Darren Straight's Blog

ICT Enthusiast and photographer.

By - Darren Straight

Back from my first ever Microsoft Student Partner (MSP) Event!

Hey everyone, as you know or may not know I’m now a UK Microsoft Student Partner (MSP) 2006/2007 and well I’ve just arrived home from Reading (UK) after spending the past two days there for my first ever Microsoft Student Partner (MSP) Events. And well what can I say, it was great, I met lots of new people, had lots

By - Darren Straight

Microsoft Releases ASP.NET AJAX Beta 1 (aka “Atlas”)

Microsoft’s general manager Scott Guthrie who runs the teams that build IIS, ASP.NET, Atlas, CLR, Compact Framework, Windows Forms, Commerce Server, Visual Web Developer 2005 and Visual Studio Tools for WPF has now announced the first official Beta release of Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX v1.0. You can download it now from the http://ajax.asp.net site. Available on the site are three download options:   The ASP.NET

By - Darren Straight

Amazons Askville Beta US/Canada Only!

Well I just got invited by techstartups to Amazons Askville Beta to see the comparison of it between Windows Live QnA, Yahoo Answers and other Question and Answers sites and well I’m quite disappointed to see that in order to try out the service I need to enter my Mobile Phone number to receive a text with a conformation code!

By - Darren Straight

Project Glidepath 2.0 is now available for download!

After 3 months and nearly 4,000 downloads of the Project Glidepath Technical Preview, the Project Glidepath 2.0 release is finished! Project Glidepath 2.0 contains many additional features and facilities including multiple factories and better support for VB.Net along with C#. Information regarding downloading Project Glidepath 2.0 can be found here and full details of the changes incorporated into Project Glidepath 2.0 can be found here.

By - Darren Straight

Store your mobiles contacts and calendar securely on ZYB

“If you are afraid of losing all the contacts stored on your mobile, try ZYB.com a free and easy to use service that allows you to store and manage your mobiles data online for free.” The service is free and works with more than 200 different phone models. It’s very simple to get started, just sign up on zyb.com, select

By - Darren Straight

Google in talks to buy YouTube

Google is reported to be in talks to buy popular video-sharing website YouTube for $1.6bn (£856m). The Wall Street Journal said discussions between the two sides were at a sensitive stage and the talks could break up, neither Google nor YouTube have made any comment on this as of yet. Founded by three former employees of eBay’s PayPal electronic payment unit,

By - Darren Straight

Download Microsoft ActiveSync 4.5 Beta 2

Microsoft have now released for download Microsoft ActiveSync 4.5 Beta 2. Changes in ActiveSync 4.5 Beta 2 help resolve issues related to setup, partnerships, and connectivity with the PC and Microsoft Exchange. In addition, it includes a troubleshooter utility that scans your computer and device to identify problems and offers information and corrective actions to solve them. ActiveSync 4.5 Beta

By - Darren Straight

Microsoft Home Spring 2005

Last year in 2005, Microsoft outfitted the Microsoft Home, a family house in West London, with some of the latest technology, to show you one vision of how technology can work in the home. Every room was set up to demonstrate how easy it can be to enjoy a digital lifestyle using technology available now to all consumers. Guests were

By - Darren Straight

Microsoft IT Showcase: Messaging Hygiene at Microsoft

Ever wonderd how Microsoft IT copes with the large quantities of unwanted e-mail (a.k.a. spam) and malware-infected messages in its inbound Internet e-mail traffic? Well you’re in luck because Microsoft IT Showcase have uploaded a paper which documents how Microsoft IT uses Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 technologies, Microsoft Office Outlook 2003, and third-party solutions to both reduce the quantity of