Patents Represented by Attorney Jim Boice
  • Patent number: 8185829
    Abstract: A method, system and computer-readable medium are disclosed for rating exchangeable gestures in a virtual world application. The method includes making a gesture owned by a first user of the virtual world application available to a second user of the virtual world application; in response to the second user providing a rating of the gesture, storing the rating in a repository of the first user, determining a rating metric of the gesture using at least the rating received from the second user, and communicating the rating metric to a third user of the virtual world application.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 7, 2009
    Date of Patent: May 22, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Ulysses L. Cannon, Ruthie D. Lyle
  • Patent number: 8181260
    Abstract: Provided are methods, apparatus and computer programs for tracking the origins of data and controlling transmission of the data. In one embodiment, transmission of sensitive data by script operations is limited, to prevent transmission to any network location other than to the source of that sensitive data, by a new function within a scripting engine of an HTTP client that is responsive to origin tags placed within the data. Origin tags that are associated with data inputs are propagated to any output data items, so that transmission of derived information can also be controlled.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 15, 2008
    Date of Patent: May 15, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Julian L. Friedman, Peter Verdon
  • Patent number: 8176105
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method, system and computer program product for managing computer file storage is presented. In one embodiment the method includes receiving a file for storage. In response to determining that the file exceeds a pre-determined size, the file is stored in a pre-designated folder that is reserved for oversized files.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 8, 2008
    Date of Patent: May 8, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Mary P. Kusko, Frank E. Levine, Stella L. Taylor, Anna W. Topol
  • Patent number: 8169447
    Abstract: A color computer output is dynamically converted into a monochrome computer output based on a stored profile. The stored profile may be for a piece of hardware (e.g., a monochrome printer), or a user (e.g., a color-blind user).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 22, 2007
    Date of Patent: May 1, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Kulvir Singh Bhogal, Robert Ross Peterson
  • Patent number: 8166121
    Abstract: Presence messages are managed for one or more members of a pre-defined group of e-mail users. An unavailability time period, during which a pre-defined group of e-mail users will be unavailable in the future, is established. A notice, which notifies the pre-defined group of e-mail users that an unavailability control instruction will be sent in the future to participating members of the group of e-mail users, is transmitted to the group of e-mail users. An acceptance signal, identifying the participating members, is received, indicating which members of the group of e-mail users agree to permit the unavailability control instruction to be received and implemented on their participating computers in the future. The unavailability control instruction is then transmitted to the participating computers at an initiation of the unavailability time period, in order to auto-generate an appropriate presence message for the participating members.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 31, 2009
    Date of Patent: April 24, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Colm Farrell, Liam Harpur, Fred Raguillat, Patrick J. O'Sullivan, Carol S. Zimmet
  • Patent number: 8166470
    Abstract: The invention is directed to a method of replacing code in an object oriented application program running on a Virtual Machine (VM). The method comprises the steps of receiving at the virtual machine a request to replace code; in response to receipt of said request, examining each thread's call stack to determine if any thread includes a method that will be made obsolete by a proposed code replacement; and, if it is determined that there are no threads that include such a method in their call stacks, performing the code replacement. However, for a thread whose call stack is determined to include a method that will be made obsolete by the proposed code replacement, the method includes the step of allowing the thread to continue running until the thread unwinds past that method in its call stack and then suspending said thread. This comprises a part of a process of determining a safe state for code replacement. The invention is also directed to a method of initializing new variables in such replacement code.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 23, 2005
    Date of Patent: April 24, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Timothy Peter Ellison
  • Patent number: 8161371
    Abstract: A hierarchical structure is provided. The hierarchical structure includes object items for objects located in the hierarchical structure, each object item having a name and a link. The hierarchical structure also includes node items each having a name of a hierarchical path name. A node item is provided for each unique path name in the hierarchical structure and the link of an object item links to a single node item having the hierarchical path name of the object.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 2007
    Date of Patent: April 17, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Timothy John Baldwin, Philip Paul Morris, Manfred Georg Oevers
  • Patent number: 8140615
    Abstract: A Consolidated Business Service (CBS) manages an interface between Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) services and resources used by at least one enterprise customer. The CBS utilizes an Enterprise Systems Management (ESM) layer that includes: a bi-directional portal between Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) services and enterprise resources used by at least one enterprise customer; an aggregating logic for aggregating incoming and outgoing messages from the SOA services and the enterprise resources; a strategy set of rules that define pre-set responses to an event described by one or more of the incoming messages from the enterprise resources, wherein the pre-set responses are provided by a SOA response service from the SOA services; and a delegation logic for delegating the pre-set responses to agents in the affected resources, wherein the agents are software logic that have been pre-deployed, from the ESM layer to the affected resources, for executing the pre-set responses.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 7, 2008
    Date of Patent: March 20, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Landon C. G. Miller, Siljan H. Simpson
  • Patent number: 8140721
    Abstract: For an information retrieval system coupled to a buffer pool maintaining a plurality of pages of recently accessed information for subsequent re-access, a technique for starting the buffer pool is provided. The technique facilitates a quicker start to the buffer pool by deferring allocation of page storing portions, for example, until they are needed. The technique makes the buffer pool available for storing pages while deferring allocation of a page storing portion of the buffer pool and allocates the page storing portion of the buffer pool in response to a demand to store pages to the buffer pool. The technique may be used to re-start a buffer pool with pages stored to a memory coupled to the information retrieval system where the pages where stored upon a buffer pool shutdown. Further, buffer pool readers or prefetchers may be configured to read pages for storing to the buffer pool and allocate the page storing portions of the buffer pool in response to instructions to read particular pages.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 19, 2004
    Date of Patent: March 20, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Aamer Sachedina, Matthew A. Huras, Keriley K. Romanufa
  • Patent number: 8140705
    Abstract: A method and system for recovering a server blade, in a multiple server blade computer, that is lost during a flash update operation on a service processor in the server blade. Because of the flash update failure, the lost server blade is unaware of its location on a management pathway, which in an exemplary form may be a midplane or a bus, which connects the server blade and a management module in a server blade chassis. The lost server blade puts a signal on the management pathway indicating that the flash failed. The signal is put on a special channel reserved for such messages. The management module receives the signal, and then determines which of the multiple server blades are lost due to the flash update failure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 1, 2008
    Date of Patent: March 20, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Gerhard Nikolaus Buckler, Jeffery Michael Franke, Donald Eugene Johnson, Carl A. Morrell, David Robert Woodham
  • Patent number: 8141072
    Abstract: A method for customizing end-user or administrative software documentation such as installation instructions is provided. A software provider first collects computer system information for multiple computer sub-systems used by a customer. The collected computer system information comprises sub-system descriptions of each of the multiple computer sub-systems, software descriptions of all software that is currently residing in each of the multiple computer sub-systems, and hardware descriptions of all hardware that are allocated to each of the multiple computer sub-systems. The software provider then receives, from the customer, the name of new software that is to be installed in a user-selected computer sub-system. Based on the collected computer system information, the software provider determines which specific device in the user-selected computer sub-system should have the new software installed. At run time, variables in the installation instructions are replaced with a device's name.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 3, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 20, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Tricia Y. Garrett, Jennifer Heins, John R. Hind, Lee A. Kowalski, Robert E. Moore
  • Patent number: 8140297
    Abstract: A three-dimensional (3D) chip is fabricated from components that have been cut out of a two-dimensional (2D) chip. The components from the 2D chip are layered and coupled to create the layers of the 3D chip. By testing the 2D chip first, the layers of the 3D chip have been pre-tested, thus reducing testing and production costs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 16, 2009
    Date of Patent: March 20, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Gerald K. Bartley, Charles L. Johnson, Mark M. Thornton, Patrick R. Varekamp
  • Patent number: 8139754
    Abstract: A system is presented for logging and recording a call to a call network. The system comprises a voice print logic for generating a voice print of a caller who is making a call to a call network. A telecom routing switch generates a correlated telecom router switch log file by appending the voice print of the caller to a telecom router switch log file for the call. A telecom software system generates a correlated telecom software system log file by appending the voice print of the caller to a telecom software system log file for the call. A contact center agent generates a correlated contact center agent log file by appending the voice print of the caller to a contact center agent log file for the call. The voice print is utilized to retrieve and to consolidate the correlated telecom router switch log file, the correlated telecom software system log file, and the correlated contact center agent log file into a single correlated file for the call.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 20, 2009
    Date of Patent: March 20, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Amit Aghara, Peeyush Jaiswal
  • Patent number: 8141042
    Abstract: A computer-implementable method, system and computer-usable medium for extending the portability of code to a limited-class environment are disclosed. In a preferred embodiment, the method includes the steps of: identifying any full-version-only objects that are not in a reduced-version of a language, wherein the reduced-version of the language comprises a reduced portion of objects that are in a full-version of the language; associating a full-version-only object with a set of one or more objects in the reduced-version of the language, wherein the full-version-only object is functionally equivalent to the set of one or more objects in the reduced-version of the language; identifying any full-version-only objects in a software program; and creating a reduced-version of the software program by replacing any identified full-version-only objects with a functionally equivalent set of one or more objects from the reduced-version of the language.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 6, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 20, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Zhi Gan, Ying Chun Guo, Rahul Kurane, Aravind Srinivasan
  • Patent number: 8140367
    Abstract: A method, system, and computer-readable medium that support an open marketplace for distributed service arbitrage with an integrated risk management is presented. Orders for work packets, which are processed within a software factory, are allowed to be bid upon only by software factories that have been previously ranked by a centralized marketplace portal, thus ensuring that only qualified software factories are allowed to service such orders.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 22, 2008
    Date of Patent: March 20, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Fausto Bernardini, Jarir K. Chaar, Yi-Min Chee, Joseph P. Huchel, Thomas A. Jobson, Jr., Daniel V. Oppenheim, Krishna C. Ratakonda
  • Patent number: 8140686
    Abstract: A client device interrogates an access point on a network to request an initial connection to the network. Without using a browser, the client device determines if the connection failed due to a lack of authorization for the client device to connect to the network.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 4, 2009
    Date of Patent: March 20, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Kristen M. Balhoff, Sarah A. Nelson, Stephanie L. Walter
  • Patent number: 8140832
    Abstract: A hardware thread is selectively forced to single step the execution of software instructions from a work packet granule. A “single step” packet is associated with a work packet granule. The work packet granule, with the associated “single step” packet, is dispatched as an appended work packet granule to a preselected hardware thread in a processor core, which, in one embodiment, is located at a node in a Network On a Chip (NOC). The work packet granule then executes in a single step mode until completion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 23, 2009
    Date of Patent: March 20, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Eric O. Mejdrich, Paul E. Schardt, Robert A. Shearer, Matthew R. Tubbs
  • Patent number: 8136037
    Abstract: A text document is parsed and re-ordered according to user-defined rules. The reordered text document is then presented to the user, thus requiring the user to read each section of the text document in a stand-alone manner.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 15, 2008
    Date of Patent: March 13, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Beth Marie Adams, Sheena Lewis, Kenya Freeman Oduor, Philippa Mignon Rhodes
  • Patent number: 8131611
    Abstract: A method, system and computer-readable medium for reducing a financial impact of click fraud are presented. In a preferred embodiment, the method includes, but is not limited to, the steps of: testing a sample of click events for fraudulent clicks of the PPC link, wherein the testing of the sample of click events for fraudulent clicks is directed to detecting fraudulent non-human clicks of the PPC link; and in response to a percentage of clicks failing the testing being greater than a pre-determined tolerance level, reducing a charge for clicks of the PPC link.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 2006
    Date of Patent: March 6, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Patrick J. O'Sullivan, Edith H. Stern, Robert C. Weir, Barry E. Willner
  • Patent number: 8131862
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method, system and computer-readable storage medium are presented for establishing a communication link between an SS7 device and an application server. An SS7 message is first decoded by a SS7 SIGTRAN gateway into a SIGTRAN message. The SIGTRAN message is sent to a proxy server, wherein the SIGTRAN message is converted into XML for transmission to a converged application in the application server.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2009
    Date of Patent: March 6, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Oliver Birch, Can Paul Boyacigiller, Sreenivasa Rao Pamidala, Bouna Sall