Abstract: Controlling access to a data storage device includes defining a plurality of groups that access the data storage device, defining a plurality of pools of devices of the data storage device, and, for at least one of the groups, determining access rights with respect to at least one of the pools. The pools of devices may include communication ports and/or memory segments of the storage element. The access rights may indicate whether system calls are allowed on the communication ports. In some embodiments, restricting access to a data storage device includes coupling each of a plurality of host requestor systems to the storage element by one of a plurality of ports provided for the storage element and selectively determining, for each of the ports, whether system calls are allowed, where, for the ports in which system calls are not allowed, a system call by the host systems coupled thereto causes the storage element to indicate that the system call was not performed.

Abstract: A filter for restricting access to a user's destination to authorized senders. The filter generates a unique address identification (ID) for each authorized sender. The address ID may be formatted into a unique address by associating with a machine address. The address IDs are stored in a database along with information identifying the sender to which it was issued. The user may revoke a sender's authorization by removing the address ID from the database, or restrict access with policies associated with the address ID.

Abstract: A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture for accessing a subject table in a computer system. The subject table is partitioned across a plurality of processing units of the computer system. A user query or other request to access the subject table is split into a plurality of step messages, wherein each of the step messages is assigned to one of the processing units managing one or more of the partitions of the subject table. A plurality of actions are identified for each of the step messages, and one or more necessary records for these actions are retrieved from the partition of the subject table and stored into a corresponding partition of a spool table. The necessary records are selected in such a manner that none of the actions involved in the request need to access the partition of the subject table. The actions from the step message are then performed against the partitions of the spool table rather than the partitions of the subject table.

Abstract: A divide and conquer method clusters a set of points to identify at least one centroid. A plurality of “r” subsets of points from the set of points are assigned into “r” partitions. The computer processes the subset of points to generate a plurality of partition centroids, Q, k for each of the r partitions, so as to optimize a clustering metric. The partition centroids are merged into a set of partition centroids, and are stored in main memory of the computer. Thereafter, the partition centroids are processed by accessing the memory to generate a plurality of centroids, c, one for each of the k clusters, so as to optimize a clustering metric. Data incremental and feature incremental divide and conquer techniques are disclosed. Furthermore, the divide and conquer technique has application for implementation in parallel processing computer systems.

Abstract: A system for automatically creating databases containing industry, service, product and subject classification data, contact data, geographic location data (CCG-data) and links to web pages from HTML, XML or SGML encoded web pages posted on computer networks such as the Internet or Intranets. The web pages containing HTML, XML or SGML encoded CCG-data, database update controls and web browser display controls are created and modified by using simple text editors, HTML, XML or SGML editors or purpose built editors. The CCG databases may be searched for references (URLs) to web pages by use of enquiries which reference one or more of the items of the CCG-data. Alternatively, enquiries referencing the CCG-data in the databases may supply contact data without web page references. Data duplication and coordination is reduced by including in the web page CCG-data display controls which are used by web browsers to format for display the same data that is used to automatically update the databases.

Abstract: A method, system, and computer-readable code for retrieving style sheets from a directory or other repository, based upon partial characteristic matching. Characteristics are associated with style sheets, and retrieval is accomplished by specifying a pattern which includes one or more of the characteristics. Preferably, the style sheet characteristics are stored as LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) objects in an LDAP directory. The style sheets may be encoded in Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL), Document Style Semantics and Specification Language (DSSSL), or any other style sheet language having equivalent semantics.

Abstract: A technique for indexing data is provided. A method for compressing an index to obtain a compressed index that is easily stored and transmitted is provided. The invention also provides for the decompression of such a compressed index. One embodiment of the invention maintains a separate index for each document, thereby allowing easy updating of indexes in response to changes in documents and easy transmission of indexes, which allows distributed searching. The technique provides very compact indexing information, but allows the indexing information to be very rapidly processed.

Abstract: Methods, systems and computer program products are provided which assure access to files which are mirrored between at least a first storage device and a second storage device by controlling access to the first and second storage devices so that owners of files which are to be mirrored between the first and the second storage devices are within a common user group. A predefined set of permissions are established for the common user group and permissions of members of the common user group are forced to the predefined set of permissions. Thus, files and directories owned by members of the common user group will be forced to have the permissions of the common user group. Files and directories owned by members of the common user group are mirrored between the first and the second storage devices.

Abstract: In one exemplary embodiment the invention provides a data mining system for use in finding cluster of data items in a database or any other data storage medium. A portion of the data in the database is read from a storage medium and brought into a rapid access memory buffer whose size is determined by the user or operating system depending on available memory resources. Data contained in the data buffer is used to update the original model data distributions in each of the K clusters in a clustering model. Some of the data belonging to a cluster is summarized or compressed and stored as a reduced form of the data representing sufficient statistics of the data. More data is accessed from the database and the models are updated. An updated set of parameters for the clusters is determined from the summarized data (sufficient statistics) and the newly acquired data. Stopping criteria are evaluated to determine if further data should be accessed from the database.

Abstract: Semi-structured queries in an information page employing semi-structured data are pre-processed to identify the data to be selectively retrieved from the semi-structured data, and the storage locations of the data in a collection of structured data comprising the semi-structured data. The pre-processing references a description of how the semi-structured data are stored in the collection of structured data. Equivalent structured queries to retrieve the data from the collection of structured data are generated; and the semi-structured queries are replaced with the equivalent structured queries. In one application, these pre-processed information pages are stored to fulfill requests from remote clients, to enhance response time to requests. In response to a request, the requested information page is dynamically completed, executing the replacement equivalent structured queries instead, without having to determine in real time where the semi-structured data are stored in the structured organization.

Abstract: An information processing unit is provided which executes various information processing by using Christian calendar year/date information and comprises a memory part, an application processing part for performing processing by using lower-two-digit Christian calendar year information, and a file access control part for writing/reading file format data to/from the memory part in response to a request from the application processing part.

Abstract: An apparatus and method allow using incomplete cached balance sets to be used to generate other cached balanced sets in certain circumstances. If a cached balance set is complete, a new cached balance set can be generated from it by condensing the existing cached balance set. If the cached balance set is incomplete, a new cached balance set can be created from the existing incomplete cached balance set if the query key meets certain criteria and if the existing cached balance set was condensed from the underlying data in the database itself, rather than from a different cached balance set. It is even possible to create a complete cached balance set from an incomplete cached balance set if certain criteria are met. By using both complete and incomplete cached balance sets to retrieve values in response to a query, the performance of the resulting system is significantly enhanced.

Abstract: A dynamic SKU manager creates versions of programs with different feature sets without a recompilation of the products. Features are enabled either before shipping to a user, or after the user has a partially enabled product. A brand module creates an encrypted value for each version which is unique to the machine on which the program is installed. The encrypted value contains an identifier, a date, and a machine unique name. A query component is called by various components of the program to obtain information about features and capabilities of a currently installed program. It also keeps track of which SKUs are available, and need not be recompiled if no changes have been made to the available SKUs on the machine. The query component is dynamically loaded and unloaded each time it is needed.

Abstract: A computer implemented method and a computer program product that is stored on computer readable media provides a parsing engine which will apply meta-language instructions to parse items discovered in a computer-based search with particular application to web sites accessible using the internet.

Abstract: Workflow management system and method with personal subflows. A workflow system includes a workflow definition including an activity to be performed by a personal subflow. The personal subflow is defined by personal subflow activities and branch expressions associated with the subflow activities. A server interprets the workflow definition and facilitates the scheduling and routing of work items in the system. A client receives work items from the server and displays information therefrom to a participant. The client also receives data and control commands from the participant. A decision agent cooperates with the server in the scheduling of work items by considering participant-provided data and a branch expression associated with a current personal subflow activity.

Abstract: A system and method for managing storage resources in a computer system. The invention periodically tracks and stores the history of each object stored in the storage resources. For each storage container, the life expectancy is calculated by utilizing the object histories for all objects currently stored in that container.

Abstract: System and method for implementing a forward compatibility syntax in a directory services environment is described. In one embodiment, data comprising an attribute according to a new syntax that is supported by newer servers, but not by older servers, is separated into data with respect to which referential integrity is not a concern (hereinafter “blob data”) and data with respect to which referential integrity is a concern (hereinafter Distinguished Names (“DNs”)). The two types of data are then combined according to a forward compatibility (“FC”) syntax that is supported by both older and newer servers. Only certain, newer, servers understand and convert between the FC syntax and the actual new syntax; older servers are capable of supporting the FC syntax without needing to understand it.

Abstract: A distributed computer database system includes one or more front end computers and one or more computer nodes interconnected by a network into a search engine for retrieval of objects processed by a variety of interrelated ontologies. Each object conforms to a specific ontology. A query is an object which conforms to a specific ontology, which is to be used for retrieval of objects conforming to one or more target ontologies. A query from a user is transmitted to one of the front end computers which forwards the query to one of the computer nodes, termed the home node, of the search engine. The home node extracts features from the query, according to its ontology. These features are then hashed. Each hashed feature and the list of target ontologies is transmitted to one node on the network. Each node on the network which receives a hashed feature uses the hashed feature of the query to perform a search on its respective partition of the database.

Abstract: A multidimensional database is read, written to and replicated over a computer network by accessing an ordered list of N-M component keys (where N is the dimensionality of the database and M is an integer greater than one and less than N, each key being associated with an M-dimensional data slice represented by a text string with control characters to define the rows and columns. Each such data slice is individually replicated to update remote replica copies of the database.

Abstract: The present invention discloses a method, apparatus, and article of manufacture for selecting multiple items in a hierarchy having two or more levels. Preferably, the hierarchy comprises at least one replication group, wherein the items are replicatable on systems and the replication group comprises a set of rules governing the replication of items on systems. The method comprises the steps of displaying a hierarchy of multiple items on a monitor connected to a computer; selecting two or more non-adjacent items in the hierarchy; and displaying graphical information on the monitor. The graphical information denotes the quantity of selected items and membership of the selected items in replication groups. In addition, the graphical information and item selections are maintained when the selected items are not visible on the monitor. The displayed graphical information can be designed so as to provide the user with feedback as to the status of selected and/or non-selected items.