Abstract: A search engine stores different taxonomies that each specifies categories and relationships between the categories. When the search engine receives a request having a search query, the search engine determines which taxonomy, if any, it should use to generate a search engine results page. The search engine bases this determination upon information provided to it in the request, in one embodiment. For example, the search engine might select a taxonomy based on the particular environment from which the search query originated. However, the search engine can select the taxonomy based on other information, such as a role of the user. Thus, a medical researcher and a financial analyst for a particular corporation could receive search engine results pages that were generated with appropriate taxonomies for each of them.

Abstract: Techniques are provided for managing file versions. In one technique, versions of directories are created responsive to creation of versions of files descendant from the directories. Directory versions are associated with times. Interfile links are maintained so file versions descendant from a directory version reflect the directory version's time. In another technique, a mechanism is provided for tagging file versions that shouldn't be overwritten. Responsive to a first file version's update, it is determined whether that version is tagged. If so, a second version is stored while retaining the first version. Otherwise, the first version is deleted responsive to the second version's storage. In another technique, responsive to a first file version's change, it is determined whether first criteria are satisfied. If so, a second version is created while retaining the first version, and versions of the file's ancestor files that satisfy second criteria are created.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a server maintains a plurality of fax messages associated with a user. Each fax message of the plurality of fax messages has a state that indicates at least a status of read or unread for the fax message. A HTTP connection is established between the server and a phone that serves as a client through which the plurality of fax messages are viewable. States of one or more fax messages are identified at the server and at the phone that serves as the client. One or more synchronization actions are performed, using the HTTP connection, to synchronize the one or more fax messages at the server and the one or more corresponding fax messages at the phone that serves as the client.

Abstract: A communication system and a family of methods for remote access to personal television service are disclosed. According to this invention, a remote personal TV service center provides centralized program guide information. A user may access to the personal TV service center through a digital video recorder which is connected to the personal TV service center via telephone modem or a network server. A user may access to the personal TV service center through a remote computer terminal or a personal digital assistant which is connected to a computer network. The user selects program events and programs the digital video recorder by using a graphical user interface installed in the front panel of the digital video recorder in case of local programming, or using a similar GUI which is incorporated into the Web pages presented to remote users by a Web server in case of remote programming. The media stream stored in one digital video recorder may be transferred to another digital video recorder.

Abstract: Approaches, techniques, and mechanisms are disclosed for maintaining a history of query plans executed for a database command, along with information related to each query plan. A database server receives a request to execute a particular command. The database server determines a plan for executing the particular command. The database server adds first information to a plan history associated with the particular command. The plan history comprises information related to a plurality of plans that have been generated for the particular command. The first information may include, for example, properties of the plan (including an outline of the plan) as well as statistics collected during execution of the plan. The database server may implement techniques for periodically refreshing information in a plan history. The database server may also implement techniques for purging old or less important plans.

Abstract: A method, apparatus and computer program product for providing failover capability of cached secure sessions is presented. A cached secure session involving a first device and a second device is identified. The cached secure session is encrypted and replicated to a failover device. The encrypted session is then decrypted on the failover to device. An occurrence of a hot failover involving the second device is detected, and processing resumes between the first device and the failover device.

Abstract: Mutual authentication systems and methods are described that comprise an authenticating server that is available across a network and capable of authenticating a user based on credentials provided by the user. An embeddable object provided by the authenticating server and containing a passphrase that identifies the server to the user. A credentials entry mechanism identifies the user to the authenticating server. A user device displays an Outer Page that can request authentication. The authenticating server verifies the source of the request and provides the passphrase to the user device. The display of the passphrase confirms the identity of the authenticating server to the user. The source of the request can be verified using a secure cookie. The embeddable object can be provided in a second page and can prevent display of the passphrase if user input is not directed to the second page.

Abstract: Techniques and systems are provided for capturing relationships between items in “bonds”, and using the bonds to facilitate searches against the items. It is described how bonds that reflect relationships between searchable items are stored. The degree of separation between any two given searchable items is based on the minimum number of bonds that have to be traversed to arrive at one of the two searchable items when starting at the other of the two searchable items. The bonds are used to respond to a search request, performing a search relative to a designated searchable item. For example, the search mechanism may search only those searchable items that are within a particular degree of separation of the designated searchable item. As another example, the search mechanism may determine the order in which searchable items are compared against search criteria of the search request based on the degree of separation of the searchable items from the designated searchable item.

Abstract: Based on the root-product polynomial form, this method compresses essential information of a polynomial by transforming polynomials into a form which eliminates cancellation error, when evaluating polynomials, of one unknown, for real, complex, and quaternion, which are implemented with floating point numbers. Additional filtering methods simplify evaluation, including the elimination of extremely small and large root factors, which can cause out-of-range errors. The usual setup problem for root-product forms, that of needing potentially unlimited root precision and floating point range, is largely eliminated for real polynomials, and greatly mitigated for complex and quaternion, and other hypercomplex polynomials.

Abstract: A node of a fault-tolerant system relies upon a primary communication mechanism, when possible, for primary connection to a central server. The node monitors its primary connection to the server. While the primary connection is active, the node operates in a supervised mode, in that it generally does not perform a certain subset of tasks without having received real-time commands from the server to perform those tasks. However, when the node detects that it is no longer connected to the server, the node transitions into a fail-over mode. The node operates in the fail-over mode until the node detects that primary connection is re-established. While in fail-over mode, the node may execute a stored set of fail-over instructions that were provided by the server. The node may also attempt to establish a backup connection to the server via a second and different type of communication mechanism.

Abstract: A two-level cache to facilitate resolving resource path expressions for a hierarchy of resources is described, which includes a system-wide shared cache and a session-level cache. The shared cache is organized as a hierarchy of hash tables that mirrors the structure of a repository hierarchy. A particular hash table in a shared cache includes information for the child resources of a particular resource. A database management system that manages a shared cache may control the amount of memory used by the cache by implementing a replacement policy for the cache based on one or more characteristics of the resources in the repository. The session-level cache is a single level cache in which information for target resources of resolved path expressions may be tracked. In the session-level cache, the resource information is associated with the entire path expression of the associated resource.

Abstract: A method, apparatus, and computer readable medium for preserving data dependency during replay of database commands without strictly preserving a global ordering of the database commands is provided. A capture process captures a workload of database commands executed by a production system. The captured workload includes object identifiers that identify database objects that were referenced directly or indirectly during execution of the database commands by the production system. The captured workload also includes an indication of whether the database objects were potentially read or written during execution of the commands. The workload is processed to determine that an object accessed during execution of a command was previously modified during execution of one or more other commands. A replay process on a test database system prevents the command from being replayed until after the one or more other commands have been replayed to modify the object.

Abstract: In one embodiment, first input that specifies a market instrument is received. Second input that specifies one or more parameters for one or more date set computers associated with the market instrument is received. A first time series is received from a data repository, where the first time series is a sequence of data values associated with the market instrument. A set of time periods is extracted by applying the one or more date set computers based on the one or more parameters and the first time series. The set of time periods is displayed overlaid on a graphical representation of the first time series in a graphical user interface.

Abstract: Techniques for debugging a computer program that includes multiple modules executing on multiple machines include receiving, at a unifying component, first data from a first machine. The first data indicates debugging information generated by the first machine. Second data is also received at the unifying component from a second machine. The second data indicates debugging information generated by the second machine. Based on the first data and the second data, third data is formed indicating a single integrated representation of debugging information for the computer program. The unifying component allows debugging information from several machines to be integrated and then presented to a user through a single debugger client.

Abstract: A method is disclosed for advertising update messages to peers and peer entities. In an embodiment, all update messages that are to be advertised to a specific peer entity are formatted and enqueued to a peer associated with that peer entity before update messages are formatted for another peer entity.

Abstract: An approach is provided for remotely processing locked print jobs. A printing device discovers other printing devices on a network that store locked print jobs. A user enters user identification data and the printing device displays the locked print jobs stored on the other printing devices that are associated with the user. The user selects a particular locked print job. The printing device requests the particular locked print job from the printing device that stores the locked print job and then processes the locked print job locally. An approach is also provided for a printing device to forward print jobs to other printing devices. The printing device discovers other printing devices on a network and the printing attributes of those printing devices. The printing device determines another printing device that is capable of processing a print job and forwards the print job to the printing device for processing.

Abstract: A project management system manages project schedule data using separate current and historical task schedule data structures. In general, current schedule data is stored separately from historical schedule data, so that the current schedule data may be retrieved separately from the historical task schedule data. The project management system may also maintain unscheduled tasks as “to-do lists.” Tasks may be added to a member's schedule without specifying any planned dates and the tasks are added to the database. The tasks have an associated revision number of 0 to indicate that the tasks were added, but not yet scheduled. The tasks are displayed in the member schedule editor and in Web page schedules. The tasks may then be displayed in the member schedule editor and in Web page schedules in a manner that allows a user to readily determine that the tasks are “to-do list” tasks.

Abstract: Techniques are provided for implementing the WS-DeviceProfile standard as a multi-threaded process (“DFM”) executing on a multi-function peripheral (“MFP”). The DFM takes care of the discovery of devices and services on a network. The DFM also acts as a facility manager. The DFM implements various web services in a single component that applications can re-use. The DFM insulates these applications from some of the more complex details of the web services that the DFM implements. The MFP may comprise several different applications that each use web services provided by the DFM. The threads of the DFM can handle separate tasks concurrently. For example, one thread, of the multi-threaded DFM, may perform one or more functions specified by the WS-DeviceProfile protocol, while another thread may perform one or more functions specified by a WS-Discovery protocol.

Abstract: Techniques for building a web site with database components include a web site building appliance having a processor, a computer readable medium, and a special purpose operating system. The computer-readable medium carries a web site wizard including a template and instructions. The template holds data indicating a first arrangement of components associated with a first type of web site. The instructions configure the processor for presenting a user with a series of one or more user interfaces including controls for modifying the first arrangement of components. The instructions also configure the processor for receiving input from the user in response to user interaction with the controls indicating a modified arrangement. The instructions further configure the processor for building the web site automatically in response to the input from the user. The web site is based on the modified arrangement.

Abstract: A system for remotely controlling client recording and storage behavior schedules the recording, storing, and deleting of multimedia content on a client system storage device. The invention accepts as input a prioritized list of program viewing preferences which is compared with a database of program guide objects that indicate when programs of interest are actually broadcast. A schedule of time versus available storage space is generated that is optimal for the viewer's explicit or derived preferred content. The viewer may request that certain content be captured, which results in the highest possible priority for those content. The invention provides objects called a capture requests that are sent by the service to client systems. Capture requests reflect local storage management decisions about how the client system storage is partitioned.