Abstract: Disclosed are methods, systems, and program code that enable a nonprofit organization to manage its fundraising activities online, including online hosting of auctions, and auction services such as maintaining donor/bidder registries, bid tracking, processing credit cards, and auction closeout activities. A consignment database enables organizations to build catalogs using items made available from a consignment catalog for inclusion in an auction or raffle. Also disclosed is a sponsor engine that enables registered donors to contribute all or a portion of the cost of a consignment item. The sponsor engine uses the cost of the item and the number of desirable donors to suggest a plurality of sponsorship levels, for example $50, $100, $150. The sponsor engine computes and compares the total of received sponsorship dollars with the cost of the consignment item, and either closes sponsorships once the price has been reached or instantiate a new similar consignment item.

Abstract: A stylus and table X-Y data input system for a video display system. The pen includes an optical styling having a suitable pickup mechanism and the tablet is passive in nature and provides direct digitized data readout. Absolute positional information is encoded in binary form in the tablet in such a fashion that the pen position upon the tablet is automatically determinable by illuminating a particular area of the tablet and reading off the digitized X-Y coordinate data stored therein. The pen and supporting hardware/software are rotationally insensitive so that the pen may be held in any desired position comfortable to a user. The system provides greatly improved resolution, sampling rate accuracy and general robustness particularly for such applications as text recognition as well as a wide variety of other graphical input uses.

Abstract: A color display device which includes dither apparatus for each primary color to be displayed. A dither matrix provides a dither signal output as a function of the position of a pixel on the color display device. An input primary color signal includes an integer signal and a fraction signal. The integer signal is incremented by an incrementer. There is means for providing an output primary color signal which is the incremented signal whenever a predetermined relationship exists between the dither signal and the fraction signal, and which is the integer signal whenever the predetermined relationship does not exist.