Rapidly growing DigitalOcean opens second NYC data center

Continuing its rapid expansion, cloud service provider DigitalOcean has opened a second facility in the greater New York metropolitan area -- a data center located in Google's gargantuan Manhattan facility.

The additional location is another sign of the fast-growing success the company has had in offering a low-cost, easy-to-use IaaS (infrastructure as a service).

"There's a huge market for developers out there who just want a server online as fast as possible, and that is what DigitalOcean provides," said Mitch Wainer, a co-founder and the chief marketing officer of DigitalOcean.

Although Wainer disputed that DigitalOcean's first New York City-area data facility, actually located in northern New Jersey, ran out of space, new users who have signed up in the past month or so were instructed that they could not host their accounts there, and were instructed to choose DigitalOcean's outlets in Amsterdam or San Francisco.

In any case, the company's user base is growing quickly. The company has accrued more than 35,000 customers since its launch in 2011, and its revenue is increasing by about 30 percent to 50 percent per month, Wainer said.

Internet service market analysis firm Netcraft noted that in June 2013 DigitalOcean had more than 7,000 Web-facing servers, a dramatic increase from the prior December when Netcraft counted only 100 DigitalOcean Web-facing servers.

This newest set of servers is being colocated with the Telx data center company, which leases space in Google's 3 million-square-foot building. The building takes up an entire block on 8th Avenue, in the Chelsea district of Manhattan.

DigitalOcean was founded with the idea of offering cloud hosting that would be easier to set up than what was offered by the market leader, Amazon Web Services (AWS).

"There was a huge void in the market," Wainer said. Amazon and Rackspace are focused on enterprise-scaled businesses, but businesses in the lower-tier to midlevel market, which don't require advanced feature sets and don't have full engineering teams to manage infrastructure, are completely ignored, he said.

With its wide range of services, Amazon Web Services recently launched a series of tutorials that can guide users into setting up virtual machines.

In contrast, DigitalOcean keeps its deployment options relatively simple -- and inexpensive. Accounts are billed either on a monthly or an hourly basis. The least expensive "droplet," which is what DigitalOcean calls a virtual machine, costs US$5 a month, or about $0.007 cents per minute, and features a single CPU core between 2GHz and 3GHz, 512MB of working memory, 20GB of storage and 1 terabyte of data transfers.

In contrast, the least expensive month-to-month option on AWS, a T1.micro image running Linux, would run about $14.96 per month, and does not come with any storage.

The company claims that users can set up a droplet, or resize it to another pricing tier, in less than a minute. It offers virtual machine images running basic versions of either the Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, Arch or Fedora Linux distributions.

The company is using a number of new technologies for competitive performance, including SSDs (solid state drives), which can boost I/O performance. For virtualization, DigitalOcean uses Red Hat's KVM hypervisor.

Just as Microsoft is doing with its Windows Azure service, DigitalOcean is initially pursuing the market of developers who need modestly priced machines to develop and test code.

Wainer points to the rapidly growing user base of GitHub, an online source-code repository, as proof of the potential size of the developer market. Founded in 2008, GitHub now hosts 7.7 million repositories from 3.3 million users.

"You can see from that market size alone, that this is a billion-dollar market opportunity," Wainer said.

While DigitalOcean has been courting the developer market, it is also suited for startup businesses as well, Wainer said. For instance, one startup using DigitalOcean is the RSS reader service NewsBlur, which has accrued a significant user base after Google shut down its own RSS reader.

Not that the company hasn't had a few bumps. Last month, one user found that the service was using identical SSH fingerprints for multiple Ubuntu droplets generated within a single account, which was a significant security vulnerability. The company has since fixed the problem.

"That's one of the things about being a startup -- you can't be perfect from the get-go," Wainer said, though adding, "Whenever there is an issue, we've been responsive."

DigitalOcean, which is based in New York City, now has 30 employees, though it is looking to hire network engineers and Linux system administrators. It is also expecting to get a significant investment from an outside party shortly, which will be used "to drive new features and acquire capacity in additional regions," Wainer said.

The company is planning to offer virtual private networking and object storage, similar to Amazon's Simple Storage Service (S3). It will also broaden its array of off-the-shelf virtual machines, including those with WordPress or other popular applications installed and ready for use.

PayPal opens up bug bounty program to minors

PayPal is opening up its bug bounty program to individuals aged 14 and older, a move intended to reward younger researchers who are technically ineligible to hold full-fledged PayPal accounts.

PayPal's program, which is a year old this month, only applied to those 18 years and older. Under the old rule, participants in the program were required to hold valid accounts, which excluded minors, said Gus Anagnos, PayPal's director of information security.

In May, 17-year-old Robert Kugler, a student in Germany, said he'd been denied a reward for finding a vulnerability. PayPal said the bug had already been found by two other researchers, which would have made Kugler ineligible for bounty.

In an apparent miscommunication, Kugler said he was initially told he was too young rather than the bug had already been discovered. Nonetheless, PayPal said it would look to bring younger people into its program, which pays upwards of US$10,000 for remote code execution bugs on its websites.

Those who are under 18 years old can receive a bug bounty payment through a PayPal student account, an arrangement where a minor can receive payments via their parent's account, Anagnos said.

Anagnos said other terms and conditions have been modified to make its program more transparent, such as clarifying which PayPal subsidiaries and partner sites qualify for the program.

PayPal pays much less for vulnerabilities on partner websites, which have a URL form of "www.paypal-__.com." A remote execution bug found on that kind of site garners only $1,500 rather than up to $10,000 on the company's main sites.

Like other bug bounty programs run by companies such as Microsoft and Google, PayPal will publicly recognize researchers on its website with a "Wall of Fame" for the top 10 researchers in a quarter. Another "honorable mention" page lists anyone who submitted a valid bug for the quarter.

Eusebiu Blindu, a testing consultant from Romania, was one of the researchers listed on the Wall of Fame for the first quarter of this year.

"I think Paypal is the best bug bounty program, and I am glad I participated in it from the first days of its launching," he wrote on his blog.

New vulnerability in Java 7 opens door to 10-year-old attack, researchers say

Security researchers from Polish vulnerability research firm Security Explorations claim to have identified a new vulnerability in Java 7 that could allow attackers to bypass the software’s security sandbox and execute arbitrary code on the underlying system.

The vulnerability was reported Thursday to Oracle along with proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit code, said Adam Gowdiak, the CEO and founder of Security Explorations, in a message to the Full Disclosure mailing list.

According to Gowdiak, the vulnerability is located in the Reflection API (application programming interface), a feature that was introduced in Java 7 and which has been the source of many critical Java vulnerabilities so far. Security Explorations confirmed that its PoC exploit code works against Java SE 7 Update 25 and earlier versions, he said.

The new issue identified by Security Explorations can allow hackers to implement a “classic” attack that has been known for at least 10 years, Gowdiak said.

This kind of attack used to affect the Java virtual machine (VM) in its early days, in the late ‘90s, he said via email.

“It’s one of those risks one should protect against in the first place when new features are added to Java at the core VM level,” Gowdiak said. It is surprising to discover that protection against this type of attack was not implemented for the Reflection API when Java 7 was being developed, he said.

The researcher claims that the vulnerability allows attackers to violate a fundamental Java VM security feature—the safety of its type system.

“As a result of the attack, one can conduct arbitrary cast operations between Java data types like an integer and a pointer,” he said via email. “In Java, cast operations need to follow strict rules, so that memory is accessed in a safe way.”

Gowdiak has criticized the implementation of the Reflection API in the past, saying that the feature doesn’t seem to have been subjected to a thorough security review.

He believes that the presence of this new vulnerability in Java 7 raises questions about the effectiveness of Oracle’s software security assurance and security-code review practices. “A huge pile of bugs go undetected by these policies and procedures,” he said.

At the end of May, Nandini Ramani, Oracle’s vice president of engineering for the Java Client and Mobile Platforms, reaffirmed in a blog post the company’s commitment to strengthening the security of Java.
“The Java development team has expanded the use of automated security testing tools, facilitating regular coverage over large sections of Java platform code,” Ramani said at the time. The team worked with Oracle’s primary provider of source-code analysis services to make those tools more effective in the Java environment and developed so-called “fuzzing” analysis tools to weed out certain types of vulnerabilities, she said.

“Sophisticated analysis tools should not miss simple Reflection API flaws,” Gowdiak said. “That should speak for itself.” 

Overhauled and personalized Google Maps beta opens to all

The newer, prettier version of Google Maps for the desktop is now available for anyone to try out without an invite, Google recently announced via Twitter.

The new Maps on the Web features vector-based maps, higher-quality images, and a completely new interface, but the central change that Google is pushing is Maps’ new focus on personalization. For directions, Maps is now supposed to highlight only the streets and landmarks you need to know about, making it easier to navigate.

The new Maps details specific locations and landmarks using a card-based interface similar to what you'll find in other Google products, such as Google Now and Google+.

  Driving and transit directions appear side-by-side, so you can judge whether you’re better off taking the bus or the car. Search results are labeled right on the map, and info cards drop down from the search box allowing you to take a quick look at a shop’s hours and location. And as you favorite locations and ask for directions, Google Maps learns your tastes and can begin to suggest other local hot spots you might want to try out. You can also set your home and work locations.

The new Maps displays several alternate routes right on the map itself, complete with mileage and traveling time. (Click to enlarge.) Despite these improvements, however, serious Maps fans may want to stay away from the new Maps as some features are currently missing.

“[Google Maps is] missing about 50% of the features of the old google maps like multi-point routing,” one user complained on Twitter in response to Google’s Maps announcement.

The older version of Google Maps had an option to add multiple destinations to your directions—a handy tool if you needed to find directions to several homes in one trip, or needed to find how best to get from home to school and then work.

Some power users also complained that terrain view was missing, while others simply were confused by the new interface and its lack of standard features from the old Maps interface, such as the My Location button.
We’ve asked Google if some of these features are slated to return to Google Maps and will update this post once the company responds.

See the "Return to classic" option? If the new version of Maps has got you down, you can revert to the old Google Maps by clicking on the settings cog in the upper right hand corner. The drop down menu will include an option that says “Classic Maps.” You can also click on the “Help & Feedback” button just below the settings icon, and select the “Return to classic Google Maps” option from there.

Once you return to classic Maps you will have the option of making the switch permanent—at least until the classic interface is discontinued.
You can also briefly return to classic Google Maps by clicking on the settings cog and selecting “My Places.” This won’t make a permanent switch and will only return you to the classic map view until you refresh the page.

If you’re just looking for single-point directions and don’t mind losing the terrain layer, however, the new version of Google Maps is well worth checking out. You can try it out at maps.google.com and then select the “Try it now” button in the left-hand pane. The new version of Google Maps requires you to sign-in with our Google Account. 

Manchester opens up transport data with Microsoft CityNext

Manchester is one of the first cities on Microsoft’s CityNext initiative to digitise public services using the cloud.

Transport for Greater Manchester used Windows Azure to host a new real-time open data platform that has already drawn more than 100 third-party developers, according to Microsoft.

Microsoft Azure was the city's first step into the cloud; it is now working to move employees to Office 365 for easier communication and collaboration across departments.

The initiative aims to use technology to manage cities. According to IDC's Smart City Maturity Model, many cities are now in the first stages of implementing smart technology as part of a 10 to 15-year transformation.

“The result of smart city initiatives will ultimately enable cities to attract businesses and citizens to build more vibrant city landscapes and competitive economies," said Ruthbea Yesner Clarke, director of the Smart Cities Strategies programme at IDC.

On the Microsoft government blog, Orlando Ayala, chairman of emerging markets at Microsoft, wrote: “This is the first time in history that the pieces are in place to fundamentally empower the people and businesses that can make a city thrive. Cities that get it right will have an edge in attracting talent, strengthening the economy, and creating liveable communities that are the envy of the world.”

Laura Ipsen, corporate vice-president of Microsoft worldwide public sector, said: "Working with our vast Microsoft partner network, we can scale solutions and services to do 'new with less', enabling cities to better compete in the global marketplace, drive citizen engagement, and foster economic, social and environmental sustainability."

Earlier this month, Microsoft announced that the new EU-wide European Medicines Verification System (EMVS) will be built on top of Windows Azure.

Box Office Report: 'Pacific Rim' Opens to $3.6 Million Thursday Night; 'Grown Ups 2' Nabs $2.3 Million

Fanboys turned out in strong numbers Thursday night to see Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim, taking in $3.6 million to match the start of World War Z, which went on to gross $66.4 million for the weekend.

From Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures, Pacific Rim made headlines as it opened in Asia on Thursday, grossing $3.8 million from seven markets. The 3D sci-fic epic outpaced a slew of films that went on to gross between $300 million and $400 million internationally.

The news from Australia, which often mirrors the U.S. in terms of playability, was more troubling. Pacific Rim grossed a soft $666,000 as it opened on Thursday, coming in No. 4 behind Despicable Me 2, the opening day of The Heat and Monsters University (with school holidays, Despicable 2 and Monsters U are thriving).

Sony's ensemble Adam Sandler comedy Grown Ups 2 didn't do too shabby either as it likewise began rolling out in North America Thursday night, grossing an impressive $2.3 million. That's a great result for a comedy and easily bested the $1 million earned Thursday night by box-office pleaser The Heat.

PHOTOS: 'Pacific Rim' Premiere: Big Robots Bring Out the Big Stars

Box-office experts are divided as to whether Pacific Rim can overcome poor tracking. Based on prerelease tracking, they believe it may only open in the $30 million range, a financially precarious beginning for a movie that cost at least $190 million to produce (Legendary took the lead on the project and paid for the majority of the budget).

But WB and Legendary believe Pacific Rim could gross well north of $40 million, based on strong reviews and the buzz on social media. The big question will be how much Pacific Rim drops. A fanboy-driven film often will do especially big business on Friday but see substantial declines as the weekend progresses. That won't be the case if Pacific Rim can lure families as well.

Pacific Rim, pitting giant robots against alien monsters, stars Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi and Charlie Day.

Imax theaters should do big business, with 23 percent of Thursday night's gross coming from Imax locations ($835,000). Overall, 52 percent of the $3.6 million came from 3D locations, including Imax.

Pacific Rim opens just as Thomas Tull's Legendary and Warners prepare to part ways. Earlier this week, Legendary announced it has struck a new co-financing and production deal with Universal.

Sony's Grown Ups 2, with a budget of $80 million, opens three years after the original film turned into a box-office hit, opening to $40.5 million and ultimately grossing $271.4 million worldwide.

The ensemble comedy -- receiving blistering reviews -- reteams Sandler with Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade, Salma Hayek, Maya Rudolph and Maria Bello. Grown Ups 2 had an abysmal 3 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes as of Thursday afternoon.

Sony insiders believe the sequel will open in the same range as the 2010 film.

Universal's megahit Despicable Me 2 could easily stay at No. 1 in its second weekend. The 3D animated tentpole has already earned north of $165 million domestically and over $316 million worldwide.

Michel Gondry's 'Mood Indigo' Opens Karlovy Vary

KARLOVY VARY – The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival kicked off Friday with a gala screening of L’Ecume des jours (Mood Indigo).

Co-star Audrey Tautou had to pull out of the red carpet event, but Oscar-winning director Michel Gondry raised the star wattage as Central Europe’s biggest film festival got underway, just before John Travolta arrives in the Bohemian spa town to introduce Mark Steven Johnson’s Killing Season.

Killing Season is perfect for Karlovy Vary as the picture sees Travolta and co-star Robert De Niro play veterans of the Bosnian war looking to settle scores after they fought on opposite sides of the conflict.

STORY: Karlovy Vary Fest to Honor John Travolta With Lifetime Achievement Award

And once Travolta receives the prestigious Crystal Globe lifetime achievement award, Karlovy Vary will get down to the serious business of spotting emerging cinematic talent, especially from Eastern Europe.

“We offer a thought-provoking opportunity for our audience to compare the work of young filmmakers from different parts of the world, meaning young auteurs from our territory with first- and second-time filmmakers from Western Europe, North America or Asia,” festival artistic director Karel Och told The Hollywood Reporter.

Karlovy Vary’s growing visibility comes as it acts as a launching pad for debut features -- including American director Lance Edmands’ Bluebird, which is screening in competition -- while continuing to focus on Hollywood fare this year with Steven Soderbergh’s Behind the Candelabra, David Mamet’s Phil Spector and Noah Baumbach’s Frances Ha.

STORY: Michel Gondry's 'Mood Indigo' to Open Karlovy Vary Film Festival

Karlovy Vary also has regional distributors testing the audience's reaction to new releases and discovering titles for possibly acquisition.

“As a matter of fact," says Ochs, "We programmers often recommend titles to our distributors to consider for the national release, as we travel a lot covering all significant events and screenings.”

Karlovy Vary launching as the Czech summer holidays start should help fill theaters this week.

The festival runs through July 7.

Follow me on Twitter @sajilpl

Box Office Report: Brad Pitt's 'World War Z' Opens to $3.6 Million Thursday Night

Paramount's zombie extravaganza World War Z grossed $3.6 million as it began its North American assault Thursday night, competing for attention with the final NBA championship game between the Miami Heat and the San Antonio Spurs.

Disney and Pixar's Monsters University, the weekend's other new entry, also began rolling out at 8 p.m., grossing $2.6 million. The long-awaited sequel is widely expected to top the North American box office chart with a debut in the $70 million-plus range. Earlier this year, Disney's Oz the Great and Powerful did $2 million in Thursday night business on its way to a $79.1 million weekend.

PHOTOS: 'Night of the Living Dead' to 'World War Z': The Evolution of Zombie Films

Pointing out that World War Z is an original property, Paramount is projecting a $40 million to $45 million domestic debut for the movie, starring and produced by Brad Pitt. But other box office observers says the film, based on Max Brook's 2006 novel of the same name, is likely to open in the $45 million to $50 million range.

Earlier this summer, The Great Gatsby took in $3.3 million in midnight shows on its way to a $50.1 million North American opening.

In addition to Monsters U, World War Z will have to compete with holdover Man of Steel, which could earn anywhere from $50 million to $60 million in its second outing.

Thursday night's basketball game no doubt kept many moviegoers at home. Hollywood studios -- including Paramount -- blanketed the game with ads promoting their movies, including two spots for World War Z.

World War Z, rated PG-13, cost $190 million to produce after tax incentives. Extensive reshoots bumped up the budget, which was originally at $150 million. The pic, directed by Marc Forster, was initially slotted to open in December 2010.

PHOTOS: 'World War Z' Premiere: The Zombie Apocalypse Starts in London

Overseas, World War Z is already scaring up strong business, scoring $5.7 million on Thursday and pacing in line with Christopher Nolan's original event pic Inception.

In South Korea, World War Z grossed $1.5 million, ahead of the $1.1 million earned a week ago by Man of Steel. Inception's opening-day gross in South Korea was $941,000.

World War Z grossed $1.1 million in Australia, in line with Inception. And the movie made the record books in Argentina, grossing $710,000, double the Man of Steel and the third-best Thursday of all time.

Twitter: @sajilpl

Box Office Report: 'This Is the End' Opens to Impressive $2.2 Million Tuesday Night

Seth Rogen and Evan Goldeberg's This Is the End earned a strong $2.2 million as it rolled out in select theaters Tuesday night at 7 p.m.

The R-rated end-of-the-world comedy -- marking the directorial debut of Goldberg and Rogen, who also stars -- is hoping for a pleasing five-day debut in the low $30 million range, which would recoup the film's $32 million budget. It opens everywhere in North America on Wednesday.

PHOTOS: 'This is The End' Premiere: The Apocalypse Gets Funny

In terms of comps, Summit Entertainment's ensemble magician pic Now You See Me grossed $1.5 million in Thursday night shows late last month on its way to a $29.4 million.

Also starring Jonah Hill, James Franco, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson, Michael Cera and Emma Watson, This is the End hopes to serve as counterprogramming to Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures' Superman entry Man of Steel, which begins rolling out Thursday night in the U.S.

In the comedy, the actors -- all playing fictional versions of themselves -- are attending a star-studded party at Franco's house when the apocalypse begins and they're forced to work together to survive. The feature is based on a short film created by Rogen and Baruchel in 2007 titled Jay and Seth vs. The Apocalypse. Rogen and Goldberg also co-wrote the scripts for Superbad, The Green Hornet and The Watch.

This Is the End, which will play in more than 2,900 theaters, also features several other cameos during the early scenes at Franco's house party, including appearances by Rihanna, Mindy Kaling, Jason Segel, Paul Rudd and Kevin Hart.

In terms of sheer gross, the comedy will be eclipsed once the highly anticipated Man of Steel debuts. Zack Snyder's superhero action film, produced by Christopher Nolan, opens in 24 foreign markets, including in South Korea on Thursday.

Among other major markets, Man of Steel opens in the U.K. and Mexico on Friday. The following weekend, the $225 million tentpole opens in 26 additional markets, including China, France, Germany, Italy, Russia and Spain.

Based on tracking, box-office observers are predicting a North American debut in the $85 million to $100 million range.

VIDEO: 'Man of Steel's' Henry Cavill on Fame: 'Going to Starbucks Is Now a Thing of the Past'

British actor Henry Cavill stars as Clark Kent in the origin tale, which sees his character trying to hide his superpowers and live a normal life on Earth. Amy Adams stars as Lois Lane, and Michael Shannon takes on the role of the menacing General Zod.

With a story by Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer, and a script by Goyer, Man of Steel will have a special screening at the Los Angeles Film Festival on Wednesday. It opens in limited release in the U.S. Thursday night, with a wide release on Friday in more than 4,200 theaters.

Warners and Legendary turned to Nolan as a producer on the project after he successfully revived the Batman franchise with his Dark Knight trilogy. In the summer of 2005, Nolan's Batman Begins opened to $48.7 million and had incredible staying power.

Twitter: @sajilpl

 

Box Office Report: 'World War Z' Opens Strong in Australia, South Korea

Paramount's World War Z is scaring up strong business as it begins rolling out overseas, scoring stellar opening-day numbers in South Korea and Australia on Thursday.

The Brad Pitt zombie extravaganza took in $1.1 million in Australia, on par with Christopher Nolan's Inception, likewise an original tentpole. Inception posted a weekend opening gross of $6.7 million.

PHOTOS: 'World War Z' Premiere: The Zombie Apocalypse Starts in London

In South Korea, World War Z grossed $1.2 million, just ahead of the $1.1 million earned a week ago by Superman tentpole Man of Steel on its way to an $8.6 million weekend. Inception's opening-day gross in South Korea was $941,000.

"These markets look great," remarked one top Paramount executive.

World War Z, directed by Marc Forster, begins rolling out in North America at 8 p.m. Thursday.

Paramount is predicting a domestic opening in the $40 million to $45 million range for World War Z, which is rated PG-13. But more bullish box-office observers with access to tracking believe the movie -- produced by and starring Pitt -- could open in the $50 million range, while holdover Man of Steel could earn anywhere from $50 million to $60 million in its second outing.

Disney and Pixar's Monsters University is widely expected to win the weekend with a $70 million-plus debut.

FILM REVIEW: 'World War Z'

Versus a big opening, Paramount and co-financing partner Skydance Productions are banking on World War Z to have a better-than-usual multiple, similar to other original tentpoles. Avatar debuted to $77 million in December 2009 on its way to cuming $760.5 million domestically, or 10 times its opening number. And in summer 2010, Christopher Nolan's Inception grossed $292.6 million, nearly five times its $62 million debut.

Paramount insiders point out that very few original event pics open to $50 million or more. And while Pitt may be one of the world's most recognizable stars, his biggest opening was the $50.3 million earned by Mr. and Mrs. Smith in summer 2005.

World War Z, based on Max Brooks' 2006 novel of the same name, is a sizable gamble for the studio, costing $190 million to produce after tax incentives. The budget was originally $150 million, but extensive reshoots bumped up the number (it was initially slotted to open in December 2010).

The apocalyptic horror pic is a passion project for Pitt, who produced the movie via his Paramount-based production company Plan B. In the film, he plays a retired U.N. employee who must return to work and stop a worldwide pandemic that is turning humans into zombies. The Killing's Mireille Enos stars as his wife.

World War Z, which has received generally positive reviews, is opening in a total of 26 foreign markets this weekend.

Twitter: @sajilpl

Leap Motion Opens Airspace App Store Beta, But the Hardware Is Still Delayed

 

 

Remember the Leap Motion, the movement-sensing hardware device that was going to change the world? Well, it was supposed to arrive in May and promptly blow all of our minds, but it’s still not here yet.

 

However, the gesture-tracking platform is at least one hand-swipe closer to reality. Leap Motion, the company that makes the hardware controller of the same name, is rolling out its developer portal and SDK to the public this week.

 

The tiny trackers themselves won’t ship until July 22, but this week’s software release should help get developers up to speed on how to code for the hardware before the controllers finally ship. Any developers who sign up for the beta program will get the Leap Motion SDK, as well as access to the developer web portal.

 

Leap Motion CEO Michael Buckwald told me that there are only a few beta items in the app store for now, mostly because developers who have access to the hardware haven’t finished their apps yet, but also because some developers who do have the sensors and have finished their apps have chosen to remain secretive and keep their work under wraps until the hardware debuts.

 

This week’s release also doesn’t mean the company will be releasing more of its devices to developers, Buckwald says. By releasing the beta SDK, more developers will be clued in to the Leap Motion’s specific capabilities, and the web forum will give them the opportunity to talk with other devs who already have the device. This new crop of developers in the developer portal will still have to wait until the Leap Motion ships on July 22.

 

When I interviewed Buckwald at the company’s office in San Francisco, I got to play with the Leap Motion again. And it’s still awesome.

 

Announced last year, the Leap Motion gesture-based controller has already attracted some very big name developers. It’s been adopted by Google for navigation of Google Earth. Asus is testing it for use in the company’s all-in-ones and laptops, and HP is planning on using it to add gesture capabilities to its consumer PCs later this year.

 

Even with all the interest, the device maker has hit more than a few bumps. The initial ship date of May 13 was pushed back to July 22. Buckwald says his company pushed the release back in order to do some more comprehensive testing, the fruits of which have made their way into today’s beta released.

 

So, fingers crossed for tons of hand-waving come the end of July.

 

Update: An earlier version of this article reported that the Airspace app store was available as part of this week’s opening of the SDK and developer portal. The Airspace app store is only available to the initial 10,000 developers that have already been granted access to beta program.

 

 

Weekend Plan: MOCA Opens New Southern California Architecture Show

There is a large grey mouse sitting cartoon-like on its tail, with a Pac-Man figurine nestled in a niche within its belly, in a large grey room in a major museum in Los Angeles. Beside it, there is a crude finger drawing of two dancing teeth on the wall. To the left a sculpture of a powerful man aggressively absconding with a reluctant woman melts before the museum-goer’s eyes. The head of the man has severed due to the heat and fallen to the floor. No, this work by Urs Fischer at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA is not an homage to Jeffrey Deitch so far as I know (though numerous Deitch portraits that were crafted by the 1,500 Angelenos who helped Fischer can be seen in the installation). But the scrutiny and criticism that Mr. Deitch has received since his arrival as director of MOCA in 2010 somehow connects the two. And as the tragic/heroic/comic sculpture by Fisher is still lit by candles within, Deitch forges on and continues to deliver a fresh, invigorating museum experience at MOCA.

Earlier this week saw the opening of an exhibition at MOCA whose name won’t stop changing (A New Sculpturalism: Contemporary Architecture from Southern California at the moment of publication) of 38 emerging and established architects from Los Angeles and the immediate vicinity. This ambitious and mesmerizing multi-media installation endured some controversy in its inception due to the sudden exit and eventual return of Gehry Partners from the lineup of studios selected.  The show is a remarkable collection of meticulously executed architectural models interspersed with drawings and schematics organized by broad categories of building type. Three pavilions produced by some of the edgier, emergent design firms and a series of multi-media overhead projection shells energize the space and remind viewers of the spatial emphasis of the exhibition.

STORY: A Self-Consciously Weird 2013 MOCA Gala Raises $2.5 Million

The Hollywood Reporter sat in on a panel discussion featuring five architects included in the show: Thom Mayne of Morphosis Architects; Georgina Huljich of Patterns;  Tom Wiscombe of Tom Wiscombe Design; Neil Denari of Neil M. Denari Architects (NMDA); and Eric Owen Moss of EOM Architects, who was the moderator of the discussion.

The panel discussion was most interesting when it highlighted the differences between the different generations of architects participating.  In a discussion of who defines architecture, the more established architects, Mayne, Denari and Moss, were determined that it was the architect’s role to define the term. The younger, emerging talents Huljich and Wiscombe argued for a more fluid, less categorical approach in which the user ultimately determines the boundaries of the concept. Following the discussion, The Hollywood Reporter spoke with architect Thom Mayne and MOCA Director Jeffrey Deitch about some challenges for architecture in Los Angeles and about the exhibition on view. Below are some excerpts from the conversations:

THR: Do you see this younger group of LA architects embracing the challenge of civic architecture and taking on projects with public spaces?

Thom Mayne: Well, the civic entity has to engage the architect. Architects, by nature, we’re trained in a classical way. It starts with Vesuvius, Palladio, and the highest esteem of architecture is public work. Everybody as a student knows that. Somehow in their brain they have an idea of a trajectory as an architect as they grow older. They’re going to build a concert hall, a music hall, a city hall, a school, a building on a college. That’s the work. And to get there you do residential work. In some cases, you continue doing that. But that’s still the highest order of work – it has a broad social agenda, a cultural agenda. You are invited for that. The architect doesn’t get the choice for that.

THR: So in a way you have to earn that.

TM: In a way. The council, the mayor, the city decides that architecture is important and instead of hiring a business practice just to build a building, they hire someone to design a building that has monumental, enduring qualities, which by the way is the history of the world -- it’s nothing unusual. Any city, if you look at buildings, you can immediately differentiate important buildings by the stature of the architect.

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THR: In that case, do you think that cities are embracing the challenge of hiring architects?

TM: This city has started to. Obviously with the Caltrans building and Frank [Gehry] with Disney Hall.  It’s a young city, so it’s just beginning the process. It’s a signal of an early development of a city. It’s a big city, but it’s a young city. It’s a city that you could say started at the first of the twentieth century, but really started as a city with institutions in post World War II. So here we have a city that is only half a century old – it’s a young, young city -- it’s first growth.  If you think about even our institutions -- you look at Ahmandson, you look at MOCA and LACMA -- it didn’t have museums or concert halls until the early 1960s.  Well, now you couldn’t even define it as a city without those things…There is no possibility that it won’t take place. It will take place, but it just takes time.

THR: There has been a little bit of turmoil with this show coming together. Based on your life with MOCA so far, would it be fair to say that you might be a little disappointed if this show just came together without a hitch?

Jeffrey Deitch: See, this is what the creative process is about. And I’ve been immersed in this for forty years. To realize a great creative project it’s not always a smooth course. And sometimes you have to change course, sometimes there are impediments, but if you have the belief, the vision, I try to push it through. And in the best cases, when there is some difficulty, if you approach it strategically and understand how to deal with the challenges you can make it better. And in this case, we were able to make the show better than we would have imagined in the beginning. And the privilege of having one of the greatest architects alive conceive the installation -- what a privilege. This is incredible. It is very difficult to make an exhibition of primarily architectural models and drawings -- 38 architects -- look exciting. And Thom Mayne and his team have succeeded in doing that. And in addition to creating this visually exciting platform here, they’ve figured out a way to put the central content up there on these screens – images of the real buildings in the world, the voices of the architects.  It adds tremendously to the experience of the exhibition.

A New Sculpturalism: Contemporary Architecture from Southern California will be on view at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA through Sept. 16.  The exhibition is presented in conjunction with Pacific Standard Time presents: Modern Architecture in LA, an initiative of the Getty Museum.