Abstract: The present invention provides for the efficient downloading of data set addresses from among a plurality of host computers, using a plurality of web crawlers. Each web crawler identifies URL's in data sets downloaded by that web crawler, and identifies the host computer identifier within each such URL. The host computer identifier for each URL is mapped to the web crawler identifier of one of the web crawlers. If the URL is mapped to the web crawler identifier of a different web crawler, the URL is sent to that web crawler for processing, and otherwise the URL is processed by the web crawler that identified the URL. Each web crawler sends URL's to the other web crawlers for processing, and each web crawler receives URL's from the other web crawlers for processing. In a preferred embodiment, each web crawler processes only the URL's assigned to it, which are the URL's whose host identifier is mapped to the web crawler identifier for that web crawler.

Abstract: Bus numbering management for an information handling system, such as a personal computer, is provided by interfacing one or more selectively hidden devices with one or more buses through either a hardware or software implementation. If an inactive bus becomes active, then disabling of a selectively hidden device interfaced with another active bus provides a bus number to the newly active bus. For instance, if a graphics capability is added to a computer system through a PCI bus, a PCI bridge associated with a second PCI bus is disabled so that the PCI bus number for the portion of the second PCI bus between the chipset of the computer system and the PCI bridge is available for use as the PCI bus number for the PCI bus associated with the graphics capability. The PCI bus number for the portion of the second PCI bus between the PCI bridge and existing peripheral devices is available for use for both portions of the second PCI bus.

Abstract: A device for blow molding or blow drawing of containers made of thermoplastic performs. The molding device is movable, mainly rotatable and includes at least one wallet-type mold provided with two mold-halves rotatable with respect to each other around an axis; two links which are connected to each other by one of the extremities thereof with the aid of a first pivot pin and pivotally connected to two mold-halves by the other extremities thereof on both sides of the common pivoting axis thereof; actuation devices which are connected to the first pivot pin and provided with at least one cam follower interacting with at least one respective fixed cam so that the first pivot pin is moved in a direction toward the mold or away therefrom, thereby opening or closing the mold. A compensating device acts so that at least one cam follower permanently contacts the respective cam.

Abstract: A web crawler stores fixed length representations of document addresses in a buffer and a disk file, and optionally in a cache. When the web crawler downloads a document from a host computer, it identifies URL's (document addresses) in the downloaded document. Each identified URL is converted into a fixed size numerical representation. The numerical representation may optionally be systematically compared to the contents of a cache containing web sites which are likely to be found during the web crawl, for example previously visited web sites. The numerical representation is then systematically compared to numerical representations in the buffer, which stores numerical representations of recently-identified URL's. If the representation is not found in the buffer, it is stored in the buffer. When the buffer is full, it is ordered and then merged with numerical representations stored, in order, in the disk file.

Abstract: A method, system, computer system, computer program product and application programming interface to search a variety of types of documents for material related to concepts expressed in a natural language text. The invention includes analyzing the natural language text to determine an underlying concept and identifying one or more categories of searchable material in a knowledge base that are related to the underlying concept. The invention includes intelligently providing documents from the knowledge base in these categories, both automatically and with the assistance of a customer service agent.

Abstract: A system generates a list of near-uniform samples of data sets (e.g., web pages) from among a plurality of host computers. The system performs a random walk so as to generate a set of visited addresses. For each address in the set, a reachability measure is computed. Then, samples are selected from the set, such that the probability of selecting a given address is inversely proportional to the reachability measure for the address. The selected samples form the list of near-uniform samples.

Abstract: A concept and method for organizing and aligning processes, functions, roles and tasks within organizations and across organizations by dividing these into Front Offices covering all processes, functions, roles and tasks whereby only the interaciton with any outside party, including Customers, is involved and Back Offices covering all processes, functions, roles and tasks whereby only the execution of a service or the production of a product is involved. Between the Front Offices and the Back Offices a Mid-Office is introduced covering all processes, functions, roles and tasks related to the coordination and management of all processes, functions, roles and tasks within or across organizations over all relevant Front Offices and Back Offices.

Abstract: A method and system for scheduling downloads in a web crawler. A web crawler may use multiple threads to download documents from the world wide web. Both threads and queues are identified by numerical ID's. Each thread in the web crawler is assigned to dequeue from a queue until the assigned queue is empty. Each thread enqueues URL's as new URL's are discovered in the course of downloading web pages. In one embodiment, when a thread discovers a new URL, a numerical function is performed on the URL's host component to determine the queue in which to enqueue the new URL. In another embodiment, each queue in a web crawler may be dynamically assigned to a host computer so that URL's enqueued into the same queue all have the same host component. When a queue becomes empty, a new host may be dynamically assigned to it.

Abstract: A web crawler downloads documents from among a plurality of host computers. The web crawler enqueues document addresses in a data structure called the Frontier. The Frontier generally includes a set of queues, with all document addresses sharing a respective common host component being stored in a respective common one of the queues. Multiple threads substantially concurrently process the document addresses in the queues. The web crawler includes a set of tools for storing an extensible set of data with each document address in the Frontier. These tools enable the applications to which the web crawler passes downloaded documents to store a record of information associated with each download, where each record of information includes an extensible set of name/value pairs specified by the applications. The applications also determine how many records of information to retain for each document, when to delete records of information, and so on.

Abstract: A web crawler downloads data sets from among a plurality of host computers. The web crawler enqueues data set addresses in a set of queues, with all data set addresses sharing a respective common host address being stored in a respective common one of the queues. Each non-empty queue is assigned a next download time. Multiple threads substantially concurrently process the data set addresses in the queues. The number of queues is at least as great as the number of threads, and the threads are dynamically assigned to the queues. In particular, each thread selects a queue not being serviced by any of the other threads. The queue is selected in accordance with the next download times assigned to the queues. The data set corresponding to a data set address in the selected queue is downloaded and processed, and the data set address is dequeued from the selected queue. When the selected queue is not empty after the dequeuing step, it is assigned an updated download time.

Abstract: A web crawler stores fixed length representations of document addresses in first and second caches and a disk file. When the web crawler downloads a document from a host computer, it identifies URL's (document addresses) in the downloaded document. Each identified URL is converted into a fixed size numerical representation. The numerical representation is systematically compared to numerical representations in the caches and disk file. If the representation is not found in the caches and disk file, the document corresponding to the representation is scheduled for downloading, and the representation is stored in the second cache. If the representation is not found in the caches but is found in the disk file, the representation is added to the first cache. When the second cache is full, it is merged with the disk file and the second cache is reset to an initial state. When the first cache is full, one or more representations are evicted in accordance with an eviction policy.

Abstract: A web crawler downloads documents from among a plurality of host computers. The web crawler enqueues document addresses in a data structure called the Frontier. The Frontier generally includes a set of queues, with all document addresses sharing a respective common host component being stored in a respective common one of the queues. Multiple threads substantially concurrently process the document addresses in the queues. The Frontier includes a set of parallel “priority queues,” each associated with a distinct priority level. Queue elements for documents to be downloaded are assigned a priority level, and then stored in the corresponding priority queue. Queue elements are then distributed from the priority queues to a set of underlying queues in accordance with their relative priorities. The threads then process the queue elements in the underlying queues.

Abstract: A method for a user to automatically order, unlock and pay for a vendor software application via an automated telephony and/or Internet system. The user requests access to a vendor software application. If access is not allowed, the user transmits a computing device identifier identifying the computing device on which the vendor software application is executing, a vendor software product distribution identifier, and a vendor identifier to a aserver. Pricing data is provided to the user, and payment for the vendor software application is processed before access is granted thereto. After payment processing, the server then transmits a password to the client based on the identifiers. Thereafter, the user enters the password to gain access to and execute the vendor software application to which access was previously denied.