The Open Source Media Framework (OSMF) has been released for a couple of months now, and provides an abstract framework to easily deploy latest Adobe technologies, and a rich plug-in architecture for third parties.

Flash Media Server 4.0 has been announced at IBC, and it's a powerful release packed with a lot of new features.

What outlets did graphic design creativity go before the internet, aside from magazines and fliers stapled on telephone poles? OK that’s an exaggeration, but I do love the richness of the graphics to be found everywhere the net, and here’s just another great example: Crispian Jago put …

A majority of the advice aimed at helping startups manage relationships with venture capitalists is tailored for when that startup is raising or has raised funding. Certainly a lot of the interaction between startups and investors takes place during and after financing rounds, but there is a lot entrepreneurs can be doing before they seek funding to set themselves up for success with VCs. In a response to a question on the Q&A site Quora, VC Mark Suster offered his advice to entrepreneurs on how to manage relationships with VCs before fundraising begins.

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"Spending (small amounts) of time now will pay dividends later when (if) you actually do need money."
- Mark SusterSuster's first point is to pick and choose which VCs you decide to build a relationship with very carefully. There's no point in spending time on a relationship with a VC who is irrelevant to your product sector or who you can't imagine actually working with in the future (for any reason). It's a lot like dating when you think about it - if you're seriously looking to meet your future spouse, why waste time dating someone you'd never consider marrying?

"Don't come to a VC when you need money," says Suster. After all, you need to get to know the person you're going to marry before you get engaged. "It's too hard for them to assess your character in a short period of time (and vice versa) and it's too hard for them to see how your thinking, product & traction develop over time."

Another point Suster makes is that you want to build a relationship with a VC that is not "a yes man." Just as with relationships of the heart, being continually told what you want to hear does not a healthy bond make. VCs should be constructively skeptical and constantly challenging and questioning your every move - pushing your startup to grow.

While a startup is prone to spend much of its early time worrying about its product and its customers (as it should), Suster says that "spending (small amounts) of time now will pay dividends later when (if) you actually do need money." He advises newborn startups to make sure the VCs they engage are aware they aren't looking for funding at the moment, and to keep things casual - no formal pitches.

Communication at the onset of a VC/startup relationship is just as important as it is with a romantic relationship. Each party needs to know what they are getting into, and that they're on the same page. It may be more efficient to build up that relationship slowly through a series of small casual coffee dates rather than jumping in head-first with a full-blown steak-dinner-carriage-ride-through-Central-Park date.

"Once you've pitched and been turned down it is incredibly hard to re-engage that VC," says Suster.

Discuss

Earlier today T-Mobile officially launched the G2, its successor to the the company's flagship Android-powered G1 handset. In its announcement, T-Mobile's top selling point wasn't for the phone's hardware but for the fact that it can reach "4G speeds."

That little twist of language (is it 4G or isn't it?) comes on the heels of AT&T chiding T-Mobile earlier this year after T-Mobile called its own network 4G when in fact it's a revamped kind of 3G. Big carriers having a spat over marketing language? Or genuine disagreement over what those networks really are?

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This series on state-of-the-art wireless standards is brought to you by Intel.

Maybe both. According to the International Telecommunication Union, which sets network standards, "There is even more confusion within the wireless industry, as to what exactly constitutes 3G, because of the increasing use by some industry players of the term 4G. A number of the so called 4G technologies are in fact actually evolutions of 3G technologies."

T-Mobile, the nation's fourth largest carrier, is in the middle of upgrading its existing 3G network to what's called HSPA+ - a faster version of 3G. So what's 4G? That term, like 3G, refers to each generation of cellular wireless standards. According to the ITC, the fourth generation (4G) has to have download speeds of at least 100 mbps. Companies using technology that's faster than 3G (Sprint, using WiMax) or that will be using it in the near future (Verizon and AT&T using LTE) advertise that they're "4G" - but none of them offers that kind of speed.

Whatever category they fall into, at this point there isn't a huge difference between T-Mobile's HSPA+ and Sprint's 4G network. Limited studies done earlier this year found that T-Mobile had a slight edge on downloading speeds and a significant advantage when it came to uploading.

But speed isn't the only issue: 3G networks are already burdened to the point that users are subjected to caps on monthly data usage. To catch up to the other carriers, T-Mobile could build its own WiMax or LTE network - or invest in an existing one. Last week The Wall St. Journal reported that T-Mobile is interested in a relationship with Clearwire, the Sprint-backed company that provides WiMax 4G service.

As each carrier races up its network's speed, there's one thing to keep in mind:

"Next generation technologies like pre-4G and 4G with their promise of greater speed and spectral efficiency become all the more appealing to the players involved in [information and communication technologies]," wrote the authors of a recent Business Insights report. "However, the reality is that 80% of mobile connections are still on 2G networks and 3G connections are only available in some areas, even in developed countries, with the exception of a few leading countries."

Discuss

Huge problem: Malaria kills millions, but you can't just spray DDT anymore to wipe out disease-carrying mosquitoes (DDT also wipes out, oh, majestic bald eagles). What do do?

You could search for another toxin to spray. Or, if you're 3ric Johanson at Intellectual Ventures Laboratory, you could invent a new gadget. A gadget that tracks mosquitoes and blasts them out of the air with lasers.

IVL's Photonic Fence is audacious making, and only MAKE Volume 23 shows you exactly how they did it. In "Beam Weapon for Bad Bugs," Johanson takes you inside IVL and explains their technology and how his team solved four key problems to make it work: spot the bugs, target 'em, identify 'em (only females mosquitos bite -- you knew that), and then blast 'em in milliseconds.

Along the way you'll learn about computer vision software, mirror galvanometers, mosquito wing-beat frequency, and how to make what can't be made, when you want to do what can't be done.

Bonus: Make: Online has an behind-the-scenes tour of Intellectual Ventures Lab and their ultimate maker workshop for electronics, photonics, machining, culinary arts, and more, at makezine.com/23/mosquito.

From the pages of MAKE Volume 23:

MAKE Volume 23, Gadgets

This special issue is devoted to machines that do delightful and surprising things. In it, we show you how to make a miniature electronic Whac-a-Mole arcade game, a tiny but mighty see-through audio amp, a magic mirror that contains an animated soothsayer, a self-balancing one-wheeled Gyrocar, and the Most Useless Machine (as seen on The Colbert Report!). Plus we go behind the scenes and show you how Intellectual Ventures made their incredible laser targeting mosquito zapper -- yes, it's real, and you wish you had one for your patio barbecue. All this and much, much more.

Read the Full Story » | More on MAKE » | Comments » | Read more articles in Gadgets | Digg this!

Telegraph.co.uk
Google Instant: Pros and Cons
PC World
While Google is hyping Google Instant as the greatest thing since sliced bread, some see it as bad direction for the search behemoth. They argue Google should be focused on better search results, not gimmicks. Of course there are the believers who see ...
Opera support for Google Instant: 'shortly'CNET
Google Instant Search Demo: A First Look at Speedier SearcheWeek
How Will Google Instant Affect SEO?PC Magazine
USA Today -Wired News -Fast Company
all 1,613 news articles »

Linux Journal: "Man pages have been the primary source for UN*x documentation for a long time. Whenever I create a script that's going to be around for a while, I create documentation in the form of a section 1 man page. This stops my cell phone from ringing on the weekends when the junior sysadmins are looking for my notes."

While it's possible to go it alone and be a single-person founder of a startup, many people need - and prefer - to have a co-founder. As Graphic.ly CEO Micah Baldwin describes it, you want "a hacker and a hustler."

But finding someone who has the right skills, the right personality, the right work style, the right vision isn't easy. In fact, judging from the number of times you see people posting "looking for co-founder" on Hacker News, it's quite a challenge.

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On Monday, the Cofounder Network launched, aiming to help solve this problem by matching entrepreneurs from around the world. "By connecting superior entrepreneurs to start up new ventures," reads the blog post announcing the network, "we will boost the startup ecosystem and help solve world problems along the way."

The Cofounder Network is an initiative of techVenture, which already works to bring together entrepreneurs and investors. The Cofounder Network will function in a similar way, addressing both the screening and the matching of applicants.

You can either apply directly to the network or be referred by a partner. Currently, these partners include Startup School, Indiegogo, Linden Ventures, Palomar5, and others.

The application asks for entrepreneurs to describe "your personal mission in life," to give links to your digital identity, and to describe past experiences and achievements. Applicants are also asked to describe what they're looking for in an ideal co-founder.

The first step will be to look for a match locally, and if one can't be found to then look globally. The Cofounder Network has partners worldwide, and argues that "matching cofounders coming from different cultural hemispheres can bring another significant advantage."

Meeting people at local networking events, conferences, and (the most common place, perhaps) college may be the most well-known routes to finding a co-founder. But clearly that's not always an option, and so the Cofounder Network hopes to be another avenue for folks to explore.

Discuss

Trailrunner7 writes "There appears to be an actual email worm in circulation right now, using the tried-and-true infection method of sending emails containing malicious executables to all of the names in a user's email address book. The worm arrives via emails with the subject line "Here You Have" or something similar, and the messages contain a link to a site that will download a malicious file to the victim's PC. The malware then drops itself into the Windows directory with a file name of CSRSS.EXE, which is identical to a legitimate Windows file. From there, it's 2001 all over again, as the worm attempts to mail itself to all of the contacts in the victim's Outlook address book."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

PC World
Apple's App Store Guidelines Don't Change Anything
PC World
If you were to take a quick glance at today's tech headlines, you might think hell had frozen over. Apple, you see -- the company famous for rejecting apps with no explanation and often no discernable reason -- took the magical and revolutionary step ...
Apple Answers Questions About App Rejections, Raises OthersWired News
Tech stocks follow Adobe's lead to close with gainsMarketWatch
Apple blinks on dev tool restrictionsComputerworld
InfoWorld -InformationWeek -Register
all 1,076 news articles »

Linux.com: "The first step of any journey is the hardest part. Clich�d, but true. The first step in using Linux is to install it, and for many folks that step is the most intimidating. It doesn't have to be � most Linux distributions are easy to install, if you know what to expect. Here's how to prep for an install and get on with the journey."

The Omni Group's flexible task and project manager gains more filtering options, sharing features, and other polish.

On September 14, 2009 New York Times readers were automatically redirected to a site hosting malmare thanks to an ad containing malicious code. On July 15 2010, TweetMeme was the victim of a similar attack and began sending its users to a "scareware" site. These are just two examples of "malverstiing," one of the fastest growing security threats on the web. It's particularly scary because potentially any site with advertising could be a target, and users don't even have to click the ads to trigger malware. Use a Mac? You could still fall victim to phishing scams perpetuated by malvertisers. Scary stuff. So what do you need to know?

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Malware Isn't Just on "Sketchy" Sites Anymore

In the past, users who didn't frequent adult, gambling or other "sketchy" sites were relatively safe from harm. Now any site that contains third party content - even your own company's web site - is at risk. Earlier this year, Dasient released a report identifying the top three security vulnerabilities enterprise web sites contain: advertising was one of the three, along with other third party content.

According to ClickFacts CEO Michael Caruso, malware scammers are increasingly moving away from e-mail and buying advertising instead. An ad on a popular site can reach millions, and automated ad purchasing makes it easy to criminals to buy ads. According to Caruso, malvertisers will sometimes walk into offices impersonating legitimate buyers when automated systems aren't available, and often pay for ads with fake or stolen credit cards.

Malicous advertisements on search engine sponsored results and even organic search results is an increasing problem as well. Here's an example of a sponsored search result found on Google Bing by StopMalvertising.com:

Users who click the above ad are taken to a fake Adobe Flash web site where they are encouraged to download a malicious app.

Curaso also notes that it's become extremely easy for criminals with little technical proficiency to conduct malware campaigns as exploit kits are sold on the open market from servers in places like eastern Europe and China.

Users Don't Even Have to Click the Ads to Get Infected

According to Chris Larsen, head of Blue Coat's research lab, you don't even need to actually click on the ads. Blue Coat documented one way this is done: a site can use JavaScript to call hidden iFrames which load PDFs containing code that exploits Adobe Reader vulnerabilities.

Non-Windows Users Can Also be Affected

Non-Widows users can also be targeted by malvertising via phishing scams, though they will generally have to click on the ads served. Caruso told us about an instance of malvertising in which scammers bought ads that appeared to be from a major bank. Once users clicked through to the landing page, they collected bank account information from victims.

Malware has Graduated from Nuisance to Serious Threat

Larsen says that in the past there were two type of IT threats. First, mass non-targeted attacks that force or trick users into downloading malware. These have traditionally been mere nuisances for IT to deal with, as the symptoms (fake AV notifications, pop-ups, etc.) become rapidly apparent. Second, highly targeted attacks which perpetrators may spend months researching. These are more dangerous because the perpetrators are looking for specific, valuable company information.

The emergence of botnets has made malware into a serious threat. Compromised machines may not show any signs of infection, leaving backdoors wide open for exploitation. Larsen says it's been suggested that since botnet operators sell their services on the black market, those attempting to target a specific company could approach botnets with a list of IP ranges and offer to purchase control of specific machines in order to get a foothold in a specific network.

Patching will Protect You

Here's the good news: according to Larsen, most malvertising targets well known exploits. Keeping your operating systems and software patched is the best way to prevent damage from attacks.

Patch management is a notoriously labor intensive and thankless process, but as NSS Labs recently noted in a report it's one of the most important steps IT can take to protect its users.

Who's Trying to Help?

ClickFacts and Dasient both offer services to scan ad networks for malicious advertising. Dasient recently landed the ad network AdOn as a client, and ClickFacts counts News Corp as a customer. Last year, Google launched anti-malvertising.com (not to be confused with StopMalvertising.com) to help ad networks identify malvertisers.

One stumbling block security companies face, according to Larsen, is that ad networks tend to be secretive about how they serve ads in order to circumvent ad blockers. When ad networks aren't forth coming, it can be difficult to determine how malware is being served up and how to block it.

Caruso points out that companies shouldn't be placing blame - instead ad networks, publishers and security companies need to work together to solve the problem.

Discuss

I'm generally not much of a kit-buyer, but it seems like each one Windell and Lenore release is better than the last. They almost had me with the Bulbdial clock; I will probably not be able to resist the new Egg-Bot kit. They're taking preorders now, and the first kits are supposed to ship at the end of this month. Looks like new orders are already backed up into October.

More:

• EMSL's interactive Conway's Game of Life exhibit
• Bare-bones evil from EMSL
• Deluxe LED Menorah Kit from EMSL

Read the Full Story » | More on MAKE » | Comments » | Read more articles in Kits | Digg this!

Smule has updated its popular I Am T-Pain app with the T-Pain Dialer, a paid service lets you send Auto-Tune messages to anyone with a phone.

Gadgetank writes "Researchers out of the Australian National University have created a device, working in conjunction with other necessary devices, that can literally move small particles with light. And only light. The way it works is by shining a hollow laser beam around some tiny glass particles. The researchers heat the air around the particles, and therefore cause the dark center of the beam to remain cool."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Christian Science Monitor
T-Mobile G2 Plus HSPA+ Network Could Be a Fast Combo
PC World
T-Mobile has been crowing for quite some time now about the data speeds it is getting with its HSPA+ network, which is now in 55 US cities. Today it announces the first phone--the T-Mobile G2 (HTC)--that can actually take advantage of those speeds. ...
T-Mobile G2 Android phone first to use evolved HSPA serviceChristian Science Monitor
T-Mobile Announces G2, First HSPA+ Cell Phone in USPC Magazine
T-Mobile unveils its G2, the successor to first Android phoneComputerworld
eWeek -ChannelWeb -Digitaltrends.com
all 133 news articles »

We've already heard a few rumors about Olympus's supposed E-3 successor, the E-5, and the folks at 4/3 Rumors have now turned up another pair of leaks ahead of the DSLR's expected launch later this month. That includes a teaser that seemingly confirms that the camera will be announced on September 15th (just a day off the earlier rumor), and what appears to be the first image of the camera itself -- or a tiny corner of it, anyway. Those both suggest that the camera will sport a strikingly similar design to the E-3 it's replacing (something backed up by 4/3 Rumors' "trusted sources"), and the camera's specs also seem to be in line with what we've heard before -- including a bump from ten to twelve megapixels, and new 720p/30fps recording mode.

Continue reading Olympus E-5 leaks point to September 15th launch, familiar design

Olympus E-5 leaks point to September 15th launch, familiar design originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 17:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Groklaw: "FSF has issued a statement about Oracle's patent infringement lawsuit against Google over Android. While Google could have avoided all this by using the GPL'd IcedTea and they have yet to take a stand against software patents, still nothing, FSF writes, can excuse Oracle's patent aggression. "Oracle is wrong to use its patents to attack Android," FSF concludes."