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1. A consultative system containing an advice and having a projection device, for helping a user to improve one's interactive ability by analyzing a particular person's behaviors in a simulation environment, said particular person being selected from a group including said user, a person different from said user, and a virtual person, said system comprising: building a plurality of virtual events for said advice, said plurality of virtual events involving interactions among two or more persons; projecting said plurality of virtual events by said projection device; capturing a response from said particular person; analyzing said response according to said advice to produce a report; and providing said report to said user, whereby said system guides said user to observe and examine said particular person's behaviors in a simulation scenario so that said user can learn effectively from both one's own behaviors and other person's behaviors and is able to apply said advice more naturally in a real life.

1. A consultative system containing an advice and having a projection device, for helping a user to improve one's interactive ability by analyzing a particular person's behaviors in a simulation environment, said particular person being selected from a group including said user, a person different from said user, and a virtual person, said system comprising: building a plurality of virtual events for said advice, said plurality of virtual events involving interactions among two or more persons; projecting said plurality of virtual events by said projection device; capturing a response from said particular person; analyzing said response according to said advice to produce a report; and providing said report to said user, whereby said system guides said user to observe and examine said particular person's behaviors in a simulation scenario so that said user can learn effectively from both one's own behaviors and other person's behaviors and is able to apply said advice more naturally in a real life. 9. The system in claim 1 , said particular person is said user, said system further comprising means for building a desired virtual environment, means for building a plurality of virtual human objects with desired characters, means for providing a plurality of variations, means for modeling said user according to said response, means for inserting said user into said plurality of virtual events, means for watching said plurality of virtual events from different directions, and means for providing a positive affirmation, whereby said system can help said user to gain a particular experience by participating a plurality of variations of a consulting session with said user as an participant and by watching a plurality of variations of a consulting session with said user being modeled as a virtual human object.

1. A computer-implemented method of matching users to other users, the method comprising: storing, in computer storage, event data comprising order data reflective of items ordered from an electronic catalog by each of a plurality of users; programmatically generating a score that reflects a degree to which item preferences of a first user of said plurality of users are similar to item preferences of a second user of said plurality of users, said score taking into consideration a first plurality of items ordered by the first user and a second plurality of items ordered by the second user, wherein generating the score comprises weighting a first item and a second item identified in both the first and second plurality of items, wherein the first and second items are different, wherein the first and second items are weighted differently based at least in part on a first inherent characteristic of the first item and a second inherent characteristic of the second item, wherein the first and second inherent characteristics are different, and wherein generating the score further comprises taking into consideration at least one additional type of event data reflective of user affinities for items represented in the electronic catalog; and based at least in part on the score, programmatically determining whether to recommend the second user to the first user.

1. A computer-implemented method of matching users to other users, the method comprising: storing, in computer storage, event data comprising order data reflective of items ordered from an electronic catalog by each of a plurality of users; programmatically generating a score that reflects a degree to which item preferences of a first user of said plurality of users are similar to item preferences of a second user of said plurality of users, said score taking into consideration a first plurality of items ordered by the first user and a second plurality of items ordered by the second user, wherein generating the score comprises weighting a first item and a second item identified in both the first and second plurality of items, wherein the first and second items are different, wherein the first and second items are weighted differently based at least in part on a first inherent characteristic of the first item and a second inherent characteristic of the second item, wherein the first and second inherent characteristics are different, and wherein generating the score further comprises taking into consideration at least one additional type of event data reflective of user affinities for items represented in the electronic catalog; and based at least in part on the score, programmatically determining whether to recommend the second user to the first user. 12. The method of claim 1 , wherein weighting a first item and a second item identified in both the first and second plurality of items, wherein the first and second items are different, wherein the first and second items are weighted differently based at least in part on a first inherent characteristic of the first item and a second inherent characteristic of the second item, and wherein the first and second inherent characteristics are different comprises: identifying items having a first inherent characteristic ordered in common between the first and second plurality of items; identifying items having a second, different inherent characteristic ordered in common between the first and second plurality of items: and weighting each of the identified common items as a function of the respective inherent characteristic of the identified common item.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising selecting, by the at least one processor, the subset that resulted in a cancellation outcome.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising selecting, by the at least one processor, the subset that resulted in a cancellation outcome. 11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the extracted patterns include an identification of what is the call flow of a call that results in a cancellation.

23. A system for synchronizing playback of content comprising: a data store that stores content synchronization information; a processor in communication with the data store, the processor operative to: during output of a visual content and an associated sequential content, maintain, based at least in part on the synchronization information, synchronization between an output pointer of the visual content and an associated position of the sequential content, wherein the associated position of the sequential content advances during output of the sequential content, and wherein the output pointer indicates a position within the visual content corresponding to a current output position of the sequential content; obtain an input pointer that references a location within the visual content being output; during advancement of the output pointer, determine, independent of the obtained input pointer, a position of the output pointer corresponding to the current output position of the sequential content; and modify an attribute associated with the output of the sequential content based at least in part on a difference between the determined position of the output pointer and the location within the visual content referenced by the input pointer.

23. A system for synchronizing playback of content comprising: a data store that stores content synchronization information; a processor in communication with the data store, the processor operative to: during output of a visual content and an associated sequential content, maintain, based at least in part on the synchronization information, synchronization between an output pointer of the visual content and an associated position of the sequential content, wherein the associated position of the sequential content advances during output of the sequential content, and wherein the output pointer indicates a position within the visual content corresponding to a current output position of the sequential content; obtain an input pointer that references a location within the visual content being output; during advancement of the output pointer, determine, independent of the obtained input pointer, a position of the output pointer corresponding to the current output position of the sequential content; and modify an attribute associated with the output of the sequential content based at least in part on a difference between the determined position of the output pointer and the location within the visual content referenced by the input pointer. 30. The system of claim 23 , wherein modifying an attribute associated with the output of the sequential content comprises at least one of: outputting the sequential content at a first rate if the difference between the determined position of the output pointer and the location within the visual content referenced by the input pointer satisfies a first threshold value for a first predetermined length of time; outputting the sequential content at a second rate if the difference between the determined position of the output pointer and the location within the visual content referenced by the input pointer satisfies a second threshold value for a second predetermined length of time, wherein the second rate is faster than the first rate; or outputting the sequential content at a third rate if the difference between the determined position of the output pointer and the location within the visual content referenced by the input pointer satisfies a third threshold value for a third predetermined length of time, wherein the third rate is faster than the second rate.

9. A display device, comprising: a media data processing module configured to process media data; a media data output unit configured to output the processed media data; an audio input unit configured to receive a speech search command for additional data about the outputted media data from a user, the speech search command including at least one query word; and a processor configured to determine whether the at least one query word matches a query term that is full and searchable based on pronunciation patterns of the user, when the at least one query word matches a query term that is full and searchable and the pronunciation pattern is a first pattern, perform a search for the additional data using the query term, and when the at least one query word does not match the query term that is full and searchable and the pronunciation pattern is a second pattern, determine the query term from a predetermined amount of the audio data prior to receiving the speech search command and perform the search for the additional data using the query term, wherein the first pattern means at least one of that the user's accent is clear and that there is no mumbling in the user's pronunciation, and wherein the second pattern means at least one of that the user's accent is unclear and that there is mumbling in the user's pronunciation.

9. A display device, comprising: a media data processing module configured to process media data; a media data output unit configured to output the processed media data; an audio input unit configured to receive a speech search command for additional data about the outputted media data from a user, the speech search command including at least one query word; and a processor configured to determine whether the at least one query word matches a query term that is full and searchable based on pronunciation patterns of the user, when the at least one query word matches a query term that is full and searchable and the pronunciation pattern is a first pattern, perform a search for the additional data using the query term, and when the at least one query word does not match the query term that is full and searchable and the pronunciation pattern is a second pattern, determine the query term from a predetermined amount of the audio data prior to receiving the speech search command and perform the search for the additional data using the query term, wherein the first pattern means at least one of that the user's accent is clear and that there is no mumbling in the user's pronunciation, and wherein the second pattern means at least one of that the user's accent is unclear and that there is mumbling in the user's pronunciation. 10. The display device of claim 9 , wherein the context information comprises at least one of title information, genre information, character information, scene information, schedule information, audio related information, and image related information of the media data.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein said providing the inputs to the at least one of said tags comprises: analyzing the voice-capable markup language application to find an externally referenced file; retrieving the externally referenced file; and analyzing the externally referenced file to determine an input to the at least one of said tags.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein said providing the inputs to the at least one of said tags comprises: analyzing the voice-capable markup language application to find an externally referenced file; retrieving the externally referenced file; and analyzing the externally referenced file to determine an input to the at least one of said tags. 8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the externally referenced file comprises an audio file.

7. A computer program product for displaying news content to a user, the computer program product stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium and including instructions configured to cause a processor to execute operations comprising: annotating, by a first computer, each of a plurality of news content items with at least one topic and at least one location associated with contents of the item; identifying, by the first computer, profile information for a user of a second computer, the profile information including a plurality of topics of interest to the user and at least one location of interest to the user; identifying, by the first computer from the annotated news content items and profile information, a plurality of news content items to recommend to the user; providing, by the first computer to the second computer for display in a first region of a user interface on the second computer, indicia of the plurality of recommended content items; providing, by the first computer to the second computer for display in a second region of the user interface, a map, the map including, for each of the plurality of recommended content items, a marker representing a location associated with the respective recommended content item; receiving, by the first computer from the second computer, input from the user identifying one of the displayed markers; and responsive to receiving the input, providing, by the first computer to the second computer, an instruction to remove from the display the recommended content items not associated with the identified markers.

7. A computer program product for displaying news content to a user, the computer program product stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium and including instructions configured to cause a processor to execute operations comprising: annotating, by a first computer, each of a plurality of news content items with at least one topic and at least one location associated with contents of the item; identifying, by the first computer, profile information for a user of a second computer, the profile information including a plurality of topics of interest to the user and at least one location of interest to the user; identifying, by the first computer from the annotated news content items and profile information, a plurality of news content items to recommend to the user; providing, by the first computer to the second computer for display in a first region of a user interface on the second computer, indicia of the plurality of recommended content items; providing, by the first computer to the second computer for display in a second region of the user interface, a map, the map including, for each of the plurality of recommended content items, a marker representing a location associated with the respective recommended content item; receiving, by the first computer from the second computer, input from the user identifying one of the displayed markers; and responsive to receiving the input, providing, by the first computer to the second computer, an instruction to remove from the display the recommended content items not associated with the identified markers. 10. The computer program product of claim 7 wherein identifying profile information for a user further comprises: receiving a location specified by the user; and identifying the received location as a location of interest to the user.

16. Apparatus as claimed in claim 13 , comprising a graphical user interface for receiving user input and document authoring means responsive to the graphical user interface for creating documents of the web page generating instructions.

16. Apparatus as claimed in claim 13 , comprising a graphical user interface for receiving user input and document authoring means responsive to the graphical user interface for creating documents of the web page generating instructions. 17. Apparatus as claimed in claim 16 , wherein the authoring means comprises means for receiving data, and data conversion means for converting the data into a set of data objects each containing a respective version of the data suited to technical attributes of a respective device type.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein generating a learning set of classifiers comprises: assigning a label to at least each of the extracted Web address features; assigning a value of 1 to the pairs of Web address features relating to a similar or same search goal and assigning a value of 0 to all other pairs of the Web address features; and training the learning set of classifiers using at least the extracted Web address features.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein generating a learning set of classifiers comprises: assigning a label to at least each of the extracted Web address features; assigning a value of 1 to the pairs of Web address features relating to a similar or same search goal and assigning a value of 0 to all other pairs of the Web address features; and training the learning set of classifiers using at least the extracted Web address features. 4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the labels are indicative of context between adjacent Web address features in the segmented browsing log.

1. A method, implemented by a computing system, for providing a single point of entry for accessing business documents obtained from a plurality of external sources in compliance with privacy, security and retention standards, the method comprising: establishing, on one or more computer readable media accessible by the computer system, a repository of business documents that are obtained from a plurality of external sources such that the repository comprises a single point of entry for accessing the business documents, wherein access to the business documents is governed by one or more regulations based on the content of each business document, each business document stored in the repository including an associated identifier: receiving, by the computer system, a request for a first business document stored in the repository, the request including the identifier associated with the first business document; determining, by the computer system, whether the first business document is subject to a regulated requirement based on the content of the first business document that would preclude release of the first business document to the requestor, wherein the regulated requirement is a pre-established professional requirement that precludes release of the content of the first business document to the requestor; determining, by the computer system, whether consent of an individual of which the content pertains is required and whether the consent of the individual has been obtained if the consent is required such that; when the requested information is not subject to the requirement and the consent of the individual has been obtained when the consent is required, the computing system accesses the first business document from within the repository using the identifier associated with the first business document and releases the first business document to the requestor; and when the requested information is subject to the requirement, the computing system fails to provide the first business document to the requestor.

1. A method, implemented by a computing system, for providing a single point of entry for accessing business documents obtained from a plurality of external sources in compliance with privacy, security and retention standards, the method comprising: establishing, on one or more computer readable media accessible by the computer system, a repository of business documents that are obtained from a plurality of external sources such that the repository comprises a single point of entry for accessing the business documents, wherein access to the business documents is governed by one or more regulations based on the content of each business document, each business document stored in the repository including an associated identifier: receiving, by the computer system, a request for a first business document stored in the repository, the request including the identifier associated with the first business document; determining, by the computer system, whether the first business document is subject to a regulated requirement based on the content of the first business document that would preclude release of the first business document to the requestor, wherein the regulated requirement is a pre-established professional requirement that precludes release of the content of the first business document to the requestor; determining, by the computer system, whether consent of an individual of which the content pertains is required and whether the consent of the individual has been obtained if the consent is required such that; when the requested information is not subject to the requirement and the consent of the individual has been obtained when the consent is required, the computing system accesses the first business document from within the repository using the identifier associated with the first business document and releases the first business document to the requestor; and when the requested information is subject to the requirement, the computing system fails to provide the first business document to the requestor. 3. A method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the regulated requirement that precludes release of the first business document to the requestor based on the content of the first business document is at least one of (i) a federal regulation; (ii) a state regulation; (iii) a local regulation; (iv) an internal regulation; (v) a regulated retention time period; (vi) a professional requirement; and (vii) an ethical requirement.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17 , wherein the plurality of operations further comprises generating a conjunction of sub-formulae over the order variables, the sub-formulae selected from at least one of: (i) must happen-before (MHB) constraints, (ii) lock mutual exclusion constraint, or (iii) race constraints.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17 , wherein the plurality of operations further comprises generating a conjunction of sub-formulae over the order variables, the sub-formulae selected from at least one of: (i) must happen-before (MHB) constraints, (ii) lock mutual exclusion constraint, or (iii) race constraints. 19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18 , wherein the MHB constraints include: (i) a begin event, which can happen only as a first event in a first thread and only after the thread is forked by a second thread; and (ii) an end event, which can happen only after an end event of a joined thread of the first and second threads.

10. A system for supporting imperative graphic queries on a relational database, comprising: means configured to parse an imperative graphic query into operations of execution plans; means configured to translate operations of execution plans which are supported by the relational database into common table expression queries; means configured to execute the translated common table expression queries on the relational database; means configured to build a query tree based on the relational database according to translated queries; and means configured to reconstruct the query tree to reduce a total estimated cost according to estimated cost for each node of the query tree, wherein the query tree is a Left deep join tree, each connection father node having two child nodes in the left deep join tree indicates a connection operation between two relational data sets, each non-connection father node having only one child node and this child node indicates a selection or projection operation for one relational data set, respective nodes of the left deep join tree are numbered in post order traversal, and a leftmost child node has a least number, wherein the means configured to reconstruct the query tree to reduce the total estimated cost according to estimated cost for each node of the query tree is configured to: carry out a process on each connection father node sequentially in a number order with the connection father node with the least number as a start, wherein the process on one connection father node includes: estimating the cost for two child trees connected with the connection father node and the cost for obtaining the connection father node by connecting the two child trees; and determining whether a left child tree and a right child tree are exchangeable by: estimating the cost for the connection father node after exchanging the left and right child trees; and if the cost after exchanging the left and right child trees is reduced, then exchanging the left and right child trees to rewrite a connection order of the connection father node.

10. A system for supporting imperative graphic queries on a relational database, comprising: means configured to parse an imperative graphic query into operations of execution plans; means configured to translate operations of execution plans which are supported by the relational database into common table expression queries; means configured to execute the translated common table expression queries on the relational database; means configured to build a query tree based on the relational database according to translated queries; and means configured to reconstruct the query tree to reduce a total estimated cost according to estimated cost for each node of the query tree, wherein the query tree is a Left deep join tree, each connection father node having two child nodes in the left deep join tree indicates a connection operation between two relational data sets, each non-connection father node having only one child node and this child node indicates a selection or projection operation for one relational data set, respective nodes of the left deep join tree are numbered in post order traversal, and a leftmost child node has a least number, wherein the means configured to reconstruct the query tree to reduce the total estimated cost according to estimated cost for each node of the query tree is configured to: carry out a process on each connection father node sequentially in a number order with the connection father node with the least number as a start, wherein the process on one connection father node includes: estimating the cost for two child trees connected with the connection father node and the cost for obtaining the connection father node by connecting the two child trees; and determining whether a left child tree and a right child tree are exchangeable by: estimating the cost for the connection father node after exchanging the left and right child trees; and if the cost after exchanging the left and right child trees is reduced, then exchanging the left and right child trees to rewrite a connection order of the connection father node. 16. The system according to claim 10 , further comprising: means configured to in response to duplicate common table expression queries existing in the translated common table expression queries, combine the duplicate common table expression queries.

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising: generating a first representation of a set of one or more documents of a plurality of documents, wherein the first representation represents a state of the set of one or more documents before at least one change is made to at least one document of said plurality of documents; after said at least one change is made to at least one document of said plurality of documents, performing the steps of: causing a currently-stale view or currently-stale count for at least one current query to be displayed on a user interface; wherein the currently-stale view or currently-stale count is based at least in part on a result set of at least one previously-executed query that was executed on said plurality of documents before said at least one change was made; generating a second representation of the set of one or more documents of the plurality of documents, wherein the second representation represents a state of the set of one or more documents after said at least one change was made, whereby said first representation and said second representation together represent at least all of the documents affected by said at least one change; comparing the first and second representations outputting an updated view or count by, to form a third representation that includes representations of differences between said first and second representations; while said currently-stale view or currently-stale count is displayed, on said user interface utilizing said third representation to update said currently-stale view or currently-stale count on said user interface to reflect said at least one change; wherein the step of comparing is performed by one or more processors.

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising: generating a first representation of a set of one or more documents of a plurality of documents, wherein the first representation represents a state of the set of one or more documents before at least one change is made to at least one document of said plurality of documents; after said at least one change is made to at least one document of said plurality of documents, performing the steps of: causing a currently-stale view or currently-stale count for at least one current query to be displayed on a user interface; wherein the currently-stale view or currently-stale count is based at least in part on a result set of at least one previously-executed query that was executed on said plurality of documents before said at least one change was made; generating a second representation of the set of one or more documents of the plurality of documents, wherein the second representation represents a state of the set of one or more documents after said at least one change was made, whereby said first representation and said second representation together represent at least all of the documents affected by said at least one change; comparing the first and second representations outputting an updated view or count by, to form a third representation that includes representations of differences between said first and second representations; while said currently-stale view or currently-stale count is displayed, on said user interface utilizing said third representation to update said currently-stale view or currently-stale count on said user interface to reflect said at least one change; wherein the step of comparing is performed by one or more processors. 40. The computer-implemented method according to claim 1 , further comprising: using queries to populate aspects of the user interface that need to be updated based at least in part on changes to the at least one document of said plurality of documents.

1. A method of capturing and rendering educational information, comprising: using at least one processor associated with a recording computer: (a) capturing gesture information from a surface digitizing apparatus coupled to the recording computer, and storing in a recording computer memory gestural data that associates the gesture information to a reference frame associated with the surface digitizing apparatus (b) extracting image information from a camera coupled to the recording computer and storing in a recording computer memory image data that associates the image information to a reference frame associated with the camera's field of view, (c) generating recording space calibration data that associates spatial coordinates within the field of view of the camera with spatial coordinates of the surface digitizing apparatus; (d) sending the gestural data, image data and calibration data to a rendering computer; using at least one processor associated with a rendering computer coupled to a display device: (e) receiving the gestural data, image data and calibration data sent by the recording computer; (f) generating a calibration transform based on the calibration data that converts the gestural data and image data into a form usable by the display device to generate calibrated gestural data and calibrated image data; (g) using the calibrated gestural data to render a first visual image corresponding to the gestural information captured by the surface digitizing apparatus; (h) using the calibrated image data to generate a second visual image corresponding to the image information extracted from the camera; (i) blending the first and second visual images to define a recomposed image made up of combined gesture information and image information that is then displayed on the display device.

1. A method of capturing and rendering educational information, comprising: using at least one processor associated with a recording computer: (a) capturing gesture information from a surface digitizing apparatus coupled to the recording computer, and storing in a recording computer memory gestural data that associates the gesture information to a reference frame associated with the surface digitizing apparatus (b) extracting image information from a camera coupled to the recording computer and storing in a recording computer memory image data that associates the image information to a reference frame associated with the camera's field of view, (c) generating recording space calibration data that associates spatial coordinates within the field of view of the camera with spatial coordinates of the surface digitizing apparatus; (d) sending the gestural data, image data and calibration data to a rendering computer; using at least one processor associated with a rendering computer coupled to a display device: (e) receiving the gestural data, image data and calibration data sent by the recording computer; (f) generating a calibration transform based on the calibration data that converts the gestural data and image data into a form usable by the display device to generate calibrated gestural data and calibrated image data; (g) using the calibrated gestural data to render a first visual image corresponding to the gestural information captured by the surface digitizing apparatus; (h) using the calibrated image data to generate a second visual image corresponding to the image information extracted from the camera; (i) blending the first and second visual images to define a recomposed image made up of combined gesture information and image information that is then displayed on the display device. 8. The method of claim 1 wherein the sending and receiving steps (d) and (e) are performed using an intermediary computer-readable storage medium.

1. A computer-implemented method for identifying search terms for advertising an item, the method comprising: identifying the item proposed for advertising; submitting a description of the item to a search engine service; receiving search results provided by the search engine service corresponding to the description of the item; analyzing web pages corresponding to the received search results to identify phrases of words within the web pages that are related to the item, the identifying of the phrases including generating a first score for at least some of the words of the web pages and generating a second score for phrases based at least in part on the first score of said at least some of the words within the phrases; the first score being generated based at least in part on a relative value of: a first average frequency of the word in the web pages, said first average frequency based at least in part upon a first frequency of the word for a plurality of the web pages corresponding to the received search results; a second average frequency of the word in a general corpus of web pages, said second average frequency based at least in part upon a second frequency of the word for the general corpus of web pages; the relative value of the first average frequency with respect to the second average frequency indicating a level of relevance of the word to the item; and deriving search terms for advertising the item from the identified phrases of the search results based at least in part upon the second score for each of the identified phrases.

1. A computer-implemented method for identifying search terms for advertising an item, the method comprising: identifying the item proposed for advertising; submitting a description of the item to a search engine service; receiving search results provided by the search engine service corresponding to the description of the item; analyzing web pages corresponding to the received search results to identify phrases of words within the web pages that are related to the item, the identifying of the phrases including generating a first score for at least some of the words of the web pages and generating a second score for phrases based at least in part on the first score of said at least some of the words within the phrases; the first score being generated based at least in part on a relative value of: a first average frequency of the word in the web pages, said first average frequency based at least in part upon a first frequency of the word for a plurality of the web pages corresponding to the received search results; a second average frequency of the word in a general corpus of web pages, said second average frequency based at least in part upon a second frequency of the word for the general corpus of web pages; the relative value of the first average frequency with respect to the second average frequency indicating a level of relevance of the word to the item; and deriving search terms for advertising the item from the identified phrases of the search results based at least in part upon the second score for each of the identified phrases. 8. The method of claim 1 wherein relatedness of a phrase to the item is determined to be high based at least in part on a number of occurrences of the phrase within the retrieved web pages.

15. A system, comprising: at least one computing device comprising a processor and a memory; and an application executable in the at least one computing device, the application causing the at least one computing device to at least: request a plurality of suggested keywords from a server in response to user input submitted through a query form, wherein at least one of the plurality of suggested keywords is based at least in part on a shopping history associated with a user account corresponding to an electronic commerce application or a popularity of an item offered for sale through the electronic commerce application and at least one of the plurality of suggested keywords comprises at least one enhanced suggested keyword, the at least one enhanced suggested keyword including at least one spelling correction to the user input; determine a number of a plurality of speculative search queries, the number of the plurality of speculative search queries being determined based at least in part on a length of time that the user account has been associated with the electronic commerce application; provide the plurality of speculative search queries to the server, wherein individual ones of the plurality of speculative search queries comprise at least one of the plurality of suggested keywords, and wherein individual ones of the plurality of speculative search queries that include the at least one of the plurality of suggested keywords that comprises the at least one enhanced suggested keyword are weighted higher than individual ones of the plurality of speculative search queries that fail to include any of the at least one of the plurality of suggested keywords that comprises the at least one enhanced suggested keyword, wherein the weights of the suggested keywords are used to prefer the at least one of the plurality of suggested keywords that comprises the at least one enhanced suggested keyword over individual ones of the plurality of speculative search queries that fail to include the at least one of the plurality of suggested keywords that comprises the at least one enhanced suggested keyword when determining suggested keywords to include in the speculative search queries; render, in a hidden portion of a browser window, at least a portion of at least two of a plurality of speculative search results, the at least two of the plurality of speculative search results correspond to at least one of the plurality of speculative search queries; move the rendered portion of the at least two of the plurality of speculative search results from the hidden portion of the browser window to a visible portion of the browser window; render the portion of the at least two of the plurality of speculative search results in the visible portion of the browser window in response to receiving a user instruction to execute a committed search query that includes a suggested keyword from the at least one of the plurality of speculative queries; and render, in the visible portion of the browser window, a remaining portion of the plurality of speculative search results from at least one of the plurality of speculative search queries, in response to receiving the remaining portion of results from the server.

15. A system, comprising: at least one computing device comprising a processor and a memory; and an application executable in the at least one computing device, the application causing the at least one computing device to at least: request a plurality of suggested keywords from a server in response to user input submitted through a query form, wherein at least one of the plurality of suggested keywords is based at least in part on a shopping history associated with a user account corresponding to an electronic commerce application or a popularity of an item offered for sale through the electronic commerce application and at least one of the plurality of suggested keywords comprises at least one enhanced suggested keyword, the at least one enhanced suggested keyword including at least one spelling correction to the user input; determine a number of a plurality of speculative search queries, the number of the plurality of speculative search queries being determined based at least in part on a length of time that the user account has been associated with the electronic commerce application; provide the plurality of speculative search queries to the server, wherein individual ones of the plurality of speculative search queries comprise at least one of the plurality of suggested keywords, and wherein individual ones of the plurality of speculative search queries that include the at least one of the plurality of suggested keywords that comprises the at least one enhanced suggested keyword are weighted higher than individual ones of the plurality of speculative search queries that fail to include any of the at least one of the plurality of suggested keywords that comprises the at least one enhanced suggested keyword, wherein the weights of the suggested keywords are used to prefer the at least one of the plurality of suggested keywords that comprises the at least one enhanced suggested keyword over individual ones of the plurality of speculative search queries that fail to include the at least one of the plurality of suggested keywords that comprises the at least one enhanced suggested keyword when determining suggested keywords to include in the speculative search queries; render, in a hidden portion of a browser window, at least a portion of at least two of a plurality of speculative search results, the at least two of the plurality of speculative search results correspond to at least one of the plurality of speculative search queries; move the rendered portion of the at least two of the plurality of speculative search results from the hidden portion of the browser window to a visible portion of the browser window; render the portion of the at least two of the plurality of speculative search results in the visible portion of the browser window in response to receiving a user instruction to execute a committed search query that includes a suggested keyword from the at least one of the plurality of speculative queries; and render, in the visible portion of the browser window, a remaining portion of the plurality of speculative search results from at least one of the plurality of speculative search queries, in response to receiving the remaining portion of results from the server. 18. The system of claim 15 , wherein individual ones of the number of speculative search queries are provided to the server as a corresponding suggested keyword is obtained from the server.

1. A method for building a search query in a data processing system having a graphical user interface, comprising the computer-implemented steps of: responsive to user input, dropping a first graphical component representing a first system object onto a second graphical component representing a query function, wherein said first system object contains an attribute having a value for which a user wishes to create the search query; responsive to the dropping of the first graphical component onto the second graphical component, presenting a set of attributes currently associated with the first system object on the graphical user interface, wherein the first system object is a pre-existing object within the data processing system and wherein the set of attributes that are presented on the graphical user interface specifies actual properties associated with the pre-existing object; receiving a user selection of at least one attribute in the set of attributes to create a selected attribute set; responsive to the user input, creating the search query from the selected attribute set and from a corresponding value of the first system object for each attribute in the selected attribute set; and using the search query to assemble a set of system objects, wherein each system object of the set of system objects has a value that is a same value for each respective attribute of the first system object, wherein the at least one attribute of the set of attributes is a data processing subsystem attribute that is currently associated with the first system object that is represented by the first graphical component that is dropped onto the second graphical component.

1. A method for building a search query in a data processing system having a graphical user interface, comprising the computer-implemented steps of: responsive to user input, dropping a first graphical component representing a first system object onto a second graphical component representing a query function, wherein said first system object contains an attribute having a value for which a user wishes to create the search query; responsive to the dropping of the first graphical component onto the second graphical component, presenting a set of attributes currently associated with the first system object on the graphical user interface, wherein the first system object is a pre-existing object within the data processing system and wherein the set of attributes that are presented on the graphical user interface specifies actual properties associated with the pre-existing object; receiving a user selection of at least one attribute in the set of attributes to create a selected attribute set; responsive to the user input, creating the search query from the selected attribute set and from a corresponding value of the first system object for each attribute in the selected attribute set; and using the search query to assemble a set of system objects, wherein each system object of the set of system objects has a value that is a same value for each respective attribute of the first system object, wherein the at least one attribute of the set of attributes is a data processing subsystem attribute that is currently associated with the first system object that is represented by the first graphical component that is dropped onto the second graphical component. 3. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the first system object represents a given data processing system in a distributed computing environment.

1. A method of supporting language development comprising: capturing sound in a natural language environment, using at least one sound capture device which is located in the natural language environment; developing a sound signal from the captured sound, wherein the sound signal comprises components representing one or more features that affect a language development environment; analyzing the sound signal to determine at least one characteristic of the language development environment, wherein at least one characteristic indicates a qualitative or quantitative assessment of the one or more features, wherein the at least one characteristic is a frequency and duration of conversational turn-taking; comparing the determined characteristic to a preselected standard or change over time; and reporting results.

1. A method of supporting language development comprising: capturing sound in a natural language environment, using at least one sound capture device which is located in the natural language environment; developing a sound signal from the captured sound, wherein the sound signal comprises components representing one or more features that affect a language development environment; analyzing the sound signal to determine at least one characteristic of the language development environment, wherein at least one characteristic indicates a qualitative or quantitative assessment of the one or more features, wherein the at least one characteristic is a frequency and duration of conversational turn-taking; comparing the determined characteristic to a preselected standard or change over time; and reporting results. 4. The method of claim 1 further comprising positioning at least one sound recording device in a substantially fixed location relative to a person.

8. A method for providing a user defined suggestion, comprising: identifying a venue entity based upon user information associated with a user of a device; mining user defined data of a social network to generate a user defined suggestion associated with the venue entity, the mining comprising: extracting a set of candidate user suggestions, corresponding to the venue entity, from the social network; generating a candidate graph comprising one or more nodes connected by one more edges based upon the set of candidate user suggestions such that a first node, representing a first candidate user suggestion. is connected to a second node, representing a second candidate user suggestion, by a first edge based upon the first candidate user suggestion corresponding to the second candidate user suggestion above a correspondence threshold; generating one or more suggestion category clusters based upon the candidate graph, a first suggestion category cluster comprising one or more nodes connected by at least one edge; and generating the user defined suggestion as a descriptive summary of candidate user suggestions represented by the evaluated nodes within the first suggestion category cluster; and providing the user defined suggestion to the device.

8. A method for providing a user defined suggestion, comprising: identifying a venue entity based upon user information associated with a user of a device; mining user defined data of a social network to generate a user defined suggestion associated with the venue entity, the mining comprising: extracting a set of candidate user suggestions, corresponding to the venue entity, from the social network; generating a candidate graph comprising one or more nodes connected by one more edges based upon the set of candidate user suggestions such that a first node, representing a first candidate user suggestion. is connected to a second node, representing a second candidate user suggestion, by a first edge based upon the first candidate user suggestion corresponding to the second candidate user suggestion above a correspondence threshold; generating one or more suggestion category clusters based upon the candidate graph, a first suggestion category cluster comprising one or more nodes connected by at least one edge; and generating the user defined suggestion as a descriptive summary of candidate user suggestions represented by the evaluated nodes within the first suggestion category cluster; and providing the user defined suggestion to the device. 13. The method of claim 8 , further comprising performing an action, responsive to a selection of the user defined suggestion, the action comprising at least one of a display image action, a display map location action, a display weather action, a display social network profile action, or a provide supplemental information action.

15. An article comprising a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium embodying instructions that when performed by one or more machines result in operations comprising: initiating a communication between a first user and a second user via a collaboration channel, the second user being associated with a business entity, the business entity having a plurality of associated business objects accessible via service calls to systems arranged in a service-oriented architecture, the collaboration channel selected from a group consisting of: a telephone call, a Voice of Internet Protocol (VOIP) telephone call or an instant messaging session; automatically initiating transmission of at least one message via a service in a service-oriented architecture to retrieve contextual information associated with the plurality of associated business objects in response to the initiation of the communication, a scope of the retrieved contextual information being based on a type of business partner type for the business entity and a role and authorization of the first user; and presenting the first user with at least a portion of the retrieved contextual information concurrently with the communication between the first user and the second user via the collaboration channel.

15. An article comprising a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium embodying instructions that when performed by one or more machines result in operations comprising: initiating a communication between a first user and a second user via a collaboration channel, the second user being associated with a business entity, the business entity having a plurality of associated business objects accessible via service calls to systems arranged in a service-oriented architecture, the collaboration channel selected from a group consisting of: a telephone call, a Voice of Internet Protocol (VOIP) telephone call or an instant messaging session; automatically initiating transmission of at least one message via a service in a service-oriented architecture to retrieve contextual information associated with the plurality of associated business objects in response to the initiation of the communication, a scope of the retrieved contextual information being based on a type of business partner type for the business entity and a role and authorization of the first user; and presenting the first user with at least a portion of the retrieved contextual information concurrently with the communication between the first user and the second user via the collaboration channel. 20. An article as in claim 15 , wherein the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium further embodies instructions that when performed by one or more machines result in operations comprise: receiving user-generated input identify the role and authorization of the first user.

7. A computer-implemented method for managing team assembled documents, comprising: a client computing device that is configured to access the network and that includes a program that is arranged to perform the actions of: receiving a request to access a document, the document including sections and being shared by more than one user; requesting a server computing device for the document; receiving the document from the server; displaying the document within a word processor window, the document displayed includes displaying the section headings that are associated with the document; receiving a request from within the word processor window to select a section of the document, the request being a selection of text that is associated with the section; and in response to the request, rendering a display comprising a plurality of child windows to the word processor window, the display including: a proposal window, the proposal window comprising: a section heading list, the section heading list including headings of sections in the document; an assignment properties list, the assignment properties list comprising a plurality of assignment properties of the selected section of the document; and an assignment window, the assignment window facilitating an assignment of the selected section of the document to an editor, and the assignment window further comprising fields, the fields including: an editor field displaying a name of an editor to perform the assignment of the selected section of the document, a due date field displaying a date the assignment of the selected section of the document is due, a status field displaying a current status of the assignment of the selected section of the document, the current status being selected from a plurality of pre-defined status levels; and a message field displaying a message to be sent to the editor; assigning the selected section of the document to an editor; and automatically sending the message to the editor indicating that the section is assigned to them for editing, the message includes a link to the section assigned to them for editing, the link directly accesses the section; and displays the section to the editor when selected.

7. A computer-implemented method for managing team assembled documents, comprising: a client computing device that is configured to access the network and that includes a program that is arranged to perform the actions of: receiving a request to access a document, the document including sections and being shared by more than one user; requesting a server computing device for the document; receiving the document from the server; displaying the document within a word processor window, the document displayed includes displaying the section headings that are associated with the document; receiving a request from within the word processor window to select a section of the document, the request being a selection of text that is associated with the section; and in response to the request, rendering a display comprising a plurality of child windows to the word processor window, the display including: a proposal window, the proposal window comprising: a section heading list, the section heading list including headings of sections in the document; an assignment properties list, the assignment properties list comprising a plurality of assignment properties of the selected section of the document; and an assignment window, the assignment window facilitating an assignment of the selected section of the document to an editor, and the assignment window further comprising fields, the fields including: an editor field displaying a name of an editor to perform the assignment of the selected section of the document, a due date field displaying a date the assignment of the selected section of the document is due, a status field displaying a current status of the assignment of the selected section of the document, the current status being selected from a plurality of pre-defined status levels; and a message field displaying a message to be sent to the editor; assigning the selected section of the document to an editor; and automatically sending the message to the editor indicating that the section is assigned to them for editing, the message includes a link to the section assigned to them for editing, the link directly accesses the section; and displays the section to the editor when selected. 8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising sending a notification to the editor in response to the editor being assigned the portion of the document; wherein the notification includes a link to the assigned section of the document.

18. The server apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the processor is further configured to: generate the speech model based on the location name and the plurality of user spoken utterances; compare the generated speech model to each pronunciation in the plurality of user spoken utterances; and select one of the user spoken utterances based on a degree of similarity of the pronunciation of that user spoken utterance to the generated speech model.

18. The server apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the processor is further configured to: generate the speech model based on the location name and the plurality of user spoken utterances; compare the generated speech model to each pronunciation in the plurality of user spoken utterances; and select one of the user spoken utterances based on a degree of similarity of the pronunciation of that user spoken utterance to the generated speech model. 20. The server apparatus of claim 18 , wherein the processor is further configured to adapt a generic speech model based on the location name by Maximum A-Posteriori Estimation or Maximum Likelihood Linear Regression with the plurality of user spoken utterances of the location name.

1. A method of providing users with timely information about a news story related to geographic locations of the users, the method comprising: receiving a submission of a news story from the Internet via a computer network interface device, the news story comprising a geographic location of the news story, a description of the details of the news story and information related to the description of items associated with the news story; searching a contact database, the contact database stored on a computer and comprising electronic contact information and geographic location information of a plurality of users, to select users whose geographic locations indicate a proximity to the geographic location of the news story; providing, via the computer network interface device, the selected users with the geographic location of the news story, the description of the details of the news story, and the information related to the description associated with the news story; enabling an interested user to form an immediate communication in the form of an online interview with at least one of a neighboring user surrounding the specific geographic location of the news story; generating a contact information of users, wherein the contact information comprises at least one of an electronic communication address and a telephonic contact number; and permitting other users to access the contact information of the user when the user makes a submission in order to permit immediate communication between at least the other user and the submitter user.

1. A method of providing users with timely information about a news story related to geographic locations of the users, the method comprising: receiving a submission of a news story from the Internet via a computer network interface device, the news story comprising a geographic location of the news story, a description of the details of the news story and information related to the description of items associated with the news story; searching a contact database, the contact database stored on a computer and comprising electronic contact information and geographic location information of a plurality of users, to select users whose geographic locations indicate a proximity to the geographic location of the news story; providing, via the computer network interface device, the selected users with the geographic location of the news story, the description of the details of the news story, and the information related to the description associated with the news story; enabling an interested user to form an immediate communication in the form of an online interview with at least one of a neighboring user surrounding the specific geographic location of the news story; generating a contact information of users, wherein the contact information comprises at least one of an electronic communication address and a telephonic contact number; and permitting other users to access the contact information of the user when the user makes a submission in order to permit immediate communication between at least the other user and the submitter user. 7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of: allowing one of the selected users to upload comments associated with the news story.

1. One or more computer-readable hardware memory devices comprising a module having instructions that are executable on a client to perform operations comprising: retrieving a menu document that specifies one or more menu items corresponding with one or more actions that are performable by the module to be represented in the user interface, wherein at least one action is associated with a behavior that specifies whether the at least one action is to be represented in the user interface; retrieving a separate string document that specifies one or more strings that are to be utilized to represent respective said actions, wherein the string document is configurable to allow a user to specify a user-defined, customized name, representing an action that is performable by the module, to be displayed; and generating a user interface having customizable elements comprising the one or more actions matched with the one or more strings, wherein a determination to output at least one customizable element is based on an associated behavior of a device that is to display the user interface, wherein the menu document and string document are each generated by a network operator that streams television content to the client.

1. One or more computer-readable hardware memory devices comprising a module having instructions that are executable on a client to perform operations comprising: retrieving a menu document that specifies one or more menu items corresponding with one or more actions that are performable by the module to be represented in the user interface, wherein at least one action is associated with a behavior that specifies whether the at least one action is to be represented in the user interface; retrieving a separate string document that specifies one or more strings that are to be utilized to represent respective said actions, wherein the string document is configurable to allow a user to specify a user-defined, customized name, representing an action that is performable by the module, to be displayed; and generating a user interface having customizable elements comprising the one or more actions matched with the one or more strings, wherein a determination to output at least one customizable element is based on an associated behavior of a device that is to display the user interface, wherein the menu document and string document are each generated by a network operator that streams television content to the client. 2. One or more computer-readable hardware memory devices as described in claim 1 , wherein the retrieving of the menu document and the retrieving of the string document are performed via a network connection.

24. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 23 , further comprising instructions for abstracting collected static and/or dynamic multimodal data.

24. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 23 , further comprising instructions for abstracting collected static and/or dynamic multimodal data. 25. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 24 , further comprising instructions for comparing abstracted collected data to pre-identified event characteristics.

13. A system for determining characteristics of a plurality of people at an event, comprising: a database; a location information server for providing location information about a plurality of active mobile phones, the location information comprising at least one identifier of a geographical location and a time period; a popularity profiling server for providing sentiment information relating to the plurality of people, the sentiment information comprising at least one identifier of the event; and a profiling server operably connected to the database, the location information server, and popularity profiling server, the profiling server configured to receive, from the location information server, the location information about the plurality of active mobile phones, receive, from the popularity profiling server, the sentiment information relating to the plurality of people, the sentiment information comprising at least one identifier of the event, and determine at least one characteristic about the plurality of people based at least in part on the location information and the sentiment information.

13. A system for determining characteristics of a plurality of people at an event, comprising: a database; a location information server for providing location information about a plurality of active mobile phones, the location information comprising at least one identifier of a geographical location and a time period; a popularity profiling server for providing sentiment information relating to the plurality of people, the sentiment information comprising at least one identifier of the event; and a profiling server operably connected to the database, the location information server, and popularity profiling server, the profiling server configured to receive, from the location information server, the location information about the plurality of active mobile phones, receive, from the popularity profiling server, the sentiment information relating to the plurality of people, the sentiment information comprising at least one identifier of the event, and determine at least one characteristic about the plurality of people based at least in part on the location information and the sentiment information. 15. The system of claim 13 , wherein the profiling server is further configured to receive venue information related to a venue hosting the event, the venue information comprising at least one identifier of the venue and the time period.

1. A method, performed by a server, for managing a text messaging session between a caller device and a plurality of responding devices, the method comprising: establishing the text messaging session, which establishes a media path for exchanging text messages between the caller device and a single device having a device identifier known to the caller device, wherein the session is established in response to a call from the caller device; joining multiple responding devices to the text messaging session, establishing a real-time text messaging session between the multiple responding devices wherein each responding device sees in real time contents of the other responding device's text messages being typed before any text message is sent to the caller device; receiving text messages from the multiple responding devices; sending, over the media path to the caller device, a set of text messages based on the text messages received from the multiple responding devices; wherein the multiple responding devices comprises a first responding device that sends a first text message at a first time and a second responding device that sends a second text message at a second and subsequent time, wherein sending the set of text messages comprises: determining that a time interval between the first and second times is shorter than a threshold time interval; and applying at least one rule to determine at least one of the first or the second text messages to send to the caller device; wherein the at least one rule comprises at least one of: sending the first text message, and providing an indication to the second responding device that the second text message was not sent; sending the second text message to the caller device when the second responding device has assigned an override-drop status to the second text message; determining a role of an operator using the second responding device, and determining, based on the role, whether to send the second text message; or sending the first text message and delaying sending the second text message to the caller device by a delay time interval.

1. A method, performed by a server, for managing a text messaging session between a caller device and a plurality of responding devices, the method comprising: establishing the text messaging session, which establishes a media path for exchanging text messages between the caller device and a single device having a device identifier known to the caller device, wherein the session is established in response to a call from the caller device; joining multiple responding devices to the text messaging session, establishing a real-time text messaging session between the multiple responding devices wherein each responding device sees in real time contents of the other responding device's text messages being typed before any text message is sent to the caller device; receiving text messages from the multiple responding devices; sending, over the media path to the caller device, a set of text messages based on the text messages received from the multiple responding devices; wherein the multiple responding devices comprises a first responding device that sends a first text message at a first time and a second responding device that sends a second text message at a second and subsequent time, wherein sending the set of text messages comprises: determining that a time interval between the first and second times is shorter than a threshold time interval; and applying at least one rule to determine at least one of the first or the second text messages to send to the caller device; wherein the at least one rule comprises at least one of: sending the first text message, and providing an indication to the second responding device that the second text message was not sent; sending the second text message to the caller device when the second responding device has assigned an override-drop status to the second text message; determining a role of an operator using the second responding device, and determining, based on the role, whether to send the second text message; or sending the first text message and delaying sending the second text message to the caller device by a delay time interval. 7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the set of text messages comprises a first text message from a first responding device of the multiple responding devices and a second text message from a second responding device of the multiple responding devices, wherein both the first and the second text messages are associated with a same identifier.

12. A computer-implemented method for controlling a program by natural language commands, the method comprising: providing a list of natural language commands, each natural language command being associated with one or more commands of the program; generating a graphic user interface to receive inputs from a user, the graphic user interface comprising a filter field for entering characters and a list field for displaying natural language commands; receiving a plurality of n inputs from the user, entered in succession, wherein each of the number of n inputs corresponds to a character entered in the filter field; creating a subset of natural language commands comprising only those entries from the list of natural language commands having n or more words, wherein the respective first character of the first n words match the n inputs from the user; displaying the subset of natural language commands in the list field; enabling the user to select one of the natural language commands from the subset of natural language commands displayed in the list field; and causing the program to execute a command in response to the user's selection of a natural language command.

12. A computer-implemented method for controlling a program by natural language commands, the method comprising: providing a list of natural language commands, each natural language command being associated with one or more commands of the program; generating a graphic user interface to receive inputs from a user, the graphic user interface comprising a filter field for entering characters and a list field for displaying natural language commands; receiving a plurality of n inputs from the user, entered in succession, wherein each of the number of n inputs corresponds to a character entered in the filter field; creating a subset of natural language commands comprising only those entries from the list of natural language commands having n or more words, wherein the respective first character of the first n words match the n inputs from the user; displaying the subset of natural language commands in the list field; enabling the user to select one of the natural language commands from the subset of natural language commands displayed in the list field; and causing the program to execute a command in response to the user's selection of a natural language command. 32. The method as in claim 12 , wherein at least one command in the program is associated with more than one natural language command.

8. A computer-readable storage medium encoded with program code for a hierarchical network comprising a plurality of spatio-temporal learning nodes, wherein program code for each spatio-temporal learning node comprises: program code for a spatial pooler comprising: program code for receiving a sensed input pattern; program code for generating a first set of spatial probabilities associated with a set of spatial co-occurrence patterns, wherein each spatial co-occurrence pattern represents a first set of one or more sensed input patterns and each spatial probability in the first set of spatial probabilities indicates the likelihood that the sensed input pattern has the same cause as a spatial co-occurrence pattern; program code for a temporal pooler comprising: program code for receiving the first set of spatial probabilities from the spatial pooler; program code for generating a set of temporal probabilities associated with a set of temporal groups based at least in part the first set of spatial probabilities, wherein each temporal group comprises one or more temporally co-occurring input patterns and each temporal probability indicates the likelihood that the sensed input pattern has the same cause as the one or more temporally co-occurring input patterns in a temporal group; and program code for transmitting the set of temporal probabilities to a parent node in the hierarchical network of nodes.

8. A computer-readable storage medium encoded with program code for a hierarchical network comprising a plurality of spatio-temporal learning nodes, wherein program code for each spatio-temporal learning node comprises: program code for a spatial pooler comprising: program code for receiving a sensed input pattern; program code for generating a first set of spatial probabilities associated with a set of spatial co-occurrence patterns, wherein each spatial co-occurrence pattern represents a first set of one or more sensed input patterns and each spatial probability in the first set of spatial probabilities indicates the likelihood that the sensed input pattern has the same cause as a spatial co-occurrence pattern; program code for a temporal pooler comprising: program code for receiving the first set of spatial probabilities from the spatial pooler; program code for generating a set of temporal probabilities associated with a set of temporal groups based at least in part the first set of spatial probabilities, wherein each temporal group comprises one or more temporally co-occurring input patterns and each temporal probability indicates the likelihood that the sensed input pattern has the same cause as the one or more temporally co-occurring input patterns in a temporal group; and program code for transmitting the set of temporal probabilities to a parent node in the hierarchical network of nodes. 10. The storage medium of claim 8 , wherein: program code for the spatial pooler further comprises: program code for determining the set of spatial co-occurrence patterns based on a second set of one or more sensed input patterns; and program code for the temporal pooler further comprises: program code for determining the set of temporal groups based on the second set of one or more sensed input patterns.

1. A method comprising: receiving ink information generated from a user input; organizing the ink information into corresponding ink strokes; examining the ink information to determine whether an ink phrase termination event has occurred, and in response to the occurrence of an ink phrase termination event, storing the ink strokes received prior to the termination event as one or more ink phrases in a designated ink phrase data structure; and in response to receiving a reference context from a client application affiliated with the un-recognized ink strokes of the ink phrase, associating the reference context with the ink strokes, wherein the reference context is associated with the respective ink phrase by appending the reference context to the designated ink phrase data structure.

1. A method comprising: receiving ink information generated from a user input; organizing the ink information into corresponding ink strokes; examining the ink information to determine whether an ink phrase termination event has occurred, and in response to the occurrence of an ink phrase termination event, storing the ink strokes received prior to the termination event as one or more ink phrases in a designated ink phrase data structure; and in response to receiving a reference context from a client application affiliated with the un-recognized ink strokes of the ink phrase, associating the reference context with the ink strokes, wherein the reference context is associated with the respective ink phrase by appending the reference context to the designated ink phrase data structure. 3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: generating one or more recognition hypotheses for the ink strokes of the ink phrase data structure; and passing the one or more recognition hypotheses to the client application together with the respective reference context.

8. A method comprising: recalling a previously stored temporal snapshot from a component of a distributed network in response to receiving a request for the previously stored temporal snapshot; displaying the recalled temporal snapshot on a user device accessing an application of an entry point, wherein the displayed recalled temporal snapshot comprises: a social media identifier, the social media identifier being at least one selected from a group consisting of: a hashtag extracted from at least one social networking service and a uniform resource identifier extracted from the at least one social networking service, a related social media link corresponding with the social media identifier, a link to a related topic for the social media identifier, and a link to a contributor for context of the social media identifier; receiving a selection of a link in the displayed recalled temporal snapshot via the user device; and in response to receiving the selection, pivoting the display on the user device of the recalled temporal snapshot to a display of an updated temporal snapshot that features at least one of the related social media link, the link to the related topic, and the link to the contributor.

8. A method comprising: recalling a previously stored temporal snapshot from a component of a distributed network in response to receiving a request for the previously stored temporal snapshot; displaying the recalled temporal snapshot on a user device accessing an application of an entry point, wherein the displayed recalled temporal snapshot comprises: a social media identifier, the social media identifier being at least one selected from a group consisting of: a hashtag extracted from at least one social networking service and a uniform resource identifier extracted from the at least one social networking service, a related social media link corresponding with the social media identifier, a link to a related topic for the social media identifier, and a link to a contributor for context of the social media identifier; receiving a selection of a link in the displayed recalled temporal snapshot via the user device; and in response to receiving the selection, pivoting the display on the user device of the recalled temporal snapshot to a display of an updated temporal snapshot that features at least one of the related social media link, the link to the related topic, and the link to the contributor. 9. The method according to claim 8 , wherein the pivoting further comprises generating a second temporal snapshot, and wherein the updated temporal snapshot is the second temporal snapshot.

1. A method for document annotation operated by a compute service provider, comprising: receiving a document in a first file format at the compute service provider; converting the document to a second file format, different than the first file format; generating a coordinate map for the document in the second file format; allowing access to the document in the second file format; receiving annotations to be included in the document from the one or more users viewing the document in the second file format; converting the document back to the first file format by mapping the annotations onto the document in the first file format so that a user can view the document in the first file format with the received annotations; and receiving a request to download the document including the annotations in the first file format from the compute service provider; wherein the annotation is highlighted words and other objects, and wherein the first file format does not support highlighting the other objects, and wherein mapping the annotations includes searching for a group of words that are highlighted in the document in the second file format, searching for a matching group of words in the document in the first file format and highlighting the group of words in the document in the first file format and bypassing highlighting of the other objects.

1. A method for document annotation operated by a compute service provider, comprising: receiving a document in a first file format at the compute service provider; converting the document to a second file format, different than the first file format; generating a coordinate map for the document in the second file format; allowing access to the document in the second file format; receiving annotations to be included in the document from the one or more users viewing the document in the second file format; converting the document back to the first file format by mapping the annotations onto the document in the first file format so that a user can view the document in the first file format with the received annotations; and receiving a request to download the document including the annotations in the first file format from the compute service provider; wherein the annotation is highlighted words and other objects, and wherein the first file format does not support highlighting the other objects, and wherein mapping the annotations includes searching for a group of words that are highlighted in the document in the second file format, searching for a matching group of words in the document in the first file format and highlighting the group of words in the document in the first file format and bypassing highlighting of the other objects. 2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first file format is a text-based format wherein fonts associated with text can be customized and the second file format is a fixed-layout format.

10. A computer-readable storage device having stored thereon instructions, which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform operations comprising: receiving an indication that a synonym rule that was previously determined, at a first time, to be included in a collection of synonym rules is determined not to be included in the collection at a second time that is later than the first time, wherein, at the second time, criteria used to determine which synonym rules are to be included in the collection are different from criteria used at the first time to determine which synonym rules are to be included in the collection; receiving historic usage data relating to the synonym rule; determining, using the historic usage data relating to the synonym rule, to add the synonym rule to the collection despite receiving the indication that the synonym rule is determined not to be included in the collection; and in response to determining to add the synonym rule, adding the synonym rule to the collection.

10. A computer-readable storage device having stored thereon instructions, which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform operations comprising: receiving an indication that a synonym rule that was previously determined, at a first time, to be included in a collection of synonym rules is determined not to be included in the collection at a second time that is later than the first time, wherein, at the second time, criteria used to determine which synonym rules are to be included in the collection are different from criteria used at the first time to determine which synonym rules are to be included in the collection; receiving historic usage data relating to the synonym rule; determining, using the historic usage data relating to the synonym rule, to add the synonym rule to the collection despite receiving the indication that the synonym rule is determined not to be included in the collection; and in response to determining to add the synonym rule, adding the synonym rule to the collection. 12. The storage device of claim 10 , wherein: receiving an indication comprises receiving, from a synonym engine, an indication that a model that is used by the synonym engine to determine whether synonym rules are to be added to the collection has determined that the synonym rule is to not be added to the collection, and adding the synonym rule comprises adding the synonym rule despite receiving the indication that the synonym rule is not to be added to the collection.

1. A method comprising: providing an association of a term and a primary resource identifier; receiving a search query input; determining whether the search query matches the term; if the search query matches the term, presenting the primary resource identifier without initiating a search; and if the search query does not match the term, initiating a search and presenting a search result based on the search query.

1. A method comprising: providing an association of a term and a primary resource identifier; receiving a search query input; determining whether the search query matches the term; if the search query matches the term, presenting the primary resource identifier without initiating a search; and if the search query does not match the term, initiating a search and presenting a search result based on the search query. 10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the association of the term and the primary resource identifier is not common to all users of a search engine.

1. A method for generating processed files of deposition testimony transcript designations, the method comprising: accessing, by one or more computer processors, a file containing one or more designations, wherein each of the one or more designations identifies a portion of content within a textual transcript; analyzing, by the one or more computer processors, the file containing the one or more designations in accordance with one or more designation parameters to identify designations that contain errors; quarantining, by the one or more computer processors, the designations identified as containing errors; and generating, by the one or more computer processors based at least in part on the quarantining, a processed file, wherein the processed file is generated by: omitting the designations identified as containing errors from the processed file; and including, within the processed file, designations that were not identified as containing errors.

1. A method for generating processed files of deposition testimony transcript designations, the method comprising: accessing, by one or more computer processors, a file containing one or more designations, wherein each of the one or more designations identifies a portion of content within a textual transcript; analyzing, by the one or more computer processors, the file containing the one or more designations in accordance with one or more designation parameters to identify designations that contain errors; quarantining, by the one or more computer processors, the designations identified as containing errors; and generating, by the one or more computer processors based at least in part on the quarantining, a processed file, wherein the processed file is generated by: omitting the designations identified as containing errors from the processed file; and including, within the processed file, designations that were not identified as containing errors. 3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: receiving, by the one or more computer processors, user selections regarding a configuration of the one or more designation parameters, the one or more designation parameters including at least one of: a line range parameter, a remove overlap parameter, and a combine adjacent designations parameter, wherein the line range parameter identifies a range of valid line numbers within the textual transcript or one or more designation sets, wherein the user selections regarding the configuration of the line range parameter set beginning and ending line ranges for at least one of the textual transcript or the one or more designation sets, and wherein a particular designation is identified as containing an error when the particular designation specifies a line number that is not within the range of valid line numbers identified by the line range parameter; wherein the user selections regarding the configuration of the remove overlap parameter indicate whether to remove a portion of a first designation that overlaps with at least a portion of a second designation; or wherein the user selections regarding the configuration of the combine adjacent designations parameter indicate whether two or more designations identifying adjacent portions of the content within the textual transcript should be combined into a single designation; and generating the processed file in accordance with the user selections.

1. An information search apparatus, comprising: an interface configured to obtain a search option input by a user; a processor; and a storage device configured to store a plurality of instructions which causes the processor to perform searching when the search option is obtained through the interface, wherein the processor is further configured to: determine a search term based on the search option, the search term including an extracted search term that is extracted from the search option; search a document database to obtain a document that matches the search term; generate a search result including document information identifying the document that matches the search term and relevancy information indicating a degree of relevancy between the search term and the document; cause a display device to display the search result in a format indicating the correspondence relationship of the document information, the search term, and the relevancy information, wherein the format indicating the correspondence relationship is a matrix, the matrix including a cell that represents relevancy information between the search term and the document, the matrix is displayed on the display device, and the cell, which is linked to the document, is configured to be activated by a user input and to cause the display device to display at least a portion of the document having the search term with the search term displayed in the document differently from other words in the document, wherein the matrix includes a row including a matrix element representing one of the search term or the document information, a column including a matrix element representing another one of the search term or the document information, and the cell being provided at a location where the matrix element representing the search term and the matrix element representing the document information meet and indicating the degree of relevancy between the search term represented by the corresponding matrix element and the document identified by the document information represented by the corresponding matrix element, and wherein, when the search term includes a plurality of search terms, the processor is further configured to generate a plurality of search results for each one of the plurality of search terms, and cause the display device to display the plurality of search results in the format indicating the correspondence relationship of the document information, the search term, and the relevancy information for each one of the plurality of search results; and the relevancy information is displayed visually in a graphical image having a shape representing the relevancy information.

1. An information search apparatus, comprising: an interface configured to obtain a search option input by a user; a processor; and a storage device configured to store a plurality of instructions which causes the processor to perform searching when the search option is obtained through the interface, wherein the processor is further configured to: determine a search term based on the search option, the search term including an extracted search term that is extracted from the search option; search a document database to obtain a document that matches the search term; generate a search result including document information identifying the document that matches the search term and relevancy information indicating a degree of relevancy between the search term and the document; cause a display device to display the search result in a format indicating the correspondence relationship of the document information, the search term, and the relevancy information, wherein the format indicating the correspondence relationship is a matrix, the matrix including a cell that represents relevancy information between the search term and the document, the matrix is displayed on the display device, and the cell, which is linked to the document, is configured to be activated by a user input and to cause the display device to display at least a portion of the document having the search term with the search term displayed in the document differently from other words in the document, wherein the matrix includes a row including a matrix element representing one of the search term or the document information, a column including a matrix element representing another one of the search term or the document information, and the cell being provided at a location where the matrix element representing the search term and the matrix element representing the document information meet and indicating the degree of relevancy between the search term represented by the corresponding matrix element and the document identified by the document information represented by the corresponding matrix element, and wherein, when the search term includes a plurality of search terms, the processor is further configured to generate a plurality of search results for each one of the plurality of search terms, and cause the display device to display the plurality of search results in the format indicating the correspondence relationship of the document information, the search term, and the relevancy information for each one of the plurality of search results; and the relevancy information is displayed visually in a graphical image having a shape representing the relevancy information. 6. The information search apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the search result is caused to be displayed for the extracted search term and a related search term corresponding to the extracted search term, wherein the related search term is acquired from a dictionary database, and the extracted search term and the related search term are caused to be displayed in format indicating a correspondence relationship between the extracted search term and the related search term.

1. A computer-implemented method comprising: receiving a question, said question being directed to a domain-specific question answering system, wherein said question is requesting at least two distinct pieces of information; extracting two or more distinct queries from said question, based on a query decomposing rule library by comparing said question to said query decomposing rule library to identify a matching decomposition rule, said comparing includes using an index scan, using a keyword scan, parsing said query decomposing rule library, and using a segment scan, wherein said query decomposing rule library includes combinations of semantic, syntactic, grammatical, structural, and other predetermined rules for identifying distinct queries within said question; generating two or more question sets, each of said two or more question sets addressing all of said two or more queries, wherein said generated two or more questions sets are expressed in a language and format that said question answering system can interpret and process, wherein both said first question set and said second question set include at least one question for each of said two or more queries extracted from said question, and wherein said second question set includes at least one question different from said first question set; selecting one of said two or more question sets to yield a selected question set, based on analyzing each of said two or more question sets according to a pre-trained model, wherein said pre-trained model is a term vector model, wherein said term vector model is an algebraic model for representing elements within a text document as vectors and generates a number of dimensions based on keywords, terms, and elements within said extracted queries, wherein said two or more question sets are selected based on a first optimal score, wherein said first optimal score is based on a number of specific terms and irrelevant terms in questions in each of said two or more question sets, and wherein said irrelevant terms lower said first optimal score; presenting said selected question set to said question answering system and a user; determining at least one answer set for said selected question set by accessing a structured repository of information using said pre-trained model; and presenting said answer set to said question answering system.

1. A computer-implemented method comprising: receiving a question, said question being directed to a domain-specific question answering system, wherein said question is requesting at least two distinct pieces of information; extracting two or more distinct queries from said question, based on a query decomposing rule library by comparing said question to said query decomposing rule library to identify a matching decomposition rule, said comparing includes using an index scan, using a keyword scan, parsing said query decomposing rule library, and using a segment scan, wherein said query decomposing rule library includes combinations of semantic, syntactic, grammatical, structural, and other predetermined rules for identifying distinct queries within said question; generating two or more question sets, each of said two or more question sets addressing all of said two or more queries, wherein said generated two or more questions sets are expressed in a language and format that said question answering system can interpret and process, wherein both said first question set and said second question set include at least one question for each of said two or more queries extracted from said question, and wherein said second question set includes at least one question different from said first question set; selecting one of said two or more question sets to yield a selected question set, based on analyzing each of said two or more question sets according to a pre-trained model, wherein said pre-trained model is a term vector model, wherein said term vector model is an algebraic model for representing elements within a text document as vectors and generates a number of dimensions based on keywords, terms, and elements within said extracted queries, wherein said two or more question sets are selected based on a first optimal score, wherein said first optimal score is based on a number of specific terms and irrelevant terms in questions in each of said two or more question sets, and wherein said irrelevant terms lower said first optimal score; presenting said selected question set to said question answering system and a user; determining at least one answer set for said selected question set by accessing a structured repository of information using said pre-trained model; and presenting said answer set to said question answering system. 2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein extracting two or more queries from said question is based on one or more semantic rules.

27. An article comprising a non-transitory computer-accessible medium storing instructions that are operable when executed to cause data processing apparatus to perform operations including: receiving an identification of user group configuration settings for a user group comprising a plurality of users, the user group configuration settings identifying a first plurality of content items to be retrieved from a first plurality of remote content provider servers and to be provided in a user group container document; generating the user group container document based on the user group configuration settings, the user group container document comprising a first plurality of content modules that provide the first plurality of content items from the first plurality of remote content provider servers; sending the user group container document over a public network to each of a plurality of client devices; receiving from the client devices data identifying personal configuration settings for each of the plurality of users in the user group, each of the personal configuration settings specifying a second plurality of content items to be retrieved from a second plurality of remote content provider servers and to be included in personal container documents; generating a first personal container document based on the user group configuration settings and the personal configuration settings for a first user, the container document comprising: one or more of the first plurality of content modules that provide the first plurality of content items from the first plurality of remote content provider servers; and a second plurality of content modules that provide the second plurality of content items from a second plurality of remote content provider servers.

27. An article comprising a non-transitory computer-accessible medium storing instructions that are operable when executed to cause data processing apparatus to perform operations including: receiving an identification of user group configuration settings for a user group comprising a plurality of users, the user group configuration settings identifying a first plurality of content items to be retrieved from a first plurality of remote content provider servers and to be provided in a user group container document; generating the user group container document based on the user group configuration settings, the user group container document comprising a first plurality of content modules that provide the first plurality of content items from the first plurality of remote content provider servers; sending the user group container document over a public network to each of a plurality of client devices; receiving from the client devices data identifying personal configuration settings for each of the plurality of users in the user group, each of the personal configuration settings specifying a second plurality of content items to be retrieved from a second plurality of remote content provider servers and to be included in personal container documents; generating a first personal container document based on the user group configuration settings and the personal configuration settings for a first user, the container document comprising: one or more of the first plurality of content modules that provide the first plurality of content items from the first plurality of remote content provider servers; and a second plurality of content modules that provide the second plurality of content items from a second plurality of remote content provider servers. 30. The article of claim 27 , the operations further comprising sending a software application to a client, wherein execution of the software application by the client provides a graphical user interface that allows selection of user group configuration settings, and the received identification of user group configuration settings includes data generated based on a user interaction with the graphical user interface.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising determining strong classifier parameters, the strong classifier parameters comprising the at least one color attribute used as a weak classifier and the weight.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising determining strong classifier parameters, the strong classifier parameters comprising the at least one color attribute used as a weak classifier and the weight. 3. The method of claim 2 , wherein estimating the descriptiveness value comprises determining at least one weak classifier result and a strong classifier result that uses the at least one weak classifier result according to the weight.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 18 , wherein the computer executable instructions defining the step of selecting one of the plurality LV candidates by ranking the plurality of LV candidates based on geometrical relationships between each detected LV candidate and the other detected LV candidates, between each detected LV candidate and the detected apex candidates, and between each detected LV candidate and the detected base candidates using a trained ranking model comprise computer executable instructions defining the steps of: extracting a plurality of features for each detected LV candidate, said features including a first group of features based on geometrical relationships between each detected LV candidate and the other detected LV candidates, a second group of features based on geometrical relationships between each detected LV candidate and the detected apex candidates, and a third group of features based on geometrical relationships between each detected LV candidate and the detected base candidates; and ranking the plurality of LV candidates based on the extracted features using the trained ranking model.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 18 , wherein the computer executable instructions defining the step of selecting one of the plurality LV candidates by ranking the plurality of LV candidates based on geometrical relationships between each detected LV candidate and the other detected LV candidates, between each detected LV candidate and the detected apex candidates, and between each detected LV candidate and the detected base candidates using a trained ranking model comprise computer executable instructions defining the steps of: extracting a plurality of features for each detected LV candidate, said features including a first group of features based on geometrical relationships between each detected LV candidate and the other detected LV candidates, a second group of features based on geometrical relationships between each detected LV candidate and the detected apex candidates, and a third group of features based on geometrical relationships between each detected LV candidate and the detected base candidates; and ranking the plurality of LV candidates based on the extracted features using the trained ranking model. 23. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 20 , wherein the third group of features includes a detection score for each of the detected base candidates, a distance between a predicted position of a base in each of the detected LV candidates and each of the detected base candidates, and an orientation distance between each of the detected LV candidates and each of the detected base candidates.

3. A method of claim 2 , wherein the one or more semantic information brokers comprise one or more information spaces, the method further comprising: computing a stability factor corresponding to each of the one or more semantic information brokers; and selecting one or more of the semantic information brokers as master semantic information brokers for a respective one of the information spaces based on the computed stability factors, wherein the one or more master semantic information brokers manage communication among the semantic information brokers within the respective information space.

3. A method of claim 2 , wherein the one or more semantic information brokers comprise one or more information spaces, the method further comprising: computing a stability factor corresponding to each of the one or more semantic information brokers; and selecting one or more of the semantic information brokers as master semantic information brokers for a respective one of the information spaces based on the computed stability factors, wherein the one or more master semantic information brokers manage communication among the semantic information brokers within the respective information space. 8. A method of claim 3 , further comprising: periodically computing a new stability factor for each of the semantic information brokers; determining whether one or more of the new stability factors is below a predetermined stability threshold; and optimizing the semantic information brokers based on the determination.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the determination of the first control signal and the determination of the second control signal are configured in accordance with a learning process.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the determination of the first control signal and the determination of the second control signal are configured in accordance with a learning process. 18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17 , wherein: a change in the context is configured to cause an adaptation of the learning process, the adaptation being configured to produce another version of a control signal; and the context is configured to convey information related to one or more of a sensory input, a robot state, and the teaching signal.

24. A method for configuring a web crawl, the method comprising the steps of: specifying a starter seed uniform resource locator (URL) and a user-specified web crawl configuration to a configurable web crawler which crawls a web to inspect text of page resources accessible on the web, each page resource identified by a unique URL, the user-specified web crawl configuration comprising user-specified crawling rules specifying crawling behavior, the crawling rules specifying crawling behavior for at least one each of a general crawl behavior, one or more page-specific crawl behavior to be applied during a crawl to one or more identified pages, and one or more element-specific crawl behavior to be applied during a crawl to one or more identified page elements, wherein the received crawling rules define the crawling behavior in terms of whether to record the resource text, whether to follow hyperlinks of the resource, whether to record text description in metadata associated with the page, whether to record keywords identified in the metadata associated with the page, whether to override a page title element, whether to exclude one or more identified resource pages, whether to exclude one or more identified domains; wherein the configurable web crawler is configured to maintain a queue of unprocessed URLs of resources, insert the specified starter seed URL into the queue of unprocessed URLs of resources, retrieve from the queue a next unprocessed URL, retrieve the user-specified web crawl configuration which specifies the crawling rules, and if allowed by the specified general crawl behavior and page-specific crawl behavior of the retrieved crawling rules, fetch the page resource addressed by the retrieved URL and process the fetched page resource on an element-by-element basis by parsing a next page element from the fetched page resource, and if an element-specific behavior is specified in the retrieved crawling rules for the parsed next page element then operating with regard to the element according to the specified element-specific behavior, and otherwise if a page-specific behavior is specified for the fetched page resource then operating with regard to the element according to the specified page-specific behavior, and otherwise if a global crawl behavior is specified then operating with regard to the element according to the specified global crawl behavior, and otherwise operating with regard to the element according to a default crawl behavior; and repeating the processing until either all elements have been parsed and processed in accordance with the retrieved crawling rules, and wherein the default crawl behavior comprises extracting URLs of outbound links and adding the extracted URLs to the queue, storing text to a resource repository for further analysis, the one or more processing units repeating the processing on available unprocessed URLs in the queue.

24. A method for configuring a web crawl, the method comprising the steps of: specifying a starter seed uniform resource locator (URL) and a user-specified web crawl configuration to a configurable web crawler which crawls a web to inspect text of page resources accessible on the web, each page resource identified by a unique URL, the user-specified web crawl configuration comprising user-specified crawling rules specifying crawling behavior, the crawling rules specifying crawling behavior for at least one each of a general crawl behavior, one or more page-specific crawl behavior to be applied during a crawl to one or more identified pages, and one or more element-specific crawl behavior to be applied during a crawl to one or more identified page elements, wherein the received crawling rules define the crawling behavior in terms of whether to record the resource text, whether to follow hyperlinks of the resource, whether to record text description in metadata associated with the page, whether to record keywords identified in the metadata associated with the page, whether to override a page title element, whether to exclude one or more identified resource pages, whether to exclude one or more identified domains; wherein the configurable web crawler is configured to maintain a queue of unprocessed URLs of resources, insert the specified starter seed URL into the queue of unprocessed URLs of resources, retrieve from the queue a next unprocessed URL, retrieve the user-specified web crawl configuration which specifies the crawling rules, and if allowed by the specified general crawl behavior and page-specific crawl behavior of the retrieved crawling rules, fetch the page resource addressed by the retrieved URL and process the fetched page resource on an element-by-element basis by parsing a next page element from the fetched page resource, and if an element-specific behavior is specified in the retrieved crawling rules for the parsed next page element then operating with regard to the element according to the specified element-specific behavior, and otherwise if a page-specific behavior is specified for the fetched page resource then operating with regard to the element according to the specified page-specific behavior, and otherwise if a global crawl behavior is specified then operating with regard to the element according to the specified global crawl behavior, and otherwise operating with regard to the element according to a default crawl behavior; and repeating the processing until either all elements have been parsed and processed in accordance with the retrieved crawling rules, and wherein the default crawl behavior comprises extracting URLs of outbound links and adding the extracted URLs to the queue, storing text to a resource repository for further analysis, the one or more processing units repeating the processing on available unprocessed URLs in the queue. 27. The method of claim 24 , wherein the crawling rules define page-specific rules for at least two distinct pages.

9. A computing device comprising: at least one processor; and at least one module operable by the at least one processor to: output, for display, a graphical keyboard comprising a plurality of keys; maintain a plurality of letter chains, wherein: each respective letter chain of the plurality of letter chains is associated with a respective cost value; each respective letter chain includes a different respective group of one or more characters; and each respective character of each respective group of one or more characters corresponds to a respective key of the plurality of keys; receive an indication of a particular portion of a gesture detected at a presence-sensitive input device, the gesture comprising a plurality of portions; responsive to receiving the indication of the particular portion of the gesture, update, based at least in part on the indication of the particular portion of the gesture, the plurality of letter chains; determine, for the particular portion of the gesture and based at least in part on a cost value associated with at least one of the plurality of letter chains, a candidate word; and output, for display, the candidate word.

9. A computing device comprising: at least one processor; and at least one module operable by the at least one processor to: output, for display, a graphical keyboard comprising a plurality of keys; maintain a plurality of letter chains, wherein: each respective letter chain of the plurality of letter chains is associated with a respective cost value; each respective letter chain includes a different respective group of one or more characters; and each respective character of each respective group of one or more characters corresponds to a respective key of the plurality of keys; receive an indication of a particular portion of a gesture detected at a presence-sensitive input device, the gesture comprising a plurality of portions; responsive to receiving the indication of the particular portion of the gesture, update, based at least in part on the indication of the particular portion of the gesture, the plurality of letter chains; determine, for the particular portion of the gesture and based at least in part on a cost value associated with at least one of the plurality of letter chains, a candidate word; and output, for display, the candidate word. 15. The computing device of claim 9 , wherein the gesture is a continuous gesture, wherein the at least one module is operable by the at least one processor to: determine, based at least in part on a plurality of features associated with the particular portion of the continuous gesture, a group of alignment points traversed by the continuous gesture, wherein the plurality of features associated with the particular portion of the continuous gesture comprises at least one of: a length of a segment of the particular portion of the continuous gesture, wherein the segment comprises a path traversed by the portion of the continuous gesture at the presence-sensitive input device; a direction of the segment of the particular portion of the continuous gesture; a curvature of the segment of the particular portion of the continuous gesture; a local speed that represents a rate at which the segment of the particular portion of the continuous gesture was detected; and a global speed that represents a rate at which the particular portion of the continuous gesture was detected.

1. A method for defining declarative code in an intermediate machine readable representation, including: specifying a plurality of programming constructs of a declarative programming language including specifying each type associated with the plurality of programming constructs as a function of at least one constraint on type, wherein values associated with the plurality of programming constructs are conformable to a plurality of types such that a particular value is conformable with each of the plurality of types in which the particular value does not violate a constraint codified in a type declaration, and wherein the specifying includes specifying additional state information about at least one programming construct of the plurality of programming constructs; and based on the plurality of programming constructs, generating in memory of a computing device at least one abstract syntax tree structure in a machine readable intermediate language representation of the declarative programming language, wherein the generating includes representing the additional state information in the at least one abstract syntax tree structure as at least one attached property.

1. A method for defining declarative code in an intermediate machine readable representation, including: specifying a plurality of programming constructs of a declarative programming language including specifying each type associated with the plurality of programming constructs as a function of at least one constraint on type, wherein values associated with the plurality of programming constructs are conformable to a plurality of types such that a particular value is conformable with each of the plurality of types in which the particular value does not violate a constraint codified in a type declaration, and wherein the specifying includes specifying additional state information about at least one programming construct of the plurality of programming constructs; and based on the plurality of programming constructs, generating in memory of a computing device at least one abstract syntax tree structure in a machine readable intermediate language representation of the declarative programming language, wherein the generating includes representing the additional state information in the at least one abstract syntax tree structure as at least one attached property. 4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the generating includes referencing at least one other abstract syntax tree structure.

11. The method as claimed in claim 9 , wherein a user profile is created by at least one of user information, user-specifically optimized data being generated on the basis of found data records stored in the content module, or references to find data records by a repackaging module, taking into consideration the data of the user profile, which user-specifically optimized data are provided to the user stored in the content module of the computing unit.

11. The method as claimed in claim 9 , wherein a user profile is created by at least one of user information, user-specifically optimized data being generated on the basis of found data records stored in the content module, or references to find data records by a repackaging module, taking into consideration the data of the user profile, which user-specifically optimized data are provided to the user stored in the content module of the computing unit. 13. The method as claimed in claim 11 , wherein data relating to user behavior are automatically registered by the computing unit and stored allocated to the user profile.

5. The tool of claim 2 , further comprising: a collecting unit for collecting the information which has been tagged to a feature of the event map and generating a tagged view including the collected information, wherein said display device displays said tagged view in a viewing panel of a graphical user interface (GUI).

5. The tool of claim 2 , further comprising: a collecting unit for collecting the information which has been tagged to a feature of the event map and generating a tagged view including the collected information, wherein said display device displays said tagged view in a viewing panel of a graphical user interface (GUI). 7. The tool of claim 5 , wherein the tagged view includes a list comprising the collected information and the feature to which the collected information was tagged.

13. A non-transitory computer readable media storing program code that when executed by a system comprising one or more computing devices is configured to cause the system to perform operations comprising: receiving an electronic building plan document including a plurality of plan sheets; providing a first of the plurality of plan sheets for display; providing a user interface via which a user can select, via a predefined standard comments library, a first comment, the first comment comprising text, and associate a document to the first comment; providing a user interface via which the user can associate at least one of project type or discipline metadata with the first comment; storing a first plurality of comments in association with respective metadata; providing for display a comments list in association with the first plan sheet, the comments list including a second plurality of comments; at least partly in response to the user selecting a second comment with a specified plan sheet coordinate in the comments lists, providing the second comment for display over the first plan sheet at the plan sheet coordinate and causing the portion of the first plan sheet corresponding to the specified plan sheet to be centered in a sheet review display pane; providing a search user interface enabling the user to search for comments by specifying project type or discipline metadata, generating and providing comments search results in response to a search query received via the search user interface; providing a user interface via which the user can select a plurality of comments to be included in a plan correction list; generating a correction list of items that need to be corrected in order for at least one approval document to be issued, the correction list including a plurality of comments specified by a plurality of users wherein the correction list includes: a category value, associated comments, and respective sheet identifiers for comments included in the correction list; transmitting the correction list to at least one user; tracking approval status of one or more building-related approval documents and providing the approval status to one or more users.

13. A non-transitory computer readable media storing program code that when executed by a system comprising one or more computing devices is configured to cause the system to perform operations comprising: receiving an electronic building plan document including a plurality of plan sheets; providing a first of the plurality of plan sheets for display; providing a user interface via which a user can select, via a predefined standard comments library, a first comment, the first comment comprising text, and associate a document to the first comment; providing a user interface via which the user can associate at least one of project type or discipline metadata with the first comment; storing a first plurality of comments in association with respective metadata; providing for display a comments list in association with the first plan sheet, the comments list including a second plurality of comments; at least partly in response to the user selecting a second comment with a specified plan sheet coordinate in the comments lists, providing the second comment for display over the first plan sheet at the plan sheet coordinate and causing the portion of the first plan sheet corresponding to the specified plan sheet to be centered in a sheet review display pane; providing a search user interface enabling the user to search for comments by specifying project type or discipline metadata, generating and providing comments search results in response to a search query received via the search user interface; providing a user interface via which the user can select a plurality of comments to be included in a plan correction list; generating a correction list of items that need to be corrected in order for at least one approval document to be issued, the correction list including a plurality of comments specified by a plurality of users wherein the correction list includes: a category value, associated comments, and respective sheet identifiers for comments included in the correction list; transmitting the correction list to at least one user; tracking approval status of one or more building-related approval documents and providing the approval status to one or more users. 18. The non-transitory computer readable media as defined in claim 13 , the operations further comprising: converting a source drawing image into a colorized source; for each of a plurality of target zoom levels, resizing the colorized source into a corresponding master tile; virtually dividing a given master tile into a plurality of tiles; storing the plurality of tiles; and clearing objects from memory.

11. The receiver according to claim 1 , further comprising: a message generator configured to track whether the at least one word is converted according to a conversion defined by the stored list or is converted according to the set of predetermined conversion rules.

11. The receiver according to claim 1 , further comprising: a message generator configured to track whether the at least one word is converted according to a conversion defined by the stored list or is converted according to the set of predetermined conversion rules. 13. The receiver according to claim 11 , further comprising: a buffer configured to capture a predetermined allocation of recently converted words, wherein the message generator is further configured to generate a capture message that includes the captured predetermined allocation.

1. A system comprising: a processor; a data bus coupled to the processor; and a computer-usable medium embodying computer program code, the computer-usable medium being coupled to the data bus, the computer program code used for converting unstructured text within a form to resolve hierarchical references via a question/answer (QA) system executing on a hardware processor, the QA system having an associated form criteria identification system and comprising instructions executable by the processor and configured for: applying natural language processing (NLP) to unstructured data within a form to identify elements of a form structure, the natural language processing being performed by the question/answer (QA) system executing on the hardware processor of an information handling system; applying analytic analysis to the elements of the form structure and hierarchy metadata to identify a hierarchical structure and element placement in the hierarchical structure, the analytic analysis being performed by the form criteria identification system associated with the QA system; identifying implicit selections within the form based on applying rules based on other selections and orientation to anchor terms to determine a completeness based upon aggregation of form elements, the identifying implicit selections being performed by the form criteria identification system associated with the QA system; processing the form structure elements and the hierarchy metadata to logically re-assemble hierarchy in flattened forms for multi-layer sub-element anaphora resolution, the processing the form structure elements being performed by the form criteria identification system associated with the QA system; receiving a question from a user via a computer network; storing the flattened forms for multi-layer sub-element anaphora resolution within a repository associated with the QA system; accessing the repository associated with the QA system in response to receipt of the question from the user; and, providing an answer to the question from the user to another information handling system, the another information handling system communicating with the QA system executing on the hardware processor of the information handling system via a computer network, the providing using the flattened forms stored within the repository associated with the QA system.

1. A system comprising: a processor; a data bus coupled to the processor; and a computer-usable medium embodying computer program code, the computer-usable medium being coupled to the data bus, the computer program code used for converting unstructured text within a form to resolve hierarchical references via a question/answer (QA) system executing on a hardware processor, the QA system having an associated form criteria identification system and comprising instructions executable by the processor and configured for: applying natural language processing (NLP) to unstructured data within a form to identify elements of a form structure, the natural language processing being performed by the question/answer (QA) system executing on the hardware processor of an information handling system; applying analytic analysis to the elements of the form structure and hierarchy metadata to identify a hierarchical structure and element placement in the hierarchical structure, the analytic analysis being performed by the form criteria identification system associated with the QA system; identifying implicit selections within the form based on applying rules based on other selections and orientation to anchor terms to determine a completeness based upon aggregation of form elements, the identifying implicit selections being performed by the form criteria identification system associated with the QA system; processing the form structure elements and the hierarchy metadata to logically re-assemble hierarchy in flattened forms for multi-layer sub-element anaphora resolution, the processing the form structure elements being performed by the form criteria identification system associated with the QA system; receiving a question from a user via a computer network; storing the flattened forms for multi-layer sub-element anaphora resolution within a repository associated with the QA system; accessing the repository associated with the QA system in response to receipt of the question from the user; and, providing an answer to the question from the user to another information handling system, the another information handling system communicating with the QA system executing on the hardware processor of the information handling system via a computer network, the providing using the flattened forms stored within the repository associated with the QA system. 4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the hierarchy metadata is used to disambiguate the orientation of checkmarks to their anchor terms.

1. A method of displaying a first hypertext document on a computer display, the first hypertext document including at least one hypertext link definition that points to a second hypertext document, the method comprising: (a) displaying the first hypertext document on the computer display, including displaying the hypertext link definition; (b) maintaining status information associated with a previous copy of the second hypertext document, wherein the status information associated with the previous copy of the second hypertext document is selected from the group consisting of a checksum, a document size, an author, an area selection within the previous copy of the second hypertext document, a keyword search expression, a numeric expression, a numeric threshold, a keyword list, and combinations thereof; (c) determining whether the second hypertext document has been updated by comparing status information for the second hypertext document with that of the previous copy of the second hypertext document; and (d) indicating on the computer display and within the first hypertext document whether the second hypertext document has been updated since a predetermined time.

1. A method of displaying a first hypertext document on a computer display, the first hypertext document including at least one hypertext link definition that points to a second hypertext document, the method comprising: (a) displaying the first hypertext document on the computer display, including displaying the hypertext link definition; (b) maintaining status information associated with a previous copy of the second hypertext document, wherein the status information associated with the previous copy of the second hypertext document is selected from the group consisting of a checksum, a document size, an author, an area selection within the previous copy of the second hypertext document, a keyword search expression, a numeric expression, a numeric threshold, a keyword list, and combinations thereof; (c) determining whether the second hypertext document has been updated by comparing status information for the second hypertext document with that of the previous copy of the second hypertext document; and (d) indicating on the computer display and within the first hypertext document whether the second hypertext document has been updated since a predetermined time. 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the status information associated with the previous copy of the second hypertext document further includes at least a portion of the contents of the previous copy.

1. A computer-implemented method comprising: obtaining a lexicon model that maps phones to spoken text, wherein spoken text includes only words that are spelled out; obtaining a language model that assigns probabilities to written text, wherein written text includes (i) words that are spelled out and (ii) sequences of characters that include abbreviations that are not spelled out words, acronyms that are not spelled out words, and numeric symbols; obtaining grammar rules for expanding written text into spoken text; generating, using the grammar rules, expansions of written text that includes sequences of characters that include abbreviations that are not spelled out words, acronyms that are not spelled out words, and numeric symbols into spoken text that includes only words that are spelled out, the expansions including mappings of multiple different items of written text to a particular item of the spoken text; generating a transducer that includes the expansions, where the transducer maps the written text to the spoken text, the transducer mapping the multiple different items of written text to the particular item of the spoken text; constructing a decoding network for transcribing utterances into written text, by composing the lexicon model, the inverse of the transducer, and the language model; and generating, by an automated speech recognizer, a transcription of a subsequently received utterance into written text using the decoding network.

1. A computer-implemented method comprising: obtaining a lexicon model that maps phones to spoken text, wherein spoken text includes only words that are spelled out; obtaining a language model that assigns probabilities to written text, wherein written text includes (i) words that are spelled out and (ii) sequences of characters that include abbreviations that are not spelled out words, acronyms that are not spelled out words, and numeric symbols; obtaining grammar rules for expanding written text into spoken text; generating, using the grammar rules, expansions of written text that includes sequences of characters that include abbreviations that are not spelled out words, acronyms that are not spelled out words, and numeric symbols into spoken text that includes only words that are spelled out, the expansions including mappings of multiple different items of written text to a particular item of the spoken text; generating a transducer that includes the expansions, where the transducer maps the written text to the spoken text, the transducer mapping the multiple different items of written text to the particular item of the spoken text; constructing a decoding network for transcribing utterances into written text, by composing the lexicon model, the inverse of the transducer, and the language model; and generating, by an automated speech recognizer, a transcription of a subsequently received utterance into written text using the decoding network. 6. The method of claim 1 , wherein obtaining the language model comprises obtaining spoken text of the language model; generating written text from the spoken text of the language model using the inverse of the transducer; and adding the generated written text to the language model.

15. A system for local computer-aided translation using remotely generated translation predictions comprising: a remote translation server comprising: a receiver receiving a request for a translation of a document from a first one of a plurality of local machines; a remote translation memory providing access to a stored translation; a means for determining that the stored translation is useful in translating a first portion of a document; a means for identifying a modification of the translation of the first portion of the document as useful in the translation of a second portion of the document prior to receiving a request to translate a second portion of the document and generating a translation of the second portion of the document using the modification of the translation of the first portion of the document, responsive to the identification of the utility of the modification of the translation of the first portion of the document in the translation of the second portion of the document; and a means for transmitting the stored translation; and the first one local machine comprising: a means for receiving a translation of the first portion of the document, a means for storing the translation of the first portion of the document, a means for receiving from a user the modification of the translation of the first portion of the document, a means for transmitting to the remote translation server the modification of the translation of the first portion of the document; a means for receiving the translation of a second portion of the document, the translation of the second portion of the document generated using the modification of the translation of the first portion of the document; and a transmitter transmitting the request to the remote translation server; and transmitting the modification of the translation of the first portion of the document to the remote translation server.

15. A system for local computer-aided translation using remotely generated translation predictions comprising: a remote translation server comprising: a receiver receiving a request for a translation of a document from a first one of a plurality of local machines; a remote translation memory providing access to a stored translation; a means for determining that the stored translation is useful in translating a first portion of a document; a means for identifying a modification of the translation of the first portion of the document as useful in the translation of a second portion of the document prior to receiving a request to translate a second portion of the document and generating a translation of the second portion of the document using the modification of the translation of the first portion of the document, responsive to the identification of the utility of the modification of the translation of the first portion of the document in the translation of the second portion of the document; and a means for transmitting the stored translation; and the first one local machine comprising: a means for receiving a translation of the first portion of the document, a means for storing the translation of the first portion of the document, a means for receiving from a user the modification of the translation of the first portion of the document, a means for transmitting to the remote translation server the modification of the translation of the first portion of the document; a means for receiving the translation of a second portion of the document, the translation of the second portion of the document generated using the modification of the translation of the first portion of the document; and a transmitter transmitting the request to the remote translation server; and transmitting the modification of the translation of the first portion of the document to the remote translation server. 21. The system of claim 15 , wherein the means for receiving further comprises a means for receiving an updated version of a translation, the updated version of the translation replacing a received translation.

1. A method performed by one or more server devices, the method comprising: receiving, by the one or more server devices, a first search query; receiving, by the one or more server devices, after receiving the first search query, a second search query that is different from the first search query; identifying, by one or more processors of the one or more server devices, based on a set of predetermined criteria, that the second search query is a refinement query of the first search query; collecting, by the one or more processors of the one or more server devices, a plurality of refinement query suggestions for the first search query, where the plurality of refinement query suggestions includes the second search query; counting, by the one or more processors of the one or more server devices, a quantity of times that each refinement query suggestion, of the plurality of refinement query suggestions, was previously received and identified, by the one or more server devices, as a refinement of a query that matches the first search query; storing the plurality of refinement query suggestions in a memory associated with the one or more server devices; clustering, by the one or more processors of the one or more server devices, the stored plurality of refinement query suggestions to form a plurality of clusters; identifying, by the one or more processors of the one or more server devices, a particular cluster, of the formed plurality of clusters, based on the plurality of refinement query suggestions within the particular cluster; selecting, by the one or more processors of the one or more server devices, from within the identified particular cluster, at least one potential refinement query suggestion, where the selecting includes: identifying that a quantity of times, that the at least one potential refinement query suggestion was received and identified as a refinement of the first search query, is higher than quantities of times that other refinement query suggestions, within the identified particular cluster, were received and identified as refinements of the first search query; and transmitting, by a communication interface of the one or more server devices, the selected at least one potential refinement query suggestion to a client associated with a user, the transmitting occurring in response to receiving, from the user, a third search query that matches the first search query.

1. A method performed by one or more server devices, the method comprising: receiving, by the one or more server devices, a first search query; receiving, by the one or more server devices, after receiving the first search query, a second search query that is different from the first search query; identifying, by one or more processors of the one or more server devices, based on a set of predetermined criteria, that the second search query is a refinement query of the first search query; collecting, by the one or more processors of the one or more server devices, a plurality of refinement query suggestions for the first search query, where the plurality of refinement query suggestions includes the second search query; counting, by the one or more processors of the one or more server devices, a quantity of times that each refinement query suggestion, of the plurality of refinement query suggestions, was previously received and identified, by the one or more server devices, as a refinement of a query that matches the first search query; storing the plurality of refinement query suggestions in a memory associated with the one or more server devices; clustering, by the one or more processors of the one or more server devices, the stored plurality of refinement query suggestions to form a plurality of clusters; identifying, by the one or more processors of the one or more server devices, a particular cluster, of the formed plurality of clusters, based on the plurality of refinement query suggestions within the particular cluster; selecting, by the one or more processors of the one or more server devices, from within the identified particular cluster, at least one potential refinement query suggestion, where the selecting includes: identifying that a quantity of times, that the at least one potential refinement query suggestion was received and identified as a refinement of the first search query, is higher than quantities of times that other refinement query suggestions, within the identified particular cluster, were received and identified as refinements of the first search query; and transmitting, by a communication interface of the one or more server devices, the selected at least one potential refinement query suggestion to a client associated with a user, the transmitting occurring in response to receiving, from the user, a third search query that matches the first search query. 2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: determining whether the second search query is received within a predetermined time period from receipt of the first search query.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising obtaining the composite audible signal data.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising obtaining the composite audible signal data. 5. The method of claim 2 , wherein obtaining the composite audible signal data includes retrieving the composite audible signal data from a non-transitory memory.

1. A computerized method for displaying content that is contained within a document, the method, executing on a processor, comprising: identifying textual content within the document according to a hierarchy, the hierarchy defined by a plurality of nodes that are each respectively associated with a portion of the textual content, the plurality of nodes including a first node associated with a first portion of the textual content and a second node that is associated with a second different portion of the textual content and is also a child of the first node, the second node being a leaf node; assigning a visualization form out of a plurality of visualization forms to each one of the plurality of nodes, the plurality of visualization forms including at least an open form, a tokenized form, and an invisible form; displaying the portion of textual content that is associated with the respective node based on the assigned visualization form; and updating the visualization form of at least one of the plurality of nodes based on user input, wherein the textual content of the second node is not displayed when the visualization form for the second node includes the invisible form, wherein less than a full amount of the textual content associated with the second node is displayed when the visualization form for the second node includes the tokenized form, and wherein the textual content associated with the second node is displayed when the visualization form for the second node includes the open form.

1. A computerized method for displaying content that is contained within a document, the method, executing on a processor, comprising: identifying textual content within the document according to a hierarchy, the hierarchy defined by a plurality of nodes that are each respectively associated with a portion of the textual content, the plurality of nodes including a first node associated with a first portion of the textual content and a second node that is associated with a second different portion of the textual content and is also a child of the first node, the second node being a leaf node; assigning a visualization form out of a plurality of visualization forms to each one of the plurality of nodes, the plurality of visualization forms including at least an open form, a tokenized form, and an invisible form; displaying the portion of textual content that is associated with the respective node based on the assigned visualization form; and updating the visualization form of at least one of the plurality of nodes based on user input, wherein the textual content of the second node is not displayed when the visualization form for the second node includes the invisible form, wherein less than a full amount of the textual content associated with the second node is displayed when the visualization form for the second node includes the tokenized form, and wherein the textual content associated with the second node is displayed when the visualization form for the second node includes the open form. 11. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the node comprises sections, paragraphs, sentences, and optionally some or all among lists, substructures of sentences, words, included images, animations, videos, applets, sound files and hypertext links.

13. The speech recognition system of claim 12, further comprising an interface to receive a speech signal from a customer.

13. The speech recognition system of claim 12, further comprising an interface to receive a speech signal from a customer. 15. The speech recognition system of claim 13, wherein said interface comprises a microphone.

11. A computer program product for implementing a method for mapping between a declarative type and a dynamic runtime type, the computer program product comprising one or more physical storage media having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of the computing system, cause the computing system to perform the method, the method comprising: an act of a customized declarative language reader accessing an activity that is defined using a declarative language, and that is configured to be executed within a continuation-based runtime, the activity including a fully modeled declarative type written in declarative markup, the declarative type including one or more members which define a data flow for the declarative type, each member being defined within a declarative tag in the declarative markup and including a name and a type of input for the member, wherein the declarative markup also includes an identification of a schema to be used to determine how the fully modeled declarative type is to be interpreted at runtime by the continuation-based runtime including how the one or more members of the declarative type are to be mapped to properties of a dynamic runtime type; an act of the customized declarative language reader creating a dynamic runtime type based on the fully modeled declarative type, creating the dynamic runtime type comprising generating, based on the schema defined in the declarative program, a type in memory without creating a common language runtime type to represent the declarative type; an act of the declarative language reader generating a mapping from the accessed declarative type to the created dynamic runtime type using the mapping schema, generating the mapping including mapping each member of the declarative type to a property of the created dynamic runtime type; and an act of interpretively executing the dynamically constructed dynamic activity type within the continuation-based runtime at a first process, such that the dynamic activity type is executed without compilation, and during execution of the dynamically constructed dynamic activity type: pausing execution of the dynamically constructed dynamic activity type at the first process; and resuming execution of the dynamically constructed dynamic activity type at a second, different process.

11. A computer program product for implementing a method for mapping between a declarative type and a dynamic runtime type, the computer program product comprising one or more physical storage media having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of the computing system, cause the computing system to perform the method, the method comprising: an act of a customized declarative language reader accessing an activity that is defined using a declarative language, and that is configured to be executed within a continuation-based runtime, the activity including a fully modeled declarative type written in declarative markup, the declarative type including one or more members which define a data flow for the declarative type, each member being defined within a declarative tag in the declarative markup and including a name and a type of input for the member, wherein the declarative markup also includes an identification of a schema to be used to determine how the fully modeled declarative type is to be interpreted at runtime by the continuation-based runtime including how the one or more members of the declarative type are to be mapped to properties of a dynamic runtime type; an act of the customized declarative language reader creating a dynamic runtime type based on the fully modeled declarative type, creating the dynamic runtime type comprising generating, based on the schema defined in the declarative program, a type in memory without creating a common language runtime type to represent the declarative type; an act of the declarative language reader generating a mapping from the accessed declarative type to the created dynamic runtime type using the mapping schema, generating the mapping including mapping each member of the declarative type to a property of the created dynamic runtime type; and an act of interpretively executing the dynamically constructed dynamic activity type within the continuation-based runtime at a first process, such that the dynamic activity type is executed without compilation, and during execution of the dynamically constructed dynamic activity type: pausing execution of the dynamically constructed dynamic activity type at the first process; and resuming execution of the dynamically constructed dynamic activity type at a second, different process. 14. The computer program product of claim 11 , wherein the mapping schema corresponds to a group of related declarative types that are to be interpreted in a similar fashion.

15. A graphical user interface on a device with a touch screen display, comprising: an electronic document having a document length and a document width, to be displayed on the touch screen display at multiple magnifications including a first magnification; and areas beyond opposite edges of the electronic document; wherein: in response to detecting a gesture on the touch screen display corresponding to a command to zoom out by a user-specified amount, wherein the gesture is detected while displaying the electronic document at the first magnification, the electronic document is displayed at a magnification less than the first magnification on the touch screen display; if the document length or document width is entirely displayed while the gesture is still detected on the touch screen display, the electronic document is displayed at a magnification wherein the areas beyond opposite edges of the electronic document are displayed on the touch screen display; and in response to detecting termination of the gesture, the electronic document is displayed at a magnification wherein the areas beyond opposite edges of the electronic document are no longer displayed on the touch screen display.

15. A graphical user interface on a device with a touch screen display, comprising: an electronic document having a document length and a document width, to be displayed on the touch screen display at multiple magnifications including a first magnification; and areas beyond opposite edges of the electronic document; wherein: in response to detecting a gesture on the touch screen display corresponding to a command to zoom out by a user-specified amount, wherein the gesture is detected while displaying the electronic document at the first magnification, the electronic document is displayed at a magnification less than the first magnification on the touch screen display; if the document length or document width is entirely displayed while the gesture is still detected on the touch screen display, the electronic document is displayed at a magnification wherein the areas beyond opposite edges of the electronic document are displayed on the touch screen display; and in response to detecting termination of the gesture, the electronic document is displayed at a magnification wherein the areas beyond opposite edges of the electronic document are no longer displayed on the touch screen display. 28. The graphical user interface of claim 15 , wherein the areas beyond opposite edges of the electronic document are visually distinct from the document.

1. A method by which a first computer system automatically converts a document to an interactive reference that can be interpreted by and displayed on a second computer system having a display screen sensitive to a pointer, a processor in communication with the display screen, and a memory in communication with the processor such that at least portions of the interactive reference residing in the memory can be retrieved by interaction of the pointer with the display screen, the method comprising the following steps: separating the document into content blocks delineated by content commands within the document, some content blocks containing templates for live interaction between the pointer and the display screen and other content blocks containing text or a picture; creating page descriptions in which the content blocks are arranged on pages whose boundaries are defined by the display screen of the second computer; preparing instructions for treating pointer actions on templates displayed on the display screen; and outputting commands describing the interactive reference, the commands having a format, at least when compiled, that can be stored in the memory of the second computer system and interpreted by the processor of the second computer system.

1. A method by which a first computer system automatically converts a document to an interactive reference that can be interpreted by and displayed on a second computer system having a display screen sensitive to a pointer, a processor in communication with the display screen, and a memory in communication with the processor such that at least portions of the interactive reference residing in the memory can be retrieved by interaction of the pointer with the display screen, the method comprising the following steps: separating the document into content blocks delineated by content commands within the document, some content blocks containing templates for live interaction between the pointer and the display screen and other content blocks containing text or a picture; creating page descriptions in which the content blocks are arranged on pages whose boundaries are defined by the display screen of the second computer; preparing instructions for treating pointer actions on templates displayed on the display screen; and outputting commands describing the interactive reference, the commands having a format, at least when compiled, that can be stored in the memory of the second computer system and interpreted by the processor of the second computer system. 8. The method of claim 1 further comprising a step of encoding an array of NGRAMs for at least one of said content blocks.

17. The system of claim 11 , wherein the processor is further configured to send one or more additional queries to the search engine based on the plurality of keywords.

17. The system of claim 11 , wherein the processor is further configured to send one or more additional queries to the search engine based on the plurality of keywords. 19. The system of claim 17 , wherein the processor is further configured to process one or more additional results pages provided by the search engine in response to the one or more additional queries to determine additional content relating to a classification selected from the group of classifications; and update the advertising database with the additional content based on the classification of the additional content.

1. A method to adjust a ranking and expected reward of a first user comprising: identifying a first object from indexed online content posted by the first user; aggregating a portion of the identified indexed online content created by a second user in response to the indexed content online posted by the first user, each respective portion of indexed content referencing metadata; in response to the portion of identified content from the second user being feedback, incorporating the aggregated portion of indexed online content into the metadata of the first object forming a new object; determining the relevance of the first object to the new object using a predetermined metric; and adjusting the ranking and expected reward of the first user as a function of the relevance of the first object to the new object.

1. A method to adjust a ranking and expected reward of a first user comprising: identifying a first object from indexed online content posted by the first user; aggregating a portion of the identified indexed online content created by a second user in response to the indexed content online posted by the first user, each respective portion of indexed content referencing metadata; in response to the portion of identified content from the second user being feedback, incorporating the aggregated portion of indexed online content into the metadata of the first object forming a new object; determining the relevance of the first object to the new object using a predetermined metric; and adjusting the ranking and expected reward of the first user as a function of the relevance of the first object to the new object. 2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the feedback is related to the indexed content online posted by the first user and comprises one of: a mention; a re-post; a linked to; a comment; a sentiment; a question; a rating; and a ranking.

1. A system for analyzing data to rank search results, comprising: a data source; a data inventory in communication with the data source, wherein the data inventory comprises a plurality of objects, said plurality of objects including at least one data object, and at least one interrelation object including link statements that provide a link between interrelated data objects, wherein each link statement includes a reference to: first and second data objects of the data inventory; and a weight value; a processor embodied in hardware in communication with said data source and said data inventory; software executing on said processor for establishing interrelation objects in said data inventory, said software utilizing interrelation requests, wherein each interrelation object is established based on at least one of syntactic comparison, semantic comparison, and pattern analysis to generate link statements representing interrelations between data objects of the data inventory, wherein said syntactic comparison includes: executing a search query with keys associated with a given data object, compiling at least one interrelation object that includes one or more link statements representing weighted interrelations for each search result of the search query, and storing the at least one compiled interrelation object in said data inventory; wherein said semantic comparison includes: retrieving a previously user selected object in said data inventory represented by a data object from a tracker of user actions, compiling or modifying at least one interrelation object that includes one or more link statements representing a weighted interrelation between the previously user selected object and a given data object, and storing the at least one compiled or modified interrelation object said data inventory; wherein said pattern analysis includes: extracting a list of words associated with a given data object, sorting the list of words in ascending order according to their frequency, executing a search query with a defined number of top words, compiling at least one interrelation object that includes one or more link statements representing weighted interrelations for each search result of the search query, and storing the at least one compiled interrelation object in said data inventory; a search query; software executing on said processor for ranking search results of said search query by determining, for each search result of said search query, a relevance score based at least in part on a total number of interrelated objects having reference to a given search result, or on an amount of time a user previously viewed a given search result during a prior search query, or both; and a user interface connected to said processor configured to present a visual representation of said search results in a ranked order to a user based on each respective relevance score.

1. A system for analyzing data to rank search results, comprising: a data source; a data inventory in communication with the data source, wherein the data inventory comprises a plurality of objects, said plurality of objects including at least one data object, and at least one interrelation object including link statements that provide a link between interrelated data objects, wherein each link statement includes a reference to: first and second data objects of the data inventory; and a weight value; a processor embodied in hardware in communication with said data source and said data inventory; software executing on said processor for establishing interrelation objects in said data inventory, said software utilizing interrelation requests, wherein each interrelation object is established based on at least one of syntactic comparison, semantic comparison, and pattern analysis to generate link statements representing interrelations between data objects of the data inventory, wherein said syntactic comparison includes: executing a search query with keys associated with a given data object, compiling at least one interrelation object that includes one or more link statements representing weighted interrelations for each search result of the search query, and storing the at least one compiled interrelation object in said data inventory; wherein said semantic comparison includes: retrieving a previously user selected object in said data inventory represented by a data object from a tracker of user actions, compiling or modifying at least one interrelation object that includes one or more link statements representing a weighted interrelation between the previously user selected object and a given data object, and storing the at least one compiled or modified interrelation object said data inventory; wherein said pattern analysis includes: extracting a list of words associated with a given data object, sorting the list of words in ascending order according to their frequency, executing a search query with a defined number of top words, compiling at least one interrelation object that includes one or more link statements representing weighted interrelations for each search result of the search query, and storing the at least one compiled interrelation object in said data inventory; a search query; software executing on said processor for ranking search results of said search query by determining, for each search result of said search query, a relevance score based at least in part on a total number of interrelated objects having reference to a given search result, or on an amount of time a user previously viewed a given search result during a prior search query, or both; and a user interface connected to said processor configured to present a visual representation of said search results in a ranked order to a user based on each respective relevance score. 5. The system of claim 1 , wherein each respective relevance score is based on a total number of interrelated objects having reference to a given search result.

1. A method comprising: classifying, at a computing system, a set of benchmark text strings to provide a set of benchmark classifications, wherein the benchmark text strings correspond to a benchmark corpus of benchmark utterances; determining a respective classification for multiple text strings in a corpus of text strings; sampling text strings from the corpus of text strings to form a training corpus of training text strings, such that particular classifications of the sampled text strings occur in proportion to occurrences of the particular classifications for the benchmark text strings; and training an automatic speech recognition (ASR) system with the training corpus of training text strings.

1. A method comprising: classifying, at a computing system, a set of benchmark text strings to provide a set of benchmark classifications, wherein the benchmark text strings correspond to a benchmark corpus of benchmark utterances; determining a respective classification for multiple text strings in a corpus of text strings; sampling text strings from the corpus of text strings to form a training corpus of training text strings, such that particular classifications of the sampled text strings occur in proportion to occurrences of the particular classifications for the benchmark text strings; and training an automatic speech recognition (ASR) system with the training corpus of training text strings. 4. The method of claim 1 , wherein text strings in the corpus of text strings were transcribed from respective utterances from an associated corpus of utterances.

21. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium as claimed in claim 18 , wherein the project template data comprises project task template data representing at least one project task template and further comprising instructions for generating project task data representing at least one project task in accordance with the project task template data.

21. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium as claimed in claim 18 , wherein the project template data comprises project task template data representing at least one project task template and further comprising instructions for generating project task data representing at least one project task in accordance with the project task template data. 22. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium as claimed in claim 21 , wherein the project task template data comprises deadline data representing at least one deadline for the completion of the at least one project task.

28. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 22 , wherein: the obtained corpus of text is associated with a first context; the input is associated with an input context; and ranking the plurality of candidate word strings is based on a degree of similarity between the input context and the first context.

28. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 22 , wherein: the obtained corpus of text is associated with a first context; the input is associated with an input context; and ranking the plurality of candidate word strings is based on a degree of similarity between the input context and the first context. 29. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 28 , wherein the first context includes a first recipient and a first application of the electronic device, and wherein the input context includes a second recipient and a second application of the electronic device.

17. A computer-readable storage medium having a computer-readable program embodied therein for directing operation of a portal for processing of music contributions over a network including a collaboration unit, the collaboration unit including an editing unit, an output generation unit, and a network interface unit, the computer-readable program including computer executable instructions for collaborative handling of a music contribution in accordance with the following: receiving a music contribution at a portal, the music contribution comprising a set of music elements and the portal being accessible over the network; and generating music output at the portal relating to at least a portion of the music contribution and in response to at least one collaboration request received at the portal over the network; wherein the at least one collaboration request relates to the set of music elements; and wherein at least one music element of the set of music elements is generated by deconstructing at least a portion of the music contribution.

17. A computer-readable storage medium having a computer-readable program embodied therein for directing operation of a portal for processing of music contributions over a network including a collaboration unit, the collaboration unit including an editing unit, an output generation unit, and a network interface unit, the computer-readable program including computer executable instructions for collaborative handling of a music contribution in accordance with the following: receiving a music contribution at a portal, the music contribution comprising a set of music elements and the portal being accessible over the network; and generating music output at the portal relating to at least a portion of the music contribution and in response to at least one collaboration request received at the portal over the network; wherein the at least one collaboration request relates to the set of music elements; and wherein at least one music element of the set of music elements is generated by deconstructing at least a portion of the music contribution. 21. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17 , further comprising: receiving the music contribution at the portal, the music contribution comprising an audio signal; and deconstructing the audio signal to generate at least a portion of the set of music elements.

14. A system for testing a vulnerability of a web site, comprising: a processor; and a non-transitory computer readable medium having instructions embedded therein, the instructions executable by a processor and configured to: receive a first set of addresses, identify a second set of addresses by analyzing the first set of web pages located at the first set of addresses, and identify a third set of addresses by analyzing a first set of document object models (DOMs) associated with the first set of web pages and a second set of web pages located at the second set of addresses; probe a third set of web pages for presence of a set of vulnerabilities using a document object model (DOM) analysis script to analyze a second set of document object models (DOMs) associated with the third set of web pages as a set of attack vectors is applied to the third set of web pages, and determine presence of the set of vulnerabilities for the third set of web pages based on a result from the probing, wherein the third set of web pages is located at the first, second, and third sets of addresses, wherein the DOM analysis script is inserted into the third set of web pages, and wherein the attack vectors are designed to exploit a vulnerability of a web page.

14. A system for testing a vulnerability of a web site, comprising: a processor; and a non-transitory computer readable medium having instructions embedded therein, the instructions executable by a processor and configured to: receive a first set of addresses, identify a second set of addresses by analyzing the first set of web pages located at the first set of addresses, and identify a third set of addresses by analyzing a first set of document object models (DOMs) associated with the first set of web pages and a second set of web pages located at the second set of addresses; probe a third set of web pages for presence of a set of vulnerabilities using a document object model (DOM) analysis script to analyze a second set of document object models (DOMs) associated with the third set of web pages as a set of attack vectors is applied to the third set of web pages, and determine presence of the set of vulnerabilities for the third set of web pages based on a result from the probing, wherein the third set of web pages is located at the first, second, and third sets of addresses, wherein the DOM analysis script is inserted into the third set of web pages, and wherein the attack vectors are designed to exploit a vulnerability of a web page. 19. The system of claim 14 , wherein the DOM analysis script is written in a specific scripting language, and the DOM analysis script overwrites an operation native to the specific scripting language such that inspection of a function call, defined using the specific scripting language, is enabled.

1. A method of training an information extraction system to extract information from a natural language input, comprising: initializing a structured language model with syntactically annotated training data, the annotated training data including a parse tree for a sentence having syntactic labels comprising a frame label indicating an overall action being referred to by the sentence and slot labels identifying attributes of the action; training the structured language model by generating parses with the initialized structured language model using annotated training data that has semantic constituent labels with semantic constituent boundaries identified, wherein the structured language model is trained as a match constrained parser which generates a set of syntactic parses for a given word string that all match the constituent boundaries specified by the semantic parse, by determining whether unlabeled constituents that define the semantic parse are included in a set of constituents that define the syntactic parse, wherein any parses that do not match the constituent boundaries are discarded; replacing the syntactic labels in the parse tree with joint syntactic and semantic labels based on the generated parses excluding the discarded parses; and retraining the structured language model in which the structured language model generates parses that are constrained to identically match the semantic constituent labels of the joint syntactic and semantic labels and constrained to match all of the semantic constituent boundaries.

1. A method of training an information extraction system to extract information from a natural language input, comprising: initializing a structured language model with syntactically annotated training data, the annotated training data including a parse tree for a sentence having syntactic labels comprising a frame label indicating an overall action being referred to by the sentence and slot labels identifying attributes of the action; training the structured language model by generating parses with the initialized structured language model using annotated training data that has semantic constituent labels with semantic constituent boundaries identified, wherein the structured language model is trained as a match constrained parser which generates a set of syntactic parses for a given word string that all match the constituent boundaries specified by the semantic parse, by determining whether unlabeled constituents that define the semantic parse are included in a set of constituents that define the syntactic parse, wherein any parses that do not match the constituent boundaries are discarded; replacing the syntactic labels in the parse tree with joint syntactic and semantic labels based on the generated parses excluding the discarded parses; and retraining the structured language model in which the structured language model generates parses that are constrained to identically match the semantic constituent labels of the joint syntactic and semantic labels and constrained to match all of the semantic constituent boundaries. 4. The method of claim 1 wherein the syntactically annotated training data includes parts-of-speech labels; and wherein a portion of the parses are discarded based on a violation of a structured language model schema.

10. A method of providing language translation between first and second communication terminals, the method comprising: establishing communication between the first and second communication terminals; receiving a signal representing speech in a first human language from the first communication terminal, wherein the signal comprises features extracted according to a parametric model that is different than that used by the first communication terminal when operating in a non-language translation mode; mapping the signal to machine-readable intermediate data indicative of sounds in the first human language in a language recognition unit; translating the machine-readable intermediate data indicative of sounds in the first human language to further machine-readable intermediate data indicative of sounds in a second human language; generating a translated signal representing speech and/or text in the second human language, which is different from the first human language, in response to the further intermediate data in a language translation unit, the speech and/or text represented by the translated signal having a meaning corresponding to that of the speech represented by the received signal; and providing the translated signal to the second communication terminal, the method further comprising: providing a request to the first communication terminal to use the parametric model to generate the signal representing speech in the first human language, wherein the signal representing speech in the first human language is received from the first communication terminal in response to the request to provide automatic capability negotiation between a language translation device and the first communication terminal.

10. A method of providing language translation between first and second communication terminals, the method comprising: establishing communication between the first and second communication terminals; receiving a signal representing speech in a first human language from the first communication terminal, wherein the signal comprises features extracted according to a parametric model that is different than that used by the first communication terminal when operating in a non-language translation mode; mapping the signal to machine-readable intermediate data indicative of sounds in the first human language in a language recognition unit; translating the machine-readable intermediate data indicative of sounds in the first human language to further machine-readable intermediate data indicative of sounds in a second human language; generating a translated signal representing speech and/or text in the second human language, which is different from the first human language, in response to the further intermediate data in a language translation unit, the speech and/or text represented by the translated signal having a meaning corresponding to that of the speech represented by the received signal; and providing the translated signal to the second communication terminal, the method further comprising: providing a request to the first communication terminal to use the parametric model to generate the signal representing speech in the first human language, wherein the signal representing speech in the first human language is received from the first communication terminal in response to the request to provide automatic capability negotiation between a language translation device and the first communication terminal. 16. The method of claim 10 , wherein establishing the communication between the first and second communication terminals comprises: receiving, from the first communication terminal, a translation service request including an identification of the second communication terminal; transmitting an invitation to the second communication terminal responsive to the translation service request; receiving, from the second communication terminal, an acceptance in response to the invitation; and establishing the communication between the first and second communication terminals in response to the acceptance.

1. A computer-implemented method performed by a data processing apparatus, the method comprising: selecting one or more query pairs of queries from user sessions, each query pair being a first query and a second query that were submitted separately during a search session with up to a maximum number of intervening queries between the first query and the second query, each first and second query including at least one term; for each query pair: selecting one or more term pairs from the query pair, each term pair being a first term in the first query and a second term in the second query; and determining a co-occurrence value for each selected term pair, wherein the co-occurrence value is based at least in part on terms included in a first query that are also included in a second query; aggregating the co-occurrence values determined for each selected term pair over all selected query pairs; for each unique term pair of the selected term pairs, determining a probability that the unique term pair co-occurs; determining a transition cost based on the probability that the unique term pair co-occurs and an edit distance indicating similarity between the first term and the second term, the transition cost indicative of a cost of transitioning from the first term in the first query to the second term in the second query; normalizing the transition cost; and storing the normalized transition cost in a cost-matrix.

1. A computer-implemented method performed by a data processing apparatus, the method comprising: selecting one or more query pairs of queries from user sessions, each query pair being a first query and a second query that were submitted separately during a search session with up to a maximum number of intervening queries between the first query and the second query, each first and second query including at least one term; for each query pair: selecting one or more term pairs from the query pair, each term pair being a first term in the first query and a second term in the second query; and determining a co-occurrence value for each selected term pair, wherein the co-occurrence value is based at least in part on terms included in a first query that are also included in a second query; aggregating the co-occurrence values determined for each selected term pair over all selected query pairs; for each unique term pair of the selected term pairs, determining a probability that the unique term pair co-occurs; determining a transition cost based on the probability that the unique term pair co-occurs and an edit distance indicating similarity between the first term and the second term, the transition cost indicative of a cost of transitioning from the first term in the first query to the second term in the second query; normalizing the transition cost; and storing the normalized transition cost in a cost-matrix. 4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first query and the second query are consecutive.

8. A computer-implemented system comprising: a processor; and a memory that comprises a plurality of components that are executable by the processor, the components comprising: a receiver component that receives a pretrained deep belief network (DBN), wherein the DBN comprises a plurality of hidden layers, weights between the hidden layers, a linear conditional random field (CRF) that comprises output units that each represent possible output states, transition probabilities between output units, and language model scores, the transition probabilities representative of probabilities of transitioning between output states represented by the output units, each output state being one of a phone or senone; and a trainer component that jointly optimizes weights of the pretrained DBN, the transition probabilities of the pretrained DBN, and language model scores of the pretrained DBN based upon a set of training data.

8. A computer-implemented system comprising: a processor; and a memory that comprises a plurality of components that are executable by the processor, the components comprising: a receiver component that receives a pretrained deep belief network (DBN), wherein the DBN comprises a plurality of hidden layers, weights between the hidden layers, a linear conditional random field (CRF) that comprises output units that each represent possible output states, transition probabilities between output units, and language model scores, the transition probabilities representative of probabilities of transitioning between output states represented by the output units, each output state being one of a phone or senone; and a trainer component that jointly optimizes weights of the pretrained DBN, the transition probabilities of the pretrained DBN, and language model scores of the pretrained DBN based upon a set of training data. 13. The system of claim 8 , wherein the trainer component determines a conditional probability of a full-sequence of output states of the DBN in connection with jointly optimizing the weights, transition probabilities, and language model scores.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein each phoneme is represented by a triphone.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein each phoneme is represented by a triphone. 15. The method of claim 14 further comprising the step of: generating a series of vector quantization values representative of the speech input.

4. A computer-implemented method for aligning content, the computer-implemented method comprising: as implemented by one or more computing devices configured with specific computer-executable instructions, obtaining a textual transcription of an item of content comprising audio content; identifying a portion of the textual transcription that includes text also included in a portion of a companion item of textual content, wherein the textual content includes body text and matter other than body text; determining a level of correlation between words in the portion of the companion item of textual content and words in the portion of the textual transcription; determining that the level of correlation satisfies a threshold value; in response to determining that the level of correlation satisfies a threshold value, identifying the portion of the companion item of textual content as including body text; identifying a second portion of the companion item of textual content that does not satisfy the threshold value with respect to any portion of the textual transcription; determining that the second portion of the companion item of textual content that does not satisfy the threshold value is front matter based at least in part on a determination that the second portion of the companion item of textual content that does not satisfy the threshold value appears within the companion item of textual content prior to an earliest portion of the companion item of textual content for which a corresponding portion of the audio content is identified; and generating content synchronization information that indicates (a) portions of the audio content that correspond to body text of the companion item of textual content and (b) further indicates that the matter other than body text in the textual content does not correspond to any portion of the audio content, wherein the matter other than body text includes the second portion of the companion item of textual content determined to be front matter, wherein the content synchronization information indicates that the body text included in the portion of the companion item of textual content should be presented in synchronization with a portion of the audio content that corresponds to the body text included in the portion of the textual transcription.

4. A computer-implemented method for aligning content, the computer-implemented method comprising: as implemented by one or more computing devices configured with specific computer-executable instructions, obtaining a textual transcription of an item of content comprising audio content; identifying a portion of the textual transcription that includes text also included in a portion of a companion item of textual content, wherein the textual content includes body text and matter other than body text; determining a level of correlation between words in the portion of the companion item of textual content and words in the portion of the textual transcription; determining that the level of correlation satisfies a threshold value; in response to determining that the level of correlation satisfies a threshold value, identifying the portion of the companion item of textual content as including body text; identifying a second portion of the companion item of textual content that does not satisfy the threshold value with respect to any portion of the textual transcription; determining that the second portion of the companion item of textual content that does not satisfy the threshold value is front matter based at least in part on a determination that the second portion of the companion item of textual content that does not satisfy the threshold value appears within the companion item of textual content prior to an earliest portion of the companion item of textual content for which a corresponding portion of the audio content is identified; and generating content synchronization information that indicates (a) portions of the audio content that correspond to body text of the companion item of textual content and (b) further indicates that the matter other than body text in the textual content does not correspond to any portion of the audio content, wherein the matter other than body text includes the second portion of the companion item of textual content determined to be front matter, wherein the content synchronization information indicates that the body text included in the portion of the companion item of textual content should be presented in synchronization with a portion of the audio content that corresponds to the body text included in the portion of the textual transcription. 5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 , wherein obtaining the textual transcription comprises generating the textual transcription from the audio content.

14. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium, having instructions stored therein, which when executed, cause a processing device to perform operations comprising: identifying a new media clip provided by a first user; providing a feature vector associated with the new media clip to a first classifier, wherein the feature vector associated with the new media clip includes a plurality of values representing one or more features extracted from content of the new media clip, wherein the first classifier was trained using a plurality of features vectors of a plurality of existing media clips to produce suggested semantic tags for respective existing media clips; obtaining, by processing device, a first set of semantic tags for the new media clip from the first classifier; providing, by the processing device, the first set of semantic tags for the new media clip to a second classifier that was trained using input-output pairs, wherein an input of each input-output pair includes a subset of the suggested semantic tags that was previously produced by the first classifier and suggested to a second user for one of the respective existing clips, and wherein an output of the input-output pair includes one or more suggested semantic tags selected by the second user from the subset of the suggested semantic tags for the one of the respective existing clips; obtaining, by the computer system, a second set of semantic tags for the new media clip from the second classifier; and suggesting to the first user, by the computer system, the second set of semantic tags for the new media clip.

14. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium, having instructions stored therein, which when executed, cause a processing device to perform operations comprising: identifying a new media clip provided by a first user; providing a feature vector associated with the new media clip to a first classifier, wherein the feature vector associated with the new media clip includes a plurality of values representing one or more features extracted from content of the new media clip, wherein the first classifier was trained using a plurality of features vectors of a plurality of existing media clips to produce suggested semantic tags for respective existing media clips; obtaining, by processing device, a first set of semantic tags for the new media clip from the first classifier; providing, by the processing device, the first set of semantic tags for the new media clip to a second classifier that was trained using input-output pairs, wherein an input of each input-output pair includes a subset of the suggested semantic tags that was previously produced by the first classifier and suggested to a second user for one of the respective existing clips, and wherein an output of the input-output pair includes one or more suggested semantic tags selected by the second user from the subset of the suggested semantic tags for the one of the respective existing clips; obtaining, by the computer system, a second set of semantic tags for the new media clip from the second classifier; and suggesting to the first user, by the computer system, the second set of semantic tags for the new media clip. 16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 14 , wherein the subset of semantic tags suggested to the second user was generated by running the first classifier on a feature vector associated with the respective media clip.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein if a result ID indentifying the lowest common leaf of the instance in the step result table and a result ID identifying the instance in the temporary step table are different no further step is taken and wherein if the result ID identifying the lowest common leaf of the instance in the step result table and the result ID identifying the instance in the temporary step table are the same, a new instance is created, by at least one data processor, and added, by at least one data processor, to the step result table.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein if a result ID indentifying the lowest common leaf of the instance in the step result table and a result ID identifying the instance in the temporary step table are different no further step is taken and wherein if the result ID identifying the lowest common leaf of the instance in the step result table and the result ID identifying the instance in the temporary step table are the same, a new instance is created, by at least one data processor, and added, by at least one data processor, to the step result table. 12. The system of claim 10 , wherein the information identifying the real data comprises a result ID uniquely identifying the real data corresponding to each of the identified instances of the entities.

1. A computer implemented method of modifying hardware description language (HDL) statements, comprising the steps of: assigning tokens for each element of an original HDL description; implementing said original HDL description as a block diagram from mappings of said tokens to structural components; modifying said original HDL description to generate a modified HDL description; detecting elements of said modified HDL description that changed and elements of said modified HDL description that stay the same; mapping said elements that changed to said block diagram; and maintaining said elements that stayed the same.

1. A computer implemented method of modifying hardware description language (HDL) statements, comprising the steps of: assigning tokens for each element of an original HDL description; implementing said original HDL description as a block diagram from mappings of said tokens to structural components; modifying said original HDL description to generate a modified HDL description; detecting elements of said modified HDL description that changed and elements of said modified HDL description that stay the same; mapping said elements that changed to said block diagram; and maintaining said elements that stayed the same. 2. The computer implemented method of claim 1 further including the step of deleting prior mappings of tokens of said modified HDL description that have been changed.

9. An information retrieval system, comprising: one or more processors configured to: pre-process a set of historical query information, comprising: determining a plurality of semantic patterns based on a plurality of queries in the set of historical query information, wherein the determining of the plurality of semantic patterns comprises: determining whether a number of times a sematic pattern appears in the set of historical query information exceeds a predetermined threshold; and in the event that a number of times a sematic pattern appears in the set of historical query information exceeds the predetermined threshold, selecting the semantic pattern; establishing correspondence relationships between the plurality of semantic patterns and a plurality of filtering and ranking operations, wherein establishing correspondence relationships comprises: determining user behaviors corresponding to the plurality of semantic patterns based on the set of historical query information; determining a plurality of user intention attributes of the plurality of semantic patterns based on the user behaviors, wherein the plurality of user intention attributes include a degree of ambiguity attribute, an authority requirement attribute, a time efficiency requirement attribute, a location requirement attribute, a volume attribute, or any combination thereof; determining the plurality of filtering and ranking operations based on the plurality of user intention attributes; and storing correspondence relationships between the plurality of filtering and ranking operations and semantic patterns based on the user behavior sets and user intention attributes; and process a user query made by a user, comprising: receiving the user query; retrieving a plurality of results in response to the user query; determining a semantic pattern that corresponds to the user query; determining a set of filtering and ranking operations that corresponds to the semantic pattern based on the correspondence relationships that are established during the pre-processing; and performing the set of filtering and ranking operations on the plurality of results to generate a set of filtered and ranked results; and one or more memories coupled to the processors, configured to provide the processors with instructions.

9. An information retrieval system, comprising: one or more processors configured to: pre-process a set of historical query information, comprising: determining a plurality of semantic patterns based on a plurality of queries in the set of historical query information, wherein the determining of the plurality of semantic patterns comprises: determining whether a number of times a sematic pattern appears in the set of historical query information exceeds a predetermined threshold; and in the event that a number of times a sematic pattern appears in the set of historical query information exceeds the predetermined threshold, selecting the semantic pattern; establishing correspondence relationships between the plurality of semantic patterns and a plurality of filtering and ranking operations, wherein establishing correspondence relationships comprises: determining user behaviors corresponding to the plurality of semantic patterns based on the set of historical query information; determining a plurality of user intention attributes of the plurality of semantic patterns based on the user behaviors, wherein the plurality of user intention attributes include a degree of ambiguity attribute, an authority requirement attribute, a time efficiency requirement attribute, a location requirement attribute, a volume attribute, or any combination thereof; determining the plurality of filtering and ranking operations based on the plurality of user intention attributes; and storing correspondence relationships between the plurality of filtering and ranking operations and semantic patterns based on the user behavior sets and user intention attributes; and process a user query made by a user, comprising: receiving the user query; retrieving a plurality of results in response to the user query; determining a semantic pattern that corresponds to the user query; determining a set of filtering and ranking operations that corresponds to the semantic pattern based on the correspondence relationships that are established during the pre-processing; and performing the set of filtering and ranking operations on the plurality of results to generate a set of filtered and ranked results; and one or more memories coupled to the processors, configured to provide the processors with instructions. 12. The system of claim 9 , wherein the plurality of user intention attributes include a degree of ambiguity attribute.

1. A method for processing video data, comprising: detecting human faces in a plurality of video frames in said video data using a processor; for at least one detected human face, identifying a face-specific set of video frames using said processor, irrespective of whether said detected human face is present in said face-specific set of video frames in a substantially temporally continuous manner; grouping video frames in said face-specific set of video frames into a plurality of face tracks using said processor, wherein each face track contains corresponding one or more video frames having at least a substantial temporal continuity therebetween; using said processor, merging two or more of said plurality of face tracks that are disjoint in time using a face recognition method based on a Bayesian Network based classifier, wherein the Bayesian Network based classifier is constructed based on a ratio of a plurality of Bayesian networks and each of said Bayesian networks is a probability distribution representation derived from dependencies among video input variables that statistically depend upon each other; and enabling a user to view on an electronic display face-specific video segments of said at least one detected human face in said video data based on said merging of temporally disjoint face tracks.

1. A method for processing video data, comprising: detecting human faces in a plurality of video frames in said video data using a processor; for at least one detected human face, identifying a face-specific set of video frames using said processor, irrespective of whether said detected human face is present in said face-specific set of video frames in a substantially temporally continuous manner; grouping video frames in said face-specific set of video frames into a plurality of face tracks using said processor, wherein each face track contains corresponding one or more video frames having at least a substantial temporal continuity therebetween; using said processor, merging two or more of said plurality of face tracks that are disjoint in time using a face recognition method based on a Bayesian Network based classifier, wherein the Bayesian Network based classifier is constructed based on a ratio of a plurality of Bayesian networks and each of said Bayesian networks is a probability distribution representation derived from dependencies among video input variables that statistically depend upon each other; and enabling a user to view on an electronic display face-specific video segments of said at least one detected human face in said video data based on said merging of temporally disjoint face tracks. 11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: enabling said user to input a textual description of said face-specific video segments associated with said at least one detected human face using said processor.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising computing, by the computing device, a measure of keyword similarity for the keyword, based at least on the one or more keyword characterizations for use as proxies for the keyword.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising computing, by the computing device, a measure of keyword similarity for the keyword, based at least on the one or more keyword characterizations for use as proxies for the keyword. 8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the measure of keyword similarity is computed using a Bayesian classifier, wherein the keyword or one of the one or more keyword characterizations is treated as a document, and another keyword or one of the one or more keyword characterizations is treated as a category.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein, for the hardware area, the priority factor for each kind of resource R 1 , . . . Rn that is not a clock oscillator is of the form: PF ⁡ ( Ri ) = Δ ⁢ ⁢ N Ri · K Ri N Ri and wherein, for the hardware area, the priority factor function of resource Ri that is a clock oscillator is of the form: Δ ⁢ ⁢ A ⁡ ( R clk ) N Rclk .

21. The method of claim 20 wherein, for the hardware area, the priority factor for each kind of resource R 1 , . . . Rn that is not a clock oscillator is of the form: PF ⁡ ( Ri ) = Δ ⁢ ⁢ N Ri · K Ri N Ri and wherein, for the hardware area, the priority factor function of resource Ri that is a clock oscillator is of the form: Δ ⁢ ⁢ A ⁡ ( R clk ) N Rclk . 26. The method of claim 21 further comprising producing a Register Transfer Level data path circuit using the multiplexing scheme.

1. A method for messaging, the method comprising: receiving, by one or more processors, proxy recipient information for a target recipient; detecting, by one or more processors, that a message is being drafted to the target recipient; determining, by one or more processors, whether the target recipient is currently available without receiving a message from the target recipient; and in response to determining that the target recipient is currently unavailable, suggesting by one or more processors, a proxy recipient for the target recipient to a user.

1. A method for messaging, the method comprising: receiving, by one or more processors, proxy recipient information for a target recipient; detecting, by one or more processors, that a message is being drafted to the target recipient; determining, by one or more processors, whether the target recipient is currently available without receiving a message from the target recipient; and in response to determining that the target recipient is currently unavailable, suggesting by one or more processors, a proxy recipient for the target recipient to a user. 4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the proxy recipient information is automatically determined by analyzing a prior message history.

1. A computer-implemented method of determining a degree of association between a search string and an item, the computer-implemented method comprising: as implemented by one or more computing devices configured with specific executable instructions, retrieving a user event history sequence that identifies a number of user actions that occurred during user interaction with an electronic repository, wherein the user event history sequence comprises a search event in which the user submitted a request to search items in the electronic repository; identifying a search string submitted by the user in association with the search event; identifying a subsequent item selection event in the user event history sequence, wherein the subsequent item selection event corresponds to a selection by the user of an item in the electronic repository, said subsequent item selection event occurring after the search event; determining a number of intervening events in the user event history sequence that each occur after the search event and before the subsequent item selection event; and calculating a relationship value representing a probability that a user who submits the search string will subsequently select the item, wherein the relationship value is calculated based at least in part on the determined number of intervening events that occur after the search event and before the subsequent item selection event in the user event history sequence.

1. A computer-implemented method of determining a degree of association between a search string and an item, the computer-implemented method comprising: as implemented by one or more computing devices configured with specific executable instructions, retrieving a user event history sequence that identifies a number of user actions that occurred during user interaction with an electronic repository, wherein the user event history sequence comprises a search event in which the user submitted a request to search items in the electronic repository; identifying a search string submitted by the user in association with the search event; identifying a subsequent item selection event in the user event history sequence, wherein the subsequent item selection event corresponds to a selection by the user of an item in the electronic repository, said subsequent item selection event occurring after the search event; determining a number of intervening events in the user event history sequence that each occur after the search event and before the subsequent item selection event; and calculating a relationship value representing a probability that a user who submits the search string will subsequently select the item, wherein the relationship value is calculated based at least in part on the determined number of intervening events that occur after the search event and before the subsequent item selection event in the user event history sequence. 4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the relationship value is calculated based at least in part on a type of intervening event that occurred after the search event and before the subsequent item selection event.

16. A method for providing search results comprising the steps of: providing sets of data comprising: (a) one or more search engine identifiers of a plurality of search engine identifiers, (b) one or more search engine uniform resource locators of a plurality of search engine uniform resource locators, (c) one or more second placeholder patterns of a plurality of second placeholder patterns, (d) one or more query term separators of a plurality of query term separators, and wherein said search engine identifier of a plurality of search engine identifiers represents a search engine of a plurality of search engines, and wherein said search engine identifier of a plurality of search engines identifiers is linked to components of said sets of data including: (i) said search engine uniform resource locator of a plurality of search engine uniform resource locators, (ii) said second placeholder pattern of a plurality of second placeholder patterns, and (iii) said query term separator of a plurality of query term separators, and wherein said search engine uniform resource locator of a plurality of search engine uniform resource locators includes: (a). a scheme of a plurality of schemes, (b). a host of a plurality of hosts, (c). a path of a plurality of paths, (d). a query of a plurality of queries comprising: a first placeholder pattern of a plurality of first placeholder patterns representing a value of a plurality of values in a name value pair of a plurality of name value pairs, and wherein said second placeholder pattern of a plurality of second placeholder patterns is identical to said first placeholder pattern of a plurality of first placeholder patterns; loading said sets of data; receiving voiced utterances from a user of a plurality of users; converting said voiced utterances into a first data string; matching said first data string to said sets of data, identifying a corresponding said search engine identifier of a plurality of search engine identifiers; retrieving data linked to matched said search engine identifier of a plurality of search engine identifiers; storing retrieved data linked to said matched search engine identifier of a plurality of search engine identifiers in variables; signaling said user of a plurality of users that said first data string matched a corresponding said search engine identifier of a plurality of search engine identifiers; receiving a second set of voiced utterances from said user of a plurality of users specifying a query term to be searched for; converting said second set of voiced utterances into a second data string; modifying said second data string by replacing any spaces in said second data string with retrieved said query term separator linked to said search engine identifier of a plurality of search engine identifiers, creating a modified second data string; replacing said first placeholder pattern of a plurality of placeholder patterns in retrieved said search engine uniform resource locator of a plurality of search engine uniform resource locators with said modified second data string creating a modified search engine uniform resource locator; opening said modified search engine uniform resource locator through a uniform resource locator transmission method of a plurality of uniform resource locator transmission methods; and providing results of the search system.

16. A method for providing search results comprising the steps of: providing sets of data comprising: (a) one or more search engine identifiers of a plurality of search engine identifiers, (b) one or more search engine uniform resource locators of a plurality of search engine uniform resource locators, (c) one or more second placeholder patterns of a plurality of second placeholder patterns, (d) one or more query term separators of a plurality of query term separators, and wherein said search engine identifier of a plurality of search engine identifiers represents a search engine of a plurality of search engines, and wherein said search engine identifier of a plurality of search engines identifiers is linked to components of said sets of data including: (i) said search engine uniform resource locator of a plurality of search engine uniform resource locators, (ii) said second placeholder pattern of a plurality of second placeholder patterns, and (iii) said query term separator of a plurality of query term separators, and wherein said search engine uniform resource locator of a plurality of search engine uniform resource locators includes: (a). a scheme of a plurality of schemes, (b). a host of a plurality of hosts, (c). a path of a plurality of paths, (d). a query of a plurality of queries comprising: a first placeholder pattern of a plurality of first placeholder patterns representing a value of a plurality of values in a name value pair of a plurality of name value pairs, and wherein said second placeholder pattern of a plurality of second placeholder patterns is identical to said first placeholder pattern of a plurality of first placeholder patterns; loading said sets of data; receiving voiced utterances from a user of a plurality of users; converting said voiced utterances into a first data string; matching said first data string to said sets of data, identifying a corresponding said search engine identifier of a plurality of search engine identifiers; retrieving data linked to matched said search engine identifier of a plurality of search engine identifiers; storing retrieved data linked to said matched search engine identifier of a plurality of search engine identifiers in variables; signaling said user of a plurality of users that said first data string matched a corresponding said search engine identifier of a plurality of search engine identifiers; receiving a second set of voiced utterances from said user of a plurality of users specifying a query term to be searched for; converting said second set of voiced utterances into a second data string; modifying said second data string by replacing any spaces in said second data string with retrieved said query term separator linked to said search engine identifier of a plurality of search engine identifiers, creating a modified second data string; replacing said first placeholder pattern of a plurality of placeholder patterns in retrieved said search engine uniform resource locator of a plurality of search engine uniform resource locators with said modified second data string creating a modified search engine uniform resource locator; opening said modified search engine uniform resource locator through a uniform resource locator transmission method of a plurality of uniform resource locator transmission methods; and providing results of the search system. 24. The method of claim 16 wherein the application is programmed using a cross platform programming language.

1. A method for applying a model for an interactive voice response system comprising: a) receiving a training data set at a first computing unit; b) sorting classes of the training data set by frequency distribution at the first computing unit; c) distributing the sorted classes as a plurality of S groups across a plurality of S processors using a round robin partition, wherein each group includes classes different from classes in each other group, and each group is distributed to a different processor of the plurality of S processors, each of the S processors being located within a different computing unit; d) for each processor, processing the distributed group of sorted classes to produce learning data; e) for each processor, distributing the learning data to each of the other processors; f) merging results of the processing into a model at a second computing unit; and g) outputting the model to cache operatively connected to the second computing unit; and h) applying the model to an interactive voice response system.

1. A method for applying a model for an interactive voice response system comprising: a) receiving a training data set at a first computing unit; b) sorting classes of the training data set by frequency distribution at the first computing unit; c) distributing the sorted classes as a plurality of S groups across a plurality of S processors using a round robin partition, wherein each group includes classes different from classes in each other group, and each group is distributed to a different processor of the plurality of S processors, each of the S processors being located within a different computing unit; d) for each processor, processing the distributed group of sorted classes to produce learning data; e) for each processor, distributing the learning data to each of the other processors; f) merging results of the processing into a model at a second computing unit; and g) outputting the model to cache operatively connected to the second computing unit; and h) applying the model to an interactive voice response system. 5. The method of claim 1 , wherein prior to b) the method further comprises transposing the training data set.

95. The system of claim 90 , wherein the region comprises a two-dimensional area.

95. The system of claim 90 , wherein the region comprises a two-dimensional area. 96. The system of claim 95 , wherein the region further comprises a secondary input value.

6. The method of claim 1 , comprising: identifying an environmental context associated with receiving the audio data corresponding to the utterance by the user of the predefined hotword; wherein using the audio data in determining whether audio data corresponding to subsequently received utterances by the user of the predefined hotword are to be accepted or rejected comprises using the environmental context in determining whether the audio data corresponding to the subsequently received utterances by the user of the predefined hotword are to be accepted or rejected.

6. The method of claim 1 , comprising: identifying an environmental context associated with receiving the audio data corresponding to the utterance by the user of the predefined hotword; wherein using the audio data in determining whether audio data corresponding to subsequently received utterances by the user of the predefined hotword are to be accepted or rejected comprises using the environmental context in determining whether the audio data corresponding to the subsequently received utterances by the user of the predefined hotword are to be accepted or rejected. 7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the environmental context specifies a loudness of the utterance, an amount of noise detected immediately preceding receipt of the utterance, or signal-to-noise ratio of a loudness of an audio signal that encodes the utterance.

10. The computer program product of claim 9 , the steps further comprising: creating lookups for the one or more program variables; and calculating field size offsets for the one or more program variables.

10. The computer program product of claim 9 , the steps further comprising: creating lookups for the one or more program variables; and calculating field size offsets for the one or more program variables. 12. The computer program product of claim 10 , the steps further comprising; modifying the selection of one or more program variables; and refreshing a calculation of the field size offsets for the one or more program variables.

1. A method of information retrieval comprising: obtaining a content of a content block; representing the content as a content vector; receiving a query; representing the query as a query vector; determining a hierarchical sliding similarity and dissimilarity for matching the content vector and the query vector, and wherein determining a hierarchical sliding similarity for matching the content vector and the query vector: determining a similarity measure and a dissimilarity measure for each content vector element with respect to the query vector, wherein each content vector element is provided a unique sub-similarity similarity measure and a unique sub-dissimilarity measure; for each unique sub-similarity similarity measure and each unique sub-dissimilarity measure of each content vector element, identifying a strong match over a sliding window of sub-terms of each content vector element, wherein the strong match comprises a strong similarity match and a strong dissimilarity match; computing a sub-similarity score and a sub-dissimilarity score for each level of the convent vector element; determining a final similarity score as a combination of the strong match of some sub-vectors at different levels; and determining a final dissimilarity score as a combination of the strong match of some sub-vectors at different levels.

1. A method of information retrieval comprising: obtaining a content of a content block; representing the content as a content vector; receiving a query; representing the query as a query vector; determining a hierarchical sliding similarity and dissimilarity for matching the content vector and the query vector, and wherein determining a hierarchical sliding similarity for matching the content vector and the query vector: determining a similarity measure and a dissimilarity measure for each content vector element with respect to the query vector, wherein each content vector element is provided a unique sub-similarity similarity measure and a unique sub-dissimilarity measure; for each unique sub-similarity similarity measure and each unique sub-dissimilarity measure of each content vector element, identifying a strong match over a sliding window of sub-terms of each content vector element, wherein the strong match comprises a strong similarity match and a strong dissimilarity match; computing a sub-similarity score and a sub-dissimilarity score for each level of the convent vector element; determining a final similarity score as a combination of the strong match of some sub-vectors at different levels; and determining a final dissimilarity score as a combination of the strong match of some sub-vectors at different levels. 8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the dissimilarity measure is computed as a compliment of a partial similarity between the query vector and the content vector and using a weighted contextual information derived from the query.

10. A system for converting and transmitting audio information, comprising: an audio input receiving unit that receives spoken audio input; a first conversion unit that converts the received spoken audio input into audio digital data that is representative of the received spoken audio input; an audio digital data packet generation unit that generates a stream of audio digital data packets that contain the audio digital data; a textual representation conversion unit that generates a textual representation of the received spoken audio input; a textual digital data packet generation unit that generates a stream of textual digital data packets that contain the generated textual representation of the received spoken audio input; and a transmission unit that transmits the stream of audio digital data packets and the stream of textual digital data packets to a destination device; wherein at least one of the audio digital data packets and/or the textual digital data packets include information that indicates which audio digital data packets and digital data packets contain data relating to the same portions of the received spoken audio input.

10. A system for converting and transmitting audio information, comprising: an audio input receiving unit that receives spoken audio input; a first conversion unit that converts the received spoken audio input into audio digital data that is representative of the received spoken audio input; an audio digital data packet generation unit that generates a stream of audio digital data packets that contain the audio digital data; a textual representation conversion unit that generates a textual representation of the received spoken audio input; a textual digital data packet generation unit that generates a stream of textual digital data packets that contain the generated textual representation of the received spoken audio input; and a transmission unit that transmits the stream of audio digital data packets and the stream of textual digital data packets to a destination device; wherein at least one of the audio digital data packets and/or the textual digital data packets include information that indicates which audio digital data packets and digital data packets contain data relating to the same portions of the received spoken audio input. 12. The system of claim 10 , wherein the textual representation conversion unit extracts phonemes from the received spoken audio input and generates a textual representation of the extracted phonemes.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein evaluating the second document comprises modifying a third value associated with the second parameter included in the second document based on the second value associated with the first parameter.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein evaluating the second document comprises modifying a third value associated with the second parameter included in the second document based on the second value associated with the first parameter. 4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the second document comprises a top-level document associated with the current workflow, and the new workflow includes only one document corresponding to the second document.

17. The method of claim 12 , where the documents further include web documents.

17. The method of claim 12 , where the documents further include web documents. 22. The method of claim 17 , where the obtained data further includes a link-based value computed for a particular document, of the identified documents.

10. A system for identifying product-related information on a web page, comprising: a first computer having a first computer-readable storage medium containing: a copy of source code for a first web page, one or more first computer programs configured to parse the copy of the source code to identify all text nodes and analyze the text nodes to identify any text nodes that contain product-related information; one or more second computer programs configured to generate vectors describing the locations of the text nodes containing product-related information, analyze one or more of the vectors to identify one or more patterns and generate one or more models that discriminate between text nodes that contain product-related information and text nodes that do not contain product-related information on a second web page; and a user computer coupled to the first computer having a second computer-readable storage medium, wherein the one or more models are transmitted to the second user computer, stored in the second computer-readable medium, and used to identify and extract information about one or more products available for sale on one or more merchant web pages as the web pages are displayed to the user.

10. A system for identifying product-related information on a web page, comprising: a first computer having a first computer-readable storage medium containing: a copy of source code for a first web page, one or more first computer programs configured to parse the copy of the source code to identify all text nodes and analyze the text nodes to identify any text nodes that contain product-related information; one or more second computer programs configured to generate vectors describing the locations of the text nodes containing product-related information, analyze one or more of the vectors to identify one or more patterns and generate one or more models that discriminate between text nodes that contain product-related information and text nodes that do not contain product-related information on a second web page; and a user computer coupled to the first computer having a second computer-readable storage medium, wherein the one or more models are transmitted to the second user computer, stored in the second computer-readable medium, and used to identify and extract information about one or more products available for sale on one or more merchant web pages as the web pages are displayed to the user. 17. The system of claim 10 , wherein the model includes one or more symbolic expressions that represent the pattern of text node locations.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17 , wherein the operations further comprise: generating a score for each of the one or more trained predictive models, where each score represents an estimation of the effectiveness of the respective trained predictive model; and selecting a first trained predictive model from among the one or more trained predictive models based on the generated scores.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17 , wherein the operations further comprise: generating a score for each of the one or more trained predictive models, where each score represents an estimation of the effectiveness of the respective trained predictive model; and selecting a first trained predictive model from among the one or more trained predictive models based on the generated scores. 20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19 , wherein the one or more training data records are received over a network from a client computing system, and wherein the operations further comprise: providing access to the first trained predictive model to the client computing system over the network.

11. A computer readable storage device encoded with a plurality of instructions for execution on at least one processor, the plurality of instructions, when executed on the at least one processor, performing a method of providing transcription of a conference between a plurality of participants of the conference, the method comprising: receiving information over a plurality of transmission channels from the plurality of participants; analyzing the information received at the plurality of reception stages to determine which of the plurality of participants of the conference is speaking during a given time interval based, at least in part, on identifying which of the plurality of reception stages is receiving speech information; selecting one of the plurality of transmission channels corresponding to the reception stage identified as receiving speech information as an in-use channel; determining channel information including at least one transmission parameter that identifies the in-use channel; extracting at least one feature vector from the speech information based, at least in part, on the channel information; performing acoustic segmentation of the speech information to generate acoustic segmentation information indicating at least one segment identified in the speech information based, at least in part, on the channel information and the at least one feature vector, the acoustic segmentation information including a label for the at least one segment of the speech information indicating whether the at least one segment is associated with speech, a pause in speech or non-speech; determining a language of the speech information based, at least in part, on the channel information, the at least one feature vector and the acoustic segmentation information; and generating text information corresponding to words recognized in the speech information based, at least in part, on the channel information, the at least one feature vector, the acoustic segmentation information and the language of the speech information.

11. A computer readable storage device encoded with a plurality of instructions for execution on at least one processor, the plurality of instructions, when executed on the at least one processor, performing a method of providing transcription of a conference between a plurality of participants of the conference, the method comprising: receiving information over a plurality of transmission channels from the plurality of participants; analyzing the information received at the plurality of reception stages to determine which of the plurality of participants of the conference is speaking during a given time interval based, at least in part, on identifying which of the plurality of reception stages is receiving speech information; selecting one of the plurality of transmission channels corresponding to the reception stage identified as receiving speech information as an in-use channel; determining channel information including at least one transmission parameter that identifies the in-use channel; extracting at least one feature vector from the speech information based, at least in part, on the channel information; performing acoustic segmentation of the speech information to generate acoustic segmentation information indicating at least one segment identified in the speech information based, at least in part, on the channel information and the at least one feature vector, the acoustic segmentation information including a label for the at least one segment of the speech information indicating whether the at least one segment is associated with speech, a pause in speech or non-speech; determining a language of the speech information based, at least in part, on the channel information, the at least one feature vector and the acoustic segmentation information; and generating text information corresponding to words recognized in the speech information based, at least in part, on the channel information, the at least one feature vector, the acoustic segmentation information and the language of the speech information. 14. The computer readable storage device of claim 11 , further comprising recognizing at least one key word in the speech information based, at least in part, on the language of the speech information, and providing the text information is based, at least in part, on the at least one key word.

1. A computer-implemented method of restoring an image comprising: receiving, at a processor, a poor quality image; applying the poor quality image to each of a plurality of trained machine learning predictors which are arranged in a cascade architecture, the cascade architecture comprising a plurality of layers connected in series, each layer comprising at least one of the trained machine learning predictors, each internal layer of the cascade architecture being trained using more training data examples than the first layer of the cascade architecture; obtaining from each of the trained machine learning predictors, a restored version of the poor quality image.

1. A computer-implemented method of restoring an image comprising: receiving, at a processor, a poor quality image; applying the poor quality image to each of a plurality of trained machine learning predictors which are arranged in a cascade architecture, the cascade architecture comprising a plurality of layers connected in series, each layer comprising at least one of the trained machine learning predictors, each internal layer of the cascade architecture being trained using more training data examples than the first layer of the cascade architecture; obtaining from each of the trained machine learning predictors, a restored version of the poor quality image. 10. A method as claimed in claim 1 comprising training each of the machine learning predictors using a different training data set.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of mapping the first question to a first database of a plurality of databases based on said question category.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of mapping the first question to a first database of a plurality of databases based on said question category. 12. The method of claim 2 , further comprising the step of identifying at least one of an object and a property within said first question.

23. A system for synchronizing an annotated 3D computer-aided design (CAD) model and a 2D drawing, the system comprising: a communications interface configured to receive an annotated 3D CAD model of a physical part or assembly; and a processing circuit configured to: generate a 2D drawing of the physical part or assembly using the annotated 3D CAD model; add supplemental content to the 2D drawing, wherein the supplemental content is not included in the annotated 3D CAD model; and modify the annotated 3D CAD model to include 2D drawing parameters that include the supplemental content added to the 2D drawing, wherein the 2D drawing parameters provide instructions for reproducing the 2D drawing including the supplemental content, such that the 2D drawing is not saved.

23. A system for synchronizing an annotated 3D computer-aided design (CAD) model and a 2D drawing, the system comprising: a communications interface configured to receive an annotated 3D CAD model of a physical part or assembly; and a processing circuit configured to: generate a 2D drawing of the physical part or assembly using the annotated 3D CAD model; add supplemental content to the 2D drawing, wherein the supplemental content is not included in the annotated 3D CAD model; and modify the annotated 3D CAD model to include 2D drawing parameters that include the supplemental content added to the 2D drawing, wherein the 2D drawing parameters provide instructions for reproducing the 2D drawing including the supplemental content, such that the 2D drawing is not saved. 29. The system of claim 23 , wherein adding the supplemental content to the 2D drawing comprises adding clarifying information comprising at least one of hidden lines, axes, and center lines; wherein modifying the annotated 3D CAD model to include the 2D drawing parameters that include the supplemental content comprises storing the clarifying information as a data element of the annotated 3D model.

23. The method of claim 22 , wherein said invalid element is defined in said prescribed syntax.

23. The method of claim 22 , wherein said invalid element is defined in said prescribed syntax. 24. The method of claim 23 , wherein said syntax is XML schema.

28. A computer implemented system for processing database content, the system comprising: means for parsing one or more documents to identify at least one term based on at least one rule; means for identifying content for the at least one term; and means for displaying the identified content based upon a user interaction with at least a portion of the one or more documents; wherein one or more data objects associated with a term database are received by one or more remote computers for providing a representation of at least a portion of the term database at the one or more remote computers and for linking the identified content with the at least one term; and wherein the one or more data objects contain data associated with one or more terms.

28. A computer implemented system for processing database content, the system comprising: means for parsing one or more documents to identify at least one term based on at least one rule; means for identifying content for the at least one term; and means for displaying the identified content based upon a user interaction with at least a portion of the one or more documents; wherein one or more data objects associated with a term database are received by one or more remote computers for providing a representation of at least a portion of the term database at the one or more remote computers and for linking the identified content with the at least one term; and wherein the one or more data objects contain data associated with one or more terms. 29. The system of claim 28 , wherein the identified content is displayed in response to a selection of the at least one term by a user.