Microsoft Subnet: An independent Microsoft community

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  Hidden Microsoft

  My thoughts on Microsoft’s System Center Opalis product by Tyson Kopczynski

  What is Opalis? Well for those that have been in a closet, Opalis was an automation platform that was snapped up by Microsoft late last year. Rebranded System Center Opalis, this platform is targeted to provide a vehicle that IT pros can use to automate tasks across various systems via a workflow without “necessarily” writing code. Based on Microsoft’s marketing materials the key selling points for Opalis are:Universal connectivity such that Opalis will work with both Microsoft and...

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  Microsoft Tech

  Microsoft: Gmail like a Jaguar with 'vinyl seats' by Robert Mullins

  The annual Microsoft Financial Analyst Meeting today in Redmond featured the usual numbers crunching about its financials, a promised beta of IE 9 by September and CEO Steve Ballmer’s bombast and optimism, tempered by annoying vagueness, about when Microsoft will introduce a tablet-style computer -- “As soon as we can,” he said. But one interesting part of the daylong program was a point-by-point challenge to five of Microsoft’s top competitors from Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner. Gmail... 8

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  Microsoft, Google and the Cloud

  It's time to virtualize Microsoft Exchange (but not with Hyper-V) by Jon Brodkin

  Microsoft isn't accustomed to being in second place in any market, but that's the situation it has had to accept as it challenges VMware for supremacy in the x86 virtualization world. Microsoft has undoubtedly made significant progress in the last couple of years, bolstering its virtualization and management capabilities with Hyper-V and System Center Virtual Machine Manager. Microsoft thinks it offers enterprises everything they need to virtualize mission-critical workloads, but not everyone... 4

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  Microsoft Tech

  Microsoft wins a Pwnie for failure by Robert Mullins

  Microsoft has earned the dubious distinction of having the Most Epic FAIL of the last year in computer security with a browser cross-site scripting (XSS) filter that actually exacerbated the problem.The company was given the award at the conclusion of the annual Blackhat 2010 security conference Wednesday in Las Vegas. I wasn’t there so I don’t know if anyone from Microsoft stepped up to accept the award, head perhaps covered by a paper bag.According to a white paper produced by researchers...

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  See Through the Windows

  Real, Usable Access to SharePoint from Mobile Phones by Dustin Puryear

  Apparently Microsoft Windows Phone 7 is going to support SharePoint natively. In other words, no more hokey web interface access to a product that is already a bit of a pain to navigate. If you’re like many people, your company uses SharePoint to organize data and projects. We do the same at our consulting firm. Instead of using a local NAS to store our internal and client documentation, we just create sites inside SharePoint and use that. “Why?” you ask? There are some really great things... 1

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  SQL Marklar

  Are you as tired of lazy vendors as I am? by Sean McCown

  Dealing with vendors can be maddening to say the least.  One of the reasons is because whenever you find a problem with their DB code they're very reluctant to change it.  And to a degree I understand that because they've got regression testing to do to make sure it doesn't break anything else, but very seldom do vendors bother updating their DB code at all.  This is particularly true when porting their app to a new version of the DB platform.  Again, since this is mainly a... 2

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  Privacy and Security Fanatic

  Verizon's 2010 DBIR: Rise in Misuse, Malware and Social Engineering by Ms Smith

  According to the 2010 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR), the overall number of data breaches declined in 2009. “The reduction in breaches is a positive sign that we are gaining some ground in the fight against cybercrime,” said Peter Tippett, Verizon Business vice president of technology and enterprise innovation. What has not changed is that servers and apps account for 98.5% of total records compromised. The 2010 DBIR, based on a first-of-its kind collaboration with the U.S....

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  The Microsoft Update

  Nearly half of Microsoft's 2010 security patches have known problems by Julie Bort

  Last month's fix of a broken Windows Server patch got me thinking -- just how often does Microsoft release a patch that it knows has problems? The answer: nearly half the time. How often are those problems so severe they fry your system? That's less clear, but it seems as if the answer is, "not all that often." Microsoft has so far released 45 updates in 2010, some fixing multiple vulnerabilities. Of them, 20 were released with a known problem (see list below) but of those, only two had... 1

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  See Through the Windows

  Understanding the Library of Congress’ New DMCA Rules by Dustin Puryear

  As you may have read by now, the Library of Congress (LOC) released new rules for how to interpret the DMCA and its copyright access control anti- circumvention rules. The headlines on the new rules all seem to focus on the ability to jailbreak an iPhone. Well, great. I’m glad we can jailbreak legally, especially since it was definitely a gray area before. I think it’s pretty clear to just about everyone that Apple, or any company, that uses the DMCA to limit our ability to modify hardware we...

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  Privacy and Security Fanatic

  The Next Big Privacy Concern: RFID “Spychips” by Ms Smith

  Radio-frequency I.D. (RFID) tags are a convenient way to track items and cut costs for companies. But this technology is increasingly being used to track other things, like security badges — or even people — giving it the potential to cause a horrific erosion of privacy. Tracking people with smart tags, their shopping preferences, their activities, and their personal belongings sounds like something from a sci-fi thriller. But If you got your panties in a twist over Walmart's decision to track... 16

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