Patents Examined by Brannon W Smith
  • Patent number: 8316023
    Abstract: A computer implemented system for processing selected data from a raw data file having a plurality of data sets arranged according to a repeating fixed format includes a plurality of processing sequences. A first sequence creates output files, each corresponding to a data set and having a common format, by sequentially processing the data sets according to a first meta-program. A second sequence generates a first data structure by processing each output file according to a second meta-program, the first data structure including data arrangements corresponding to the output files. A third sequence generates a second data structure by processing the first data structure according to a third meta-program, the second data structure including a tabular arrangement of data including data from each data arrangement. A fourth sequence processes the second data structure and provides an output configured to facilitate analysis of the data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2009
    Date of Patent: November 20, 2012
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventor: Patrick L. Cole
  • Patent number: 8316065
    Abstract: When performing migration of data from a migration source file server which is not endowed with any HSM interface, to a migration destination file server which is endowed with HSM, a volume of high capacity is needed for the migration destination file server, and moreover the performance deteriorates directly after the migration. However, with this system, the manager is enabled to set a migration policy using attribute information which can be acquired through a standard file access interface possessed by a file server program, and, when setting the attribute information of the migration destination file, the tier of the file which is to be created is determined, and the migration destination file is created, on the basis of this attribute information and migration policy.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 23, 2009
    Date of Patent: November 20, 2012
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Jun Nemoto, Atsushi Sutoh, Hitoshi Kamei, Takahiro Nakano
  • Patent number: 8140598
    Abstract: A method for creating a reference in a scoped memory system, the scoped memory system including a scope graph of scoped memory areas, wherein each scoped memory area is suitable for the allocation of objects therein for access by software threads and has associated a thread count for indicating that the scoped memory area is discardable, the method comprising the steps of: allocating a target object in a target scoped memory area; storing an index associated with the target object of a depth of the target scoped memory area in the scope graph; allocating a source object in a source scoped memory area; storing an index associated with the source object of a depth of the source scoped memory area in the scope graph; in response to a determination that the source scoped memory area is at the same depth as or deeper than the target scoped memory area by comparing the index associated with the source object and the index associated with the target object, creating a reference from the target object to the source o
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 24, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 20, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Andrew Johnson
  • Patent number: 8095419
    Abstract: The present invention relates to systems and methods for the generation and presentation of a search score for a given user on the basis of searches that the user performs over a corpus of documents. The method of present invention comprises selecting a given user and a time period over which to calculate the search score. A score function is applied to information regarding past observed queries for the given user over the time period to calculate a search score for the given user. The search score is displayed to the user in a variety of context using a number of software applications.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 17, 2005
    Date of Patent: January 10, 2012
    Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventor: Shyam Kapur
  • Patent number: 8060487
    Abstract: A technique may receive a search query including at least one search term. In response to this search query an index of a plurality of data files may be searched to identify data files containing the at least one search term. Subsequently, a list of one or more links to launch having a corresponding data file identified as containing the at least one search term is generated. In some variations, each data file corresponds to an application and has a file extension that is not associated with the application. Related techniques, apparatuses, systems, articles of manufacture are also described.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 1, 2005
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2011
    Assignee: SAP AG
    Inventor: Markus Schmidt-Karaca
  • Patent number: 8019744
    Abstract: A searcher can be configured to improve relevance ranking of search results through iterative weighting of search ranking results. A Search Auto Categorizer (SAC) operates on a base query to return a probabilistic distribution of leaf categories of a taxonomy in which relevant products may reside. A Search Logic Unit (SLU) can compute a relevance of any particular leaf category to the base query. The SLU can then determine an initial relevance of a particular product to the query based on the probabilistic distribution and the relevance of leaf category to query. The SLU weights the relevance of a product to the query to establish an updated probabilistic distribution. The SLU then repeats the relevance and weighting until convergence upon a relevance list.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 11, 2010
    Date of Patent: September 13, 2011
    Assignee: Shopzilla, Inc.
    Inventors: Igor Roizen, Keith A. Dutton
  • Patent number: 8010565
    Abstract: An information handling system having a processor and a computer readable medium accessible by the processor and having stored thereon a data structure operable as a directory service. The data structure includes a field comprising an service level object representing a service and comprising data defining roles for the service level object, and policies for service level object. The data structure also includes a field comprising a rack object map subordinate to and in relationship with the service level object, representing hardware or software supporting the service, and comprising data defining roles for the rack object map, policies for the rack object map, and service oriented architecture polices for the rack object map.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 16, 2006
    Date of Patent: August 30, 2011
    Assignee: Dell Products L.P.
    Inventors: Manoj Gujarathi, Jimmy D. Pike, Drus Reeves
  • Patent number: 7970756
    Abstract: A system for executing a query on data that has been partitioned into a plurality of partitions is provided. The system includes providing partitioned data including one or more columns and the plurality of partitions. The partitioned data includes a limit key value associated with each column for a given partition. The system further includes receiving a query including a predicate on one of the one or more columns of the partitioned data; and utilizing the predicate on the one of the one or more columns in a pruning decision on at least one of the one or more partitions based on the limit key values associated with the plurality of partitions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 10, 2008
    Date of Patent: June 28, 2011
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Thomas Abel Beavin, Sauraj Goswami, Terence Patrick Purcell
  • Patent number: 7953723
    Abstract: A search engine can be configured to improve search times by implementing a parallel computing architecture. The index is split across a plurality of independent search nodes. A query is communicated to each of the parallel nodes and the query is searched in each independent node. The results from each node are routed to a federator that is configured to aggregate the results to a result set. The federator is configured to determine a subset of intermediate results to retrieve and aggregate from each of the independent nodes. The federator determines a number of results to retrieve from each of the nodes based at least in part on the number of nodes and the number of search results desired in the results set.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 6, 2005
    Date of Patent: May 31, 2011
    Assignee: Shopzilla, Inc.
    Inventors: Keith A. Dutton, Igor Roizen, Sanford J. Ganz
  • Patent number: 7949647
    Abstract: Search assistance is provided to users that submit search queries to search engines. In one implementation, a partial search query input by a user to a search engine is received. The partial search query is predicted to be a navigational query. A web address is selected based on the predicted navigational query. A search assistance list that includes the selected web address is generated. The search assistance list is displayed to the user in response to the received partial search query. In another implementation, a plurality of suggested search queries is determined for the received partial search query. A suggested search query of the plurality of suggested search queries having a highest relevance to the user is determined. A search assistance list is generated and displayed to the user. The suggested search query having the highest relevance to the user is prominently displayed in the search assistance list.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 26, 2008
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2011
    Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventors: Carlos Teran, Tom Chi, Don Chennavasin, Ashley Hall
  • Patent number: 7904436
    Abstract: A technique for realtime-safe detection of a grace period for deferring the destruction of a shared data element until pre-existing references to the data element have been removed. A pair of counters is established for each of one or more processors. A global counter selector determines which counter of each per-processor counter pair is a current counter. When reading a shared data element at a processor, the processor's current counter is incremented. Following counter incrementation, the processor's counter pair is tested for reversal to ensure that the incremented counter is still the current counter. If a counter reversal has occurred, such that the incremented counter is no longer current, the processor's other counter is incremented. Following referencing of the shared data element, any counter that remains incremented is decremented.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 21, 2008
    Date of Patent: March 8, 2011
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Paul E. McKenney
  • Patent number: 7877409
    Abstract: To prevent conflicts of interest, an information management system is used to make sure two or more groups are kept apart so that information does not circulate freely between these groups. The system has policies to implement an “ethical wall” to separate users or groups of users. The user or groups of user may be organized in any arbitrary way, and may be in the same organization or different organizations. The two groups (or two or more users) will not be able to access information belonging to the other, and users in one group may not be able to pass information to the other group. The system may manage access to documents, e-mail, files, and other forms of information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 2007
    Date of Patent: January 25, 2011
    Assignee: NextLabs, Inc.
    Inventor: Keng Lim
  • Patent number: 7873683
    Abstract: An electronic data system comprises memory storage having stored data, file system software, and a transaction file. The transaction file is maintained by the file system software, and includes a plurality of transaction records corresponding to transactions that have been or are to be executed on one or more files and/or the or more directories of the file system. The file system software operates to organize and maintain the stored data in the files and directories and also to coalesce multiple transaction records meeting one or more criteria into fewer coalesced transaction records. The physical memory space required by the transaction file is reduced by the transaction record coalescing. The coalesced transaction records may be constructed so that they represent a logical result of applying each transaction record of a transaction record set in chronological order.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 9, 2006
    Date of Patent: January 18, 2011
    Assignee: QNX Software Systems GmbH & Co. KG
    Inventor: Dan Dodge
  • Patent number: 7865495
    Abstract: A searcher can be configured to improve search results through the use of intelligent word deletion. A search auto categorizer (SAC) operates on the original query and returns a list of leaf categories and a distribution of probabilities among the leaf categories. The original query is parsed into word pairs and each word pair is run through the search engine. The search results for each word pair are weighted by the leaf category probabilities. A word pair is selected from the results and one of the two words is deleted from the original query. The searcher can perform exhaustive deletion where multiple truncated queries are generated from the original query and the results list from one truncated query is returned as the results list. The searcher can build up a truncated query from the original query by iteratively appending a word selected from the original query to the truncated query.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 6, 2005
    Date of Patent: January 4, 2011
    Assignee: Shopzilla, Inc.
    Inventors: Igor Roizen, Keith A. Dutton
  • Patent number: 7818306
    Abstract: Read-copy-update (RCU) is performed within real-time and other types of systems, such that memory barrier usage within RCU is reduced. A computerized system includes processors, memory, updaters, and readers. The updaters update contents of a section of the memory by using first and second sets of per-processor counters, first and second sets of per-processor need-memory-barrier bits, and a global flip-counter bit. The global flip-counter bit specifies which of the first or second set of the per-processor counters and the per-processor need-memory-barrier bits is a current set, and which is a last set. The readers read the contents of the section of the memory by using the first and second sets of per-processor counters, the first and second sets of per-processor need-memory-barrier bits, and the global flip-counter bit, in a way that eliminates the need for memory barriers during such read operations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 21, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 19, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Paul E. McKenney, Suparna Bhattacharya
  • Patent number: 7801912
    Abstract: Method and apparatus for a searchable data service are described. The searchable data service may be implemented as a Web service with a Web service interface that allows the storage of locators and other attributes associated with entities stored in a data store in a searchable index. The attributes may be expressed as {name, value} pairs. The interface may allow client applications to query the searchable index to retrieve locators for entities in the backend data store according to the attributes associated with each locator. Search speed may be automatically optimized using, for example, indexes, query planning, and parallelism. The searchable data service provides a searchable index and is not a data store per se. The searchable data service separates searching and indexing of data from the actual storage of the data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2006
    Date of Patent: September 21, 2010
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Patrick W. Ransil, Aleksey V. Martynov, James S. Larson, James R. Collette, Robert Wai-Chi Chu, Partha Saha
  • Patent number: 7788223
    Abstract: Aspects of the subject matter described herein relate to resource replication systems. In aspects, a mechanism is described that detects when local resources are stale. Local resources may be stale when the time between a last successful synchronization activity and a current time exceeds a staleness value. If the local resources are determined to be stale, the local member may refrain from certain synchronization activities until the local member is allowed to resume these certain synchronization activities. If the local resources are not stale, additional synchronization activities including synchronizing resources between the member and an upstream or downstream partner may be performed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2006
    Date of Patent: August 31, 2010
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Huisheng Liu, Guhan Suriyanarayanan, Nikolaj S. Bjørner
  • Patent number: 7765178
    Abstract: A searcher can be configured to improve relevance ranking of search results through iterative weighting of search ranking results. A Search Auto Categorizer (SAC) operates on a base query to return a probabilistic distribution of leaf categories of a taxonomy in which relevant products may reside. A Search Logic Unit (SLU) can compute a relevance of any particular leaf category to the base query. The SLU can then determine an initial relevance of a particular product to the query based on the probabilistic distribution and the relevance of leaf category to query. The SLU weights the relevance of a product to the query to establish an updated probabilistic distribution. The SLU then repeats the relevance and weighting until convergence upon a relevance list.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 6, 2005
    Date of Patent: July 27, 2010
    Assignee: Shopzilla, Inc.
    Inventors: Igor Roizen, Keith A. Dutton
  • Patent number: 7730037
    Abstract: Disclosed is a fragile watermarking scheme for detecting and localizing malicious alterations made to a database relation with categorical attributes without introducing distortions to cover data. A watermark for a tuple group may be inserted by selectively switching the position of tuples in tuple pairs using a tuple hash associated with each tuple in the tuple pair; and a corresponding bit in a watermark derived from the tuple group using a embedding key, a primary key and hash functions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 17, 2005
    Date of Patent: June 1, 2010
    Assignee: George Mason Intellectual Properties, Inc.
    Inventors: Sushil Jajodia, Huiping Guo, Yingjiu Li
  • Patent number: 7720792
    Abstract: Disclosed are methods and computer program products for automatically identifying and compensating for stop words in a text processing system. This automatic stop word compensation allows such operations as performing queries on an abstract mathematical space built using all words from all texts, with the ability to compensate for the skew that the inclusion of the stop words may have introduced into the space. Documents are represented by document vectors in the abstract mathematical space. To compensate for stop words, a weight function is applied to a predetermined component of the document vectors associated with frequently occurring word(s) contained in the documents. The weight function may be applied dynamically during query processing. Alternatively, the weight function may be applied statically to all document vectors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 7, 2006
    Date of Patent: May 18, 2010
    Assignee: Content Analyst Company, LLC
    Inventor: Robert Jenson Price