Abstract: A method, computer program product and system are provided for remote surfing control for television viewing. User input selections are received for defining a profile. The profile includes at least one channel list. Responsive to identifying a user input surfing selection, a channel list is identified from the profile. The identified channel list is used for selecting a channel responsive to the user input surfing selection. A surfing mode and a timer event are set responsive to the user input surfing selection. Other events, each including an event date and time and selected channel, are set responsive to user input selections. When an event including a timer event is identified, an audible signal is issued for the viewer, and a predefined viewing channel is set. When an event is identified and the television is off, the television is powered on and checking for a user acknowledgment signal is performed.

Abstract: A computer system for determining traffic patterns and congestion and using the determined traffic patterns and congestion to determine an appropriate route using a global positioning system and related route map calculator. A vehicle is provided with an onboard computer system adapted to determine travel time of a vehicle in a road segment and calculate a route based on this information. In addition, this information can be distributed to or otherwise shared with other vehicles and similar information can be received from other vehicles to provide a distributed network for generating and sharing experienced traffic patterns. The information can also be used to predict traffic patterns as well.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are provided for self-programmable temperature and usage control for a hot water heater. A plurality of user entered selections are received. Idle periods of a set time duration are detected and stored. Responsive to an idle period start time, a control temperature is set to a lower than normal temperature. Responsive to an idle period end time, the control temperature is set to a normal temperature. A sleep mode is automatically started responsive to idle times, and a vacation mode is automatically started responsive to an identified number of days of no water usage. In the sleep mode, the control temperature is set to a lower than normal temperature. In the vacation mode, the control temperature is set to a substantially lower than normal temperature or the water heater is turned off. The user entered selections can include a normal temperature, a sleep temperature for the idle periods, and a vacation temperature.

Abstract: A computer system, program product and method utilize an input region defined for a hypertext link that is capable of receiving user input for the hypertext link outside of a display region thereof to perform a predetermined operation with the hypertext link. At least a portion of the input region is disposed outside of the display region of the hypertext link, thereby expanding the hot spot. As a result, when a user performs a specific action while a pointer is disposed within the input region of the hypertext link, the predetermined operation (e.g., activating the hypertext link) is performed. In addition, conflicts between multiple user interface controls (e.g., hypertext links) disposed proximate one another may be resolved by defining a secondary operation for a second user interface control that may be activated in response to user input that occurs when a pointer is disposed within an input region defined for a first user interface control.

Abstract: A user interface component and method of using the same graphically display linked records with node display elements representing individual records, and optional link display elements representing the links therebetween. The user interface component may be automatically and dynamically generated during navigation between linked records, such that whenever a new link is taken from a record represented by a node display element, a new node display element is generated. In addition, the user interface component may further be configured to graphically represent the particular location of a particular link within a record, as well as a scroll display element associated with selected node display elements such that specific data or locations within the records associated therewith may be accessed. Moreover, the user interface component may also be configured to incorporate a retrieve progress display element that indicates a current status of a retrieve operation for a record.

Abstract: A controller displays windows on a display. At any one time, one of the windows can be in focus. Each of the windows has an original position and an original size on the display. The controller determines, for each window, an elapsed time since it was in focus, and changes the position and size of each window in proportion to its elapsed time. The controller shrinks each window that is not in focus and moves it away from its original position and toward the boundary of the desktop in proportion to the elapsed time since it was in focus. Thus, the windows that the user is using heavily tend to stay large and near their original position while windows that the user is using lightly tend to shrink and move toward the boundary of the screen.

Abstract: An apparatus, program product and method display an advertisement on at least a portion of a scroll bar. Doing so permits advertisements to be presented to users with reduced impact on the available space on a computer display, thereby maximizing usage of the computer display and limiting any potential associated negative impacts on user productivity.

Abstract: A method and system for enhanced automotive brake light control for use in a vehicle having brake pedal actuated brake lights. Photosensors mounted on the front of an automobile are filtered and positioned to detect brake lights which are illuminated on other vehicles in traffic in front of that automobile. Approximate ranges to detected pairs of brake lights are determined based upon a perceived distance between each brake light in a detected pair. Thereafter, in response to detection of sudden increases in light intensity by a pair of brake lights within a predetermined approximate range, the brake lights of the equipped automobile are temporarily illuminated, without brake pedal actuation, such that a potential braking situation is communicated to vehicles behind the equipped automobile.

Abstract: A browser selectively disables the display of viewable objects in a document. The document contains control tags that describe how associated data is to be displayed. The browser interprets the control tags and formats the associated data to display images on a display screen. The user selects an image that the user desires to be blocked. In response to this selection, the browser saves the control tag that identifies the image in a blocking list and blocks the display of the image. In this way, the user is allowed to decide which images are displayed and which are not.

Abstract: A computer system, program product and method implement enhancements to the functionality and power of aliases in accessing documents stored in a computer system. An alias may be automatically or manually generated and/or later refreshed based upon content data retrieved from a document that is stored at a predetermined storage location. An alias generated based upon such content data may also be displayed on the computer system. The content data is retrieved in conjunction with the retrieval of a portion of the document, and is defined to exclude the title data for a document. In addition, multiple aliases may be associated with a predetermined storage location. The multiple aliases may be selectively displayed in lieu of one another on a computer system, with the display of a second alias replacing the display of a first alias. Furthermore, the multiple aliases may be stored with one another in an alias group data structure that includes a single location identifier associated with each of the aliases.

Abstract: A computer system for determining traffic patterns and congestion and using the determined traffic patterns and congestion to determine an appropriate route using a global positioning system and related route map calculator. A vehicle is provided with an onboard computer system adapted to determine travel time of a vehicle in a road segment and calculate a route based on this information. In addition, this information can be distributed to or otherwise shared with other vehicles and similar information can be received from other vehicles to provide a distributed network for generating and sharing experienced traffic patterns. The information can also be used to predict traffic patterns as well.

Abstract: A watch signature for a debug watch mechanism indicates one or more allowable events, which represent allowable accesses to a watched variable. The allowed accesses implicitly include thread information by limiting the allowable operations to a single thread that first performs an allowed operation. Any operations on the watched variable that are caused by a different thread, and any operations that are caused by the same thread other than those specified in the watch signature will create a notification that an unauthorized operation on the watched variable has occurred. The debug watch mechanism of the present invention thus does not notify the user for expected operations on the variable, but provides notification for other events that do not fall within the anticipated behavior of the computer program as specified by the watch signature.

Abstract: A computer system for determining traffic patterns and congestion and using the determined traffic patterns and congestion to determine an appropriate route using a global positioning system and related route map calculator. A vehicle is provided with an onboard computer system adapted to determine travel time of a vehicle in a road segment and calculate a route based on this information. In addition, this information can be distributed to or otherwise shared with other vehicles and similar information can be received from other vehicles to provide a distributed network for generating and sharing experienced traffic patterns. The information can also be used to predict traffic patterns as well.

Abstract: A computer system, program product and method utilize an input region defined for a hypertext link that is capable of receiving user input for the hypertext link outside of a display region thereof to perform a predetermined operation with the hypertext link. At least a portion of the input region is disposed outside of the display region of the hypertext link. As a result, when a user performs a specific action while a pointer is disposed within the input region of the hypertext link, the predetermined operation (e.g., activating the hypertext link) is performed. In addition, conflicts between multiple user interface controls (e.g., hypertext links) disposed proximate one another may be resolved by defining a secondary operation for a second user interface control that may be activated in response to user input that occurs when a pointer is disposed within an input region defined for a first user interface control.

Abstract: An intelligent method, apparatus and computer program product are provided for automated refreshing of internet web pages. Page data are stored including a record of page data values for each user selected internet web page. The page data values include at least one refresh interval, a last time refreshed and a last time accessed. A user request for refreshing an internet web page is received and the internet web page is refreshed. Utilizing the refreshed internet web page, checking for changes in the refreshed internet web page is performed. Then scanning the stored page data is performed and for each user selected internet web page, the stored refresh interval is compared with a current refresh time interval. For each user selected internet web page, responsive to the current refresh time interval being greater than the stored refresh time interval, the internet web page is refreshed.

Abstract: Apparatus, program products, and methods implement various intelligent contact management operations to improve the productivity of users of electronic messaging systems and the like. To perform an intelligent name lookup, for example, a subset of the users in a contact database that meet a predetermined search criteria is identified, and a favored user is selected therefrom based upon a predetermined affinity criteria. Also, the automated addition of new entries to a contact database is supported by accumulating the number of contacts between a first user and a second user, with a new entry associated with the second user added to the contact database associated with the first user in response to the number of contacts between the first and second users exceeding a predetermined threshold.

Abstract: Apparatus, program products, and methods implement various intelligent contact management operations to improve the productivity of users of electronic messaging systems and the like. To perform an intelligent name lookup, for example, a subset of the users in a contact database that meet a predetermined search criteria is identified, and a favored user is selected therefrom based upon a predetermined affinity criteria. Also, the automated addition of new entries to a contact database is supported by accumulating the number of contacts between a first user and a second user, with a new entry associated with the second user added to the contact database associated with the first user in response to the number of contacts between the first and second users exceeding a predetermined threshold.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for locating and selecting hypertext links allows a web user to select a web page, then quickly and efficiently locate and select any hypertext link on the web page. A web user simply navigates to a web page and scrolls through the web page using the slider on the scroll bar. As the web user scrolls through the page, each link that appears on the screen is displayed in one of several predefined colors with no two adjacent links being displayed in the same color. When a given hypertext link is within the range of the slider on the scroll bar, this link becomes the current or active link and the slider on the scroll bar changes to a color which corresponds to the color of the link. The color change provides a visual cue to the user that the current or active link can now be selected.

Abstract: A computer system, program product and method implement a time delay in an in-focus switch operation to minimize inadvertent switching between user interface components such as windows and the like. More specifically, in response to user input to move a pointer from the display region of a first user interface component to the display region of a second user interface component, the second user interface component is promoted to a higher layer than the first user interface component so long as no user input to move the pointer back to the display region of the first user interface component is received within a predetermined period of time.

Abstract: According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, an apparatus and method for intermediate storage of tentative bookmark information is disclosed. The bookmark staging mechanism of the present invention allows a web user, during a browsing session, to temporarily “stage” or “mark” visited sites as potential bookmarks. At the close of the browsing session, or at some other appropriate time during the browsing session, the user can review the list of staged bookmarks and “promote” any or all staged bookmarks while simultaneously discarding any undesired bookmarks. The promoted bookmarks become part of the user's standard bookmark file and can be accessed at a later time, as desired. In addition, the user has the option of quitting the browser and saving the staging area, with the intermediate or staged bookmarks intact. The user can then return at a later time and continue the same search, using the previously staged bookmarks.