Abstract: Provided are a method, system, and article of manufacture for managing writes received to data units that are being transferred to a secondary storage as part of a mirror relationship. Synchronization information indicates data units to transfer from a primary storage to a secondary storage, wherein the synchronization information data is updated to indicate the transfer of one of the data units from the primary storage to the secondary storage. A storage controller receives a write request having an update to a target data unit comprising one of the data units indicated in the synchronization information that has not been transferred from the primary storage to the secondary storage. The write request is allowed to apply the update to the target data unit in response to transferring the data in the target data unit to a network adapter of the storage controller and before the data in the target data unit is transferred to the secondary storage.

Abstract: Described herein are processes and devices that control and use virtual universe wish lists. One of the devices described is a virtual wish list device. The virtual wish list device determines an item in a virtual universe that is a desired by an avatar. The virtual wish list device designates the item as a desired item in a wish list. The wish list may be stored in the avatar's virtual universe inventory. The wish list device determines details about the desired item, such as whether the item is desired in the virtual universe or in the real world. The wish list device stores the details about the desired item in the wish list. The virtual wish list device may use the details to conduct transactions related to the desired item.

Abstract: A look up engine 200 comprising a storage means 212a, 212b for storing a plurality of entries, each entry comprising a value and an associated key value, such that, in operation, a look up is carried out by outputing a value which is associated with the stored key value which matches an input key value. The look up engine 200 comprises a plurality of look up state machines 206a, 206b, 206c, 206d connected in parallel to enable multiple look ups to be carried out concurrently. Each entry comprises an associated skip value, if the skipped bits of the input key value and the associated skip value mismatches, an error message is output to indicate lookup failure. The entries may be stored in a trie format which is constructed by identifying overlapping ranges between the plurality of entries; splitting the identified overlapping ranges; storing the plurality of entries within a trie structure.

Abstract: Method and system for web documents clustering are provided. The method for web documents clustering includes: inputting a plurality of web documents, collecting information of the links and the directory structure of the inputted web documents, extracting, according to the collected links and directory structure, a hierarchical structure for the plurality of web documents and generating and outputting, based on the extracted hierarchical structure, one or more clusters of the plurality of web documents.

Abstract: A search engine provides personalized rankings of search results. A user interest profile identifies topics of interest to a user. Each topic is associated with one or more sites, and a boost value, which can be used to augment an information retrieval score of any document from the site. Search results from any search are provided to the user, with a variable control of the ranking of the results. The results can be ranked by their unboosted information retrieval score, thus reflecting no personalization, or by their fully or partially boosted information retrieval scores. This allows the user to selectively control how their interests affect the ranking of the documents.

Abstract: A computer readable medium includes executable instructions to integrate a write-back module in a report document, to publish to a recipient the report document and metadata identifying the recipient, and to update a data source based on received write-back information, including the metadata identifying the recipient.

Abstract: A system and method for effectively implementing a personal channel for interactive television comprises a personal channel manager that may include a configuration module, a search module, and a content packaging module. A system user may utilize the configuration module to perform a personal channel configuration procedure to specify personal channel configuration data for performing a content record search procedure. The search module may manage the content record search procedure according to one or more search parameters that may be defined during the personal channel configuration procedure. The search module may selectively locate and access one or more content records from one or more remote content databases during the foregoing content record search procedure. The content packaging module may then responsively coordinate a content record sorting procedure according to user-specified sorting criteria to thereby organize the located content records into a personal channel program.

Abstract: A method, system and article of manufacture for managing access to query results and, more particularly, for managing access by multiple users to persistently stored query results, whereby at least some of the users may have different access rights. One embodiment provides a method of managing access to a query result obtained upon execution of a query against one or more databases. The method comprises creating security information configured for restricting access to the query result. The security information is associated with the query result. Access to some or all of the query result is granted to a requesting entity on the basis of the security information and an attribute of the requesting entity.

Abstract: A system and method for collecting entity aliases include a web object collection component that obtains, from a web search engine, at least one Web object associated with a user' input entity. The system and method also include a social tag collection component that obtains a respective set of social tags for each of the Web objects from a social tag website and defines candidate aliases for the user's input entity based upon the respective set of social tags. An aliases refinement component refines the candidate aliases to obtain a collection of aliases of the user's input entity.

Abstract: Embodiments described herein are directed to generating a customized data viewer, where the viewer is configured to display data at any level in a data model. In one embodiment, a computer system receives a user request indicating that portions of data are to be displayed in a user-customized manner using a data viewer. The computer system accesses the requested data portions that are to be displayed with the data viewer. The computer system generates a dynamic data viewer configured to display the accessed data portions in the user-customized manner indicated in the received user request. The computer system also applies the generated dynamic data viewer to the accessed data portions, such that the generated viewer displays the requested data portions in the user-customized manner.

Abstract: A database management protocol exchanges update tokens between a client and a server on which the database resides. When a client requests data to be read from a database, an update manager either reads an update token stored therein or generates one dynamically. The update token represents a current state of the data object being read. Sometime thereafter, if the client requests new data to be stored in the object, the client may furnish the update token back to the update manager. The update manager compares the client's update token to a local update token representing a current state of the database and, if they match, determines that the state has not changed. If they do not match, an error results.

Abstract: A non-distruptive migration of a native volume from a source server to a destination server performed by a file switch involves converting the source native volume to a native with metadata volume. The native with metadata volume is converted to a mirrored native with metadata volume including the source server and the destination server. The destination server includes a mirror copy of the native with metadata volume. The source server is removed from the mirrored native with metadata volume. The mirror copy of the native with metadata volume on the destination server is converted to a destination native volume on the destination server.

Abstract: Data records containing one or more fields, which can be considered keys and/or values, are received, and processed such that data values of records that contain key values of interest are aggregated together. The keys of the resultant aggregations or “resultant keys” are created under the control of simple parameters to an aggregation framework. Similarly, the particular aggregations performed are also under the control of a similar set of simple parameters to the aggregation framework. Mapping of keys to reduce originality is one of the important features of resultant key creation. Finally, the structure of the parameters used to control aggregation is simple, flexible, and powerful.

Abstract: A method and computer-readable media for managing software object handles in a dual threaded or multi-threaded environment are provided. In a first version a software driven computational process drives a first thread, while a garbage collector process drives a second active computational thread within a host computer. The software driven computational process generates persistent software objects that are temporarily stored in a memory of the host. Each handle may include an object identifier of the handle itself, an open/closed flag and a pointer to a unique persistent object. The open/closed flag indicates whether the persistent object associated with a handle shall remain open and accessible for processing or may be selected for closure by the garbage collector process. A plurality of handle wrappers are each associated in a one-to-one correspondence with a unique handle.

Abstract: Backing up a database, including providing, in the database by a DBMS, at least one record with at least one backup field, the backup field being a data element that controls the backing up of the record, and backing up, by a backup module, the a record in dependence upon a value of the backup field.

Abstract: A method for high-speed scheduling and arbitration of events for computing and networking is disclosed. The method includes the software and hardware implementation of a unique data structure, known as a pile, for scheduling and arbitration of events. According to the method, events are stored in loosely sorted order in piles, with the next event to be processed residing in the root node of the pile. The pipelining of the insertion and removal of events from the piles allows for simultaneous event removal and next event calculation. The method's inherent parallelisms thus allow for the automatic rescheduling of removed events for re-execution at a future time, also known as event swapping. The method executes in O(1) time.

Abstract: A method for maintaining file-type information for a file is described. Data in a first position of a file is analyzed. A file-type for the file is determined based on the analyzed data in the first position. The file is monitored for input/output operations. The file-type of the file is updated if input/output operations occur within the first position of the file.

Abstract: Techniques for grouping related objects such as documents and files using quantum clustering are disclosed. A method may include constructing a feature-object database of multiple objects. The feature-object database may have quantized selected features as keys. A connected objects database maybe built. Clusters of connected objects may be identified in the connected objects database. The clusters of identified objects may be evaluated to determine groups of related objects. The method may be implemented on a computing device.

Abstract: A method, system and computer readable media for optimistic access of data objects in a processing system. The method, system and computer readable media comprise providing a list of position objects. Each of the position objects can be associated with a data object. The method, system and computer readable medium include utilizing a thread to mutex a position object of the list of position objects and to associate the position object with a data object, and accessing the data object by the thread. The method, system and computer readable medium record a free level of a memory allocator as a read level of the position object and record a version number of the data object as the version number of the position object after the access has been determined to be safe.

Abstract: A method, apparatus and computer product wherein means and mechanisms are provided whereby, in a distributed or clustered shared file system, (1) concurrency classes may be defined specifying granularity of locking, whether locks are cached, and whether modified data is written-through at the completion of updates, (2) certain files, file types, or files and/or file types as used by given applications or classes of applications, may be associated with concurrency classes, and (3) for each usage of a file by an application, the associated concurrency class determines a policy for choosing specific concurrency and coherency control mechanisms to be used for accessing the given file.