Abstract: Techniques described herein include systems and methods for throttling requests for content to reduce stress on a check out pipeline associated with an electronic marketplace thereby avoiding overstressing a server to the point of no longer processing requests from users. In embodiments, first information may be maintained that identifies a ranking for a plurality of items based on a score. A predicted velocity of content requests about the plurality of items may be maintained and second information about an actual velocity of content requests about the plurality of items may be received. In response to a request for content, a portion of items may be identified based on the scores associated with said portion and partition the portion into a number of groups or partitions based on the predicted velocity and the second information. A data object that comprises the portion of items associated with a partition may be generated.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and computer-readable media for implementing automated services capacity modeling using call tracing are disclosed. A plurality of demand drivers are determined based on trace data for service interactions between services in a service-oriented system. The demand drivers are determined to drive a generation of service calls to a particular service. A total call volume is determined to the particular service based on the external demand drivers. An optimized quantity of computing resources to provide the particular service is determined based on the total call volume.

Abstract: A method and system are provided that provide an avatar based customer service experience with a human support agent. The methods and systems receive, from a customer computing (CC) device, a request for assistance fulfillable by one of a plurality of support agents. The methods and systems launch an avatar-based exchange that includes receiving customer issue definition (CID) information from the CC device regarding the request for assistance, defining a virtual character to be presented on the CC device; and providing pre-recorded support (PRS) content based on the CID information. The PRS content is presented in combination with animation of the virtual character. The methods and systems select a support agent, and transition a basis for the avatar-based exchange from the PRS content to support agent content such that the support agent communicates with the customer through the virtual character animated on the CC device.

Abstract: Current CAPTCHA tests are designed to be difficult for a bot and simple for a human-user to answer; however, as artificial intelligence improves, bots are more capable of using techniques such as optical character recognition to resolve current CAPTCHAs in similar manners as human-users. By providing a CAPTCHA challenge from a library or set of challenges that are designed in a manner that causes or likely causes a human-user to trivially get the answer to the challenge wrong, helps to confirm that a user is a human-user, as a bot would answer the challenge correctly.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and computer-readable media for implementing global optimization of a service-oriented system are disclosed. Trace data is collected for a plurality of service interactions between services in a service-oriented system. Respective costs are determined for a plurality of configuration options in the service-oriented system. An optimized configuration for the service-oriented system is determined based on the respective costs and the trace data. The optimized configuration comprises a selection of one or more of the configuration options. The optimized configuration is deployed to the service-oriented system.

Abstract: Described are techniques for determining the effect of a change in how data is handled by a first device on other devices within a system. At a first device, sending, receiving, or processing of data may be prevented for a length of time. Metric data may be determined from other devices during the length of time and during one or more time periods before or after the length of time. The metric data may indicate the effect of the handling of data by a first device on the one or more other devices.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and computer-readable media for implementing service-oriented system optimization using partial service relocation are disclosed. An optimized configuration is determined for the service-oriented system based on performance data. The optimized configuration improves a performance metric in the service-oriented system. A partial service is automatically generated based on an original service in a service-oriented system. The partial service includes a first set of program code from the original service and excludes a second set of program code from the original service. The first set of program code is included in the partial service based on its frequency of use. One or more instances of the partial service are deployed to the service-oriented system based on the optimized configuration.

Abstract: This disclosure is directed to systems and processes of capturing a user's actions, computing actions, and/or other data, and then publishing relevant portions of the user's actions, computing actions, and/or other data to other users in a user community. The systems and processes provide techniques to minimize time and effort to create publications for the user community, while allowing the user to select relevant content and possibly annotate the content. Publication may be directed to other users that are likely to perform a similar computing action and/or to shared repositories.

Abstract: Current CAPTCHA tests are designed to be difficult for a bot and simple for a human-user to answer; however, as artificial intelligence improves, bots are more capable of using techniques such as optical character recognition to resolve current CAPTCHAs in similar manners as human-users. By providing a CAPTCHA challenge from a library or set of challenges that are designed in a manner that causes or likely causes a human-user to trivially get the answer to the challenge wrong, helps to confirm that a user is a human-user, as a bot would answer the challenge correctly.

Abstract: Current CAPTCHA tests are designed to be difficult for a bot and simple for a human-user to answer; however, as artificial intelligence improves, bots are more capable of using techniques such as optical character recognition to resolve current CAPTCHAs in similar manners as human-users. By providing a CAPTCHA challenge from a library or set of challenges that are designed in a manner that causes or likely causes a human-user to trivially get the answer to the challenge wrong, helps to confirm that a user is a human-user, as a bot would answer the challenge correctly.

Abstract: Various examples are directed to systems and methods that measure the gaze direction of a user. For example, gaze direction may be utilized to generate an eye-equivalent representation for the user, where the eye-equivalent representation depicts eyes directed according to the gaze direction.

Abstract: Current CAPTCHA tests are designed to be difficult for a bot and simple for a human-user to answer; however, as artificial intelligence improves, bots are more capable of using techniques such as optical character recognition to resolve current CAPTCHAs in similar manners as human-users. By maintaining a library of security tests and/or questions based on products purchased by the human-user, and using those questions as a CAPTCHA challenge in order to determine if the user is a human-user on how the user responds, CAPTCHA challenges may be directed toward determining a human-user based on responses exhibiting humanity.

Abstract: A photograph acquired by a camera, such as a smartphone, may include at least a part of a display device, such as a television or computer monitor. The display device may present a displayed image on the display device at the time of the photograph. The camera may send a request that may be processed by a source device such the television or a desktop computer. Responsive to the request, a presented image may be provided that corresponds to the displayed image on the display device at the time of the photograph. The presented image may then be used instead of the photograph, may be stored in addition to the photograph, may be used to update a portion of the photograph, and so forth.

Abstract: Communication between program components executing in different virtual machines on the same physical computer may be optimized utilizing various mechanisms. A virtual machine manager may be configured to route network communications between virtual machines on the same physical host through a memory buffer. The virtual machine manager might also be configured to provide a shared memory and/or a shared data structure for enabling data communication between program components executing in different virtual machines on the same physical computing device. Mechanisms might also be implemented in order to prevent inconsistent read and/or write operations from being performed on the shared memory and/or the shared data structure. Mechanisms might also be implemented to minimize copying of a memory buffer, shared memory, and/or shared data structure.

Abstract: Techniques are described for employing precomputed results of applying rules to content items, the rules applicable to determine whether content items may be electronically published. On receiving a request for a content item, rules applicable to the content item may be identified. A datastore of precomputed results of rule application may be accessed to determine whether the datastore includes a result of applying a current or previous version of each rule. If the datastore includes a current result, the current result may be employed in determine whether the content item may be presented. If the datastore includes a previous result, the previous result may be so employed. If the datastore includes a previous result or no appropriate result, a job may be queued to calculate the current result asynchronously relative to the request for the content item.

Abstract: Embodiments are described for assisting a first person in finding a second person using a social network. A person may send a request to a server that identifies that person, the person he or she is looking for, and the requestor's location. The server may then traverse that person's social network to identify someone who is in a similar location and who knows the person being sought. The server may send an identification of this person who knows the person being sought to the requestor. Various privacy mechanisms are also disclosed, including anonymizing identifying information, and encrypting communications.