Patents by Inventor Thomas Alan Shore

Thomas Alan Shore has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 8132092
    Abstract: An apparatus, program product, and method manage content from a content-controlled database (e.g., web pages or other files maintained in a web site) using a content management record linked to each content-controlled content item in the database. Each content management record is utilized in conjunction with a multi-stage content management process, where at least one stage is a review stage during which approval of an associated content item for a content management record is obtained. As a result of receiving appropriate approval, such an associated content item may be promoted and made available to users of the content-controlled database, with the content management record updated to reflect such a status of the associated content item.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 6, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Linda D. Edd, Terry Charles Lambert, Timothy Jerald McQuire, Thomas Alan Shore
  • Patent number: 8086952
    Abstract: Content is managed in a content-controlled database by detecting a modification made to a first country version of a content item in the content-controlled database, and automatically initiating a review of a second country version of the content item in the content-controlled database in response to detecting the modification of the first country version. Automatically initiating the review of the second country version includes demoting the second country version to restrict the content item from being user accessible from the content-controlled database. Prior to the automatically initiated review the second country version is accessible to end users of a web site that uses the content-controlled database, and demoting the second country version includes restricting access to the second country version by end users via the web site until after approval of the second country version is obtained via the automatically initiated review.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 12, 2007
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2011
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Linda D. Edd, Terry Charles Lambert, Timothy Jerald McQuire, Thomas Alan Shore
  • Patent number: 7624393
    Abstract: The present invention provides methods and a computer-readable program for providing autonomic, event driven upgrade maintenance of one or more software modules residing on a computer system. In a preferred embodiment, a method begins by detecting a predefined triggering event on the computer system indicative of a potential maintenance issue. Next the computer system connects to an upgrade management server, where the upgrade maintenance server creates a list of recommended upgrade modules to download to the computer system, the list based upon the triggering event and a set of selection policies. The method then downloads the list of recommended upgrade modules from the upgrade management server to the computer system, and selectively installs upgrade modules chosen from the list of recommended upgrade modules on the computer system. The user is then notified of the status of the upgrade maintenance operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 18, 2003
    Date of Patent: November 24, 2009
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Carol Ann Egan, Earl Walter Emerick, Thomas Alan Shore
  • Publication number: 20080052199
    Abstract: In an embodiment, inventories are received from clients, and the inventories identify products that are installed at the clients. In response to a request from a client, a document is selected based on a dependency indication. In an embodiment, the document is selected if the dependency indication indicates the document is dependent on a product and the product is installed at the client. In an embodiment, the document is selected if the dependency indication indicates the document is dependent on a product collection and one of the products in the collection is installed at the client. In an embodiment, the document is selected if the dependency indication indicates the document is dependent on the type of the client and independent of products that are installed at the client. The identifier and address of the selected document are added to a page, and the page is sent to the client.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 22, 2006
    Publication date: February 28, 2008
    Inventors: Paula Rae Fulton, John Thomas Mowatt, Thomas Alan Shore
  • Patent number: 7325193
    Abstract: An apparatus, program product, and method manage content from a content-controlled database (e.g., web pages or other files maintained in a web site) using a content management record linked to each content-controlled content item in the database. Each content management record is utilized in conjunction with a multi-stage content management process, where at least one stage is a review stage during which approval of an associated content item for a content management record is obtained. As a result of receiving appropriate approval, such an associated content item may be promoted and made available to users of the content-controlled database, with the content management record updated to reflect such a status of the associated content item. Content management information for a content item may be maintained in a content management record that is separate from the content item.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 1, 2001
    Date of Patent: January 29, 2008
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Linda D. Edd, Terry Charles Lambert, Timothy Jerald McGuire, Thomas Alan Shore
  • Patent number: 7181158
    Abstract: Multiple variants of essentially the same multiple-choice questions are generated, having similar appearance, but actually different answers. Any single test has at most one variant of any particular question for which multiple variants exist. Different versions of the test can be generated by changing the combination of question variants used. In one aspect, different versions of the test identified by different combinations of variant questions can be used to determine the source of an unauthorized leak of test questions. In another aspect, the responses of a test subject to variant questions can be analyzed for suspicious patterns, indicating possible unauthorized access to a previous test version.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 20, 2003
    Date of Patent: February 20, 2007
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Donald Ray Heller, Thomas Alan Shore
  • Publication number: 20040259062
    Abstract: Multiple variants of essentially the same multiple-choice questions are generated, having similar appearance, but actually different answers. Any single test has at most one variant of any particular question for which multiple variants exist. Different versions of the test can be generated by changing the combination of question variants used. In one aspect, different versions of the test identified by different combinations of variant questions can be used to determine the source of an unauthorized leak of test questions. In another aspect, the responses of a test subject to variant questions can be analyzed for suspicious patterns, indicating possible unauthorized access to a previous test version.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 20, 2003
    Publication date: December 23, 2004
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Donald Ray Heller, Thomas Alan Shore
  • Patent number: 6571251
    Abstract: A case-based reasoning system includes a case database capable of storing a plurality of cases that each include one or more attributes. A view generator in the case-based reasoning system generates a view of the case database by representing each case within at least a selected subset of the plurality of cases within the case database with one or more uniform-length view tokens. An input parser in the case-based reasoning system provides a tokenized representation of an input incident that includes one or more input tokens. The case-based reasoning system further includes a search engine that compares the input tokens with the view tokens to identify one or more closely matching cases within the view. By searching the view rather than directly searching the case database, cases that closely match the input are efficiently identified.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 1997
    Date of Patent: May 27, 2003
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Dennis D. Koski, Charles Song Yop Moon, Thomas Alan Shore
  • Publication number: 20020184255
    Abstract: An apparatus, program product, and method manage content from a content-controlled database (e.g., web pages or other files maintained in a web site) using a content management record linked to each content-controlled content item in the database. Each content management record is utilized in conjunction with a multi-stage content management process, where at least one stage is a review stage during which approval of an associated content item for a content management record is obtained. As a result of receiving appropriate approval, such an associated content item may be promoted and made available to users of the content-controlled database, with the content management record updated to reflect such a status of the associated content item. Content management information for a content item may be maintained in a content management record that is separate from the content item.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 1, 2001
    Publication date: December 5, 2002
    Inventors: Linda D. Edd, Terry Charles Lambert, Timothy Jerald McGuire, Thomas Alan Shore
  • Patent number: 6212528
    Abstract: A case-based reasoning system is disclosed that includes a case database and a search engine. The case database is capable of storing a plurality of cases that each include one or more attributes that each have an associated match weight. Match weights of attributes in different cases are separately specified. In response to receipt of an incident including one or more input terms, the search engine scores the relative closeness of a selected case to the incident utilizing the match weights of attributes in the selected case that match input terms in the incident.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 10, 1999
    Date of Patent: April 3, 2001
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Gary R. Brophy, Charles Song Yop Moon, Thomas Alan Shore
  • Patent number: 6081798
    Abstract: A framework for use with object-oriented programming systems provides a case-based reasoning (CBR) system shell that permits a framework user to develop a case base having case histories and generates a case-based reasoning system that receives user requests for query solutions and produces a query solution that can be incorporated into the case base. The framework includes a Session component that controls processing of the CBR system, a Control Flow component that manages the extension of the categories and classes of the OO framework, a Data Store component that stores persistent case structure definitions, case instances, and a change log, a Presentation component that manages the user interface to the CBR system user, and a Query Engine that evaluates a received query against the case base. The case definitions and case base descriptions comprise a set of object oriented classes that are organized into an inheritance hierarchy.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 24, 1996
    Date of Patent: June 27, 2000
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corp.
    Inventors: Verlyn Mark Johnson, Dennis Dale Koski, Thomas Alan Shore
  • Patent number: 6021411
    Abstract: A case-based reasoning system is disclosed that includes a case database and a search engine. The case database is capable of storing a plurality of cases that each include one or more attributes that each have an associated match weight. Match weights of attributes in different cases are separately specified. In response to receipt of an incident including one or more input terms, the search engine scores the relative closeness of a selected case to the incident utilizing the match weights of attributes in the selected case that match input terms in the incident.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 1997
    Date of Patent: February 1, 2000
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Gary R. Brophy, Charles Song Yop Moon, Thomas Alan Shore
  • Patent number: 5978785
    Abstract: A framework for use with object-oriented programming systems provides a case-based reasoning (CBR) system shell that permits a framework user to develop a case base having case histories and generates a case-based reasoning system that receives user requests for query solutions and produces a query solution that can be incorporated into the case base. The framework includes a Session component that controls processing of the CBR system, a Control Flow component that manages the extension of the categories and classes of the OO framework, a Data Store component that stores persistent case structure definitions, case instances, and a change log, a Presentation component that manages the user interface to the CBR system user, and a Query Engine that evaluates a received query against the case base. The case definitions and case base descriptions comprise a set of object oriented classes that are organized into an inheritance hierarchy.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 3, 1998
    Date of Patent: November 2, 1999
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Verlyn Mark Johnson, Dennis Dale Koski, Thomas Alan Shore