MOSS 2007 Available for download from MSDN (Subscribers only)

Note there are special version of MOSS 2007, like the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 for Search version.

Read more the search version (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointsearch/FX101729721033.aspx)

A Hard Lesson in Privacy

Read this article at Security Focus about how this guy purchased a second-hand laptop and found some porn stuff in the laptop belonging to the owner and then it turns out the owner is a very popular tv hostess.

Read more..

SQL Server 2005 Waits and Queues:SQL Server Best Practices Article

This paper approaches the complex area of Microsoft® SQL Server™ performance tuning using a methodology called Waits and Queues.

Top 10 SQL Server 2005 Performance Issues for Data Warehouse and Reporting Applications

Relational Data Warehouse or Reporting work loads are characterized by low volumes of very large transactions. These applications are often identified as having predominately read workloads (e.g. Decision Support, Analysis, and Reporting) with periodic feeds or batch loads. It is important to keep these characteristics in mind as we examine the significance of database design, resource utilization and system performance. The top performance bottlenecks or gotchas to avoid for Data Warehouse or Reporting applications are outlined in this article at Mirosoft's TechCenter SQL Server site.

Article about DataWarehousing on Avoiding the Metadata Pitfalls

Summary: By doing a bit of groundwork and effectively controlling the scope of the metadata repository continuously throughout the project, few problems should arise.

Microsoft is often unfairly slammed for security issues, says NGSS

November 25, 2006 (Computerworld) --

Microsoft Corp may be taking the most heat among software vendors for security problems, but it's not always the one with the worst record.

A comparison of vulnerabilities in Microsoft's SQL Server database with Oracle Corp.'s relational database management products by Next Generation Security Software Ltd. (NGSS) shows that the latter vendor's products to have far more vulnerabilities than do products from Microsoft.

Read more...

BusinessValue Summit '06 (in Singapore)

SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 CTP

CTP for SQL 2005 SP1 can be downloaded from SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 CTP (November 2006).

The CTP for SP2 adds data compression, increased business intelligence functionality, adds security updates and support for Windows Vista and Office 2007. Excel, Excel Server and Sharepoint have all been integrated with SQL Server, allowing for Excel data analytics to be done within SQL Server.

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition

Overview (from microsoft.com)

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition offers essential relational database functionality in a compact footprint ideal for embedding in mobile and desktop applications including a new generation of occasionally connected dynamic applications.
Sharing a familiar SQL syntax and common ADO.NET programming model with other SQL Server Editions, and management via SQL Server 2005 Management Studio, SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition allows developers and administrators to apply their existing skills and be immediately productive.

In addition, SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition enables scale-up of an application, either via a robust synchronization with other SQL Server Editions, or by moving to a higher edition of SQL Server. SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition allows you to extend your integrated data management platform deeper into your enterprise and into your mobile workforce. Download SQL Server Compact Edition Release Candidate 1 (RC1).

The SharePoint 2007 went RTM yesterday.

Announcing Process Monitor v1.0

Regmon and Filemon is now combined into a single tool, Process Monitor. Also included is other monitoring tools like process, thread and DLL monitoring.

There are all sorts of information displayed, including some basic data mining capabilites.

/Gill

Sysinternals Suite Now From TechNet

MS TechNet has rolled up the entire set of Sysinternals Utilities into a single
Suite of tools. This file contains all the individual tools & help files. The
whole thing is just 8MB.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/sysinternalssuite.mspx

Find a career with Dell! The Dell Careers Blog is Open

Source: msexchange.org

Zune another kind of four-letter word in Hebrew: Microsoft Zune: Doesn't sound sweet to everyone

October 20, 2006 (IDG News Service) -- Microsoft Corp.'s forthcoming digital music player, dubbed Zune, may make some Hebrew speakers gasp. The name for the device, which will take on the Apple iPod when released later this year, sounds like a vulgarity, specifically the "f" word, in Hebrew.

Read more.

IE7 Gold has gone live

Microsoft has released IE7 to the general public and is available from:http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/downloads/default.mspx

2006 January through September Vulnerability Trends

A compiled a large database of information covering vulnerabilities identified at http://cve.mitre.org and http://nvd.nist.gov that includes, among other things, sources concerning dates of public disclosure and references to the disclosures. With this database, it is possible to examine vulnerability trends over time and look for interesting events through the first 9 months of 2006.

Microsoft releases Windows Vista RC2

October 06, 2006 (Computerworld) -- Microsoft Corp. today released what it expects to be the final release of Windows Vista before the operating system is sent to manufacturing for distribution.

Windows Vista Release Candidate 2 (RC2), which is build number 5744, is being made available to 100,000 Customer Preview Program (CPP) participants, as well as to subscribers and members of TechBeta, TechNet, TAP and MSDN.

The company said that this newest build includes bug fixes, performance improvements, better application compatibility and "fit and finish" work -- tweaks to the look and feel of the operating system.

Microsoft also said that it is on target for making Windows Vista available to volume licensing customers in November and to consumers in January 2007. However, it added that "the final delivery will be based on quality" -- in other words, if it finds serious issues with the operating system, it would delay its planned launch. The company does not expect that to happen, however.

The company will continue to support RC1 through the official Windows Vista launch, and adds that RC1 can be used as the basis for logo certification.

Microsoft Research Builds BrowserShield

from: webappsec@securityfocus.com

"With BrowserShield, Wang argues, many such attacks could be blocked. BrowserShield can be used as a framework that rewrites HTML pages to deny any attempt at executing harmful code on browsers.

"We basically intercept the Web page, inject our logic and transform the page that is eventually rendered on the browser," Wang said. "We're inserting our layer of code at run-time to make the Web page safe for the end user."

URL: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2011765,00.asp

Windows Vista goes on sale at Amazon

Online retailer taking preorders; says software due Jan. 30

Toshiba to make Microsoft's Zune

Microsoft says Japanese firm Toshiba will make its Zune portable music player, due out later this year.