Publications

This list is a summary view for some of the commercial publications I've authored. If you want to see more details, scroll down to drill into specific Articles and Reviews. Not all of the articles I've written are available here but the sample is fairly representative and some of the archives may, hopefully, lead you to useful solutions.

• The Widget Factory - Regular Column, Java Developers Journal, 1998-1999
• Practical Layout Managers - Feature Article, Java Developers Journal, 1998
• Visual Components - Regular Column, JavaPro Magazine, 1999-2001
• The Up Side to Downsizing - Feature Article, JavaPro Magazine, Feb 2001
• Logging Events - Feature Article, JavaPro Magazine, Oct 2000
• Finding a Perfect Match - Feature Article, JavaPro Magazine, Jul 2000
• Object-Relational Mapping - Feature Article, JavaPro Magazine, Jan 2000
• Electronic Mail Merge - Feature Article, JavaPro Magazine, Special Edition
• Searching with Servlets - Feature Article, JavaPro Magazine, Oct 1999
• XML Filtering with Servlets - Feature Article, JavaPro Magazine, Apr 1999
• Dynamic Content with Servlets - Feature Article, JavaPro Magazine, Nov 1998
• Sort Factory for Collections API - Feature Article, JavaPro Magazine, Feb 1999
• Java Bookshelf Roundup - Feature Article, JavaPro Magazine, Dec 1998
• Tracking Progress with Swing - Feature Article, Sun's Swing Connection, 1998
• Working With James (parts 1 & 2) - Feature Article, IBM's DeveloperWorks.com, Jun 2003

There are 7 Patents listed below on which I was a co-author/inventor. You can expand the view for each and read the abstract or follow the link to Google's patent search using the patent publication number. There was an additional petent from the Arcessa period that the current patent holders allowed to lapse and so that one is not listed here.

Arcessa was a successor to 360 Powered which filed the initial agent-based indexing and associated patents while I was VP of Engineering there. The executive team re-acquired the patents after securing funding for Arcessa. Several years later, a few of the us worked together again on next-generation search solutions at Microsoft and filed a few additional patents (which Microsoft classified as 'high-value' for which they pre-alloce legal reserves of $1M per patent).

• Metadata Signatures - Arcessa, 2000-2005
  Publication number: US6516337

  Abstract: A search engine utilizes a bottom-up approach to index the content of a network instead of relying on atop-down approach as used by conventional search engines. The network being indexed may be any network, including the global computer network, Internet, and the world wide web. Instead of using a central site including spidering software to recursively search all linked web pages and generate a search index of the Internet, independent distributed components or agents are located at each web site and report meta data about objects at the web site to the central server. A central catalog of object references is compiled on the central site from the meta data reported from each web site. One or more brochures file may also be created and stored on each web site to provide conceptual or non-keyword data about the site, such as demographics and categorization information. This conceptual information is then utilized in constructing the central catalog so that more accurate search results may be generated for search queries applied to the catalog.
• Agent-based Indexing - Arcessa, 2000-2005
  Publication number: US6976053

  Abstract: A search engine utilizes a bottom-up approach to index the content of a network with agent programs running on each source computer instead of relying on a top-down approach as used by conventional search engines. The network being indexed may be any network, including the global computer network or an intranet. Instead of using a central site including spidering software to recursively search all linked web pages and generate a search index of the Internet, independent distributed components or agent programs are located at each web site and report meta data about objects at the web site to the central server. A central catalog of object references is compiled on the central site or sites from the meta data reported from each web site. One or more brochure files may also be created and stored on each web site to provide conceptual or non-key-word data about the site, such as target demographics and categorization information. This conceptual information is then utilized in constructing the central catalog so that more accurate search results may be generated for search queries applied to the catalog
• Search Index Cards - Arcessa, 2000-2005
  Publication number: US7133870

  Abstract: Instead of using a central site including spidering software to recursively search all linked web pages and generate a search index of the Internet, index cards files are created and stored on each web site to provide meta data in the form of conceptual or non-keyword information about the site, such as demographics and categorization information. The meta data is periodically collected and aggregated on a central server. A central catalog of object references is compiled on the central site from the meta data reported from each web site. The information from the index cards is utilized in constructing the central catalog so that more accurate search results may be generated for search queries applied to the catalog, so that the search results may be ranked in meaningful ways, and so that web sites may be more accurately rated.
• Data Collector - Microsoft, 2013
  Publication number: US8949184

  Abstract: A data collector may monitor a data source and identify updated data, which may be processed and prepared for inclusion into a search database. The data collector may have various handlers that may interact with a data source, which may be a database, web service, file system, collaboration system, or other source, and may store a identifying signature and content signature for each document or item. The signatures may be used to identify new, changed, or deleted items, and a payload may be created containing the updates.
• Data Classifier - Microsoft, 2013
  Publication number: US8612444

  Abstract: A document classifier may analyze documents for a search engine and tag the documents. A document classifier system may have several different classifiers, each with a separate algorithm for classification. Some of the data classifiers may learn or change the classification over time with a feedback loop. As those classifiers are modified, updated, replaced, or added, the documents that have already been classified by the classifier may be re-examined to update their classification. The document classifier system may maintain a database of documents with a timestamp that the document was classified that may be used to identify those documents whose classifications may be out of date.
• Search Engine Structure - Microsoft, 2013
  Publication number: US8375021

  Abstract: A search engine database may a segmented structure that preserves individual document references and allows updating as well as scalability. A set of segment managers may receive new, updated, or deleted documents and update a set of term matrices from which a published search matrix may be generated. The database may have a very large term dictionary and may use a hash function to create term identifiers without having to look up terms in the dictionary. The database may be maintained by many systems operating in parallel for high scalability.
• Search Result Presentation - Microsoft, 2013
  Publication number: US8429740

  Abstract: A data presentation system for a search engine may use classified or tagged elements in a resulting document to create a search result document that has portions redacted, modified, or changed based on the tags or classifications of elements within the document. The document may be rebuilt from the search engine database at presentation time with one or more elements changed or modified. The permission settings for a user or other factors may be used to determine which elements within the document are permitted to be accessed.

When I first started writing for a national publication is was for the Java Developers Journal (JDJ), where I initially wrote a feature on layout managers and proposed a column about Java Swing components, which was framed as the Widget Factory. I wrote a feature article for JavaPro in the same time frame and found them to be much more professional than JDJ. While JDJ had a bigger circulation, and were much more glossy and better at self-promoting, present at all the industry events, they operated like a company with their hair on fire and tended to drop the ball on a regular basis (publising the wrong files online, etc). This fustrated me until I decided I prefered working with Fawcette and the column took a new form under their umbrella, rebranded as Visual Components.

There are 84 Articles in the following listings.

JavaPro Magazine

Visual Components

Feature Article

Java Developers Journal

Widget Factory

Feature Article

Enterprise Development

Feature Article

Swing Connection

Feature Article

Unknown

Feature Article

XML Magazine

Java Break

Feature Article

These reviews are older and, since technologies move pretty fast, very likely much less relevant than they were when they were oroginally written, though some, like books about algorithms, are still salient and largely unchanged since ealier publications. These are drafts handed over to the publisher and released in one of the JavaZone, EnterpriseZone or WebBuilder online magazines.

There are 81 Reviews in the following listings.