Abstract: A method for determining an optimal coin operated coin collection date accounts for weather and seasonal effects on the expected revenue stream. One method according to the present invention may include: determining the expected base revenue for the coin operated device; adjusting, if necessary, the expected base revenue to account for the effects of weather and season; and determining the optimal collection date using the adjusted revenue.

Abstract: A system for providing distributed control of a resource with centralized configuration management. A network of distributed workstations is provided for controlling a resource such as a large mainframe computer. Server workstations for applying control commands to the resource are attached to each resource, preferably through redundant connections. Remote client consoles are defined which may be connected to the server for control of that resource. Server and resource location and primary and fallback connection paths are maintained by a centralized control server. Upon client console request, the central control server causes the server workstation associated with a particular resource to establish a control session between the server and the client console. A record of each dynamic connection is maintained by the central control server. Upon failure of a client console, the server accesses central server fallback information and establishes a fallback connection with an operational client console.

Abstract: A system and method for analyzing computer generated message streams. Electronic messages containing displayable message information are parsed according to a set of parsing rules. The resulting tokens are organized into parse state records and stored for further analysis. Current and previous parse state records are analyzed by the application of inference rules to develop a structured message. Content analysis of the structured or unstructured message is accomplished by application of a second set of inference rules. Content analysis attempts to select an automated response for transmission to the message generating computer system. Content analysis employs a binary search through a subset of inference rules loaded for a particular system. Changes to operating system or operator causes a different subset of rules to be loaded.