Inspector for computed relevance messaging

• US 20010042104A1
• Filed: 02/12/2001
• Published: 11/15/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 09/01/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: BigFix, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Lippincott, Lisa Ellen, Donoho, David Leigh, Hindawi, David Salim
• Granted Patent: US 7,689,684 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/207
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1859 adapted to provide push services, e.g. data channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/00 User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/53 using third party service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/564 Enhancement of application control based on intercepted application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

The invention disclosed herein enables a collection of computers and associated communications infrastructure to offer a new communications process which allows information providers to broadcast information to a population of information consumers. The information may be targeted to those consumers who have a precisely formulated need for the information. This targeting may be based on information which is inaccessible to other communications protocols. The targeting also includes a time element. Information can be brought to the attention of the consumer precisely when it has become applicable, which may occur immediately upon receipt of the message, but may also occur long after the message arrives. The communications process may operate without intruding on consumers who do not exhibit the precisely-specified need for the information, and it may operate without compromising the security or privacy of the consumers who participate.

Claims

1. A method for inspecting any of the properties of a computer, said computer'"'"'s configuration, contents of said computer'"'"'s storage devices, said computer'"'"'s peripherals, said computer'"'"'s environment, or remote affiliated computers, comprising the steps of:

providing at least one inspector which includes an inspector library and associated methods; and

evaluating subexpressions with said at least one inspector;

wherein said inspector performs any of mathematico-logical calculations, executes computational algorithms, returns the results of system calls, accesses the contents of storage devices, and queries devices or remote computers.

2. The method of

claim 1

, further comprising the step of:

providing an inspector dispatcher associated with an advice client computer for continually performing relevance determination;

wherein said relevance determination is driven by a database of relevance clauses which can be continually evaluated; and

wherein said inspector library contains executable code which is invoked by said inspector dispatcher as part of said relevance determination process.

3. The method of

claim 2

, wherein an object, property name, and/or string selector is dispatched to said inspector dispatcher for relevance evaluation using a method dispatch module in accordance with dispatch information contained within a method dispatch table.

4. The method of

claim 3

, wherein said method dispatch module performs the steps of:

parsing a clause in a relevance language;

generating a list of method dispatches in response to said parsing step, wherein specific methods are called in a specific order with specific argument lists; and

systematically carrying out a sequence of method dispatches in an appropriate order.

5. The method of

claim 1

, further comprising the steps of:

sending certain relevance clauses to a remote location;

evaluating said clauses; and

returning said clauses after a user is made are of what is being transferred;

wherein properties of said remote location are learned.

6. The method of

claim 1

, wherein said at least one inspector is built into said inspector dispatcher.

7. An inspector for inspecting any of the properties of a computer, said computer'"'"'s configuration, contents of said computer'"'"'s storage devices, said computer'"'"'s peripherals, said computer'"'"'s environment, or remote affiliated computers, said inspector comprising:

an inspector library containing executable code which is invoked as part of a continual relevance evaluation process; and

one or more inspector methods for performing any of mathematico-logical calculations, executing computational algorithms, returning the results of system calls, accessing the contents of storage devices, and querying devices or remote computers.

8. The apparatus of

claim 7

, further comprising:

an inspector dispatcher associated with an advice client computer for continually performing relevance determination, wherein said relevance determination is driven by a database of relevance clauses which can be continually evaluated;

wherein said inspector library contains executable code which is invoked by said inspector dispatcher as part of said relevance determination process.

9. The apparatus of

claim 7

,wherein certain relevance clauses are sent to a remote location, evaluated, and returned, after a user is made are of what is being transferred, wherein properties of the remote location can be learned.

10. The apparatus of

claim 7

, wherein properties which can be learned are an arbitrary combination of elementary properties that are determined according to basic calculations.

11. The inspector of

claim 10

, said inspector library further comprising any of:

a declaration of a Phrase to be used in a relevance language;

an association of said Phrase to a specific method;

a declaration of a new data type to be used in an evaluation process;

a declaration of a calling prototype of said specific method, including a number and required data types of arguments to be supplied to said specific method;

a declaration of a result data type of said specific method;

an implementation of said specific method in executable form;

a declaration of special hooks associating code to be called on events, said events including any of inspector dispatcher initialization, inspector dispatcher termination, beginning of inspector dispatcher main evaluation loop, and ending of inspector dispatcher main evaluation loop;

a declaration of special hooks associated with creation and maintenance of special caches associated with said specific method; and

an implementation of special event methods and cache methods in executable form.

12. In a system including computational devices connected by a communications network, said system comprising a communications apparatus for linking an information provider to information consumer, said communications apparatus comprising specific units of advice to be shared, digital documents conveying said advice, an advice provider for broadcasting said advice in the form of advisories, an advice consumer for receiving said advisories, wherein advisories are broadcast over said communications network from said advice provider to said advice consumer, a communications protocol for narrowly-focused targeting of said advisories to said advice consumer by automatically matching advisories with an advice consumer for whom said advisories are relevant, and an inspector dispatcher associated with an advice client computer for continually performing relevance determination, wherein said relevance determination is driven by a database of relevance clauses which can be continually evaluated, at least one inspector, comprising:

an inspector library and associated methods for evaluating subexpressions with said at least one inspector;

wherein said inspector library contains executable code which is invoked by said inspector dispatcher as part of said relevance determination process; and

wherein said inspector performs any of mathematico-logical calculations, executes computational algorithms, returns the results of system calls, accesses the contents of storage devices, and queries devices or remote computers.

13. The apparatus of

claim 12

, further comprising:

one or more caches for avoiding heavy CPU and disk access overhead while successfully performing said continual relevance evaluation.