Microsoft Subnet: An independent Microsoft community

Today's Top Pick

Happy Labor Day!

In honor of Labor Day the boss has given the editorial team a break from our labors. We'll be back on Tuesday scouting for all the latest Microsoft news for you. In the meantime, as is our tradition, we leave you with a list of links to help you best celebrate the holiday. Labor Day is the unofficial end of summer. It commemorates the tragic events in 1894 when laborers from the Pullman Company went on strike. Here's the history. Today's U.S. workforce is comprised of 154.4 million people, 16-years and older, according to the Washington Post's Labor Day by the Numbers. The Jerry Lewis telethon for muscular dystrophy will celebrate its 45th year on the air. Many Americans will fire up the grill, so here's a fantastic collection of BBQ recipes (with pictures, videos) from the Weber company. Don't forget to fly your U.S. flag. If the hurricane has you hanging out indoors, the U.S. Open tennis tournament is in full swing. NFL pre-season wraps up. MLB is in full swing. Stores have everything on sale. And please, pack away those summer white shirts, shoes and accessories -- winter white is now required.

Read entire post

SQL Marklar
Benchmarks aren’t the only test by Sean McCown
One thing that's no joke in IT is testing applications. It's something that gets overlooked so often and when it is done, it's not done right. And even discovering where your danger spots are can be difficult. Now, normally when I say testing I mean benchmarking, and that's certainly a part of it, but it's not the only part. There are actually 3 different levels of testing your DB and your app that you have to consider if you're going to be really thorough. And...

The Microsoft Update
CodePlex's Walli: No need to overhaul open source definition, licenses by Julie Bort
As long as Microsoft exists, there will be those who believe it's the KGB of the open source world, secretly doing everything it can to destroy the free software movement in general and Linux in particular. Microsoft has made so many missteps in regards to open source that you can't blame people for thinking that. But if you use Microsoft products to run your business, and would prefer it and other proprietary vendors (Oracle, IBM) find a better way to interact with open source projects than in... 1

Managing Microsoft
Windows Phone 7 RTMs by Kerrie Meyler
In time to be on smart phones by the Christmas season, Windows Phone 7 was released to manufacturing (RTM) today. The product and technology behind it replaces that used by Windows Mobile since version 5.0 in 2005.Today, mobile devices are the new PCs - with companies like Apple and Google dominating an industry that once pretty much was handed to Microsoft on a silver platter. Today, only dominating the desktop just doesn't cut it. The question now becomes, will Microsoft gain enough momentum...

Brian Egler's SQL Server Strategies
All change for Virtualization in R2… by Brian Egler
A common question now is how does Microsoft license SQL Server in the Virtual environment? In the early days of virtualization SQL Server was not an ideal candidate for consolidation due to the resource intensive nature of its processing. But now with the advent of superior Hardware and the support of Hyper-V and VMWare, many companies are looking at SQL Server virtualization to save hardware costs and provide flexibility. Well, the classic answer to the question is that “it depends” but also...

Privacy and Security Fanatic
Oh Snap! Consumer Watchdog kicks Google and CEO Schmidt HARD! by Ms Smith
Picture a 540-square-foot animated ad, a cartoon video mocking Google's CEO Eric Schmidt; now picture it running twice an hour, 36 times per day, in New York's Times Square. Consumer Watchdog has launched a huge and very public campaign against Google, highlighting its concerns over Google's privacy policies and the need for Congress to enact a national 'Do Not Track Me' list. The massive cartoon digital advertisement is titled “Don’t Be Evil?” The avatar-style animation features Schmidt...

Microsoft Tech
Where is Microsoft in the Apple, Google TV race? by Robert Mullins
The black turtlenecked-denim jeansed wonder swooped down into San Francisco again today with “one more thing” to dazzle Appleytes -- new iPods and a new and improved Apple TV. But Apple TV, along with a coming offering from Google, seem to be crowding out Microsoft in the competition for the TV operating system space.The new Apple TV appliance unveiled today and avaialble later this month will sell for the low-low price of $99 and will be capable of streaming movies, TV shows and other video... 7

Microsoft Tech
'Hello Kettle? This is Pot. You’re black.' by Robert Mullins
This story has been updated with new information on the HP-Dell bids for 3Par.It’s amazing the people you run into at a technology conference.Last night I was walking through a wine bar in San Francisco to stop in at one of many receptions held during VMworld 2010 and walked through another section of the bar full of people from 3Par, a storage vendor currently the object of a bidding war between two of the tech industry’s giants. Unable to resist the temptation, I went up to one of the people...

Privacy and Security Fanatic
Microsoft's Davis on Privacy: Your Digital Life Data is Bankable Currency by Ms Smith
What if there were eyes watching you and ears hearing you at all times, and devices tracking and mapping your location 24/7? For 5 billion people in the world right now, this is a real and true scenario made possible through mobile phones. Your smart phone has a camera, a microphone, GPS, a web browser, texts, calls, calendars, and contacts which can be traced back to you, a real person who created them at a specific time and at a specific location. In a perfect world, all the personal data... 3

Microsoft, Google and the Cloud
Even mighty VMware faces IT problems by Jon Brodkin
Few companies know IT better than VMware, but no organization is immune to technology problems. The issue of software-as-a-service applications moving into a business environment without IT's knowledge is a common one, and VMware Paul Maritz says it's one his company faces too. In his keynote at VMworld, Maritz said VMware's IT infrastructure includes 15 cloud-based apps, and indicated that they were "uninvited." "I didn't approve a single one of them," Maritz said of the cloud-based apps....

Author Expert: Excel 2010
Find and Replace in an Entire Folder of Excel Workbooks Using Easy-XL by Bill Jelen
Say that you have hundreds of similar Excel workbooks in a folder and you need to globally change "2009 Budget" to "2010 Budget" in all of the workbooks. This will be a long tedious process for someone. The Easy-XL program makes this task a breeze. Choose the folder, specify if subfolders should be used. You can specify if the search should include text, numbers, dates, or formulas. The program can ask you to confirm each replacement or simply attack the entire folder. Easy-XL is free to...