Slashdot Mirror
Grid Computing Meets Web Services?
jgeelan writes "According to an article in the current issue of Web Services Journal, by ex-IBM, ex-Vitria Technology, ex-IONA middleware maven Dirk Hamstra, the open source initiative known as OGSA, the Open Grid Services Architecture, is poised to bring utility-based computing a step closer. "The combination of Web services and grid computing," Hamstra writes, "virtualizes networked resources using common computing standards, making them accessible to a larger audience." Amazing what a little R&D money from IBM, a prime grid-computing mover, can achieve."
The worst terrorist attack in recorded history occurred just a year ago, followed by a Holy War against Islam, and now Israel and the Palestinians as well as India and Pakistan are teetering on the brink of their own war, Argentina is in the midst of a financial crisis, America is considering launching attacks against Somalia and Iraq, and you people have the gall to be discussing grid computing???? My *god*, people, GET SOME PRIORITIES!
The bodies of the thousands of innocent civilians who died (and will die) in these unprecedented events could give a good god damn about grid computing (especially since none of them will be around to ENJOY IT), your childish Lego models, your nerf toy guns and whining about the lack of a "fun" workplace, your Everquest/Diablo/D&D fixation, the latest Cowboy Bebop rerun, or any of the other ways you are "getting on with your life" (here's a hint: watching Cowboy Bebop in your jammies and eating a bowl of Shreddies is *not* "getting on with your life"). The souls of the victims are watching in horror as you people squander your finite, precious time on this earth playing video games!
You people disgust me!
Never forget those that died.
#30 Tassels in the Air (1938)
#34 Three Missing Links (1938)
#43 Three Sappy People (1939)
#33 Violent is the Word for Curly (1938)
Highlight of #43 - The wild tamale, other food (?) thrown around the table, with Ann Doran giving a terrific performance as the aristocratic woman with the English accent ["thank yaw"] who bears the brunt of Curly (coughing) and Moe's (throwing) stuff repeatedly in her face.
Also, the brilliant Richard Fiske [nee, Thomas R. Potts] as the Sgt. in "Boobs in Arms") laughs at Ann's predicament and she then retaliates on him! The boys were janitors who are called upon to be psychiatrists, Dr.'s Ziller, Zeller, and Zollar.
Can't say enough about Lorna Gray ["Sherry Rumsford"] (Adrian Booth Brian, still alive), with that infectious laugh and her throwing food and having a wonderful birthday--until her husband [Don Beddoe (1903-1991) - who appropriately enough, plays a (white-haired) dean of the Psychology Dept. of a college, 29 years later, in 1968's, "The Impossible Years" with David Niven featuring a young, beautiful, Christina Ferrare!], shows her what a fool she was when he dumps her birthday cake on her head to end this wacky short. [Beddoe featured in #59 Fall '91 (obit), and #67 Fall '93 of "The Three Stooges Journal"] [Gray, [nee, Virginia Pound], July 26, 1924 - , featured in #84 Winter '97]
Was Lorna only 15 when she made "Three Sappy People"??? She certainly didn't look like a 15 year-old girl! Then she was all of 16 when she was 'Mattie Herring' in "You Nazty Spy!" in 1940.
Is it any coincidence that three of my Top 10 favorite shorts, #7 "Pop Goes the Easel", #43 "Three Sappy People" and #58 "In the Sweet Pie and Pie" all have the greatest food (clay in #7) throwing scenes in the history of slapstick comedy? :-)
Highlight of #33 - "Swingin' the Alphabet" song--and the pretty blonde girl on the right in the front row with her skirt all the way up to her knees showing off her beautiful legs. :-)
Has anybody else noticed other supporting Stooge players (living or dead) in other films or on television and immediately recognized their names or their faces? I noticed and immediately recognized Don Beddoe's name in the opening credits as when I first saw "The Impossible Years."
I just want to say, no matter in how off-topic a way, that I'm proud to see that the first story posted on Slashdot on September 11, 2002, had absolutely nothing to do with last year's terrorist attacks. Folks, we're not terrified, and because of that, we've already won the war, regardless of the battles yet to be fought.
Why Star Wars is better than Star Trek
1. A Trekkies hero is some pansy running around in pastel spandex.
2. Ships in star wars actually have modifications.
3. Gene Roddenbery has also created a crap TV series called Earth: The Final Conflict that gets worse ratings than UPN. George has also created the blockbuster Ammerican Graffiti.
4. Picard dodges asteroids. Vader blows them up.
5. Star Trek has Cptn. Janeway. Star Wars has Princess Leia.
6. Star Trek has one language. Star Wars has over 6 million.
7. Two words: Boba Fett.
8. Remind me again who can kill someone with a mere hand motion.
9. The Super Star Destroyer Eclipse is 30 times bigger than the enterprise.
10. Star Trek Officers have to ask for permission to fire.
11. Where's the alternative song dedicated to Troi? Blink 182 made the song "A New Hope" dedicated to Princess Leia!
12. Weird Al wrote the song Yoda, what song is out there about Q, let alone written by Weird Al!
13. Frank Oz of the muppets was in Star Wars. Star Trek couldn't even get Frank Oz's Latin American equal if they wanted to!
14. There is a category in Yahoo! titled Anti-Star Trek!
15. Let's look at the actors that came out of both series: Out of Star Trek came William Shatner, and Patrick Stewart. Out of Star Wars came Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, James Earl Jones, SIR Alec Guiness and Peter Cushing!
16. Star Trek could never get a good music composer, so they changed periodically, finally ending up with Jerry Goldsmith, a mediocre composer with a couple of movies below his belt. Star Wars has always had John Williams, a music GOD who is also one of the most respected music composers that has ever graced god's green earth and has composed over 120 projects to date!
17. Gene Rodenberry, the creator of Star Trek, is right now cremated flying around in space in a little pod. George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars, is still out there making more Star Wars films!
18. Star Trek changes special FX companies every once and a while because they are never happy with them. Star Wars launched their own special FX company, ILM, which is grown to be a HUGE success, not to mention another FX company started by Lucas, THX, also a huge company!
19. The games Star Wars have had are Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, all for Nintendo; Super Star Wars, Super Empire Strikes Back, Super Return of the Jedi, all for Super Nintendo; Shadows of the Empire, for N64; Masters of Teras Kasi, for Playstation; and Dark Forces, Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight, X-Wing, TIE Fighter, X-Wing Vs. TIE Fighter, Star Wars Monopoly, and Yoda Stories, all for the computer! Star Trek has Star Fleet Academy, and a couple other CD-ROM's for information purposes only!
20. When's the last time anyone from Star Trek has even been ON MTV? Chewbacca is the 1997 MTV Lifetime Achievement Award Winner!!!!!!!!!
21. The aliens in Star Wars don't look like humans.
22. Luke could whip Data's ass.
23. Star Fleet vs. Imperial Navy(you decide).
24. In Star Wars when our shields are down we still have the guts to attack.
25. A lightsaber goes through Borg like a hot knife through butter. (Assimilate this!)
26. A 900 year old three-foot green alien could kick the hell out of Kirk and Picard at the same time.
27. A Death Star could annihilate the Borg in a second.
28. Chewie could kick Worf and any other Klingon's butt.
29. Darth Vader vs. Kirk(need I say more?).
30. There is no logic only the FORCE!!!!!!
31. In Star Wars, every planet they go to looks cool and has neat aliens. In Star Trek, every planet looks like a blue-screened backlot and all the aleins are extras Gene Roddenberry slept with.
32. No lame-ass "Prime Directive" stopping you from whipping ass.
33. When a ship in Star Wars gets hit, everyone rolls in the same direction.
34. Stormtroopers may not be able to hit the broadside of a barn, but they're still a lot more threatening than a space-faring Abraham Lincoln.
35. In Star Wars, all chicks are fair game. Heck, even your sister.
36. Han Solo never had to degrade himself by shooting a baggy-suited reptilian alien with a hollow log and some charcoal.
37. You can safely wear a red shirt in Star Wars.
38. Luke Skywalker could kick Wesley Crusher's ass with one hand behind his back. Hell, Luke's cut-off hand could kick Wesley's ass with itself tied behind its back.
39. Kirk would have just used the Force to "get some."
40. Roddenberry=dead. Lucas=genius.
41. Star Wars at least has aliens who aren't just humans in costumes with two legs and two arms.
42. Star Wars has no characters who look like they can file mail on their foreheads.
43. Star Wars officers wear respectible attire while star trek losers wear tight spandex, jumpsuits that look lie they came out of a jazzercise lesson. not to mention that it really looks perverse.
44. In Star Wars, the interiors of the ships were not decorated by better homes and gardens. (i.e. faggy pastel colours)
45. The Star Wars universe does not include that abortion of a hat that whoopi goldberg wears in star trek!!
46. Darth Vader
47. The Dark Side of the Force is more powerful than the Q!
48. Chewie is quite capable of freeing warf of his knee caps.
49. There are no klingons that cling to uranus!
50. STAR WARS WAS MADE IN 1977 AND ITS SPECIAL EFFECTS ARE BETTER THAN THOSE OF star trek (KNOWN AS A RIDICULOUS EXCUSE FOR SCI-FI) NOW!!!!!
51. In Star Wars they have BLASTers and there's no such thing as a "stun setting".
52. Picard shows his dislike of children by not having them. Vader shows his dislike by seducing them with the dark side.
53. Alec Guinnes is a SIR. Patrick Stewart is not.
54. The Federation has the Prime Directive. The Empire has the Death Star.
55. One word: HELMETS
56. Star Wars happened a long, long time ago. It's historical fact.
57. Jean-Luc rides horses. Luke rides Taun-Tauns.
58. Jawas are cooler than Ferengi.
59. NO Wesley Crusher!
60. An X-wing could toast any of there fighters any day.
61. Sick bay is for wimps!
62. Speeder bikes are too fast and dangerous for the Trekkies, they might get hurt.
63. What's up with LaForge's visor/glasses, he looks like Cyclops from the X-Men!
64. The Death Star could blow up the Enterprise in one shot!
65. Picard's head is so bald, you could almost see what's on his mind. (If he had one)
66. Who do you think would win on a head on collision, a Super Star Destroyer, or the Enterprise?
67. Worf has more rolls on his head then that in a bakery!
68. Deflecting phaser shots and cutting the Star Trek cadets heads off with your lightsaber rules!
69. Chewbacca can kick Worf's ass!
70. Two words: John Williams
71. In Star Wars, they know to keep bald heads (Darth Vader's) under helmets
72. More belching muppets in Star Wars
73. William Shatner has never directed Star Wars
74. No Star Wars plots revolve around trying to locate source of unknown radiaton/tachyons/muons/pulse/flux/particles etc
75. No Lxwana Troi
76. The planets in Star Wars don't all look like the same adobe villas left over from the "Zorro" TV series
77. Aliens with alien accents
78. Rust
79. "Star Trek 5"
80. Two words: Boba Fett.
81. The guns are real English Sterling machine guns and German Mausers...not dustbusters!
82. Ten Forward doesn't have a cool Bith band! (Heck--they couldn't even get Max Rebo to play there!)
83. I bet Grand Admrial Thrawn could have defeated the Borg at Wolf 359!
84. ST's bald captain--covered in cyberenetics--was only the spokesmind for the Borg. Lando's bald right-hand man, with just a cool walkman on his head, had the entirety of Cloud City at his every command.
85. "Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith" sounds cooler than "Captain Jean-Luc Picard."
86. Imperial and rebel uniforms actualy have POCKETS!
87. The Federation has ships named Voyager, Reliant, and Enterprise...the Empire has ships named Devistator, Avenger, and Executor!
88. Star Trek robots can not use contractions and have trouble with emotions. Star Wars robots can speak over 6 million forms of communication fluently and whistle to themselves just because they can.
89. Captain Picard only cried like a baby in a vinyard after turning evil and being rescued. Anakin Skywalker kicked the Supreme Ruler of the Galaxy's ass!
90. "Look sir, droids!"
91. No time travellers picking up their own heads!
92. No alternate universes!
93. No transporters to save your butt at the last minute!
94. Aliens with makeup somewhere besides their foreheads!
95. Starship battles in three dimensions!
96. War, not neutral zones!
97. No ultra-powerful aliens with one-letter names!
98. No holodecks for lame plot ideas invented by actors!
99. Leia in the harem girl outfit at Jabba's!
100. In the Star Wars universe, weapons rarely, if ever, are set on "stun."
101. The Enterprise needs a huge engine room with an anti-matter unit and a crew of twenty just to go into warp--the Millenium Falcon does the same thing with R2-D2 and a Wookie.
102. After resisting the Imperial torture droid and Darth Vader, Princess Leia still looked fresh and desirable-- after pithy Cardassian starvation torture, Picard looked like hell.
103. One word: lightsabers.
104. Darth Vader could choke the entire Borg Collective with one glance.
105. The Death Star doesn't care if a world is Class "M" or not.
106. Luke Skywalker not obsessed with sleeping with every alien he encounters.
107. Jabba the Hutt would eat Harry Mudd for trying to cut in on his action.
108. The Federation would have to attempt to liberate any ship named Slave I.
109. Picard pilots the Enterprise through asteroid belts at one-quarter impulse power. Han Solo floors it.
110. I've never heard anyone in Star Wars brag about knowing a ship like the back of his hand and then hit his head on an overhang.
111. James Earl Jones' voice is not as irritating as Majel Barret's.
112. Compared to Darth Vader, Q is just too melodramatic.
113. Compared to Vader, Khan is just too high-strung.
114. Star Wars isn't afraid to put the women in charge (ex. Leia, Mon Mothma, Admiral Daala, etc.).
115. In Star Wars, dead is dead. None of this Spock-Vulcan-resurrection bullcrap.
116. In Star Trek, to fix something you need to know about Dilythium Crystals and Anti-matter enducers and Isolinear Chips and yadda yadda yadda. In Star Wars, the only thing you need to know is that THIS one goes here, THAT one goes there!!
117. Those Ewoks aren't as annoying as those damn tribbles, plus they make better fighters too. The tribbles are only good for target practice.
118. In Star Trek, the main reason that the Borg are such a big threat is that they can adapt to laser fire, and block it. Yeah, right. Let's see how they adapt to a ticked off Wookie ripping their arms off. (or a Death Star's superlaser!)
119. George Lucas and John Williams.