Abstract: Communications methods and appliances are described. According to one embodiment, a communications method includes prior to deployment of an appliance, establishing a trusted association between the appliance and a certificate authority, during deployment of the appliance, associating the appliance with a communications address of a communications medium, using the certificate authority, creating a signed certificate including the communications address of the appliance, announcing the signed certificate using the appliance, after the announcing, extracting the communications address of the appliance from the signed certificate, and after the extracting, verifying the communications address of the appliance.

Abstract: User accounts in a social networking application are divided into highly-connected accounts and regular accounts. A mapping of the highly-connected accounts to their friends, and a mapping of accounts to documents endorsed by the users associated with the accounts are stored on index servers of a search engine. When a query is received by a front-end server of the search engine, the front-end server determines if an account associated with the query is a highly-connected account. If it is, only an identifier of the account is sent to the index servers with the query. If it is not, however, then identifiers of all of the accounts that are friends with the account are sent with the query. The index servers then determine the documents that are endorsed by the friends of the account, and consider the determined documents when selecting documents that are responsive to the query.

Abstract: A presentation output system includes a digital computer network, one or more job submission clients, and a job store. The job store accepts and holds output jobs from the plurality of job submission clients. The presentation output system further includes one or more presentation output devices that pull the output jobs from the job store for outputting.

Abstract: User accounts in a social networking application are divided into highly-connected accounts and regular accounts. A mapping of the highly-connected accounts to their friends, and a mapping of accounts to documents endorsed by the users associated with the accounts are stored on index servers of a search engine. When a query is received by a front-end server of the search engine, the front-end server determines if an account associated with the query is a highly-connected account. If it is, only an identifier of the account is sent to the index servers with the query. If it is not, however, then identifiers of all of the accounts that are friends with the account are sent with the query. The index servers then determine the documents that are endorsed by the friends of the account, and consider the determined documents when selecting documents that are responsive to the query.

Abstract: Communications methods and appliances are described. According to one embodiment, a communications method includes prior to deployment of an appliance, establishing a trusted association between the appliance and a certificate authority, during deployment of the appliance, associating the appliance with a communications address of a communications medium, using the certificate authority, creating a signed certificate including the communications address of the appliance, announcing the signed certificate using the appliance, after the announcing, extracting the communications address of the appliance from the signed certificate, and after the extracting, verifying the communications address of the appliance.

Abstract: A job store for a pull-based presentation output system includes a job storage storing one or more jobs from a plurality of job submission clients; and a driver storage storing one or more drivers for converting a job into a format used by a corresponding presentation output device. The job store receives a job from a job submission client, stores the job in the job storage, receives a pull command from a presentation output device when the presentation output device is one of idle and nearly finished with a current job and without receiving further input from a user of the job submission client, retrieves the job from the job storage, applies a driver for converting that job into a format used by the presentation output device sending the pull command and outputs the job to the presentation output device sending the pull command.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and computer-readable media for searching microblog entries. The microblog entries may be generated through a single microblog website or across multiple microblog sites. Upon receiving a search input, a series of microblog entries responsive to the search input may be displayed to the user. The displayed microblog entries may be the most recently generated microblog entries that are responsive to the search input. In another embodiment, the microblog entries returned are a best match to the search criteria, which may be based on a user authority score for a user that drafted a microblog entry and additional characteristics of the microblog entry.

Abstract: An exemplary method for providing secure access to resources at shared appliances comprises obtaining an instruction from a first user to send a resource to a secure repository, the resource being associated with a first identifier, receiving a second identifier from a shared appliance, determining a pseudo identity associated with the shared appliance based on the second identifier, granting to the shared appliance permissions associated with the pseudo identity, including a permission to retrieve the resource from the secure repository, receiving the first identifier from a second user at the shared appliance, and enabling the shared appliance to provide the resource to the second user at the shared appliance.

Abstract: A method for automatically determining device settings based on usage history. The method includes determining a characterization for a device operation in terms of a set of features and selecting a previous device operation having a characterization which is similar to the characterization of the device operation. The device settings which are associated with the characterization of the selected previous device operation may then be employed in performing the device operation.

Abstract: A method for automatically determining device settings based on usage history. The method includes determining a characterization for a device operation in terms of a set of features and selecting a previous device operation having a characterization which is similar to the characterization of the device operation. The device settings which are associated with the characterization of the selected previous device operation may then be employed in performing the device operation.

Abstract: A presentation output system includes a digital computer network, one or more job submission clients, and a job store. The job store accepts and holds output jobs from the plurality of job submission clients. The presentation output system further includes one or more presentation output devices that pull the output jobs from the job store for outputting.