weekend Reading and Leeds Music Festival 2007 and what a great time it was, though I must say I didn’t enjoy the Sunday night riots in the camp sites too much, there were quite a lot of gas canisters exploding on fires and groups of