APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR SELECTIVELY DISPENSING SOFT ASSETS

• US 20070150887A1
• Filed: 06/30/2006
• Published: 06/28/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Alan Shapiro
• Original Assignee: Alan Shapiro
• Inventors: Shapiro, Alan
• Application Number:
  US11/428,352
• Publication Number:
  US 20070150887A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/174
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/00 Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/13 File access structures, e.g. distributed indices arrangements of input from, or output to, record carriers G06F3/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/162 Delete operations erasing in storage systems G06F3/0652
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/164 File meta data generation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/62 Uninstallation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/63 Image based installation; Cloning; Build to order
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/123 Shopping for digital content
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99956 File allocation

Abstract

An apparatus and method for obtaining a storage medium with a deeply customizable set of installed content. Soft assets (e.g., programs, songs, videos, etc.) that form the content are selected from among a much larger set of preinstalled soft assets previously stored on storage media, such as disk drives. In some embodiments, based on a user'"'"'s selections, the non-selected assets are permanently erased from a storage medium, while the remaining assets are available as installed (wherein substantially no further processing is required to install them). In some embodiments, a new device uses the storage medium to provide its user with a fully functional device without the need to separately install the soft assets from a plurality of sources (e.g., from program-distribution CDROMS and the like). Some embodiments include the storage medium having the soft assets installed, and including a program that elicits selections from a user and erases non-selected assets.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

an end-user storage medium having a prewritten panoplex stored thereon that includes a plurality of installed soft assets, including a plurality of installed software applications, that form a superset of separately selectable soft assets, all of said installed soft assets on said storage medium being fully installed on the storage medium so as to be free of interoperability problems and configuration conflicts, validated such that all the software applications in the superset do not conflict with each other, work correctly with an end-user device'"'"'s environment including its operating system, and are configured to be arbitrarily uninstalled without creating system instability, wherein the storage medium is configured to be selectively gryphed before first availability of the plurality of installed soft assets to an end user, in order to retain an ipselecta comprising a first subset of the plurality of installed soft assets, said first subset including one of any uniquely selected set of the soft assets selected by a user, and to erase, by a further operation a relicta comprising a second subset of the plurality of installed soft assets such that only the first subset are available as installed on the end-user storage medium, and storage space from the second subset is available for storage of other data, wherein the plurality of installed soft assets are unavailable for use until the further operation has erased the relicta.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the storage medium further comprises instructions stored thereon for causing a suitably programmed information processor to execute a method comprising:

obtaining selection data; and

modifying the storage medium based on the selection data such that, in place of non-selected assets, space becomes available for storage of other data, and selected assets are available as installed.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the storage medium further comprises instructions stored thereon for causing a suitably programmed information processor to execute a method comprising:

obtaining selection data;

modifying the storage medium based on the selection data such that, in place of non-selected assets, erased space becomes available for storage of other data, and selected assets are available as installed; and

reporting a status of the modifying operation to a central facility in order to charge a monetary amount to a specified account.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the storage medium is a disk drive comprising:

an enclosure;

a disk-drive processor affixed to the enclosure;

an external-device interface operatively coupled to the processor and operable to accept data-transfer requests and to send data to and receive data from an external device; and

at least one rotating disk housed in the enclosure, operatively coupled to the processor, and having stored thereon the panoplex and instructions for causing the disk-drive processor to execute a method comprising;

obtaining selection data, and

modifying the storage medium based on the selection data such that, in place of non-selected assets, erased space becomes available for storage of other data, and selected assets are available as installed.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

an external device operatively coupled to the storage medium, the external device having an information processor operable to transmit data-transfer requests to the storage medium and to send data to and receive data from the storage medium;

wherein the storage medium includes a disk drive comprising;

an enclosure;

a disk-drive processor affixed to the enclosure;

an external-device interface operatively coupled to the disk-drive processor and operable to accept data-transfer requests from the external device, and to send data to and receive data from the external device; and

at least one rotating disk housed in the enclosure, operatively coupled to the disk-drive processor, and having stored thereon the panoplex and instructions for causing the information-processor of the external device to execute a method comprising;

obtaining selection data, and

modifying the storage medium based on the selection data such that, in place of non-selected assets, erased space becomes available for storage of other data, and selected assets are available as installed.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

an external device operatively coupled to the storage medium, the external device having an information processor operable to transmit data-transfer requests to the storage medium and to send data to and receive data from the storage medium;

wherein the storage medium is a disk drive comprising;

an enclosure;

a disk-drive processor affixed to the enclosure;

an external-device interface operatively coupled to the disk-drive processor and operable to accept data-transfer requests from the external device, and to send data to and receive data from the external device; and

at least one rotating disk housed in the enclosure, operatively coupled to the disk-drive processor, and having the panoplex stored thereon,

the external device having instructions for causing the information-processor of the external device to execute a method comprising;

obtaining selection data, and

modifying the storage medium based on the selection data such that, in place of non-selected assets, erased space becomes available for storage of other data, and selected assets are available as installed.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the storage medium is a solid-state drive comprising:

an enclosure;

a solid-state-drive processor mounted to the enclosure;

an external-device interface operatively coupled to the processor and operable to accept data-transfer requests and to send data to and receive data from an external device; and

at least one solid-state memory housed in the enclosure, operatively coupled to the processor, and having stored thereon the panoplex and instructions for causing the processor of the drive to execute a method comprising;

obtaining selection data, and

modifying the storage medium based on the selection data such that, in place of non-selected assets, erased space becomes available for storage of other data in places previously occupied by non-selected assets, and selected assets are available as installed.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

an external device operatively coupled to the storage medium, the external device operable to transmit data-transfer requests to the storage medium, and to send data to and receive data from the storage medium;

wherein the storage medium is a solid-state drive comprising;

an enclosure;

a solid-state-drive processor mounted to the enclosure;

an external-device interface operatively coupled to the processor and operable to accept data-transfer requests and to send data to and receive data from an external device; and

at least one solid-state memory housed in the enclosure, operatively coupled to the processor, and having stored thereon the panoplex and instructions for causing the processor to execute a method comprising;

obtaining selection data, and

modifying the storage medium based on the selection data such that, in place of non-selected assets, erased space becomes available for storage of other data, and selected assets are available as installed.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

an external device operatively coupled to the storage medium, the external device having an information processor operable to transmit data-transfer requests to the storage medium and to send data to and receive data from the storage medium;

wherein the storage medium is a disk drive comprising;

an enclosure;

a disk-drive processor affixed to the enclosure;

an external-device interface operatively coupled to the disk-drive processor and operable to accept data-transfer requests from the external device, and to send data to and receive data from the external device; and

at least one rotating disk housed in the enclosure, operatively coupled to the disk-drive processor, and having stored thereon the panoplex and instructions for causing the information-processor of the external device to execute a method comprising;

obtaining selection data, and

modifying the storage medium based on the selection data such that, in place of non-selected assets, erased space becomes available for storage of other data, and selected assets are available as installed.

24. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the storage medium is configured to be automatically gryphed before first availability of the plurality of installed soft assets.

25. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the soft assets include a multitude of percepta.

26. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the storage medium is configured to be gryphed upon first start up by a user.

39. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the storage medium is one of a plurality of storage media all of which are part of a set of storage media for connection to a computer for one user, and wherein the set of storage media are configured to be gryphed substantially simultaneously by a dispensing computer.

40. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the storage medium is one of a plurality of storage media each of which is for connection to a different end-user device for one of a plurality of different users, and wherein the plurality of storage media are configured to be gryphed substantially simultaneously by a dispensing computer.

10. An article of manufacture comprising an intransient signal carrier having a data structure offering a panoplex including a universe of installed soft assets responsive to reduction, said installed soft assets being fully installed on the storage medium so as to be free of interoperability problems and configuration conflicts, and configured to be capable of being arbitrarily uninstalled without creating system instability, any subset of said installed soft assets being available for use by a user of said article of manufacture only after said reduction, said panoplex occupying at least a majority portion of storage space available on said intransient signal carrier before the reduction.

11. The article of manufacture of claim 10, wherein the intransient signal carrier further comprises instructions available therefrom for causing a suitably programmed information processor to execute a method comprising:

obtaining selection information;

modifying the intransient signal carrier based on the selection information such that, in place of non-selected assets, space becomes available for storage of other information, and selected assets are available as installed; and

reporting a status of the modifying operation to a central facility.

12. The article of manufacture of claim 10, wherein the intransient signal carrier further comprises instructions available therefrom for causing a suitably programmed information processor to execute a method comprising:

obtaining selection data;

modifying the intransient signal carrier based on the selection data such that, in place of assets not selected to keep, space becomes available for holding other data, and assets selected to keep are available as installed; and

charging a specified account an amount based on the assets selected to keep.

13. The article of manufacture of claim 10, wherein the intransient signal carrier comprises:

an enclosure;

a disk-drive processor mechanically affixed relative to the enclosure;

an external-device interface operatively coupled to the processor and operable to accept signal-transfer requests and to send signals to and receive signals from an external device;

at least one rotating disk housed in the enclosure, operatively coupled to the processor, and having stored thereon the panoplex and instructions for causing the disk-drive processor to execute a method comprising;

obtaining selection data, and

modifying the intransient signal carrier based on the selection data such that, in place of non-selected assets, space becomes available for holding other data, and selected assets are available as installed.

14. The article of manufacture of claim 10, further comprising:

an external device operatively coupled to the intransient signal carrier, the external device operable to transmit signal-transfer requests to the intransient signal carrier, and to send signals to and receive signals from the intransient signal carrier;

wherein the intransient signal carrier comprises;

an enclosure;

a processor mounted to the enclosure;

an external-device interface operatively coupled to the processor and operable to accept data-transfer requests from the external device, and to send signals to and receive signals from the external device;

at least one rotating disk housed in the enclosure, operatively coupled to the processor, and having stored thereon the panoplex and instructions for causing the processor to execute a method comprising;

obtaining selection data, and

modifying the intransient signal carrier based on the selection data such that, in place of non-selected assets, space becomes available for storage of other data, and selected assets are available as installed.

15. The article of manufacture of claim 10, wherein the intransient signal carrier is a solid-state-memory device comprising:

an enclosure;

a solid-state-memory-device processor mounted to the enclosure;

an external-device interface operatively coupled to the processor and operable to accept data-transfer requests and to send signals to and receive signals from an external device;

at least one solid-state memory housed in the enclosure, operatively coupled to the processor, and having stored thereon the panoplex and instructions for causing the processor to execute a method comprising;

obtaining selection data, and

modifying the intransient signal carrier based on the selection data such that, in place of non-selected assets, space becomes available for storage of other data, and selected assets are available as installed.

16. The article of manufacture of claim 10, further comprising:

an external device operatively coupled to the intransient signal carrier, the external device operable to transmit data-transfer requests to the intransient signal carrier and to send signals to and receive signals from the intransient signal carrier;

wherein the intransient signal carrier is a solid-state-memory device comprising;

an enclosure;

a solid-state-drive processor mounted to the enclosure;

an external-device interface operatively coupled to the processor and operable to accept data-transfer requests and to send signals to and receive signals from an external device;

at least one solid-state memory housed in the enclosure, operatively coupled to the processor, and having stored thereon the panoplex and instructions for causing the processor to execute a method comprising;

obtaining selection data, and

modifying the intransient signal carrier based on the selection data such that, in place of non-selected assets, space becomes available for storage of other data, and selected assets are available as installed.

17. An apparatus comprising an intransient signal carrier having a data structure offering a panoplex including a universe of selectable soft assets installed so as to be free of interoperability problems and configuration conflicts, and capable of being arbitrarily uninstalled without creating system instability and without system rebooting, and means for subtractive installation of selected unwanted assets to leave a customized set of installed assets without rebooting during the subtractive installation, said customized set being any arbitrary subset of said selectable soft assets.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the intransient signal carrier further comprises instructions stored thereon for causing a suitably programmed information processor to execute a method comprising:

presenting pricing information relevant to the plurality of selectable soft assets;

eliciting and receiving from a user an indication of selection data; and

modifying the intransient signal carrier based on the selection data such that, in place of non-selected assets, space becomes available for storage of other data, and selected assets are available as installed.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the intransient signal carrier further comprises instructions stored thereon for causing a suitably programmed information processor to execute a method comprising:

presenting pricing information relevant to the plurality of selectable soft assets;

eliciting and receiving from a user an indication of selection data;

modifying the intransient signal carrier based on the selection data such that, in place of non-selected assets, erased space becomes available for storage of other data, and selected assets are available as installed; and

charging a specified account an amount that is based on the selection data.

20. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the intransient signal carrier is a disk drive comprising:

an enclosure;

a disk-drive processor mounted to the enclosure;

an external-device interface operatively coupled to the processor and operable to accept data-transfer requests and to send data to and receive data from an external device; and

at least one rotating disk housed in the enclosure, operatively coupled to the processor, and having stored thereon the panoplex and instructions for causing the disk-drive processor to execute a method comprising;

obtaining selection data, and

modifying the storage medium based on the selection data such that, in place of non-selected assets, erased space becomes available for storage of other data, and selected assets are available as installed.

21. The apparatus of claim 17, further comprising:

an external device operatively coupled to the intransient signal carrier, the external device operable to transmit data-transfer requests to and to send data to and receive data from the intransient signal carrier;

wherein the intransient signal carrier is a disk drive comprising;

an enclosure;

a processor mounted to the enclosure;

an external-device interface operatively coupled to the processor and operable to accept data-transfer requests from, and to send data to and receive data from the external device;

at least one rotating disk housed in the enclosure, operatively coupled to the processor, and having stored thereon the panoplex and instructions for causing the processor to execute a method comprising;

presenting pricing information relevant to the plurality of selectable soft assets;

eliciting and receiving from a user an indication of selection data; and

modifying the intransient signal carrier based on the selection data such that, in place of non-selected assets, space becomes available for storage of other data, and selected assets are available as installed.

22. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the intransient signal carrier is a solid-state drive comprising:

an enclosure;

a solid-state-drive processor mounted to the enclosure;

an external-device interface operatively coupled to the processor and operable to accept data-transfer requests and to send data to and receive data from an external device;

at least one solid-state memory housed in the enclosure, operatively coupled to the processor, and having stored thereon the panoplex and instructions for causing the processor to execute a method comprising;

obtaining selection data, and

modifying the intransient signal carrier based on the selection data such that, in place of non-selected assets, space becomes available for storage of other data, and selected assets are available as installed.

23. The apparatus of claim 17, further comprising:

an external device operatively coupled to the intransient signal carrier, the external device operable to transmit data-transfer requests to and to send data to and receive data from the intransient signal carrier;

wherein the intransient signal carrier is a solid-state drive comprising;

an enclosure;

a solid-state-drive processor mounted to the enclosure;

an external-device interface operatively coupled to the processor and operable to accept data-transfer requests and to send data to and receive data from an external device;

at least one solid-state memory housed in the enclosure, operatively coupled to the processor, and having stored thereon the panoplex and instructions for causing the processor to execute a method comprising;

presenting pricing information relevant to the plurality of selectable soft assets;

eliciting and receiving from a user an indication of selection data; and

modifying the intransient signal carrier based on the selection data such that, in place of non-selected assets, space becomes available for storage of other data, and selected assets are available as installed.

27. A method for producing an apparatus having a storage medium for soft assets therein, said method comprising:

providing, prior to an end user'"'"'s selection of soft assets to be kept, on an initial storage medium a panoplex that includes a universe of installed soft assets, all of said soft asset being fully installed on the initial storage medium so as to be free of interoperability problems and configuration conflicts, and capable of being arbitrarily uninstalled without creating system instability;

copying the panoplex onto an end-user storage medium for an end-user, the end-user storage medium being for operative association with said apparatus;

selectively gryphing the end-user storage medium before first availability of the plurality of installed soft assets, in order to retain an ipselecta comprising a first subset of the plurality of installed soft assets, said first subset including one of any arbitrary combination of the soft assets selected by or for the end-user, and to erase a relicta comprising a second subset of the plurality of installed soft assets, such that only the first subset is available as installed on the storage medium; and

making storage space from the second subset available for storage of other data, wherein the plurality of installed soft assets is unavailable for use until a further operation erases the relicta.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the gryphing of the end-user storage medium is done before it is associated with said apparatus.

29. The method of claim 27, wherein the gryphing of the end-user storage medium is done in a manufacturing process as the end-user storage medium is associated with said apparatus.

30. The method of claim 27, wherein the gryphing of the end-user storage medium is done subsequent to the end-user storage medium being associated with said apparatus.

31. The method of claim 27, wherein the gryphing of the end-user storage medium is done at a place other than where said apparatus is assembled.

32. The method of claim 27, further comprising ascertaining program compatibility, interoperability and stability by at least one technique comprising program authoring standards setting, program testing and certification, regression testing, MSI package inspection, file extension inspection, file extension and program association tracking, presequencing of uninstallation and erasure, and program element tracking.

33. The method of claim 27,

wherein the providing of the panoplex on the initial storage medium further comprises:

installing each of said soft assets on a data structure of the panoplex on the initial storage medium so that each of said installed soft assets is fully operational, and validating that the installation of each of said soft assets does not result in interference with operation of any other of said installed soft assets when said installed soft assets of the data structure are used;

wherein the copying of the panoplex onto the end-user storage medium is part of a process of;

replicating said data structure to said end-user storage medium and a plurality of other storage media before an initial connection of said storage media to their respective end-user devices, in order to create a plurality of functional-container copies of said initial storage medium; and

wherein the selectively gryphing of the end-user storage medium further comprises;

selecting the end-user storage medium from said plurality of functional-container copies,

selectively uninstalling specified ones of said installed soft assets from said end-user storage medium in accordance with a set of instructions for removal of installed soft assets, said set of instructions being defined by an arbitrary selection of installed soft assets that are selected to remain on said end-user storage medium, said uninstalling being performed so that all installed soft assets that remain on said end-user storage medium after the uninstalling continue to operate without interfering with operation of any other of said installed soft assets which remain on said end-user storage medium, and

erasing from said end-user storage medium, remnants of said soft assets that are uninstalled so that free space is made available on said end-user storage medium in place of said erased remnants of the soft assets that have been uninstalled, and keeping residual indicia of the soft assets that were uninstalled on said end-user storage medium.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the validating operation further includes:

examining content of the asset'"'"'s installation package for items that can conflict with others of the plurality of soft assets in the data structure, and if a conflict is found, changing an associated installation program to resolve the conflict,

checking whether installation of the soft asset creates “

permanent components”

that would not be erased if the soft asset were uninstalled, and if so, validating whether or not the permanent components are unavoidably required to be permanent, and if not, removing the permanent aspect of that data,

checking whether installation of the soft asset is performed by “

custom-action entries”

that would not be transparent as to what action was being performed, and if so, removing the custom-action entries to make all actions performed by the installation program visible and verifiable, and

based on the examining and checking operations, selectively indicating that the soft asset and its installation process were validated to function properly.

35. The method of claim 33, wherein the validating operation further includes:

iteratively removing soft assets from the panoplex; and

testing for system operation and stability.

36. The method of claim 27,

wherein the providing of the panoplex on the initial storage medium further comprises:

performing a human-directed performance-settings adjustment on the panoplex before the copying of the panoplex onto the end-user storage medium.

37. The method of claim 27, wherein the end-user storage medium is one of a plurality of storage media all of which are part of a set of storage media for connection to a computer for one user, and wherein the method further comprises selectively gryphing the plurality of storage media substantially simultaneously.

38. The method of claim 27, wherein the end-user storage medium is one of a plurality of storage media each of which is for connection to a different end-user device for one of a plurality of different users, and wherein the method further comprises selectively gryphing the plurality of storage media substantially simultaneously.