Abstract: A system and method wherein a sender can create an e-mail or other communication cancellation request which identifies a previously-sent communication, bears the communication type designation of a cancellation request as its “subject” or “reference”, and is automatically communicated to all of the same sites to which the previously-sent communication was sent. At the receiving end, a cancellation agent monitors the “subject” of all incoming communications to determine if any are cancellation requests. If a cancellation request is detected at the receiving end, the cancellation agent locates the identified communication and deletes same. Once the communication has been deleted, the cancellation agent replies to the cancellation request by notifying the sender of the location at which the identified communication was found (e.g., inbox folder, trash folder, etc.) and of deletion of the communication.

Abstract: Data communication between a data sender and at least one data recipient is facilitated when the data recipient is associated with a telephone number that can not be used to access the user with a telephone call. An invention receives the telephone number associated with the data destination (data recipient) and receives an indication that data is to be communicated. The invention uses the telephone number to determine at least one characteristic of data destination/recipient. The invention also receives at least one characteristic of the data to be communicated that enable the data to be communicated to the data receiver/recipient.

Abstract: A system and method for delivering electronic messages over a wireless cellular communications network when the sender of a message is out of the coverage area of any cell within the network. With this method the message is broadcast repeatedly until a mobile wireless courier receives the message when it is range and stores the message. When the courier is within range of a base station of the cellular communication network, it then transmits the stored message to the base station for transmission to a requested destination.

Abstract: A method is described for efficiently delivering a presentation of web content comprised of a media, such as audio or video content, having defined time increments, together with one or more other content sources, such as images or events to be displayed on a monitor, synchronized so that the one ore more other images or events are displayed at predetermined time increments in the media presentation. Furthermore, the entire presentation is delivered in streaming fashion, so that the end user does not have to wait for the entirety of the content data to be downloaded before starting the presentation, but rather can start viewing and listening to the presentation after a relatively short delay period. The media data and the other content need not reside at a single server source. An authoring tool for creating such composite time-synchronous content automatically determines the necessary information for scheduling player requests to the servers.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method of increasing the availability of an application executed by a computer system. More particularly, the invention relates to a method of increasing the availability of an application executed by one or more application clients and a multitude of application servers executing the same application. The fundamental teaching comprises a multi-casting step wherein an application client is requesting execution of an application service by sending an identical application service request to a collection of N out of M application servers with 1<N≦M in parallel. Within an application server, preceding the application service execution step, an “only-once” determination step is suggested, for determining whether an application service request must not be executed more than once without jeopardizing application consistency. For such a case the taught method provides “only-once” execution behavior.

Abstract: A system and method for implementing distributed transactions using configuration data that is available to all applications which may wish to access the data. Added to the configuration data is at least one status indicator to allow applications to ascertain the status of updates without performing a database-specific distributed transaction. An application which is preparing to write/update stored information must first change the at least one status indicator associated with the underlying storage. Thereafter, any other application which has a need to read or write the stored information will readily ascertain the status of the stored information from the configuration data. The other application which has need of the data may choose to read the old and/or partially updated data or may wait until the update has been completed and the at least one status indicator has been changed to indicate completion of the update.

Abstract: A computer workstation runs an application 10 to participate in a video conference. The workstation contains a video adapter card 18 which converts a video signal produced by a camera 20 into a hardware specific format. Likewise, the video adapter card can also be used to display incoming video signals that are in the same hardware specific format. The workstation also contains software support modules (SSM). On the capture side, the SSM 16 provides a video signal in bit map form for transmission to terminals in the conference which do not have compatible video hardware. Correspondingly, on the display side the SSM 34 receives and displays incoming video signals in bit map form from other workstations which likewise do not have compatible hardware.

Abstract: The present invention is a wireless device and method capable of being wirelessly connected to one or more network node devices that in turn is connected to one or more of a plurality of wirelines, preferably telephone wirelines. The wireless device has one or more wireless signal generators supporting one or more wireless connections, one or more memories that store an identifier, and a negotiator that negotiates with the network node device in order to establish a connection to one or more of the wirelines connected to the network node.

Abstract: The invention provides a method and apparatus for use in an information handling network having an administrative control server and a number of administered servers that are members of the network and are managed by the control server, of providing maintenance of the administered servers for maintaining conformity of configuration of each of the administered servers to a predetermined configuration for all administered servers of the network while permitting evolution of the predetermined configuration from an initial network member configuration to a current network member configuration to which each of the administered servers is to conform, the method including: evolving, as required, the configuration of each server from its current configuration state to the current network member configuration in the following steps: initiating communication, by an administered server, of identification information to the control server identifying the administered server; verifying by the control server whether the ad

Abstract: According to the present invention, provided is a superior docking unit for a portable computer that can provide adequate theft prevention environments for a “single user mode” during which the docking unit is used by only one user, and a “multi-user mode” during which the docking unit is shared by a plurality of users. A docking unit for a portable computer according to the present invention has first and second kensington slots positioned on the outer wall of the main body. When the kensington lock is inserted into the first kensington slot, this event is transmitted to inhibit the release of the engagement of the mounted portable computer, to enable its removal and to restrict the exchange of a PC card relative to the docking unit. But when the kensington lock is inserted into the second kensington slot, this event is not transmitted, so that the mounted portable computer can be removed, and restriction for the exchange of the PC card relative to the docking unit is released.

Abstract: A process is provided for monitoring the conversion of numerical values from a first to a second format, where before and after the conversion, the modulo residue of the corresponding numerical value is calculated and compared with the corresponding residue after the conversion. In this way it is possible to effect error-free monitoring of such a conversion, especially of computer data, without great hardware expenditure.

Abstract: Sharing wirelines using a network node device includes receiving a second telephone call, while a first telephone call is in progress, and allowing one of the handsets to pick up the second telephone call while the first call proceeds in parallel. Further a call can be placed across a wireline shared by at least two billing entities.

Abstract: Client-server graphics transmission system wherein component capabilities are provided at the server and client locations for the following: to gather three dimensional graphics transmission performance parameters, including client rendering capabilities, server load, network bandwidth and optionally-provided user preferences; to evaluate the potential performance of different transmission methods which could be used to communicate a graphics data set from the server to the client; to choose and request a transmission method based upon the evaluating; to format the requested data set for transmission; and to provide the formatted data set for rendering at the display hardware associated with the client.

Abstract: A geometrical correction system and method comprising creation of at least one pattern consisting of asymmetric two dimensional waves, embedding at least one pattern consisting of asymmetric two dimensional waves in a real domain, and calculation of at least one geometrical transformation applied by way of extraction of the embedded two dimensional waves. Said creation of at least one pattern consisting of asymmetric two dimensional waves means to calculate a two dimensional wave parameter set for creating at least one pattern adapted for use in the geometrical correction system of this invention. Also, said embedding of at least one pattern consisting of asymmetric two dimensional waves in a real domain means to add the pattern to an original image.

Abstract: A transaction card comprises an optical card created using CD-ROM technology which can be read and erased but not reprogrammed. The optical transaction card is programmed (i.e., written to) at bit increments representing, in total, the stated value of the card; and, is then decremented by erasing the incremental bits during use. Once bits have been erased, they cannot be reprogrammed.

Abstract: The basic idea comprised of the present invention is to decentralize the generation of time information without suffering from the cost disadvantages expectable due to use of prior art techniques necessary for synchronizing and correcting a plurality instead of only one or two of time suppliers caused by said decentralization. This is achieved by the approach not to readjust the oscillator(s), but, instead, to accept the inaccuracy of the physical device ‘oscillator’ but to measure its inaccuracy and to correct it with the aid of a continuos correction calculation which is advantageously done in a digital way under usage of ETS input information and system oscillator output information.

Abstract: A media player for playing streaming media is capable of dynamically changing its play rate according to network conditions, so as to compensate for delayed packets. The player nominally plays at the prescribed data rate. When packets are delayed, instead of stopping to rebuffer, the player plays the stream slower. Audio pitch is unchanged as it is slowed, and video frame rate is slowed as necessary. A threshold is set so that slowing down beyond the threshold is not allowed. Should the buffer contents fall below a predescribed minimum, the player will then stop playing and rebuffer.

Abstract: A computer method and a computer system with readable medium (including a hardcoded system) encoded with a computerized method of computing a Blocking island Controu Map for a network graph of a network is provided. The method comprises the acts of ordering links; using the ordered links to abstract restrictive costs, thus identifying critical links, and using the links to make decisions concerning the network.

Abstract: A search method that uses an index file consisting of a key file that includes key character strings, and a position data file that includes position data corresponding to the key character strings, a position data delete flag is correlated with a specific key character string, and position data that correspond to the specific key character string are deleted from the position data file. Where A denotes the size of an index at which the contents of the position data file are to be deleted, B denotes the amount of position data for each keyword that is to be deleted at that time, and C denotes the amount of position data for a keyword that is to be deleted because the data can not be employed for the search.

Abstract: A system and method for observing the two clocking phase signals, finding a point in time when said signals have a phase coincidence which is good enough for fulfilling a phase difference requirement (e.g. 20 ps), and switching from one clock source to the other. The essential idea is not to compare the phases directly but to generate an auxiliary signal out of the two clock signals which is easier to handle in order to find that desired point in time and which reflects all desired properties of the time dependent phase shift between said clock signals. At a predetermined location in the cycle of both clock signals (e.g. its positive transition) a pulse is generated out of each of the clock signals with matched identical delay elements located very close to each other on the same chip for both signals. As they match they produce exactly the same pulse widths. The absolute length of the pulse width is of minor relevance as long as the length of the pulses is the same within close limits.