Web service

A Web service (also Webservice) is defined by the W3C as "a software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network. It has an interface described in a machine-processable format (specifically Web Services Description Language WSDL). Other systems interact with the Web service in a manner prescribed by its description using SOAP-messages, typically conveyed using HTTP with an XML serialization in conjunction with other Web-related standards." Web services are frequently just Internet Application Programming Interfaces (API) that can be accessed over a network, such as the Internet, and executed on a remote system hosting the requested services. Other approaches with nearly the same functionality as web services are Object Management Group's (OMG) Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA), Microsoft's Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM) or Sun Microsystems's Java/Remote Method Invocation (RMI).

In common usage the term refers to clients and servers that communicate over the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) protocol used on the Web. Such services tend to fall into one of two camps: Big Web Services[citation needed] and RESTful Web Services. Such services are also referred to as web APIs.

"Big Web Services" use Extensible Markup Language (XML) messages that follow the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) standard and have been popular with traditional enterprise. In such systems, there is often a machine-readable description of the operations offered by the service written in the Web Services Description Language (WSDL). The latter is not a requirement of a SOAP endpoint, but it is a prerequisite for automated client-side code generation in many Java and .NET SOAP frameworks (frameworks such as Spring, Apache Axis2 and Apache CXF being notable exceptions). Some industry organizations, such as the WS-I, mandate both SOAP and WSDL in their definition of a Web service.More recently, REpresentational State Transfer (RESTful) Web services have been regaining popularity, particularly with Internet companies. By using the PUT, GET and DELETE HTTP methods, alongside POST, these are often better integrated with HTTP and web browsers than SOAP-based services. They do not require XML messages or WSDL service-API definitions.A highly dynamic and loosely coupled environment increases not only the probability of deviation situations that occur during the execution of composite services, but also the complexity in exception handling. Due to the distributed nature of SOA, loosely coupled feature of web services, the monitoring and exception handling issues about web services in SOA context is still an open research issue.When running composite web services, each sub service can be considered autonomous. The user has no control over these services. Also the web services themselves are not reliable; the service provider may remove, change or update their services without giving notice to users. The reliability and fault tolerance is not well supported; faults may happen during the execution. Exception handling in the context of web services is still an open research issue.

Creative Challenge: Ode to Edward Weston

Since the inception of the creative challenge, we have never held a challenge which required using a specific subject. This week, we thought we would ask you to utilize all the tips and tricks that you’ve learned in the past and challenge yourself to capture the most creative image of one subject: A bell pepper. It’s cheap, it has character and is common to find worldwide.

Edward Weston photographed the bell pepper a number of times. He wrote in his Daybooks, “It is classic, completely satisfying – a pepper – but more than a pepper: abstract, in that it is completely outside subject matter.” With his own unique vision and with many tries, he was able to finally capture a satisfying image of a pepper that was unique from anyone else’s pepper.

This week, we challenge you to be inspired by Weston and create a pepper that is truly all your own.

Below are some different examples of four bell pepper images that Kevin and Penny created using clamp lights, diffusion material and a lightbox.

The basic rules:

You may:

Use only one bell pepper within your composition. It may be yellow, green or red. However, as you are allowed to submit three entries, you may use a different color pepper per entry if you so choose.

The pepper may be photographed in any style you wish. Including, macro, wide angle, or zoom.

Use color, black and white, sepia, collage, selective color, make a mosaic…whatever you choose.

The pepper may be cut, left whole, photographed near, far…any angle you desire.

The background may be plain, textured, indoors, outdoors, in water, wherever you think your pepper looks best.

We would encourage you to explore creative lighting to make your pepper look as unique as possible. Including, but not limited to artificial lights, natural light, reflectors, flash…it’s up to you. If you need some inspiration, check out our blog entry about lighting techniques.

Use digital or film, traditional or untraditional photographic methods of creating your piece.

You may use filters (on-camera or digital) if you wish.

You may not:

Use more than one bell pepper in one shot.

It may sound redundant, but to be clear, do not use anything other a bell pepper. Do not use other peppers such as chili peppers, black pepper or a banana pepper.

Do not photograph your pepper with another subject. For example, no photos of kitty snuggling with your pepper.

OFFICIAL ENTRY RULES
To officially enter the Creative Challenge, you must tag your three submissions with creative-challenge-pepper. You can then view them and everyone else’s submissions on the DISPLAY PAGE (it updates about every hour). To find out more about this, read the Using Tags on Creative Challenges post.

Submission Guidelines
1. Our editors look for sharp, clear horizontal images that are at a minimum resolution of 800×600 (submissions can have larger resolutions than this). Currently, vertical images cannot fit in the homepage template. Therefore, we cannot publish vertical or narrow panoramic images.

2. Images with added text or images, including watermarks, logos, copyright symbols, graphic borders, frames and time stamps, will not be considered. Collages, however, are acceptable.

3. Please do not submit pictures that have already been featured on the homepage.

4. The Creative Challenge runs from 12:01 a.m. on August 27 to 3:00 p.m. on September 2 (all times EST).

5. 3 pictures per member tagged exactly (including hyphens) with: creative-challenge-pepper

*Note:Images that don’t meet the exact guidelines can be submitted and viewed for everyone to enjoy, but please understand that we cannot publish images that don’t meet minimum guidelines on the homepage. Also, now that you’re tagging your entries, you don’t need to post links in the comments section anymore.

NEXT WEEK’S THEME: Alphabet in Nature In the states, it’s back-to-school time. Use your creative eye to find the letters of the alphabet in your enviroment. Does the curl of a branch look like an “S” or does the building on your block look like an “A”? If you have children in your life, it could be a fantastic opportunity to include and educate them while they open your eyes to a world of ABC’s.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Next week’s challenge: “Alphabet in Nature” will be limited to the English alphabet, but not be limited specifically to only organic objects found in nature. Yes, buildings and manmade objects are also eligible, but physical signage will not be. In other words, no close ups of letters printed on other objects. More detailed information will be posted next week after the pepper winners have been announced.)