International Business Machines Corporation

Todd Mark Kelsey

Brian John Cragun

Stephen Hollis Lund

Michael J Branson

Steven Gene Halverson

Paul William Wertzler

Royan Herbert Bartley

David Alan Jaeger

Martin G Keen

Robert A Richter

Michael J Iantosca

Embodiments for managing content by one or more processors are described. Usage of a plurality of first content portion translations by at least one user is monitored. The plurality of first content portion translations is stored on at least one database. Each of the plurality of first content portion translations is analyzed. A value of maintaining a selected one of the plurality of first content portion translations or a second content portion translation on the at least one database is calculated based on the monitoring of the usage of the plurality of first content portion translations and the analyzing of each of the plurality of first content portions translations.

Methods and systems for managing content translations

An apparatus, method, and business method allow a customer to access execution data only if transmission of the execution data to the vendor is enabled. In a first embodiment, the customer cannot access any execution data unless transmission of the execution data to the vendor is enabled. In a second embodiment, the customer can access some limited execution data, but cannot access more extensive execution data unless transmission of the execution data to the vendor is enabled. The preferred embodiments provide the capability of a customer accessing historical execution data in exchange for the customer transmitting the execution data to the vendor. In this manner the needs of both vendor and customer are satisfied.

Apparatus, method, and business method for enabling customer access to computer system execution data in exchange for sharing the execution data

A method and apparatus for controlling printable content from textual and graphical sources, and reducing consumable print medium such as toner, ink, and paper. The method and apparatus includes a print medium formatting program for configuring data identification options and print options via at least one graphical user interface (GUI) generated by a print option formatting module. The configured data identification options and print options are then stored in one or more print configuration data files. A print monitoring module monitors for a print request. The print medium formatting program intercepts the print request and matches data identification from a spooled print file, which is generated from the print request, with the stored data identification options. If the print medium formatting program finds a match, a transforming program module transforms the spooled print file in accordance to the print options, and then prints the transformed print file to an output device.

Method and apparatus for controlling printing of electronic applications

An apparatus, method, and business method allow a customer to access performance data only if transmission of the performance data to the vendor is enabled. In a first embodiment, the customer cannot access any performance data unless transmission of the performance data to the vendor is enabled. In a second embodiment, the customer can access some limited performance data, but cannot access more extensive performance data unless transmission of the performance data to the vendor is enabled. The preferred embodiments provide the capability of a customer accessing historical performance data in exchange for the customer transmitting the performance data to the vendor. In this manner the needs of both vendor and customer are satisfied.

Computer system, method, and business method for enabling customer access to computer system performance data in exchange for allowing access to the performance data by another computer system

An automated sales promotion selection system uses neural networks to identify promising sales promotions based on recent customer purchases. The system includes a customer information device that receives customer data relating to customer purchases of items from an inventory of items, a central processing unit having a sales promotion neural network and a storage unit containing a plurality of item identifiers comprising potential customer purchases of additional items from the inventory, wherein the sales opportunity neural network responds to customer data received from the customer information device by determining if one or more of the item identifiers in the storage unit corresponds to an item likely to be purchased by one of the customers, and an output device that receives the item identifiers of the likely purchases determined by the sales promotion neural network and produces a sales promotion relating to at least one of the item identifiers.

Automatic sales promotion selection system and method

A method, apparatus and computer program product are provided for implementing programmable battery shut in an electronic device system. A device battery consumption configuration file is stored. The device battery consumption configuration file includes at least one configuration threshold parameter. Electronic device system operation is monitored to identify the configuration threshold parameter being met. Responsive to identifying the configuration threshold parameter being met, the electronic device system is powered off. The device battery consumption configuration file includes the configuration threshold parameter that is user defined, such as, a user selected battery time left value or a user selected battery usage percent value, for implementing programmable battery shut. At least one battery specific hardware input button is provided for user operation to allow quick external battery management. Each input button is programmed via a battery management program for a specific external battery management function. During operation of the electronic device system, each time the user depresses the input button the threshold parameter is changed by a set value.

Method and apparatus for implementing programmable battery shut off

An apparatus and method allow a user to define a dynamically extendible table in a software application, such as a spreadsheet. In one embodiment of the invention, when a new row or column is added next to a dynamically extendible table, the new row or column is automatically added to the definition of the dynamically extendible table. In a second embodiment of the invention, when a new row or column is added to a dynamically extendible table, the user is queried to determine whether the row or column should be added to the dynamically extendible table. In yet another embodiment, a user adds a row or column, then invokes a command to add the row or column to a dynamically extendible table. In one embodiment, once a dynamically extendible table has been updated to include a new row or column, any objects that use the dynamically extendible table as a data source are updated to include the new data. Because the name of the object doesn't change, all documents that reference the old object will automatically reference the new object without changing any of the references in the documents. In another embodiment, once a dynamically extendible table has been updated to include a new row or column, all of the documents that reference an object that uses the table as a data source are then updated as required so that they reference either the old object or the new object, whichever is appropriate. As a result, all documents that reference the object and that require updating will refer to the new object automatically without requiring that the user manually create a new object to include the new row or column and manually change references to the old object to now refer to the new object. The present invention thus allows a user to add a row or column to a table, and the new data is then represented in objects that require updating.

Apparatus and method for dynamically updating a computer-implemented table and associated objects

A method and system for automatically initiating particular computer system activities in a computer system. Initially, a predetermined list of computer system activities to be initiated is stored within the computer system. Thereafter, the presence of a user within a particular area surrounding the computer system is detected. Next, particular amount of time that has passed since the computer system activities were last processed is determined. The computer system activities contained within the predetermined list of computer system activities are then automatically initiated, in response to detecting the presence of a user within the particular area, if the particular amount of time that has passed since the computer system activities were last processed is greater than a predetermined threshold period, thereby permitting the computer system activities to be initiated without manual user input. The computer system itself may be implemented as a computer workstation or stand-alone personal computer within a distributed computer network. In this case, the predetermined list of computer system activities to be initiated can be stored at a memory location (e.g., memory location at a server or host) within the distributed computer network.

Method and system for the automatic initiation of power application and start-up activities in a computer system

A sales promotion program is dynamically selected from a plurality of programs for presentation in a program presentation unit by a neural network that makes its selection based on first detecting if a person is in the area immediately around the program presentation unit, then either selecting a general attract loop sales promotion program with the trained neural network using a set of predetermined system criteria if no person is detected in the immediate area or selecting a specific loop sales promotion program if at least one person is detected in the immediate area. The neural network is trained by selecting general attract loop programs that are run and then collecting data indicative of the number of persons responding to the general attract loop and also by selecting specific loop programs that are run if a person is in the immediate area and then collecting data indicative of the responses to the specific loop programs. The collected data thereby represents the success of the various sales programs in attracting and holding the attention of persons. The collected data is provided to the neural network in any one of a plurality of training schemes typical for neural networks, after which the trained neural network is provided with current, real-time selection data such that the trained network can select the most appropriate sales promotion program for running. The network can be retrained at regular intervals or in response to sales data or changes in the collected data.

Growing community of inventors

Rochester, MN, United States of America

Todd Mark Kelsey