Abstract: A network-based services provider may reserve and provision primary resource instance capacity for a given service (e.g., enough compute instances, storage instances, or other virtual resource instances to implement the service) in one or more availability zones, and may designate contingency resource instance capacity for the service in another availability zone (without provisioning or reserving the contingency instances for the exclusive use of the service). For example, the service provider may provision resource instance(s) for a database engine head node in one availability zone and designate resource instance capacity for another database engine head node in another availability zone without instantiating the other database engine head node. While the service operates as expected using the primary resource instance capacity, the contingency resource capacity may be leased to other entities on a spot market. Leases for contingency instance capacity may be revoked when needed for the given service (e.g.

Abstract: Embodiments of methods, systems, and storage medium associated with processing of digital images including character recognition are disclosed herein. In one instance, the method may include identifying at least some components of a plurality of characters included in a digital image of content, based at least in part on comparison of a vector representation of each component with predefined component shape patterns; and determining one or more characters from the identified components. The determining may be based at least in part on evaluating the identified components using predetermined combination rules that define the one or more characters based at least in part on relationships between the one or more components in the identified plurality of characters. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.

Abstract: Generally described, systems and methods are provided for detecting locations of failures of network paths. The system collects information from a plurality of nodes and links in a network, aggregates the collected performance information across paths in the network, processes the aggregated performance information for detecting failures on the paths, and determines at least one location for network failures. In some aspects, processing the aggregated information may include determining the performance information on each of the nodes and links in the network. The performance information on each of the nodes and links may be determined by application and optimization of an objective function.

Abstract: Host machines and other devices performing synchronized operations can be dispersed across multiple racks in a data center to provide additional buffer capacity and to reduce the likelihood of congestion. The level of dispersion can depend on factors such as the level of oversubscription, as it can be undesirable in a highly connected network to push excessive host traffic into the aggregation fabric. As oversubscription levels increase, the amount of dispersion can be reduced and two or more host machines can be clustered on a given rack, or otherwise connected through the same edge switch. By clustering a portion of the machines, some of the host traffic can be redirected by the respective edge switch without entering the aggregation fabric. When provisioning hosts for a customer, application, or synchronized operation, for example, the levels of clustering and dispersion can be balanced to minimize the likelihood for congestion throughout the network.

Abstract: Techniques are described for providing managed virtual computer networks that may have a configured logical network topology with one or more virtual networking devices, with corresponding networking functionality provided for communications between multiple computing nodes of the virtual computer network by emulating functionality that would be provided by the networking devices if they were physically present. In some situations, the emulating of networking device functionality includes receiving routing communications directed to the networking devices and using included routing information to update the configured network topology for the managed computer network.

Abstract: A system, method and computer-readable medium for client-side cache management are provided. A client request for content is returned that includes executable code for generating a request for preload information. Based on processing the executable code, a client computing device requests preload information from a content delivery service provider. The content delivery service provider provides an identification of content based on resource requests previously served by the content delivery service provider. The client computing device processes the preload information and generates and obtains identified resources for maintenance in a client computing device memory, such as cache.

Abstract: A structure of a device, such as a surface coating, is composed of one or more materials that are arranged to change one or more characteristics in response to a stimulus, such as an electrical signal, a magnetic field, application of thermal energy, and so forth. The changed characteristics may include a tactile characteristic, a visual characteristic, or other type of characteristic that is perceivable by a user of the device. A state for the adjustable structure may be determined based on user preference data that is stored on the device or input by a user through a user interface. The state for the adjustable structure may also be automatically determined based on device motion, orientation, environment factors, and so forth.

Abstract: Aspects of a turn conveyor system are described. In one embodiment, the turn conveyor system includes a first conveyor, a second conveyor adjacent to the first conveyor, a lateral conveyor extending between the first conveyor and the second conveyor, and a turn arm. The turn arm may extend across the second conveyor and be coupled to the second conveyor at a position corresponding to an end of the lateral conveyor. In one embodiment, the turn arm includes an extension bar, a rolling bumper having an angular degree of freedom, and an extension down shaft. According to various aspects, the turn conveyor system may displace an article in a first direction with the first conveyor, laterally displace the article in a second direction onto the lateral conveyor, laterally convey the article toward the turn arm, and rotate the article from a first orientation to a second orientation using the turn arm.

Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for determining customer interest associated with an item or category of items. In some embodiments, one or more discussion forums associated with each of a plurality of items may be determined. For each item, interest criteria associated with the item may be determined based at least in part on the one or more discussion forums associated with the item. The interest criteria may include the number of user posts in the one or more discussion forums and/or the number of users who have participated in the one or more discussion forums. An interest score associated with each item may be determined based at least in part on the interest criteria. In some embodiments, interest ranking information for an item or category may be generated by comparing the interest score associated with an item or category and interest scores associated with other items or categories.

Abstract: Features are described for detecting and disabling potentially harmful items that are embedded within or referenced by network resources such as web pages. A network node, remote from a user's computing device, can compare content portions to a repository of content portions which are known to be harmful, or to a blacklist of resources which are known to be harmful. The network node can take preventative actions based on the nature of the threat and the nature of the resource. For example, the network node can modify or remove portions of source code, replace interactive content with static images, and/or disable objects. Other features include providing users with a mechanism to override the preventative measures and receive the original unprocessed content. The network node can monitor the user overrides and fine tune its detection of harmful content.

Abstract: Aspects of a data environment, such as various capacities of data stores and instances, can be managed using a separate control environment. A monitoring component of the control environment can periodically communicate with the data environment to obtain performance information. The information is analyzed, using algorithms such as trending and extrapolation algorithms, to determine any recommended scaling of resources in the data environment. The scaling can be performed automatically, or as authorized by a customer. A workflow can be instantiated that includes tasks necessary to perform the scaling. The scaling of storage capacity can be performed without affecting the availability of the data store.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for interfaces to manage last-mile connectivity and dynamic reconfiguration for direct network peerings. A system may include a data center, endpoint routers and a connectivity coordinator. The coordinator implements an interface defining connectivity operations. The coordinator receives a request for dedicated connectivity to data center resources, formatted according to the interface. The coordinator determines a connectivity provider to provide last-mile connectivity to the requester, and transmits a notification identifying the selected connectivity provider.

Abstract: Techniques for identifying a candidate workload which may be a suitable candidate for migration from a first location to a second location are described herein. A set of suitability measurements associated with a computer system resource operating in the first location is received, the set of suitability measurements including, for example, resource usage values for one or more resources associated with the workload. Based at least in part on one or more statistical calculations on the set of suitability measurements exceeding one or more thresholds, recommendations are made about whether to migrate the workload from the first location to the second location.

Abstract: Systems and methods for authentication generate keys from secret credentials shared between authenticating parties and authenticators. Generation of the keys may involve utilizing specialized information that, as a result of being used to generate the keys, renders the generated keys usable for a smaller scope of uses than the secret credential. Further, key generation may involve multiple invocations of a function where each of at least a subset of the invocations of the function results in a key that has a smaller scope of permissible use than a key produced from a previous invocation of the function. Generated keys may be used as signing keys to sign messages. One or more actions may be taken depending on whether a message and/or the manner in which the message was submitted complies with restrictions of the a key's use.

Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed that facilitate the updating of target host computing devices based on versioning information. A set of host computing devices are provisioned with a local computing device management component. Each local computing device management component periodically transmits a request to a host computing device management component to determine whether version information associated with the respective host computing device corresponds to version filter information. Based on a processing of the version filter information with the current version information of the host computing device, the host computing device management component can facilitate the implementation of updates to the requesting host computing device.

Abstract: Technologies are described herein for utilizing shared storage for efficient VM-HA. During the replication of the state of a primary virtual machine to a replicated virtual machine hosted on a secondary host, a request from the primary virtual machine is received to write a dirty page of guest memory to a shared storage device. Upon receiving the request, replication metadata indicating the location of the page of guest memory on the shared storage device is sent to the secondary host computer causing the secondary host computer to retrieve the dirty page of guest memory from the shared storage device during synchronization instead of the dirty page of guest memory having to be copied directly from the primary virtual machine to the secondary host computer.

Abstract: Remote file archiving is provided using package files. A request can be sent for a raw file stored within a package file. The request can be sent by a computing device to a remote storage service. The requests can comprise a location of the raw file within the package file. The raw file can be received and unmarshaled. Unmarshalling the raw file can comprise uncompressing and/or decrypting the raw file. Meta-data can be requested and used to determine a location of the raw file. Raw files can be extracted and provided. For example, a request for a raw file can be received. The raw file can be extracted from a package file and provided for download. The raw file can be in an archived state, such as compressed and/or encrypted.

Abstract: One or more computing systems can implement a classifier to classify content publishers as being likely to provide appropriate content or as being likely to provide inappropriate content. The classifier can gather information from previously classified publishers. The information from the previously classified publishers can used to train the classifier. Based on the training, the classifier can learn about traits, characteristics, and/or behavioral patterns, etc., associated with publishers that have been previously classified as being good as well as publishers previously classified as being bad. The classifier can then process information about an unclassified publisher to determine a classification for the unclassified publisher, as being good (and likely to provide appropriate content) or bad (and likely to provide inappropriate content).

Abstract: Various embodiments of a system and method for providing substitute item recommendations in order status messages are described. In various embodiments, a customer may submit an order for one or more items to a merchant. In various cases, the merchant may fulfill the order by preparing a shipment that includes the one or more ordered items and shipping that shipment to the customer. In some cases, at least one item of the order may be delayed or canceled for a variety of reasons. In various embodiments, the merchant may utilize an exception management component to generate an orders status message (for the customer) that specifies the item has been delayed or canceled. The merchant may also utilize the exception management component to generate the order status message such that the order status message also includes a recommendation of one or more substitute items that the customer may be interested in.

Abstract: Disclosed are various embodiments for identifying importance of scenes or moments in video content relative to one another. Closed captioning data is extracted from a video content feature. A textual analysis of the closed captioning data is performed. The importance level of scenes can be ranked with respect to one another.