Abstract: In a data/information processing system, a nested privilege protection is employed to protect the system when executing instructions. A first privilege protection having at least two privilege levels is enforced. Additionally, a second privilege protection having at least two sub-privilege levels is further enforced for at least one privilege level of the first privilege protection to further differentiate the privileges otherwise afforded. In one embodiment, core system services, programming language runtime support and application programs are afforded the same privilege level of the first privilege protection, and the different types of programs are afforded different sub-privilege levels of the second privilege protection to differentiate the privileges afforded by the first privilege protection.

Abstract: A main document and referenced frame documents to be rendered by a browser for a display page are parsed by the browser to identify where text and graphics objected are to be located. The location of a cursor that is used by the user to interact with the browser is tracked, and the object nearest to the cursor is determined. This object is then rendered prior to the rendering of other objects in the display page that would normally be rendered prior to the nearest object under conventional rendering schemes. Optionally, objects related to the nearest objects may be rendered the same time, and various other objects may be rendered or partially rendered while data corresponding to the nearest object is being received by the browser.

Abstract: A palm-sized handheld device includes a body casing having a top end and a bottom end. In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, the device also includes a display screen proximately disposed near the bottom end of the device, and a plurality of input keys proximately disposed near said top end of the device above the input display screen. As a result of such a configuration, accessibility to the input keys by users+ thumbs is improved while glare from a bright light source on the display screen may be decreased.

Abstract: In a computer system having a display device with a display surface, a portion of the display surface is reserved for an exclusive use by a program, to allow contents rendered by the program to be persistently visible. In one embodiment, the reservation is accomplished through reducing the width and height of a shared portion of the display surface managed by a window manager, corresponding to a graphics resolution. In one embodiment, the exclusive use is to render advertisements in the reserved portion by an advertising rendering program. The advertisements are HTML pages received from an advertisement web server through the Internet. The HTML pages are rendered in the reserved portion through a direct draw component. The direct draw component is provided with the unreduced width and height as the width and height of the surface area to support direct drawing of displays. A cursor control device driver also supports monitoring of movements of a cursor control device and of occurrences of cursor events.

Abstract: A mobile client device, such as a wireless mobile or a palm sized personal digital assistant, is provided with a number of sensors and companion programming instructions/circuitry to generate a heart rate reading for a user holding the device. The sensors are used to sense blood flow rate of the user. The sensors are advantageously disposed in a distributed manner, in a number of locations of the mobile client device. The programming instructions/circuitry are used to infer a holding pattern of the device, and generate the heart rate reading, using a subset of the sensed data, based at least in part on the inferred holding pattern.

Abstract: A user centric approach to program product distribution, including a complementary multi-vendor code control system (MVCCS) suitable for use to practice the user centric distribution approach is disclosed. Under the user centric approach, versioning control information of the source/object files of various program products to be installed on various user computer systems are maintained on a user computer system by user computer system basis. Each user computer system or its proxy is provided with a portion or an entire MVCCS to facilitate receipt and storage into a common repository for the user computer system versioning control information of different source/object files of different software vendors, and to facilitate retrieval of selective versions of the different source/object files for the user computer system using versioning control information stored in the common repository for the user computer system.

Abstract: A “state” icon having a plurality of manifestations corresponding to a plurality of states associated with saving a copy of a current information page being browsed is automatically displayed for a user. The “state” icon denotes to the user whether the information page or other variants have been previously saved. A “single click” icon is employed to facilitate saving a copy of the current information page being browsed for a user. The saving is accomplished without requiring further interaction with the user. A “remote save” mechanism is provided to facilitate automatic retrieval of one or more information pages in accordance with one or more specified user conditions, and saving of the retrieved information pages in a repository. The information pages are retrieved and saved without requiring them to be first downloaded to the user's system.

Abstract: Visitation by a first on-line user to an information page of an information site is facilitated. Dynamic formation of a chat session for the first on-line user and a second on-liner user to chat with each other is also facilitated. The chat session, through which the first and second on-line users chat with each other, is then facilitated. In one embodiment, the chat session including its dynamic formation are facilitated by the information site. In another embodiment, the chat session including its dynamic formation are facilitated by a third party chat server. In one embodiment, the second on-line user is also visiting the same information page. In another embodiment, the second on-line user is merely visiting the same information site. In yet another embodiment, the second on-line user is visiting another information site. In one embodiment, visit by the first on-line user to a new information page of another information site, during the chat session, is also facilitated.