Abstract: The present invention provides a method and system of partitioning authors on a given topic in a newsgroup into two opposite classes of the authors. In an exemplary embodiment, the method and system include identifying all links among the authors, where each link represents a response from one of the authors to another of the authors and analyzing the identified links, where the identified links are assumed to be more likely to be antagonistic links rather than non-antagonistic links. In an exemplary embodiment, the identifying includes assigning a vertex of a graph to each of the authors and assigning an edge of the graph to each interaction between two of the assigned vertices corresponding to two of the authors. In an exemplary embodiment, the analyzing includes solving a min-weight approximately balanced cut problem on a co-citation matrix of the graph, thereby generating the two opposite classes of the authors.

Abstract: Disclosed is an evaluation technique for text search with black-box scoring functions, where it is unnecessary for the evaluation engine to maintain details of the scoring function. Included is a description of a system for dealing with blackbox searching, proofs of correctness, as well experimental evidence showing that the performance of the technique is comparable in efficiency to those techniques used in custom-built engines.

Abstract: A computer-implemented system and method is for generating low-density parity check (LDPC) codes. One aspect of the invention includes a method for generating high rate LDPC codes that first constructs a matrix (H) of size m×n having m rows of check nodes and n columns of bit nodes. The matrix meets the following requirements: the weight of the j−th column equals aj; each row, r, has weight at most br; and the matrix H can be represented by a Tanner graph that has a girth of at least g≧g. The method then iteratively adds an (n+1)th column (U1) to matrix H, wherein the size of U1, is initially empty and is at most an+1, and wherein U1, comprises a set of i check nodes such that i is greater than or equal to 0 and i is less than an+1. The method then iteratively adds check nodes to U1. such that each check node does not violate predetermined girth and check-degree constraints. The matrix H is updated when a new column is added.

Abstract: A system and method for executing a regular expression (regex) query against a large data repository such as the World Wide Web includes an index engine that constructs multigram indices based on regex. A run time then receives a regex query and accesses the indices to return a set of potentially matching pages, which are then efficiently and quickly searched for matches to the regex query.

Abstract: A digital pen that has an ink writing tip includes a laser on a pen body that directs light toward paper across which the writing tip is stroked. A CMOS camera or CCD is also mounted on the pen body for detecting reflections of the laser light, referred to as “speckles”. A processor in the pen body determines relative pen motion based on the speckles. A contact sensor such as an FSR on the pen body senses when the tip is pressed against the paper, with positions being recorded on a flash memory in the pen body when the contact sensor indicates that the pen is against the paper. The memory can be later engaged with a handwriting recognition device to correlate the positions to alpha-numeric characters. Ordinary paper can be used, but, if desired, special bar-coded paper can also be used, so that the recorded positions can be tagged with a page number, form field, and absolute position on the page.

Abstract: A system and method for executing a regular expression (regex) query against a large data repository such as the World Wide Web includes an index engine that constructs multigram indices based on regex. A run time then receives a regex query and accesses the indices to return a set of potentially matching pages, which are then efficiently and quickly searched for matches to the regex query.

Abstract: In a data mining system, data is gathered into a data store using, e.g., a Web crawler. The data is classified into entities and stored into underlying vertical and horizontal tables respectively representing miner outputs and entities that can be the subjects of indexing. Data miners use rules to process the entities and append respective keys to the entities representing characteristics of the entities as derived from rules embodied in the miners, with the keys being associated with the entities in the tables. With these keys, characteristics of entities as defined by disparate expert authors of the data miners are identified for use in responding to complex data requests from customers.

Abstract: In a data mining system, data is gathered into a data store using, e.g., a Web crawler. The data is classified into entities. Data miners use rules to process the entities and append respective keys to the entities representing characteristics of the entities as derived from rules embodied in the miners. With these keys, characteristics of entities as defined by disparate expert authors of the data miners are identified for use in responding to complex data requests from customers.

Abstract: In a data mining system, data is gathered into a data store using, e.g., a Web crawler. The data is classified into entities. Data miners use rules to process the entities and append respective keys to the entities representing characteristics of the entities as derived from expert rules embodied in the miners. With these keys, characteristics of entities as defined by disparate expert authors of the data miners are identified for use in responding to complex data requests from customers.

Abstract: A computing system and method clean a set of hypertext documents to minimize violations of a Hypertext Information Retrieval (IR) rule set. Then, the system and method performs an information retrieval operation on the resulting cleaned data. The cleaning process includes decomposing each page of the set of hypertext documents into one or more pagelets; identifying possible templates; and eliminating the templates from the data. Traditional IR search and mining algorithms can then be used to search on the remaining pagelets, as opposed to the original pages, to provide cleaner, more precise results.

Abstract: A digital pen that has an ink writing tip includes a laser on a pen body that directs light toward paper across which the writing tip is stroked. A CMOS camera or CCD is also mounted on the pen body for detecting reflections of the laser light, referred to as “speckles”. A processor in the pen body determines relative pen motion based on the speckles. A contact sensor such as an FSR on the pen body senses when the tip is pressed against the paper, with positions being recorded on a flash memory in the pen body when the contact sensor indicates that the pen is against the paper. The memory can be later engaged with a handwriting recognition device to correlate the positions to alpha-numeric characters. Ordinary paper can be used, but, if desired, special bar-coded paper can also be used, so that the recorded positions can be tagged with a page number, form field, and absolute position on the page.

Abstract: A computer-implemented system and method is for generating low-density parity check (LDPC) codes. One aspect of the invention includes a method for generating high rate LDPC codes that first constructs a matrix (H) of size m×n having m rows of check nodes and n columns of bit nodes. The matrix meets the following requirements: the weight of the j−th column equals aj; each row, r, has weight at most br; and the matrix H can be represented by a Tanner graph that has a girth of at least g≧g. The method then iteratively adds an (n+1)th column (U1) to matrix H, wherein the size of U1, is initially empty and is at most an+1, and wherein U1, comprises a set of i check nodes such that i is greater than or equal to 0 and i is less than an+1. The method then iteratively adds check nodes to U1. such that each check node does not violate predetermined girth and check-degree constraints. The matrix H is updated when a new column is added.

Abstract: A method for identifying, filtering, ranking and cataloging information elements; as for example, World Wide Web pages, of the Internet in whole, part, or in combination. The method is preferably implemented in computer software and features steps for enabling a user to interactively create an information database including preferred information elements such as preferred World Wide Web pages in whole, part, or in combination. The method includes steps for enabling a user to interactively create a frame-based, hierarchical organizational structure for the information elements, and steps for identifying and automatically filtering and ranking by relevance, information elements, such as World Wide Web pages for populating the structure, to form; for example, a searchable, World Wide Web page database.

Abstract: A space-efficient system and method for generating an approximate &phgr;-quantile data element of a data set in a single pass over the data set, without a priori knowledge of the size of the data set. The approximate &phgr;-quantile is guaranteed to lie within a user-specified approximation error &egr; of the true quantile being sought with a probability of at least 1−&dgr;, with &dgr; being a user-defined probability of failure. B buffers, each having a capacity of k elements, initially are filled with elements from the data set, with the values of b and k depending on approximation error e and the probability &dgr;. The buffers are then collapsed into an output buffer, with the remaining buffers then being refilled with elements, collapsed (along with the previous output buffer), and so on until the entire data set has been processed and a single output remains. The element of the output corresponding to the approximate quantile is then output as the approximate quantile.

Abstract: A method for cataloging, filtering and ranking information, as for example, World Wide Web pages of the Internet. The method is preferably implemented in computer software and features steps for enabling a user to interactively create an information database including preferred information elements such as preferred-authority World Wide Web pages. The method includes steps for enabling a user to interactively create a frame-based, hierarchical organizational structure for the information elements, and steps for identifying and automatically filtering and ranking by relevance, information elements, such as World Wide Web pages for populating the structure, to form, for example, a searchable, World Wide Web page database.

Abstract: A method for cataloging, filtering and ranking information, as for example, World Wide Web pages of the Internet. The method is preferably implemented in computer software and features steps for enabling a user to interactively create an information database including preferred information elements such as preferred-authority World Wide Web pages. The method includes steps for enabling a user to interactively create a frame-based, hierarchical organizational structure for the information elements, and steps for identifying and automatically filtering and ranking by relevance, information elements, such as World Wide Web pages for populating the structure, to form, for example, a searchable, World Wide Web page database.

Abstract: A method for cataloging, filtering and ranking information; as for example, World Wide Web pages of the Internet. The method is preferably implemented in computer software and features steps for enabling a user to interactively create an information database including preferred information elements such as preferred-authority World Wide Web pages. The method including steps for enabling a user to interactively creating a frame-based, hierarchical organizational structure for the information elements, and steps for identifying and automatically filtering and ranking by relevance, information elements, such as World Wide Web pages for populating the structure, to form; for example, a searchable, World Wide Web page database.

Abstract: A method for cataloging, filtering and ranking information; as for example, World Wide Web pages of the Internet. The method is preferably implemented in computer software and features steps for enabling a user to interactively create an information database including preferred information elements such as preferred-authority World Wide Web pages. The method including steps for enabling a user to interactively creating a frame-based, hierarchical organizational structure for the information elements, and steps for identifying and automatically filtering and ranking by relevance, information elements, such as World Wide Web pages for populating the structure, to form; for example, a searchable, World Wide Web page database.

Abstract: A system and method for joining a build table to a probe table in response to a query for data includes over partitioning the build table into “N” build partitions using a uniform hash function and writing the build partitions into main memory of a database computer. When the main memory becomes full, one or more partitions is selected as a victim partition to be written to disk storage, and the process continues until all build table rows or tuples have either been written into main memory or spilled to disk. Then, a packing algorithm is used to initially designate never-spilled partitions as “winners” and spilled partitions as “losers”, and then to randomly select one or more winners for prospective swapping with one or more losers. The I/O savings associated with each prospective swap is determined and if any savings would be realized, the winners are designated as losers the losers are designated as winners. The swap determination can be made multiple times, e.g.