Abstract: Group profiling with offers distributed through affinity groups is provided. Each affinity group has members who have pre-existing relationships with the affinity group. Savings offers from sponsors are distributed to affinity group members. A member of an affinity group accesses and receives one or more offers through a forum, such as a website, established by the same affinity group. Each distributed offer includes an identifier that is associated with a product and is associated with the affinity group of the member receiving the offer. Upon redemption of an offer at a store, redemption data is recorded and used for profiling the affinity group associated with the identifier of the redeemed offer. The group profiling enables sponsors to find the reach, relevance, and influence of the affinity groups and enables affinity groups to find the most valued offers for their members.

Abstract: A method for providing multiple component configurations in a computer system comprising a plurality of components. It is determined whether the computer system is in a first configuration, wherein the first configuration indicates that the plurality of components comprises at least one upgradable component. Provided the computer system is in a first configuration, it is determined whether upgrading the computer system to a second configuration is permitted. The second configuration indicates a configuration wherein access is provided to the upgradable component. Provided upgrading to the second configuration is permitted, configuration of the upgradable component is allowed, wherein the configuration is performed by a system configuration command and without requiring manual insertion of the upgradable component into the computer system at the time of the upgrading.