Abstract: A recording and/or reproducing apparatus for recording and/or reproducing data to and/or from a recording medium having a data area in which data are stored and a management data area in which management data for managing these data are stored. The apparatus according to the invention has a selecting circuit, a reading circuit, and a transfer circuit. The selecting circuit selects, in accordance with a user operation, group management data to be stored in the recording medium. The group management data are stored in the management data area and manage, as a data group, plural data stored in the data area. The reading circuit reads the selected group management data and the data group managed thereby. The transfer circuit transfers the read group management data and the read data group managed thereby to an external device.

Abstract: A file management system is capable of storing the data with a higher usability (reliability) and a higher performance by structuring files for arranging in redundancy the data on a plurality of disk devices, and utilizing characteristics of a file management program (file system) recognizing a mutual relationship between sets of data stored in the plurality of disk devices. The file management system includes a plurality of disk devices 51, 52, 53 and 54, managed in the form of a disk pool, of which at least two disk devices are dynamically selected from the disk pool, for constituting a plurality of files for storing in redundancy any one set of data of user data and meta data for managing how the user data are used, and a file system 1, constituting a part of an operating system 3 of a host computer 2, for managing the plurality of disk devices as the disk pool and managing en bloc the files, based on the meta data.

Abstract: The present invention provides a system and method for efficiently transferring files using file differentiation. In architecture, the system includes a client device with a device file, a server device containing an original file and a revision file of the original file, and a delta file that identifies only the changes between the original file and the revision file. The present invention can also be viewed as a method for efficiently transferring files using file differentiation. The method operates by (1) providing an original file; (2) creating a revision file of the original file; and (3) generating a delta file that identifies only the changes between the original file and the revision file.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for a web crawler to automatically simulate user interaction with a dynamic website in order to gather and extract information from the site. This interactive web crawler will be able to create a search query string for any one of a number of desired search topics and systematically crawl dynamic personalized content on a website and retrieve the information desired by the user/client.

Abstract: Disclosed is a method and device for storing information about Web documents such as pages or sites in a manner which may be used in conjunction with inverted term lists to facilitate the retrieval of documents of interest from the Web. The method involves constructing compressed surrogates for documents, such that various operations may be performed without the need to retrieve a copy of the document from the Web. The method permits the efficient updating of inverted term lists when documents on the Web have been modified or deleted, and also permits the efficient processing of search queries in a variety of circumstances.

Abstract: The invention provides a file server that provides for backup and restore of files in a heterogeneous file server environment. Metadata associated with each file by each model or protocol is preserved across backup and restore operations. The file server performs at least three tasks as part of the backup and restore operations. The file server notes all file attributes associated with each file in either model. These file attributes can include Unix perms, ownership and timestamp information, and link information. On backup, the file server records those file attributes in an analogous record using a different model. The file server records each element of Unix metadata as an NT Extended Attribute for use by an NT backup element. On restore, the file server restores those file attributes from the analogous record. The NT Extended Attributes provided by an NT restore element are translated into Unix metadata.

Abstract: A process provides automated coherent documentation of the construction of variably configured assemblies and systems, which consist of mechanical, electrical or electronic subassemblies or components using relational database software. A relational database software program is used to define the location of subassemblies or components within the final assembly or system, define important configuration information for the subassemblies and define the interconnection of the subassemblies within the assembly or system. This process improves upon prior art utilizing schematics, assembly drawings, parts lists and configuration logs based upon ANSI standard documentation practices by reducing the time required to produce such documentation and improving the accuracy of such documentation. The use of a relational database allows for various data manipulations that may be desirable such as error prevention error detection, data analysis and specified searches.

Abstract: A data warehousing system stores the raw data population for an underlying delivery system for a personal intelligence network that actively delivers highly personalized and timely informational and transactional data collects and distributes e-mail and other content from a hub-and-spoke style source architecture. The architecture of the data storage system includes a data distribution depository warehousing the raw data, and a data distribution control server monitoring the state of the data for fault and other conditions. For instance, data may revert to the next-most recent state when a corruption is detected. Furthermore, data may be collected continuously but the data image of the repository may be frozen during subscriber inquiries, to avoid inconsistent output.

Abstract: A system and method for propagating data from one file format to another file format analyzes the file format of saved data to determine whether the file can be opened by the requesting application program. If the file is of a format or version different than that of the requesting application program, the data propagation logic analyzes the file to determine the available file formats attached thereto and launches an executable module, either attached to the file or remotely accessible via a resource indicator, to convert the file to a new file of a format and/or version readable by the requesting application program.

Abstract: A method, system, and product are described for configuring a computer network. A database is established which includes information about multiple network products. The network products are supplied by multiple different vendors. The computer network is then configured by selecting ones of the network products to implement the computer network. The computer network is thus configured utilizing products available from different vendors. Attributes are established which are used to evaluate network products. Each of the network products are assigned a weighted value for each of the attributes. A selection of network products is made utilizing the attributes and the weighted values assigned to the network products.

Abstract: A method and mechanism is described for indexing a body of records. An index associates ranges with records that hold key field values that fall within those ranges. Such an index may be implemented as a bitmap index. The bitmap index may contain entries that associate a range with a bitmap. The bitmap of an index entry identifies which records have a key field value that falls within the range associated with the entry. The index may be a native index maintained by a database system. The database system uses the index to efficiently process queries that specify range criteria.

Abstract: In an object oriented programming environment, an active data object accesses its stored data (such as its property and state data) by inlining the access code at the point at which access to the data on that property or state is required. Multiple access requests to the same data result in inlining the same access code in the data object multiple times. A system is thus provided to isolate the access code from active data objects in a program, to persistent wrapper objects that are reusable by one data object or many. It is the wrapper object that inlines all of the access code in a single location. Each data object user of the access code merely inlines a method invocation on the appropriate wrapper object. This reduces the size of data objects where there is now only a proliferation of single method invocations for most access request.

Abstract: A procedure for clustering documents that operates in high dimensions, processes tens of thousands of documents and groups them into several thousand clusters or, by varying a single parameter, into a few dozen clusters. The procedure is specified in two parts: computing a similarity score representing the k most similar documents (typically the top ten) for each document in the collection, and grouping the documents into clusters using the similarly scores.

Abstract: An improved method for creating and searching data files in a database is described. The system and method uses a memory in which is stored a main data file having a plurality of data records each having a data field containing data representative of an alpha-numeric product descriptor. A bitmask generator generates a bitmask value representative of the data in the data field of each data record and appends to each data record stored in the memory a bitmask data field containing the bitmask value representative of the data in the data field of the corresponding data record. A prefix generator generates a plurality of prefix files that are stored in the memory, the prefix files including a copy of selected data records of the main data file, the data records being selected as a function of the prefix of the alpha-numeric product descriptors corresponding to the data in the data fields of the data records.

Abstract: The system initiates a search at a first network site for user-specified data in a remote database at a second network site and conducts the search at a third network site (e.g., at a host computer's site). To begin, the system receives, at the first network site, a provider identifier associated with the database from the second network site. Thereafter, the user-specified data is input at the first network site, following which the user-specified data and the provider identifier are output from the first network site to the third network site. The system then searches for the user-specified data in a database at the third network site using the provider identifier. This database at the third network site includes data that corresponds to data stored in the remote database at the second network site.

Abstract: A system for delivering rankings information on readership of investment research reports is provided, which comprises the use of a plurality of readership information reports each including at least an article identification, a computer having a software program executing on it for analyzing said plurality of readership information reports such that for each unique article identification, the program counts the number of occurrences of that article identification in the readership information reports, then sorts the counts into a ranked list, a database electrically connected to the computer for receiving and storing the ranked list, and an electronic data interface for receiving requests for and transmitting the ranked list. The system can further comprise a readership information database for storing the plurality of readership reports. A method for using the same is also provided.

Abstract: A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture for detecting subsuming temporal relationships in a relational database. In accordance with the present invention, an invocation of a within operation that specifies a first event and a second event is received. In response to the invocation, a combination of temporal relationships between the first event and the second event is evaluated to determine (1) whether the second event starts at the same time as the first event or whether the second event starts before the first event and (2) whether the second event ends at the same time as the first event or whether the second event ends after the first event.

Abstract: Methods for acquiring and transforming data for business analysis, and computer readable media having program instructions for enabling the same are provided. One exemplary method identifies a set of data sources to be accessed for a user, loads the raw data from each of the data sources to raw data type specific locations and then verifies the integrity of the acquired raw data. Next the acquired raw data is transformed to a uniform data type and then stored as processed data into processed data type specific locations. Some notable advantages of the discussed methods of acquiring and presenting data for business analysis purposes is the ability to efficiently extract, organize and present the data as requested by a customer over a world wide computer network.

Abstract: A search engine manages the indexing of web page contents and accepts user selection criteria to find and report hits that meet the search criteria. The inventive search engine has an associated crawler function wherein display images of the web pages are rendered and stored as snapshots, preferably when the pages are indexed. The search engine reports search results by composing an html page with links to the corresponding page hits and containing snapshot reduced size graphic images showing the web pages as they appeared when fetched and stored as snapshots.

Abstract: A plurality of HTML files having their file names which may directly be recognized by a filtering part 415 in a data receiver are stored in a data storage part 411. File names of the HTML files are assigned to their headers by a data converter 412, and the files converted and multiplexed are repeatedly transmitted by a data multiplexing and transmitting part 413. A filtering part 415 selects the data having exact match with the filtering condition. A data processing part 419 performs data processing required for generating images, and the images thus generated are displayed on a screen of the display part 421. The data processing part 419 provides a switching command to a filtering conditions varying part 417 when an operator enters a file to be linked through an input part 420. The file to be linked is received as a result of changing the filtering conditions.