Patents Represented by Attorney, Agent or Law Firm A. Bruce Clay
  • Patent number: 6457030
    Abstract: Systems, methods and computer program products are provided for modifying Web content files, such as HTML files, for display via pervasive computing devices that have smaller displays and various performance limitations compared with desktop computing devices. Upon receiving a request from a pervasive computing device for an HTML file, the HTML file is analyzed for a link to a content modification file that contains information about how to modify elements within the HTML file so as to render the HTML file displayable via the pervasive computing device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 29, 1999
    Date of Patent: September 24, 2002
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Samuel S. Adams, Stefan G. Hild, Richard O. LaMaire, Hiroshi Maruyama, Rakesh Mohan, Sandeep Singhal, John R. Smith
  • Patent number: 6457041
    Abstract: A first server computing apparatus receives a reply from a second server apparatus, the reply includes an indication of the total amount of time that the second apparatus has taken to generate the reply. The first apparatus determines the total amount of time that has elapsed between the sending of the reply and the receipt of the reply. The first apparatus also determines the total amount of transit time for the request to travel from the first apparatus to the second apparatus and the reply to travel from the second apparatus to the first apparatus. The first apparatus selects one of a plurality of apparatuses as a last agent for use in a last agent optimization operation during completion of the distributed transaction based on the determinations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 25, 1999
    Date of Patent: September 24, 2002
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Gordon Douglas Hutchison
  • Patent number: 6446096
    Abstract: Content developers author Web content that is both appropriate for a desktop machine having a mouse and a keyboard and for client devices having alternative user input hardware. This content is capable of being received by the client browser and interpreted according to the local user input capabilities, whether they be a standard keyboard and mouse, numeric keypad, pen, or other input device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 11, 1998
    Date of Patent: September 3, 2002
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Ian Michael Holland, Sandeep Kishan Singhal
  • Patent number: 6437799
    Abstract: A directed graph is logically zoomed, whereby the appearance of a node directly related to a target node can be exaggerated and the structure of an entire graph can be readily understood. A directed graph is used in which hierarchical nodes are connected by arcs. In the directed graph, a node that has a predetermined logical relationship with a selected node is displayed differently than are the other nodes. For example, a displayed node logically near the selected node is large, while a displayed node logically distant is small, or the node logically near the selected node is moved closer to the selected node.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 6, 1999
    Date of Patent: August 20, 2002
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Hideaki Shinomi
  • Patent number: 6427161
    Abstract: A technique, system, and computer program for enhancing performance of a computer running a multithreaded server application. A scheduling heuristic is defined for optimizing the number of available threads. This heuristic alleviates over-scheduling of worker threads by defining a technique to wait to assign an incoming request to a currently-executing thread (upon completion of the thread's current work), instead of awakening a blocked thread for the incoming request. Provision is made to ensure no thread waits too long. Two stages are associated with a passive socket, so that a connection is only bound to a worker thread when work arrives for that connection. A new type of socket is defined, for merging input from more than one source and making that merged input available for scheduling. A giveback function is defined, for optimizing assignment of threads to incoming requests when persistent connections are used. Threads that go idle are put onto an idle queue, releasing them from a worker thread.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 12, 1998
    Date of Patent: July 30, 2002
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Patrick Michael LiVecchi
  • Patent number: 6421721
    Abstract: A client arbitrator operates in a multi-processing operating system for monitoring and controlling a client machine's access to one or more devices. The arbitrator includes a) a request monitoring thread instantiated by any process request to begin or to cease accessing a device, for updating a list of monitored processes accordingly; and b) a waiting thread monitoring termination of a monitored process. If a process terminates the waiting thread determines any locked devices to which the terminated process has access, and, responsive to no other monitored process having access to any of the locked devices releases the client machine's access to the devices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 1999
    Date of Patent: July 16, 2002
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation,
    Inventors: Farzin Dadsetan, Tom Claus Goldermann Thuneby
  • Patent number: 6421713
    Abstract: Documents down-loaded for the first time from the Internet onto an interlocked computer system are stored on an allocated computer in an interlocked computer system. By using a HASH function, a computer in the system is determined, using the document address. On this computer there are stored the document address and the address of the computer on which the document is stored. The HASH function can ensure that either all computers are used equally to store the address information for the documents stored in the interlocked computer system, or it can take into consideration differing capacities of the individual computers in storage of the address information items. When future requests are made for a document stored in the interlocked computer system, the HASH function determines from the document address the appropriate computer. The relevant computer passes the document request to the computer on which the document is stored. Consequently, it is a simple technical step to transfer the document to the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 12, 1999
    Date of Patent: July 16, 2002
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Bernd Lamparter
  • Patent number: 6418402
    Abstract: A query from a user in a user's language to a directory service in another language different from the user's language is intercepted. The query is translated from the user's language into the language of the directory service. The translated query is then delivered to the directory service and an appropriate response is provided for the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 27, 1999
    Date of Patent: July 9, 2002
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Dennis D. King, Richard J. Redpath
  • Patent number: 6418544
    Abstract: A method, system, and computer readable code for improving stress testing of Web servers. An altered form of client cache is used, enabling more realistic and representative client requests to be issued during the testing process. This altered cache format is referred to herein as a “meta-cache”, and is defined as storing a minimal subset of the information that would typically be cached from a response. This minimal subset is that which enables constructing conditional HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) GET requests. By providing a capability for realistically simulating conditional requests as well as unconditional requests, the stress applied to the server is more representative of the actual traffic load it will experience. By minimizing the amount of information kept in the meta-cache, this realistic simulation is possible without the overhead of a full client cache, and also allows more browsers to be simulated from a particular workstation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 1999
    Date of Patent: July 9, 2002
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Richard Elderkin Nesbitt, Robert John Schroder, II, Kevin Edward Vaughan
  • Patent number: 6415249
    Abstract: The Content-Language field in the entity-header of an HTTP response is used as the final factor in driving machine translation of text. The HTTP 1.1 specification defines the purpose of the value in this field to identify and differentiate entities according to a user's own preferred language. Its implication is that the content body is in the language defined via the Content-Language field. If the body content is only appropriate to a German-literate audience then typical use of this information would be to execute some processing to avoid rendering to someone other than that target. This information is used in rendering decisions. Herein, this value is a determining factor in the machine translation (MT) decision as well. It is still used in the rendering decision, but if the content is not currently in the desired language, it will be translated to it. Prior to the response being served, appropriate MT would be initiated based on this value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 1, 2000
    Date of Patent: July 2, 2002
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Jason Y. Blakely, Dennis D. King, Richard J. Redpath
  • Patent number: 6388685
    Abstract: A window display enables a user to easily identify a window to which a selected object belongs. A computer system displays a plurality of windows, each of which includes one or a plurality of objects, and which displays a window to which a selected object belongs. The window field to which a selected object belongs is, in response to the selection of the object, displayed with an attribute, e.g., with a domain (background) color, that differs from that of other window fields. In this manner, it is possible for a user to easily identify the window of the selected object.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 18, 1996
    Date of Patent: May 14, 2002
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Tadaaki Minoura, Toru Tachibana, Yugo Tanabe
  • Patent number: 6370497
    Abstract: In a page for computer display structured with labels for programmed navigational program links, such as a page programmed in HTML with hypertext link tags, a small amount of simple linguistic case information on contextual use of the label on the page presented can be stored as an extra property or attribute on the link itself. This programming data is then used during rendering of the link to resolve the text of the link label in its proper context on the page, even if a change has been propagated to the name of the link's destination.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 16, 1999
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2002
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corp.
    Inventor: Nicholas Knowles
  • Patent number: 6363478
    Abstract: A session processing module for a server is adapted to communicate across the Internet with a plurality of clients. The processing module runs within a servlet and allocates a session identifier in response to a first input stream of a session between a client and the server; negotiates communication characteristics for the session; and instantiates, according to the communication characteristics, routines for processing subsequent session input streams containing request data and routines for generating session output streams containing response data. A variable depth of penetration to be applied to a dynamically specified quality of service for a session is enabled. Thus, in one embodiment the module relays encrypted request data for a session to a back-end server, and receives from the back-end server encrypted response data for the session for the client.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 17, 1998
    Date of Patent: March 26, 2002
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corp.
    Inventors: Howard Shelton Lambert, Steven Wright
  • Patent number: 6363365
    Abstract: A mechanism for securing bid proposals until close of tendering is provided for an electronic tendering system over an open network. In order to be permitted to file a bid electronically in response to an invitation to tender, prospective vendors encrypt their bid proposals using session keys obtained from a third party source. The encrypted proposals are filed with the bid requester who does not have access to the session keys while the tendering period remains open. The encrypted bid proposals are cached in a safe repository until close of tendering. In one embodiment, the bid requester itself holds onto the encrypted proposals, and obtain the session keys for accessing their contents from the third party on expiry of the bid submission period. In another embodiment, the bid requester double-encrypts each encrypted bid proposal as it is received using its own privately-held key, and forwards the double-encrypted proposals to the third party to hold in a safe repository until the close of tendering.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 1998
    Date of Patent: March 26, 2002
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corp.
    Inventor: Weidong Kou
  • Patent number: 6343311
    Abstract: Methods, systems and computer program products are provided for remote control of a processing system by receiving a generic message from a message source and extracting from the generic message a source and instructions describing the control of the remote processing system. The remote processing system is the controlled in a manner specified by the instructions extracted from the generic message so as to provide processing results. A generic message containing the processing results may then be generated and transmitted to the source of the generic message. Preferably, the generic message is an e-mail message.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 26, 1998
    Date of Patent: January 29, 2002
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Noriko Nishida, Kenichi Satoh, Masahiro Shioya
  • Patent number: 6332127
    Abstract: Systems, methods and computer program products are provided for selecting an advertising object to be displayed within a Web page requested by a user based on the geographic location of the user and/or on the time of day. Systems, methods and computer program products are provided for validating an offer within an advertising object of a Web page displayed within a Web client in communication with a Web server. Systems, methods and computer program products are also provided for changing content within an object displayed within a Web page based on changes in geographic location of a user. In addition, systems, methods and computer program products are provided for redeeming an electronic coupon stored within a first computing device, wherein the electronic coupon is valid within a designated geographic region and for a designated period of time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 28, 1999
    Date of Patent: December 18, 2001
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Daniel Quinto Bandera, Mark F. Bregman, Ajei S. Gopal, Sandeep Singhal
  • Patent number: 6327612
    Abstract: A mailing apparatus is operated to associate an attachment file with TO addresses. Then, the mailing apparatus creates e-mail destined for the TO addresses each including the body text and the TO addresses, together with e-mail destined for the CC/BCC addresses including the body text and the CC/BCC addresses. Further, the mailing apparatus appends the attachment files to the e-mail destined for the TO addresses, whereas it does not append the attachment files to the e-mail destined for the CC/BCC addresses. Instead, it appends a message to the latter to indicate the attachment files have been attached to the e-mail destined for the TO addresses.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 1998
    Date of Patent: December 4, 2001
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corp.
    Inventor: Takeshi Watanabe
  • Patent number: 6323883
    Abstract: The present invention provides a scheduler that is able to display two weeks of a last or a next month with the current month with legible fonts. When a zoom key is input by an operator, a monthly calendar is displayed with another week. If a particular date of the month is an early date of the month, one week of the last month is additionally displayed. If a particular date of the month is a late date of the month, one week of the next month is additionally displayed. When a centering key is input by an operator, five weeks are displayed so that a week with a particular date is displayed in the middle of the five weeks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 28, 1996
    Date of Patent: November 27, 2001
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corp.
    Inventors: Tadaaki Minoura, Shichiro Miyashita, Toru Tachibana
  • Patent number: 6289343
    Abstract: An apparatus for dispatching client requests for execution by a server object in a heterogeneous object-oriented client/server computing environment, the apparatus has: a request-holding buffer having an input connected to a communications channel which channels the client requests to the apparatus, and an output; a plurality of parallel execution threads connected to the output of the buffer; and a semantic concurrency control means for examining the semantics of a request in the buffer and the semantics of each request presently being executed on any of the plurality of parallel execution threads, and for delaying the request from being dispatched from the buffer to an execution thread if the examined semantics of the requests indicate that such dispatch would cause conflicting access to the server object's resources.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 17, 1998
    Date of Patent: September 11, 2001
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corp.
    Inventors: Thomas Freund, Iain Stuart Caldwell Houston
  • Patent number: 6286014
    Abstract: A specific word is selected from an explanatory note of a link file in an HTML document and displayed with emphasis in the display of the HTML document. When a voice input of the word of emphasized display is detected, a link file corresponding to that word is connected.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 16, 1998
    Date of Patent: September 4, 2001
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corp.
    Inventors: Takashi Fukushima, Saeko Murakami, Kazuto Nakamichi