Abstract: Functionality is disclosed herein for using an interactive content service to provide content. A user may interact with the interactive content service to access interactive content, such as interactive fiction, interactive text adventure games, and other interactive content. A user may also use the interactive content to receive auditory output from applications configured to provide text-based content. The interactive content service maintains state information that identifies the current state of the interactive content. For example, before starting a particular interactive adventure game, the state identifies a beginning location within the interactive content. As the user interacts with the game, the interactive content service updates the state of the user within the game.

Abstract: A resource manager arranges the resources in a computer system into one or more resource pools. The resource manager allocates a number of active resources and a number of backup resources to a particular resource pool. For each resource managed by the resource manager, the resource manager acquires information that describes the capacity and reliability of the resource. Capacity and reliability information for the particular resource pool is determined based on the capacity and reliability information associated with the resources assigned to the pool. In response to a request, the resource manager may provide an application with resources from several resource pools. The likelihood that the resource manager will be able to provide sufficient resources to the application may be determined based at least in part on the reliability information associated with the several resource pools.

Abstract: Entities of an organization may have difficulties generating and remembering strong passwords. A password management service may generate passwords with high entropy and aid entities in remembering generated passwords. The password management service may generate a list of passwords based on a seed value provided by the entities. The entities may then select a password from the list of passwords to be used at the entities' password. Furthermore, the entities may be allowed to save the list of passwords to aid the entities in remembering their selected password from the list of passwords.

Abstract: In a multi-tenant environment, separate virtual machines can be used for configuring and operating different subsets of programmable integrated circuits, such as a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). The programmable integrated circuits can communicate directly with each other within a subset, but cannot communicate between subsets. Generally, all of the subsets of programmable ICs are within a same host server computer within the multi-tenant environment, and are sandboxed or otherwise isolated from each other so that multiple customers can share the resources of the host server computer without knowledge or interference with other customers.

Abstract: An operating area for a virtual reality system may be defined based on the positions of sensors (e.g., infrared sensors) or fiducial markings within an environment where the virtual reality system is to be operated. The sensors or the fiducial markings may be provided on an operating surface in the form of a carpet, a mat or another like floor covering. When the virtual reality system is to be calibrated prior to use, positions of the sensors or the fiducial markings may be sensed by a base station, a headset or another virtual reality system unit, and an operating area may be defined based on virtual boundaries constructed using such positions.

Abstract: Disclosed are various embodiments for identifying related collections of items within an item universe. Related collections of items can be identified based upon title similarity or a degree of overlap between collections of items. Additionally, relationships between collections of items can be generated if the collections have identical or nearly identical collection titles.

Abstract: A customer who visits an online marketplace to view information regarding an item formed from fabric may request and receive instructions for producing a sample of the fabric that mimics the sensations of touch and feel of the fabric. The sample may be produced using an automated fabricator, such as a 3D printer, associated with a client device from which the customer made the request. The instructions may include or describe a digital model of the fabric, customized for the automated fabricator. In particular, the sample may be formed from various plastics or other materials that are accessible to the automated fabricator, and need not be formed from the actual materials that are included in the fabric.

Abstract: Techniques are described for encoding noisy media content to improve its visual quality. Quantization parameters can be applied to residual coefficient matrices of portions of an image frame as a compression technique. To improve the visual quality of media content, the quantization parameters to be applied can be adjusted to fit within a range around a representative quantization parameter of all of the portions of the image frame.

Abstract: A computer system processes an authoritative piece of source code to identify one or more formats with which the piece of source code is compliant. A second non-authoritative piece of source code is processed, and the system determines whether in the second non-authoritative piece of source code complies with the one or more formats. In an embodiment, the computer system provides suggestions to make the second non-authoritative piece of source code compliant with the authoritative piece of source code. In an embodiment, the authoritative piece of source code is in a shared source code repository, and the computer system designates the authoritative piece of source code as authoritative based at least in part on the relative age, stability, or authorship of the authoritative source code and other source code in the repository.

Abstract: Described is a flight control computer that includes a multi-core processor. Independent flight control programs of the flight control computer are loaded onto and execute from each of the independent processor cores of the multi-core processor. Each flight control program receives an input and independently computes a core output state. The core output states are exchanged among flight control programs operating on the different processor cores and a flight control output for the flight control computer is determined based on the independently generated core output states.

Abstract: Partitions of a hosted computing service may be maintained on a computing node. Processing of requests to access the partition may be limited to constrain capacity utilization to a provisioned amount of capacity reserved for the partition. A second, additional amount of capacity may be associated with the partition and may reflect potential future changes to the provisioned amount of capacity. A sum of provisioned and additional capacities associated with partitions on a computing node may be calculated. The computing node may be ranked, relative to other computing nodes, for maintaining new or relocated partitions based on the sum.

Abstract: Scaling events may be detected for hosting hierarchical data structures. Scaling events may be detected to modify the capacity of a data store for hierarchical data structures to handle changing write workloads, read workloads, or storage capacity. Hierarchical data structures may be moved from one group of storage hosts to another group of storage hosts according to a filtered snapshot that includes the hierarchical data structures to be moved that is provided to the destination storage hosts. Changes made to the hierarchical data structures made at the source storage hosts during the move can be applied to the filtered snapshot so that the hierarchical data structures may be made available at the destination storage hosts inclusive of the changes.

Abstract: A method and system for analyzing text in an image. Classification and localization information is identified for the image at a word and character level. A detailed profile is generated that includes attributes of the words and characters identified in the image. One or more objects representing a predicted source of the text are identified in the image. In one embodiment, neural networks are employed to determine localization information and classification information associated with the identified object of interest (e.g., a text string, a character, or a text source).

Abstract: In response to determining that continuous data protection is to be enabled for a particular table of a database service, a service component verifies that automated transmission of change records of the table to a log-structured journal has been configured. A given change record comprises a before-image and an after-image associated with a committed database write, and is assigned a unique sequence number. In response to a determination to restore the table as of a specified point in time, a restore record set is identified from the journal with respect to a selected snapshot of the table. The restore record set includes change records which are not represented in the snapshot and are to be represented in the restored table. A restore result table is created using the selected snapshot and the restore record set.

Abstract: Technologies are described herein for adaptive polling based upon demand. A data source is polled for data at a first polling frequency. A request is received for a page or other type of resource that includes the data, and the data is provided in response to the request. Subsequently, the data source is polled for the data at a second polling frequency greater than the first polling frequency. Status messages are also received indicating a status of a display of the page. The polling frequency may be adjusted based on the status messages. For example, the polling frequency may be increased if a status message indicates that a user is viewing the data. The polling frequency may be decreased if a status message indicates that the data is not being viewed or that a page or other type of resource for presenting the data has been closed.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for identifying consistent snapshot points for file systems in a distributed storage service in which a client may access a file system in backend storage via two or more access nodes. A snapshot coordinator initiates a two-phase commit to perform a snapshot epoch transition. The coordinator sends prepare messages to the nodes. In response, a node sends a response to the coordinator, stops issuing writes to the file system, sets a timer, and waits for a commit message. Upon receiving a response from all nodes, the coordinator sends a commit message. Upon receiving the commit or the timer expiring, the nodes increment an epoch counter and begin issuing writes to the file system tagged with the new epoch and indicating that a copy-on-write operation be performed. The transition is successful if all nodes respond to the request message; otherwise, the two-phase commit is retried.

Abstract: Functionality is disclosed for providing and displaying an indication as to a position within a message that is currently being displayed within a message conversation that includes multiple messages. A personal information management (PIM) client application or another type of messaging application receives the messages in the conversation. The conversation is parsed, by either the PIM client application or a PIM server application that forwarded the messages in the conversation to the PIM client application, in order to determine sizes and beginnings of the multiple messages. As a message is displayed within the conversation, a message position indicator is displayed that indicates the position within the message relative to the size of the message. The position represents the portion of the message that is currently being displayed. The message position indicator resets when the beginning of a new message is displayed.

Abstract: Disclosed are various embodiments for facilitating a shopping experience that spans multiple display devices of multiple computing devices. Image data for a selected item is obtained from an item catalog. The selected item corresponds to a user selection made via a first computing device. An image of the user is obtained. An image of the selected item is rendered relative to the image of the user on a display of a second computing device. The image of the selected item is generated from the image data.

Abstract: A portable audio input/output device may include one or more openings that extend through a cover of the device and allow acoustic signals outside a housing of the device to reach a microphone disposed within the housing. The opening(s) may be illuminated by a light guide disposed within the housing, which scatters light emitted from lights disposed within the housing. In some instances, a hole may pass through a printed circuit board to allow acoustic signals to be received by the microphone disposed below the printed circuit board. An input/output (I/O) interface module with multiple buttons and inputs may be installed in the hole. The multiple buttons and I/O ports of the I/O interface module may be aligned along an axis vertical relative to the housing and centered with respect to each other.