Abstract: The disclosed computer-implemented method may include receiving input voice data synchronous with a visual state of a user interface of the third-party application, generating multiple sentence alternatives for the received input voice data, identifying a best sentence of the multiple sentence alternatives, executing a dialog script for the third-party application using the best sentence, the dialog script generating a response to the received voice data comprising output voice data and a corresponding visual response, and providing the visual response and the output voice data to the third-party application, the third-party application playing the output voice data synchronous with updating the user interface based on the visual response. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

Abstract: The disclosed computer-implemented method may include receiving input voice data synchronous with a visual state of a user interface of the third-party application, generating multiple sentence alternatives for the received input voice data, identifying a best sentence of the multiple sentence alternatives, executing a dialog script for the third-party application using the best sentence, the dialog script generating a response to the received voice data comprising output voice data and a corresponding visual response, and providing the visual response and the output voice data to the third-party application, the third-party application playing the output voice data synchronous with updating the user interface based on the visual response. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that speeds up an application by allowing database tables associated with the application to be partitioned across N read-only slave database servers. In this way, each slave database server can process 1/Nth of the workload of the application. Since this processing can take place in parallel, the system can potentially speed up the application by a factor of N. The system includes a master-slave database hierarchy, which includes a plurality of read-only database servers for servicing read operations and a master database server for servicing both read operations and write operations. This master database server contains an entire database and the plurality of read-only database servers contain local read-only copies of portions of the database. The system operates by receiving a database request from an application server at a read-only database server.

Abstract: A middle-tier Web server with a queryable cache that contains items from one or more data sources. Items are included in the cache on the basis of the probability of future hits on the items. When the data source determines that an item that has been included in the cache has changed, it sends an update message to the server, which updates the item if it is still included in the cache. In a preferred embodiment, the data source is a database system and triggers in the database system are used to generate update messages. In a preferred embodiment, the data access layer determines whether a data item required by an application program is in the cache. If it is, the data access layer obtains the item from the cache; otherwise, it obtains the item from the data source. The queryable cache includes a miss table that accelerates the determination of whether a data item is in the cache. The miss table is made up of miss table entries that relate the status of a data item to the query used to access the data item.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for configuring a software application on a cluster is provided. A configuration coordinator executing on a configuration manager communicates with one or more configuration slaves executing on a set of nodes that are operating as a cluster. The configuration coordinator sends messages to the one or more configuration slaves to initiate a configuration operation for a software application. Each configuration slave automatically performs a series of actions to configure the node on which it resides. When all the nodes complete the configuration operation for the software, the process is complete. While performing the series of actions, the configuration slaves generate logs that reflect their progress in performing the series of actions. If a problem occurs during performance of the series of actions, the configuration slave that encounters the problem indicates to the configuration coordinator that an error occurred.

Abstract: A relational data access facility allows relation-type queries to access data stored in non-relational data files by converting relational queries into a set of common commands which are sent to data drivers to obtain the data specified by those queries. The facility uses metadata which describes the organization of the data in the non-relational files, and examines the expressions in the relational queries to formulate an access plan for the data. The plan is formulated to reduce cost and promote efficiency.