Patent application number | Description | Published |
20090283386 | SYSTEM TO AUTOMATICALLY MOVE PHYSICAL INFRASTRUCTURE TO OPTIMIZE GEOTHERMAL COOLING - A system for selectively moving computer equipment to a naturally cooled underground data center. In one aspect of this disclosure, the system includes at least one movable pod for mounting computer equipment. The pod is electrically connected to a power and communications source to provide power and communications to the computer equipment mounted in the pod. The pod is mounted on a vertical conveyor that is driven by a motor to selectively move the pod to and from the underground data center. | 11-19-2009 |
20100083112 | MANAGING VIRTUAL UNIVERSE AVATAR BEHAVIOR RATINGS - Inappropriate behavior, such as harassment, expletive laden communications, violence or sexually explicit behavior in a virtual universe (VU) can lead to negative experiences for VU users. Younger users of a VU can be more susceptible to inappropriate behavior than adult users. A VU system can monitor behavior and associate behavior ratings with avatars within the VU to respond to avatar/user behavior. A system can determine behavior ratings based upon avatar interactions, user complaints or complements about an avatar, actions within the VU, etc. The system can subject poorly behaving avatars to various penalties (e.g., restriction from certain areas, account termination, etc.). The system can also reward avatars that exhibit good behavior (e.g., allowing access to bonus areas or content, awarding points that can be used as VU currency, etc.). Penalizing inappropriate behavior and rewarding positive behavior can increase safety of minors in the VU, and increase user experience overall. | 04-01-2010 |
20130110952 | MANAGING VIRTUAL UNIVERSE AVATAR BEHAVIOR RATINGS | 05-02-2013 |
20130124840 | SECURE BOOT UP OF A COMPUTER BASED ON A HARDWARE BASED ROOT OF TRUST - A method includes performing a boot up of a computer having a system on-chip having multiple processors and a nonvolatile read-only machine-readable medium. The boot up includes enabling a first processor of the multiple processors, while maintaining others of the multiple processors in a disabled state. The boot up includes retrieving initial stage instructions from the nonvolatile read-only machine-readable medium. The boot up also includes executing the initial stage instructions and validating multiple stages of firmware separately. The boot up includes, in response to validating the multiple stages of firmware, executing the multiple stages of firmware in consecutive stages of the boot up, wherein executing of each stage of the multiple stages of firmware enables a different set of disabled hardware components of the computer. The boot up also includes validating an operating system and, in response to validation, transferring control of the computer to the operating system. | 05-16-2013 |
20140244311 | PROTECTING AGAINST DATA LOSS IN A NETWORKED COMPUTING ENVIRONMENT - An approach for protecting (e.g., insuring) against data loss (e.g., due to SLA failures) in a networked computing environment (e.g., a cloud computing environment) is provided. In a typical embodiment, a risk table is created that associates cloud/solution providers with a corresponding risk factor and a cost of insuring the providers based on the risk factors. The risk factors are typically calculated using historical data that is based on (among other things), each provider's historical capability of honoring SLA terms, expected performance levels, etc. In any event, each provider may be associated with a cost of insuring that provider against failing to perform/process one or more future jobs/workloads. This allows a consumer who needs a workload to be processed to: view the risk table, select a provider, and/or insure against any failure to properly and/or timely process the workload. | 08-28-2014 |