MS update still problematic

Various IT managers are putting off adopting Microsoft`s Windows update, saying it breaks too many applications.

According to eWeek, the software giant has already delayed the automatic roll-out of its Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) - until the middle of this week at earliest - as a result of consumer push back. Last week, the company published a list of approximately 50 applications that might not run with the update.

Microsoft published a complete list of resources needed to roll-out SP2 this week.

Brian Riley, senior programmer at a large US healthcare services company, is one of those looking to hold off full deployment due to the high number of concerns over the update. "We have $1.5 billion a year in revenue that rides on our network, and we are not intending to upgrade any clients until we test what it will do. We are going to test this sucker to death first in a test environment. Straight to production? Dream on!"

Online download company Napster is to introduce a music download chart that will list the most popular tracks on its UK service.

The Napster Online Music Chart will count down the top 20 tunes based on sales as well as songs that are streamed (listened to online but not bought for permanent download), and will be broadcast on Virgin Radio from 29 August.

According to BBC, the company said it would also play a part in the Official Charts Company (OCC), which will be broadcast on BBC Radio 1. The OCC chart will begin on 1 September and will indicate what people are listening to via their computers rather than what singles people are buying in the declining CD market.

The trend of spimming - unsolicited messages sent through an instant messaging (IM) service rather than to inboxes - is becoming increasingly popular, and analysts are predicting that around 1.2 billion of these messages will be sent this year.

Spimming serves as a low maintenance method of sending out junk messages because the system is automated, reports BBC. Most people use the IM service to interact with friends and colleagues, so there are fears that some people may be taken in by the spim messages because they think they are being directed to Web sites by someone they know.

Although spimming is increasing in popularity, it is not likely to become the next unsolicited epidemic, says Alyn Hockey, technical director for Internet security firm Clearswift.

"It`s not really as dangerous as spam. There are products being created to help control this. The manufacturers will have improved the software to eradicate it before it really becomes an epidemic."