Patents Examined by Van Oberly
  • Patent number: 8996535
    Abstract: In one embodiment, an extent hashing technique is used to efficiently distribute data and associated metadata substantially evenly among nodes of a cluster. The data may be write data associated with a write request issued by a host and received at a node of the cluster. The write data may be organized into one or more extents. A hash function may be applied to the extent to generate a result which may be truncated or trimmed to generate a hash value. A hash space of the hash value may be divided into a plurality of buckets representative of the write data, i.e., the extents, and the associated metadata, i.e., extent metadata. A number of buckets may be assigned to each extent store instance of the nodes to distribute ownership of the buckets, along with their extents and extent metadata, across all of the extent store instances of the nodes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 21, 2014
    Date of Patent: March 31, 2015
    Assignee: NetApp, Inc.
    Inventors: Jeffrey S. Kimmel, Blake H. Lewis
  • Patent number: 8977591
    Abstract: A database is replicated to other systems using multisite table(s) and associated replication trigger logic. Each system includes a main table, multisite table(s) and replication trigger logic. A multisite table corresponds to a main table of another system. When a main table of a system is changed, in response to an input, the system generates and sends replication transactions to the other systems for changing main tables in the other systems. In accordance with the change specified in the replication transaction, the multisite tables are modified. In each system, the replication trigger logic determines whether or not to replicate the change specified in the replication transaction to the main table of the each system, upon application of the replication trigger logic to the replication transaction. The change specified in the replication transaction may relate to inserting, deleting, or updating a record in the main table.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 7, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 10, 2015
    Assignee: Cellco Partnership
    Inventors: Zaheeruddin Syed, Madhu Bhimaraju, Anil Kumar
  • Patent number: 8954482
    Abstract: Processing data elements associated with a hierarchy that includes multiple levels includes: forming multiple flows of data elements, with each flow being associated with a level of the hierarchy; and including within at least some of the flows hierarchical structure information associated with a level of the hierarchy. For at least one of the levels, two or more and fewer than all of the flows include hierarchical structure information associated with that level.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 19, 2008
    Date of Patent: February 10, 2015
    Assignee: Ab Initio Technology LLC
    Inventors: Craig W. Stanfill, Joseph Skeffington Wholey, III
  • Patent number: 8943050
    Abstract: A method for optimizing directory performance includes receiving a directory service operation. Attempting to respond to the operation using an alternate evaluator. Responding to the operation using a back-end evaluator when the alternate evaluator is not able to respond to the operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 20, 2005
    Date of Patent: January 27, 2015
    Assignee: CA, Inc.
    Inventors: Richard H. Harvey, Ronald W. Ramsay
  • Patent number: 8903877
    Abstract: A file system has files constructed of an inode for each file, indirect blocks, and allocation units of file system data blocks. Each of the allocation units has one of the file system data blocks or a plurality of the file system data blocks having contiguous file system block numbers. Each file in the file system has a respective allocation unit size attribute specifying an allocation unit size of each and every allocation unit in the file, and the files in the file system have allocation units of different allocation unit sizes. By using larger allocation units for larger files, there is a reduction in the number of indirect blocks in the files without a corresponding loss in performance, and a reduction in the time needed for the UNIX FSCK utility to check file system consistency.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 26, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 2, 2014
    Assignee: EMC Corporation
    Inventors: Srinivasa R. Vempati, Sitaram Pawar, Philippe Armangau, Jean-Pierre Bono, Christopher Seibel
  • Patent number: 8898170
    Abstract: Systems and methods for generating and using performance metadata associated with a media piece (e.g., music or video) are provided. An electronic device can monitor a user's workout performance while playing a particular media piece. Workout performance may include the user's rate of motion and/or one or more physiological metrics of the user. Based on the user's workout performance, the electronic device can create new or modify existing performance metadata associated with the media piece. In some embodiments, the performance metadata based on a particular user's workout performance in response to a media piece may be combined with collective performance metadata based on the workout performances of multiple users in response to the media piece. The combined performance metadata may then be stored as new collective metadata. Accordingly, the collective performance metadata can represent the average response to a media piece over multiple users.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 15, 2009
    Date of Patent: November 25, 2014
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Allen P. Haughay, Jr., Benjamin Rottler
  • Patent number: 8892601
    Abstract: Creating web application using cloud-based friction-free databases without web hosting knowledge. User credentials are received at a web application service for initiating a web application task via client software. The user credentials are analyzed to determine whether to grant the user permission to initiate the requested web application task. The web application task is initiated when the permission is granted. Data associated with the initiated web application task is received at the web application service for analysis of the data to host and render a web application based solely on received data provided without basis of web hosting knowledge.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 25, 2011
    Date of Patent: November 18, 2014
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Steven Greenberg, Michael Hopkins Smith, Vijayalakshmi Ramkumar, Brian Eugene Kihneman, Alexander Alexandrovich Spiridonov, David Michael Jade, Shen Wang, Sumit Chauhan, Gregory Chan, Tobias Joakim Bertil Ternström, Russell Mark Sinclair, Todd Haugen, Ritu Singh, Daniel J. Cole, Peter Alan Carlin, Christopher Todd Seitzinger
  • Patent number: 8886613
    Abstract: An example method includes controlling a data de-duplication apparatus to arrange a de-duplication schedule based on the presence or absence of a replication indicator in an item to be de-duplicated. The method also includes selectively controlling the de-duplication schedule based on a replication priority. In one embodiment, the method includes, upon determining that a chunk of data is associated with a replication indicator, controlling the data de-duplication apparatus to schedule the chunk for de-duplication ahead of chunks not associated with a replication indicator. In one embodiment, the method also includes, upon determining that the chunk is associated with a replication priority, controlling the data de-duplication apparatus to schedule the chunk for de-duplication ahead of chunks of data not associated with a replication priority. The schedule location is based, at least in part, on the replication priority. The method also includes controlling de-duplication order based on the schedule.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 12, 2010
    Date of Patent: November 11, 2014
    Inventor: Don Doerner
  • Patent number: 8862602
    Abstract: Methods and systems for improved readability of URLS includes receiving a query requesting a universal resource locators relating to the query; parsing the query based on parsing criteria to determine keywords for the query; identifying a plurality of words in the universal resource locator; inserting space between at least two of the plurality of words; and generating display data comprising the result having the plurality of words and the inserted space therebetween.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 25, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 14, 2014
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventor: David Philip Sisson
  • Patent number: 8856180
    Abstract: A platform agnostic digital publication format that supports rendered and resizable text, illustrations and graphics, “read to me” features and interactive functionality. The format takes advantage of the alternate renditions feature of the OCF of the EPUB® specification and includes both a ShockWave Flash (SWF) based rendition and a HyperText Markup Language (HTML), Java Script (JS), Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) based implementation. In order to avoid duplicating large components (graphics, audio, etc.), files containing those components are not embedded in the SWF files, but are rather externally referenced by both the SWF and the HTML files. A strict and consistent folder structure and file-naming convention improves efficiency and reduces the potential for error.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 26, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 7, 2014
    Assignee: barnesandnoble.com llc
    Inventor: Michael Artin
  • Patent number: 8838629
    Abstract: A third party facilitates exchange of customer data between first and second entities while maintaining customer privacy. Personally identifiable information (PII) and first entity customer attributes of a first set of customers are received from a first entity. PII for a second set of customers is received from a second entity. First and second set common customers are identified using the PII of the first and the second set of customers. Subsequently, a list of third set of customers is sent to the second entity. The list of third set of customers includes the common customers and a plurality of other customers from the second set of customers. Second entity customer attributes are received for each customer in the list of third set of customers. Further, the first entity customer attributes of the common customers and the second entity customer attributes of the common customers are linked.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 23, 2009
    Date of Patent: September 16, 2014
    Assignee: American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc.
    Inventors: Mehmet E. Dedeoglu, Iwao Fusillo, Eddie J. Alvarez, Qaiser S. Shakeel, Andrew E. Roth, Lewis A. Tierney
  • Patent number: 8756195
    Abstract: The different advantageous embodiments provide a method for identifying changes in data sets. An ending version for a data set is received. A beginning version for the data set is identified. The ending version for the data set is compared with the beginning version for the data set. A number of differences is calculated between the ending version and the beginning version. A data structure is created that identifies the number of differences between the ending version and the beginning version.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 27, 2009
    Date of Patent: June 17, 2014
    Assignee: The Boeing Company
    Inventors: William H. Page, John B. Sims
  • Patent number: 8732156
    Abstract: An integrated program lookup browser provides an integrated system with an online program lookup web service that assists the user in finding these unrecognized files, protocols and web page objects by allowing the user to perform a program lookup on a web service that can search one or more databases and return the URL to download the appropriate application or protocol or return the actual program or protocol.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 4, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 20, 2014
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Linda W. Averett, Tariq Sharif, Roberto A. Franco, Anthony T. Chor, Vishu Gupta, Venkatraman V. Kundallur, Joseph T. Farro
  • Patent number: 8725675
    Abstract: In a file server for suppressing power consumption of a storage apparatus, when a file sharing program receives a file access from a client, the program references a mapping table. The program addresses the access to the target file in the volume of a RAID group where the target file is stored. A coupling-request reception program memorizes a coupling time for each user into a coupling history table. A grouping program applies a grouping to users whose coupling time-zones are similar. A data transfer program transfers, into the same RAID group, data of the files associated with the grouped users, thereby collecting the data into the same RAID group. Thus, the time-zone when no access is made to the RAID group (i.e., non-coupling time-zone) can be made longer. Accordingly, a spin-up/down request program makes a spin-down request to the RAID group in the non-coupling time-zone.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 17, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 13, 2014
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Shinichi Moriwake, Nobuyuki Saika, Hitoshi Kamei, Takahiro Nakano
  • Patent number: 8713078
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method for managing video contents includes collecting a plurality of keywords related to a topic, the keywords being collected using at least one dynamic data source. One or more sub-topics of the topic are identified using the keywords collected. A topic node in a taxonomy of topics is built, the topic node including a topic identifier for the topic, a child topic identifier for the sub-topics identified, and a keyword section for one or more of the keywords collected. A plurality of videos is organized using the topic node built to assist a user in locating a video of interest.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 13, 2009
    Date of Patent: April 29, 2014
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Anugeetha Kunjithapatham, Priyang Rathod, Simon Gibbs
  • Patent number: 8694477
    Abstract: A method for storing, in the rewritable memory of an automobile electronic control unit, calibration data functionally equivalent to a set of various models (M1-M5) of complete calibration data, this method including operations consisting in recording a single copy (CALIBAS) of common calibration data (COM1-COM4), and specific calibration data (SP1-SP5) relieved of these common data. The method uses the relations existing between the various versions (SP1-SP5) of specific data to further reduce the memory space dedicated to storage by defining, from among these versions, standard versions (T1; T2) and variants (V11; V21, V22), the variants being relieved of data already contained in the standard versions (T1; T2).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2010
    Date of Patent: April 8, 2014
    Assignee: Continental Automotive France
    Inventors: Jean-François Girard, Romain Lafuente, Jean-Christophe Seguy, Jean-Philippe Trede, Franck Valero
  • Patent number: 8676753
    Abstract: Replicated instances in a database environment provide for automatic failover and recovery. A monitoring component can obtain a lease enabling the component to periodically communicate with, and monitor, one or more data instances in the data environment, where the data instance can be a replicated instance including a primary and a secondary replica. For a large number of instances, the data environment can be partitioned such that each monitoring component can be assigned a partition of the workload. In the event of a failure of a monitoring component, the instances can be repartitioned and the remaining monitoring components can be assigned to the new partitions to substantially evenly distribute the workload.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 26, 2009
    Date of Patent: March 18, 2014
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Swaminathan Sivasubramanian, Grant Alexander MacDonald McAlister, Barry B. Hunter, Jr., Silas M. Brazil
  • Patent number: 8631007
    Abstract: A disambiguation process is applied to query terms before they are used to select sponsored content. If a query term is identified as ambiguous it is replaced by phrases associated with the ambiguous term. The disambiguation process provides, as an output, these phrases for use in selecting sponsored content. One example method for identifying ambiguous query terms includes, for each of a plurality of unigrams, identifying phrases containing the unigram, measuring similarity between phrases for each pair of phrases containing the unigram and using the measured similarity to mark at least some of the plurality of unigrams as ambiguous.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 9, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 14, 2014
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Dan Blandford, Oren E. Zamir
  • Patent number: 8595223
    Abstract: A method for processing an intranet includes crawling the intranet to identify at least some of the pages in the intranet, and determining, for each identified page, a number of links in a shortest path from a root page to the identified page.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 15, 2004
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2013
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventor: Mark S. D'Urso
  • Patent number: 8583638
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for processing user search request information and for updating the presentation of a map based on the processed search request information. User search information may be associated with one or more locations shown by the map. Each location associated with the user search information may be highlighted on the map. As the user refines the user search information, the map may be automatically updated such that only the locations associated with the refined user search information may be highlighted. A textual list of location names associated with highlighted locations may be concurrently displayed with the map. When a user selects one of the names in the list, the highlighted location associated with that name may be visually distinguished from the other highlighted locations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 27, 2009
    Date of Patent: November 12, 2013
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventor: Giovanni Donelli