Microsoft has started distributing two online surveys to Linux User Groups and Linux users in general, one asking primarily about home computer use, the other about business use. They apparently don't plan to release the results of their surveys, so we and other people in the open source community are asking you to look at them and post your answers and comments here and on other appropriate sites where, in open source style, everyone can see them. Read on for more information and links, and please help spread the word about these surveys; as far as we know, this is the first time Microsoft has asked Linux users why we use Linux instead of their products, and the more results, the merrier.

EINDHOVEN, The Netherlands -- Philips Electronics said on Tuesday it was six months away from launching a system against illegal copying that will allow consumers to play digital video and music on any digital media player.

Philips hopes the so-called digital rights management (DRM) system being developed by Intertrust, which it jointly owns with Sony, will replace a confusing array of proprietary systems.

A decision on where to site the world's first big nuclear fusion reactor has been postponed until next year.
Officials from several countries meeting in Washington were divided on whether to build the international reactor in France or Japan.

The US has been against the French option because of France's opposition to the US-led invasion of Iraq.

Nuclear fusion holds out the promise of virtually limitless pollution-free energy.

MUTE is a new file sharing network that provides easy search and download functionality while protecting your privacy. It does this by routing all messages through a network of neighbour connections, using virtual addresses and encrypting all the traffic (using RSA for public/private keys and AES for the actual encryption). MUTE's routing mechanism is inspired by ant behaviour. The program is available for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X.

An open source and freeware software development web site has released a patch to fix the URL spoofing vulnerability in Internet Explorer, which can be exploited by scammers who try to trick people into revealing details of online banking accounts or other private information.

Openwares.org, a Vaunatian company, with branches in Israel, the US and France, released the patch and the source code for the same a couple of days back.

The company has also set up two pages where users can test to see if they are vulnerable to the exploit, one a fake Microsoft Update example and the other an example of a fake PayPal site.

Tuesday's audit by the Los Angeles Police Commission's inspector general concluded that supervisors do not regularly review the "digital in-car video system" (DICVS) footage.

The audit comes as the recording of police activity—either by the public or by police video cameras—has become a national phenomenon in the wake of an 18-year-old unarmed teenager being shot and killed by a Ferguson, Missouri, police officer in August.