Abstract: A system and method for determining patterns in a data sequence constructs a compatibility matrix which provides a probability between an actual occurrence of an item and an observed occurrence of that or another item between each item in the data sequence. Candidate patterns are generated. The candidate patterns include items in the data sequence. The candidate patterns are checked against the data sequence to determine a match value based on the compatibility matrix, and significant matches are determined based on candidate patterns having the match value above a threshold.

Abstract: A program, is stored on a computer readable medium and has a module to calculate a usage value representing resource usage for an entity under a billing plan within a cycle, calculated from measurements of at least two measurable parameters and a module to bill for excess resource usage when an expected resource usage for the entity is less than the usage value for the entity within the cycle. A method of allocating resources involves receiving a value representing an estimate of a calculated expected resource usage under a billing plan within a cycle, derived from at least two measurable resource parameters, aggregating the value with a current actual resource usage for the cycle, and adjusting a resource allocation based upon a comparing of a result of the aggregating and a current available resource amount.

Abstract: The present invention provides a system and method for a datamining service vendor to provide subscribing power customers with electrical consumption data services. The system and method provide a mechanism by which electrical consumption is measured at the point of consumption over incremental periods of time. Customers can subscribe to a datamining service vendor which monitors and collects customer electrical consumption data at each addressed location within the customer's electrical network and provides the customer with a detailed report of power consumption statistics and trends. This allows the customer to make informed consumption choices resulting in cost savings to the customer and conservation of power generation resources.

Abstract: In a system including a collection of cooperating cache servers, such as proxy cache servers, a request can be forwarded to a cooperating cache server if the requested object cannot be found locally. An overload condition is detected if for example, due to reference skew, some objects are in high demand by all the clients and the cache servers that contain those hot objects become overloaded due to forwarded requests. In response, the load is balanced by shifting some or all of the forwarded requests from an overloaded cache server to a less loaded one. Both centralized and distributed load balancing environments are described.

Abstract: A system and method is directed to provide a consumer aggregation service in plural network servers. The invention is directed to a computer-executable program for use in network servers which allows a service provider to collect coupons, discounts, and other deals for its registered users to use in making purchases online. The invention has particular utility in connection with internet service providers that provide access to the World Wide Web. However, the invention is not limited to use in this context, and can be used in a variety of different networking systems where goods are sold by merchants.

Abstract: The present invention provides a system and method for a utility or a service vendor to provide electricity via a class of service. The system and method provide a mechanism by which power is supplied to customers via prioritized classes of importance wherein the point of utilization communicates with the electrical power supply network and provides information for the utility to determine whether or not power needs to be supplied to a specific outlet or appliance during various electrical demand or rate periods.

Abstract: A method and system for aggregating marketplaces for the purpose of fulfilling a supply or service need is disclosed. The method and system optimizes the ordering of supplies or services through an analysis consistent with predetermined criteria. By exploring many possible marketplaces to fulfill a particular need, the present invention can determine which method of fulfillment most effectively fulfills the particular need.

Abstract: The present invention is a system and method that reduces the taxpayer's burden of tax preparation and provides greater accuracy in the calculation of tax return figures. The invention provides for a centralized data repository service which collects tax information on behalf of the citizenry (a financial recording service provider), indexes the data by a personal identifier, and allows the taxpayer to either recall the data for use on yearly income tax returns or enables the government or a third party to access the data, prepare the taxpayer's tax return and file the tax return with the appropriate governmental taxing authority.

Abstract: A method, system, and business method are disclosed for providing a marketplace for computing capacity in a network. An indication of needed computing capacity, including a bid amount, and an indication of available excess computing capacity, including an ask amount, are received in the computing capacity marketplace server for a plurality of computers in the network. The method creates a computing capacity marketplace by matching the bid amount with the ask amount, thereby enabling one computer to provide at least a portion of its available computing capacity to another computer in response to the matching step.

Abstract: Periodic patterns in time series data can be hierarchical in nature, where a higher level pattern may comprise repetitions of lower level patterns. In the presence of noises, these repetitions of lower level patterns may not be perfect. A novel model, namely a meta-pattern, is provided in accordance with the present invention to capture these higher level patterns. The meta-pattern can not only provide a more compact representation of patterns but also capture the regularities of pattern evolutions, which may not be expressed by previous models due to the presence of noise. A method is provided to mine meta-patterns in an iterative manner by discovering meta-patterns and their supporting subsequences in the form of lists of segments of contiguous repetitions of a meta-pattern. The number of pattern repetitions in each said segment is at least a predefined threshold min_rep and the distance between any two adjacent segments is at most a predefined threshold max_dis.

Abstract: The traditional association rule problem is extended by allowing a weight to be associate with each item in a transaction to reflect interest/intensity of each item within the transaction. The weighted association rules from a set of tuple lists are discovered, where each tuple consists of an item and an associated weight and each tuple list consists multiple tuples. The weighted association rules (WARs) are generated where some subset of items forms the consequent part of the rule (i.e., right hand side of the rule) and some other (non-overlapped) subset of items from the antecedent part of the rule (i.e., left hand side of the rule).

Abstract: The system presented utilizes an automated “smart market” to efficiently identify individuals with contrasting interests, and allow them to enter into a contractual arrangement to balance their risks. Individuals and small corporations can register their risk profiles on a network-based server at minimal cost. Smart market software is then able to intelligently match up parties and determine terms for exchange of profits and losses by reference to current actuarial predictions of the risk event the parties have in common.

Abstract: An airline reservation system that supports guaranteed reservations for a preferred category of seating. The system comprises a method for receiving a request for the preferred category of seating, determining if the preferred category of seating is available, guaranteeing the preferred category of seating, and assigning a passenger to a seat within the guaranteed category of seating. Moreover, the passenger can be reassigned to a different seat within the guaranteed category of seating in order to accommodate an additional seating request. Seating arrangements are finalized at a predetermined time prior to a flight's departure and passengers are permanently assigned to a seat within their preferred category of seating.

Abstract: A method directed to a dynamic proxy reconfiguration which is implemented in plural network servers. The invention is directed to a computer-executable program for use in proxy network servers which enables each proxy server to dynamically sell its unused capacity to other web sites for specific periods of time. The invention has particular utility in connection with World Wide Web servers, but can be used with other servers where proxy servers may be present.

Abstract: A system and method for developing association rules which are personalized for a customer. The method includes partitioning (clustering) a set of records corresponding to transactions of items into discrete segments so that different parts of the data show different kinds of trends. The clustering is used in order to create a segmentation of the data such that these trends are captured in each segment. Consequently, a different set of association rules are relevant for each segment. For a given customer, the segment to which he/she belongs most closely may be readily determined, and the trends in that segment may be used for generating the association rules.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method for creating a meta-document. The method collects at least one hyperlinked document based on a seed document and cross-references the documents within the collection. Cross-referencing includes resolving an anchor and an object, and indexing the resolved anchor and object based on respective locations within a meta-document. The method organizes the collected documents and seed documents. The method also publishes the meta-document including the cross-referenced documents. Preferably, the method of collecting includes accepting the seed document having an anchor pointing to an object, and adding a document containing the object to the collection. In addition, collecting includes the step of manually modifying the collection. The meta-document is a collection of the seed document and the hyperlinked document. Further, the index is one of a footnote, an end note, a table of contents, and an appendix.

Abstract: A system, method and program product automatically processes user requests for services subject to excess demand using a flexible market based mechanism. A coordinating server automatically manages a plurality of users in obtaining desired services from a plurality of service providers. The server is seamlessly coupled to the users and the service provider(s) via a network, e.g. Internet, PSTN, Wireless, Cable, Satellite. Each service provider maintains a queue of service requests in process. The service provider may also maintain multiple queues for lower levels of service, service priority, etc. Each user service request is provided to the server via the network as a competitive offer for the desired service. Where the current price, terms, conditions for the service are beyond the users bid, the user bid may opt to be disconnected from the server. Alternatively, the user bid may request the service provider to call back or provide the user with an appointment for call back by the service provider.

Abstract: A system and method for balancing a load among a web server farm includes two components: 1) a static component that functions to create the logical assignment of web sites to servers; and, 2) a dynamic component that performs real-time web site customer scheduling. The static component consists of two stages. First, based on web site demand forecasts, an optimization technique is employed for solving an apportionment problem to determine the optimal number of copies per web site. Second, a method is implemented which makes good quality logical assignments of these optimal number of web site copies to servers and may be run either in initial or incremental mode. The incremental mode is preferably run periodically, e.g., once per week or once per month, however, one could also run this mode when the cluster farm configuration changes, for example when new servers are added to the system.

Abstract: A plurality of web objects are cached. A first object is within an assigned web partition. A second object is outside of the assigned web partition. The first object is placed in a first amount of space within the cache. A copy of the second object is placed in a second amount of space within the cache. The first amount of space includes and is larger than the second amount of space.

Abstract: A graph taxonomy of information which is represented by a plurality of vectors is generated. The graph taxonomy includes a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edges. The plurality of nodes is generated, and each node of the plurality of nodes is associated with ones of the plurality of vectors. A tree hierarchy is established based on the plurality of nodes. A plurality of distances between ones of the plurality of nodes is calculated. Ones of the plurality of nodes are connected with other ones of the plurality of nodes by ones of the plurality of edges based on the plurality of distances. The information represented by the plurality of vectors may be, for example, a plurality of documents such as Web Pages.