Patents Examined by Brent Stace
  • Patent number: 7574462
    Abstract: A method and apparatus which provide solutions for avoiding journal overflow in after and before journal methods of a backup and recovery system used with a storage system. The after journal method solutions, which are conducted when the amount of free space reaches a threshold, include periodically taking a new snapshot and deleting the oldest journal, periodically taking a new logical snapshot and deleting the oldest journal, stopping the taking journal entries when the journal volume is full, and stopping the taking journal entries when the journal volume is full and then switching to bitmap management. The before journal method solution, which is conducted when the amount of free space reaches a threshold, includes applying wrap-around overwriting to overwrite the oldest journal entry by the newest journal entry.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 19, 2006
    Date of Patent: August 11, 2009
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Takashi Amano, Kenji Yamagami
  • Patent number: 7512615
    Abstract: A method and system for clustering of XML documents is disclosed. The method operates under specified memory-use constraints. The system implements the method and scans an XML document, assigns edge-weights according to the application workload, and maps clusters of XML nodes to disk pages, all in a single parser-controlled pass over the XML data. Application workload information is used to generate XML clustering solutions that lead to substantial reduction in page faults for the workload under consideration. Several approaches for representing workload information are disclosed. For example, the workload may list the XPath operators invoked during the application along with their invocation frequencies. The application workload can be further refined by incorporating additional features such as query importance or query compilation costs. XML access patterns could be also modeled using stochastic approaches.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 7, 2003
    Date of Patent: March 31, 2009
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Rajesh Bordawekar, Sriram K. Padmanabhan, Oded Shmueli
  • Patent number: 7499951
    Abstract: A graphical user interface (GUI) displays a flow of activities of a business process, including any portion thereof from which capture of data is permitted. The GUI receives, in an operation, at least an indication of a business process portion from which data is to be captured (“sensor”), an identification of an endpoint to which captured data is to be transferred, and a type of the endpoint which identifies (through a mapping) a predetermined software. A sensor may be added any number of times (through a single GUI or though multiple GUIs) by repeatedly performing the operation. Also, a given sensor may be associated with multiple endpoints. Computer(s) executing the business process check whether or not a sensor is present, on execution of the business process portion, and if present, then execute the corresponding predetermined software(s) to transfer data from the sensor directly to the respective endpoint(s).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 18, 2005
    Date of Patent: March 3, 2009
    Assignee: Oracle International Corporation
    Inventors: Ralf Mueller, Kireet M. Reddy, Bhagat V. Nainani, William Eidson, Edwin Khodabakchian, Weigun Mi
  • Patent number: 7451168
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for different embodiments of incremental garbage collection of data in a secondary storage. In one embodiment, a method comprises locating blocks of data in a log that are referenced and within a range at a tail of the log. The method also includes copying the blocks of data that are referenced and within the range to an unallocated segment of the log.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 2003
    Date of Patent: November 11, 2008
    Assignee: Data Domain, Inc.
    Inventor: R. Hugo Patterson
  • Patent number: 7444327
    Abstract: A method, system, and computer-accessible medium are provided for automating the optimization of search result relevance in a search engine. The system and method continually collect data that represent various aspects of how a search result is performing and compare that performance data to the expected performance for the search result. The system and method further diagnose the possible causes of under performing results and automatically adjust the search engine operation to optimize the search result relevance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 22, 2004
    Date of Patent: October 28, 2008
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Eric B. Watson, Oliver Hurst-Hiller
  • Patent number: 7440943
    Abstract: A system for providing item recommendations includes a memory, a device, responsive to a user request, for recording an item on a hardcopy medium, and a processor, for storing ratings of items and for generating recommendations for new items based on recommendation criteria. In response to the user request, the processor stores an implicit rating for the requested item in the memory, determines whether, based on the implicit rating and the recommendation criteria, to generate an item recommendation, and if the criteria for generating a recommendation is met, generates a recommendation of a new item. The recommender system may further store a representation of the recorded item in the memory. Recommendations may be based on item to item similarities, item to user similarities or user to user similarities.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2000
    Date of Patent: October 21, 2008
    Assignee: Xerox Corporation
    Inventors: Antonietta Grasso, Natalie S. Glance, Jean-Luc Meunier
  • Patent number: 7440960
    Abstract: Disclosed is a technique for result set management. One or more result sets are stored. Each result set was generated by executing a query. When at least one of a number of result sets that may be stored and a number of bucket tables that may hold result sets is modified, it is determined whether any of the one or more result sets are to be removed. When it is determined that one or more of the result sets are to be removed, those result sets are removed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 3, 2003
    Date of Patent: October 21, 2008
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Michael Stephen Schwartz, Naga A. Ayachitula, Shu-Ping Chang, Lenisha V. Gandhi
  • Patent number: 7437351
    Abstract: The present invention is directed to a computer-implemented method and apparatus for searching in response to Internet-based search queries using a search engine and an electronic database. According to one example embodiment of the present invention, data sets representing published items are input, for example, scanned-in or sent electronically, and stored in a searchable database. Each data set includes text from at least one published item. Responsive to the search query, a search engine searches for and identifies relevant web pages and data sets representing published items and, in a more specific embodiment, ranked characterizations are returned for the relevant web pages and published items. An electronic path can be provided with the published item for accessing further information about the published item. In one embodiment, the electronic path is a hyperlink from a characterization of a relevant published item to a more complete electronic representation of the relevant published item.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2003
    Date of Patent: October 14, 2008
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventor: Lawrence E. Page
  • Patent number: 7424498
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for different embodiments of probabilistic summary data structure based encoding for garbage collection are described. In one embodiment, a method comprises generating a probabilistic summary data structure that represents active blocks of data within a storage device based on identifications of the active blocks or the data within the active blocks. The method also includes performing garbage collection of at least a portion of the storage device based on the probabilistic summary data structure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 2003
    Date of Patent: September 9, 2008
    Assignee: Data Domain, Inc.
    Inventor: R. Hugo Patterson
  • Patent number: 7409379
    Abstract: A cache management system including an in-memory database system for managing cached data is provided. The cache management system includes an application, a wrapper and an engine. The application utilizes data and has a rule related to the cache management of the data. The wrapper is operable to receive data from the application and provide at least a portion of the data and a component of the rule to the in-memory database system. The engine is operable to monitor the in-memory database system and apply the rule to the cached data. A method for managing cache data is also provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 28, 2003
    Date of Patent: August 5, 2008
    Assignee: Sprint Communications Company L.P.
    Inventor: Robin Dale Katzer
  • Patent number: 7392239
    Abstract: A system and method for querying a stream of XML data in a single pass using standard XQuery expressions. The system comprises: an expression parser that receives a query and generates a parse tree; a SAX events API that receives the stream of XML data and generates a stream of SAX events; an evaluator that receives the parse tree and stream of SAX events and buffers fragments from the stream of SAX events that meet an evaluation criteria; and a tuple constructor that joins fragments to form a set of tuple results that satisfies the query for the stream of XML data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 14, 2003
    Date of Patent: June 24, 2008
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Marcus F. Fontoura, Vanja Josifovsld
  • Patent number: 7376675
    Abstract: A method of maintaining the original order of a sequence of transactions originating from a source database and being replicated to a target database is provided. A lockable object is associated with each transaction of the sequence of transactions from the source database. Each transaction has one or more transactional events. The transactions of the sequence of transactions have an order. The order is a commit order of the transactions in the source database. The lockable object is based on the commit order. A lock is attempted to be obtained on one or more lockable objects associated with one or more transactions of the sequence of transactions which precede a particular transaction of the sequence of transactions. In response to being unable to obtain the lock, the one or more transactional events of the one or more transactions which precede the particular transaction are serially processed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 18, 2005
    Date of Patent: May 20, 2008
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Clarence Madison Pruet, III
  • Patent number: 7315883
    Abstract: Described is a method for generating a dynamic mailing list with the following steps: (a) comparing a source mailing list to an established mailing list, the source mailing list including a mailing address to which a sender desires to send a message; (b) when the mailing address is included in the established mailing list, making a preliminary determination to add the mailing address to the dynamic mailing list; and (c) when the mailing address is not included in the established mailing list, processing the mailing address according to a procedure defined by an add rule for adding the mailing address to the established mailing list.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 2, 2004
    Date of Patent: January 1, 2008
    Assignee: Biglist, Inc.
    Inventors: Allen M. Fair, Omar L. Thameen
  • Patent number: 7257580
    Abstract: Provided are a method, system, and program for allocating resources for computational resources. A request is received to modify a permitted resource allocation. A determination is made of a modification restriction providing a limit on modifications that may be made to permitted resource allocations and the requested modification to the permitted resource allocation is allowed if the determined modification restriction allows the requested modification.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 24, 2004
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2007
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Saji C. Kumar
  • Patent number: 7213040
    Abstract: A time domain server includes a version storage. The time domain server declares epochs for a source server, then requests events from the source server. As the time domain server receives events, it uses the events to update the version storage to store versions of files from the source server.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 29, 2002
    Date of Patent: May 1, 2007
    Assignee: Novell, Inc.
    Inventors: Randall K. Stokes, Richard Duane Jones
  • Patent number: 7203709
    Abstract: Techniques are provided for performing transaction-aware caching of metadata in an electronic file system. A mechanism is described for providing transaction-aware caching that uses a cache hierarchy, where the cache hierarchy includes uncommitted caches associated with sessions in an application and a committed cache that is shared among the sessions in that application. Techniques are described for caching document metadata, access control metadata and folder path metadata. Also described is a technique for using negative cache entries to avoid unnecessary communications with a server when applications repeatedly request non-existent data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 30, 2003
    Date of Patent: April 10, 2007
    Assignee: Oracle International Corporation
    Inventors: David J. Long, David B. Pitfield
  • Patent number: 7167880
    Abstract: A method and apparatus which provide solutions for avoiding journal overflow in after and before journal methods of a backup and recovery system used with a storage system. The after journal method solutions, which are conducted when the amount of free space reaches a threshold, include periodically taking a new snapshot and deleting the oldest journal, periodically taking a new logical snapshot and deleting the oldest journal, stopping the taking journal entries when the journal volume is full, and stopping the taking journal entries when the journal volume is full and then switching to bitmap management. The before journal method solution, which is conducted when the amount of free space reaches a threshold, includes applying wrap-around overwriting to overwrite the oldest journal entry by the newest journal entry.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 14, 2004
    Date of Patent: January 23, 2007
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Takashi Amano, Kenji Yamagami