Patents Represented by Attorney, Agent or Law Firm Owen J. Gamon
  • Patent number: 7761825
    Abstract: An apparatus, computer system, and storage medium that, in an embodiment, receive elements and a goal for each of the elements. In various embodiments, the elements may represent commands or parameter values for a device to be tested. Testcases are generated based on the elements. If the numbers of testcases for the elements are equally distant from their goals, then a new testcase is generated based on an element chosen at random. But, if the numbers of testcases are not equally distant from their goals, then the new testcase is generated based on the element whose number of testcases if furthest from its respective goal. The number of testcases associated with the chosen element is then incremented, and the process is repeated. In this way, the generated testcases are based on the numbers of previously generated testcases, which, in an embodiment, results in more complete coverage of testcases for the device under test.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 24, 2008
    Date of Patent: July 20, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Sundeep Chadha
  • Patent number: 7752076
    Abstract: A method, apparatus, system, and signal-bearing medium that, in an embodiment, receive vendor resource data and vendor logic from vendors, receive customer resource data from a customer, build a page based on the customer resource data and the vendor resource data, send the page to the customer, and invoke the vendor logic in response to a request from the customer via the page. The page may describe both the current inventory of resources at the customer (based on the customer resource data) and resources that are available for purchase from the vendors (based on the vendor resource data). In various embodiments, the vendor logic purchases the resource from the vendor, requests information from the vendor, or registers the customer with the vendor. If a determination is made that a new resource is needed, either by the customer or by analysis of the customer resource data and rules for purchasing new resources, then a purchase request is sent to the vendor for the new resource.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 29, 2004
    Date of Patent: July 6, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Jacob Kugel, Carl Clair Pecinovsky, Christopher Robert Smith
  • Patent number: 7734615
    Abstract: A method, apparatus, system, and signal-bearing medium that, in an embodiment, determine performance data for query optimization of a query directed to a database table having multiple partitions. The performance data for the query optimization is presented in a user interface, and an option is provided in the user interface to create a non-spanning index for any of the partitions mentioned in the performance data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 26, 2005
    Date of Patent: June 8, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Mark John Anderson, Robert Joseph Bestgen, Shantan Kethireddy, Jeffrey Wayne Tenner
  • Patent number: 7720839
    Abstract: A method, apparatus, system, and signal-bearing medium that in an embodiment replace an element in a query with a backup if the element is not available, but the backup is available. An element may also be removed from the query if the element is not required. In various embodiments, the element may be a table or a user-defined function. In this way, the query may still execute even if the element is not available.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 11, 2007
    Date of Patent: May 18, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Eric Lawrence Barsness, Randy William Ruhlow, John Matthew Santosuosso
  • Patent number: 7702796
    Abstract: In an embodiment, in response to a request, a connection is selected from a pool of connections to a server. If the connection is stale and the number of stale connections encountered is greater than an adaptive threshold, then recovery is performed on all of the connections in the pool. If the number of stale connections is not greater than the adaptive threshold, then recovery is performed on the stale connection. A decision is made whether the connection is stale by sending the request to the server via the connection and detecting whether the sending encountered an error and by receiving a response from the server via the current connection and detecting whether the response indicates that the request encountered an error at the server.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 18, 2006
    Date of Patent: April 20, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Jinmei Shen, Hao Wang
  • Patent number: 7646960
    Abstract: A method, apparatus, system, and signal-bearing medium that, in an embodiment, calculate scores for cells within a program based on a speed at which the cells were presented and a frequency that the cells were presented. A cell includes one or more frames of presentable data. Chapters within the program are then determined and located within the program based on gradients of the scores that exceed a threshold. The scores are calculated based on incrementing a score for each cell each time the cell is presented and by different amounts depending on the speed at which the cell is presented. In an embodiment, the score is incremented by a larger amount in response to a slower presentation speed of the associated cell. In an embodiment, scores may be received from multiple clients where the program was presented, the scores may be aggregated for all the clients, and the chapters may be determined based on the aggregated scores.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 9, 2005
    Date of Patent: January 12, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Zachary Adam Garbow, Michael Anthony Nelson, Kevin Glynn Paterson
  • Patent number: 7613897
    Abstract: A method, apparatus, system, and signal-bearing medium that, in an embodiment, calculate a preemption credit for a partition if a virtual processor is preempted and the partition is unable to receive an entitled capacity of physical processor cycles during a dispatch window. The preemption credit is the portion of the entitled capacity that the partition is unable to receive. As long as the partition has a remaining preemption credit, in subsequent dispatch windows, a portion of the preemption credit is allocated to the virtual processor, and the preemption credit is reduced. In this way, in an embodiment, shared processor partitions may be ensured of receiving their entitled allocation of processor cycles.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2005
    Date of Patent: November 3, 2009
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: William Joseph Armstrong, Naresh Nayar
  • Patent number: 7610042
    Abstract: In an embodiment, a message is sent from a source telephone to a message center if a message indication is received by the source telephone in response to a call from the source telephone directed to a target telephone. The message indication indicates that the target telephone does not answer the call. The message center saves the message. If a signal strength of a transmission between the source telephone and the message center during the sending of the message is below a low signal-strength threshold, then the message is recorded to an overlay message at the source telephone. Once the signal strength between the source telephone and the message center exceeds a high signal-strength threshold, an overlay package that includes the overlay message is sent from the source telephone to the target telephone, and the message center replaces the message with the overlay message if the message exists at the message center.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 12, 2006
    Date of Patent: October 27, 2009
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Cary Lee Bates
  • Patent number: 7606906
    Abstract: A method, apparatus, system, and signal-bearing medium that, in an embodiment, accumulate multiple work units into a bundle and send the bundle to a selected active server. The active server is selected based on the relative costs for the work units and costs for servers. In an embodiment, selecting the active server includes determining relative work unit costs and relative server costs, calculating total weighted costs for the servers based on the relative work unit costs and the relative server costs, and selecting the active server that has the lowest total weighted cost. The active server may either process a work in the bundle locally or send the work unit to a passive server for processing. The active server determines whether each work unit can be executed at the active server. If the work unit can be executed on the active server, the active server executes the work unit and creates local results.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 28, 2005
    Date of Patent: October 20, 2009
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Richard Alan Diedrich, Jinmei Shen, Hao Wang
  • Patent number: 7574420
    Abstract: A method, apparatus, system, and storage medium that, in an embodiment, create an index for pages based on association scores for the pages with respect to geographic regions, where the association scores indicate relative degrees to which the pages are associated with the geographic regions. In an embodiment, the association scores are determined by adding a term scare to the association score if a term that is associated with the geographic region is present in the page. The term score indicates a relative degree to which presence of the term in the page indicates that the page is associated with the geographic region. In an embodiment, the association scores are further increased based on association scores of neighbor geographic regions and based on the association scores of incoming linked pages.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 17, 2005
    Date of Patent: August 11, 2009
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Cary Lee Bates, Brian Paul Wallenfelt
  • Patent number: 7571394
    Abstract: A method, apparatus, system, and signal-bearing medium that, in an embodiment, display a graphical representation of data that changes over time, create a region in the graphical representation, retrieve data from a database based on the region, and create a graphical representation of the retrieved data. In various embodiment, a profile is created and the data is retrieved based on the profile. The profile may include a schedule for retrieving the data, an identification of the region, an identification of a key, an identification of an x-axis, and an identification of a y-axis. In an embodiment, an union of multiple profiles is created, and data in the database that is not represented by the union is deleted. In another embodiment, regions that are adjacent in time are concatenated. In another embodiment, the creation of the graphical representation may be separated into multiple units of work for execution in a network if a workload at a computer exceeds a threshold.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 26, 2005
    Date of Patent: August 4, 2009
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Zachary Adam Garbow
  • Patent number: 7565560
    Abstract: Combinations of clock frequencies, voltages, and currents at which a processor operates normally are determined. These combinations are stored to a component on which the processor is installed. Voltage identifiers are stored to a computer system in which the component is installed. The voltage identifiers are associated with combinations of the voltages and currents. A type of the computer system is also stored to the component. A first clock frequency at which the processor operates is determined that is assigned to the type of the computer system. A first voltage and a first current are selected that are assigned to the first clock frequency. A first voltage identifier is found that is assigned to the combination of the first voltage and first current, and the first voltage identifier is sent to a voltage regulator, which supplies voltage to the processor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 31, 2006
    Date of Patent: July 21, 2009
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Douglas Michael Boecker, Patrick Kevin Egan, Todd Jon Rosedahl, Jeffrey Scot Rotter
  • Patent number: 7558964
    Abstract: A method, apparatus, system, and signal-bearing medium that, in an embodiment, receive cues, one-time passwords, and a presentation order. The cues and one-time passwords are associated with a user name. In response to a cue request, the cues are presented in the presentation order and input data is received. If the input data matches the associated one-time password, then access to secure information is granted and the one-time password is invalidated. If the input data does not match the associated one-time password, then access to secure information is denied. In various embodiments, the cues may be text, images, audio, or video. In this way, in an embodiment, one-time passwords may be used in response to cues, which may increase security when accessing information from a non-trusted client because if the one-time password is misappropriated via the non-trusted client, the one-time password is no longer valid for future use.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 13, 2005
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2009
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Carlos David Bermudez, Joseph William Cropper
  • Patent number: 7552236
    Abstract: A method, apparatus, system, and signal-bearing medium that, in an embodiment, detect a new task priority for a processor, where the processor is connected to a first node, find a home node for the processor via a cluster to which the processor belongs, and send the new task priority to the home node if the home node is different from the first node. In another embodiment, an interrupt directed to a first processor is detected, the interrupt is determined to be redirectable, a home node for the first process is found via a cluster to which the first processor belongs, and an interrupt vector is sent to the home node if the home node is different from the first node.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 14, 2005
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2009
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Todd Alan Greenfield, Jon K. Kriegel
  • Patent number: 7552150
    Abstract: A method, apparatus, system, and signal-bearing medium that in an embodiment, store a reason identifier in rows in a database. The reason identifier identifies the most recent change to the rows. The content of the rows that existed prior to the change are stored in journal records. In response to an undo command, the most-recent instance of each record identifier in the records associated with the reason identifier are found in the journal and moved to the database in reverse time sequence order. In an embodiment, a promote operation requests moving the change upwards in a sequence, from a source version to a target version of the database. In response to the promote operation, a determination is made whether rows with the same row identifiers but a different reason identifier exist in a target version of the database, but the different reason identifier is complete.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 10, 2005
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2009
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Lonny Olson-Williams
  • Patent number: 7549132
    Abstract: In an embodiment, identifiers and states of processes are displayed in a stacked cursor, which is moved in response to movement of a pointing device. The display of the identifiers and the states is customized based on a presentation type associated with each of the processes. If a time threshold associated with the process expires, the identifier of the process and the state are removed from the stacked cursor. In various embodiments, customizing the display of the states and the identifiers may include displaying the state and/or the identifier in text forms, icon forms, and/or colors indicated by the presentation type and/or presenting a sound indicated by the presentation type in response to a change of the state. In this way, a user can determine the states of multiple processes without diverting the user's attention from the stacked cursor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 28, 2006
    Date of Patent: June 16, 2009
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: John Edward Petri
  • Patent number: 7542655
    Abstract: A method, apparatus, system, and signal-bearing medium that in an embodiment save presented clips of a program and delete unpresented clips of the program. Meta-data associated with the program or embedded in the program to delineate the presented clips. The meta-data are created in response to commands that cause or end the presentation of the program, such as play, slow motion, skip, fast forward, or rewind commands.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 2004
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2009
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Michael Robert Burke, Frederick Allyn Kulack, Kevin Glynn Paterson
  • Patent number: 7543305
    Abstract: A method, apparatus, system, and signal-bearing medium that, in an embodiment, register each partition in a logically-partitioned computer to send local events to an aggregation component and register a first partition to send events associated with a group of partitions to the aggregation component. In various embodiments, the group may be all of the partitions or some of the partitions. If the connection to the first partition is unavailable, the first partition is registered to cancel sending events associated with the group, a second partition is selected, and the second partition is registered to send events associated with the group to the aggregation component. If the connection to the first partition is restored subsequent to being unavailable, a determination is made whether to change registration back to the first partition. In this way, in an embodiment, redundant reporting of events is supported while decreasing the number of events reported.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2005
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2009
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Calvin Dean Ward
  • Patent number: 7543001
    Abstract: A method, apparatus, system, and signal-bearing medium that in an embodiment determine, after a restore of a version of an object, where to begin applying changes from a change log to the object based on an identification in the saved version of the object. When a save command for an object is received, an identification of the change log entry associated with the save command is stored in the saved version of the object. Changes to the object then continue to be logged to the change log. After the saved version of the object is restored, the identification in the saved version of the object is used to find the change log entry at which to start applying changes from the change log to the object. In this way, the point in the change log at which to start applying changes to the object may be determined based on the saved version of the object. In an embodiment, this allows the object to continue to be accessed while the save operation is performed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 17, 2004
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2009
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Margaret Ellen Levering, Chad Allen Olstad, David Finian Owen, Larry William Youngren
  • Patent number: 7536461
    Abstract: A method, apparatus, system, and signal-bearing medium that, in an embodiment, calculate the average number of servers that executed an application in a previous time period, decide whether the current number of servers that execute the application is less than the average number of servers, and, if so, power on the average number of servers. The application is then distributed across the average number of servers. In an embodiment, the server is powered on by increasing the clock speed of the processors associated with the servers. In an embodiment, a determination is periodically made whether the response time of the application is greater than a threshold, and, if so, the servers are powered on and the application is distributed across the servers. In an embodiment, a determination is periodically made whether the response time of the application is less than a threshold, and, if so, servers are powered off and the application is distributed across the remaining servers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 21, 2005
    Date of Patent: May 19, 2009
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: John Joseph Stecher, Robert E. Wisniewski