A method and system for interactively shopping for groceries, especially on an Internet web site (108), where the user may create a shopping list, shop for items from the list at a selected Grocery Storey store, arrange for pick up or delivery of the selected items and payment, or to download the list to a PDA (407) or for printing with the store's layout for use in the store. Users are required to register and provide specific demographic information (Figure 37) (useful to Manufacturers and stores) to be eligible to receive the benefits of use of the web site, such as menu creation, coupon downloads, menu planning, and recipe input. Shopping lists may be created from a single input screen using standard language text; and products may be automatically suggested to the user based on best regular price or retailer's specials. Recipes may be altered to meet numbers of servings or dietary requirements and changes stored for future use.

A system for improved monitoring of changes in the location and conditions surrounding people and property, utilizing fixed and moveable logic processors, which communicate with each other as well as receivers. Non-continuous signaling may be used to provide for reduced power consumption, and network coupling may be used to provided for exporting information to anywhere in the world.

A computer-parsing system based upon using vectors (lists) to represent natural-language elements, providing a robust, distributed way to score grammaticality of an input string by using as a source material a large corpus of natural-language text. The system uses recombining of asymetric associations of syntactically similar strings to form an the vectors. The system uses equivalence lists for your the organization subparts of the string to build equivalence lists for our the province longer strings in an order controlled by the potential these/parse to be scored. The power of recombination of Entries from: vector elements in building longer strings provides a means of representing collocational complexity. Grammaticality scoring is based upon the number and similarity of the vector elements.

A method and system (software) is described with features for sharing proceeds, from sales of mutually owned assets by auction services, held in escrow for multiple parties entitled to the proceeds. Further, other areas addressed by a preferred embodiment of the present invention include relating multiple independent escrows with a single case, control and management of the case (including all escrows, completion of the sale of assets through auction services and delivery of the assets to the buyer) by legal representatives representing the entitled parties, and permitting variable percentage sharing with different escrows for a case. Additional areas addressed by a preferred embodiment of the present invention include integrating closely with auction services to facilitate a smooth and efficient sale of assets, operating as an Internet-based service integrated with Internet-based auction services, and delivery of particular assets by selected brokers such as jewelry stores with public locations nationally.

A computer system for providing load balancing and scalable access to a network database system by providing multiple database instances with each instance being substantially identical in data content, database structure, and primary key system (183). Requests from users are received by the system, examined to determine their nature as transactional or non-transactional and, in the case of non-transactional queries (153), scattered among the multiple database instances. Such scattering of queries permits multiple instances of the database to be serving responses to multiple users at substantially the same time. In the case of transactional queries (157), the system automatically propagates the transactional query to all instances of the database to maintain homogeneity.

Disclosed are computer systems with intelligent or autonomous decision systems which include means for determining relevancy, i.e., the threats to and opportunities of the autonomous decision system. Also disclosed are such autonomous decision systems constructed and arranged to interact sociably with humans, including the use of natural languages and bonding. The desired "whether concrete is included in abstract" computation system is enhanced by a system of categorizing natural objects using as primitives a set of self tendencies suitable, when hierarchically assigned to objects, to do incremental simulation of "future" situations (including such objects) from a presented situation. Using such primitives and computation system, planning, learning, languaging, etc., are efficiently accomplished.

A computer system for providing load balancing and scalable access to a network database system by providing multiple database instances with each instance being substantially identical in data content, database structure, and primary key system. Requests from users are received by the system, examined to determine their nature as transactional or non-transactional and, in the case of non-transactional queries, scattered among the multiple database instances. Such scattering of queries permits multiple instances of the database to be serving responses to multiple users at substantially the same time. In the case of transactional queries, the system automatically propagates the transactional query to all instances of the database to maintain homogeneity.

A computer controlled digital electronic display system for disseminating targeted public advertising, at select times and in select locations, in combination with a system for providing publicly available Internet access. It is designed to provide wireless connectivity between portable consumer electronics and the Internet. Also described is a business method for the placement of revenue generating Internet services including wireless based transactions, funded essentially by advertising revenue.

A method for testing and certifying interpreter's knowledge in specific industries and language pairs. Certification is accomplished through testing, training, service observation and customer feedback. Certification testing is conducted using tests developed for a specific industry and language pair. Testing is conducted telephonically strictly adhering to a fixed protocol. Test scoring is accomplished using a dictionary of terms for each industry and language pair which indicates level of accuracy for each possible interpretation.

A hand-held system for user selection and display of electronically stored Biblical information. More specifically, a portable electronic bible system having a Bible book selection keypad with dedicated Bible book keys to provide one-touch Bible book selection and viewing. The system comprises additional keys for selection of a desired chapter and verse. Biblical and menu information is viewed on an LCD display. The system is battery powered with an optional A/C adapter. A data transfer port allows supplemental Biblical information to be transferred and stored in the memory of the system. System components are contained in a two-part hinged housing. A method of use and methods of acquiring supplemental Biblical information are also described.

A method and system for interactively shopping for groceries, especially on an Internet web site, where the user may create a shopping list, shop for items from the list at a selected Grocery Storey store, arrange for pick up or delivery of the selected items and payment, or to download the list to a PDA or for printing with the store's layout for use in the store. Users are required to register and provide specific demographic information (useful to Manufacturers and stores) to be eligible to receive the benefits of use of the web site, such as menu creation, coupon downloads, menu planning, and recipe input. Shopping lists may be created from a single input screen using standard language text; and products may be automatically suggested to the user based on best regular price or retailer's specials. Recipes may be altered to meet numbers of servings or dietary requirements and changes stored for future use.

A method and system for recording the actions and activities (as for a logbook) of a person, persons, machines, or other animate or inanimate objects using portable or stationary devices. These devices are (1) directly connected, or wired or (2) are connected wirelessly to a local (LAN) or wide area network (WAN). The actiosn or activity are either immediately transmitted to the local or wide area network and received and recorded on a server system, or recorded and held in the wired/wireless device and then transmitted to the server system at a later date. Once recorded on the server system, the actions and activities are accessible to wired or wireless devices via local or wide area networks or available to other server systems. They can be reviewed and acknoledged by an authoritative entity through the use of an electronic signature facility.

A method and system for recording the actions and activities (as for a logbook) of a person, persons, machines, or other animate or inanimate objects using portable or stationary devices. These devices are (1) directly connected, or wired, or (2) are connected wirelessly to a local (LAN) or wide area network (WAN). The actions or activity are either immediately transmitted to the local or wide area network and received and recorded on a server system, or recorded and held in the wired/wireless device and then transmitted to the server system at a later date. Once recorded on the server system, the actions and activities are accessible to wired or wireless devices via local or wide area networks or available to other server systems. They can be reviewed and acknowledged by an authoritative entity through the use of an electronic signature facility.

A system for automatically creating and maintaining a database of information utilizing user opinions about subjects, particularly exceptional experiences. Described is an Internet system assisting/motivating a population of users interested in information about certain categories of subjects to automatically maintain the database content and to improve the usefulness and quality of the database information without any substantial management by the website owner-manager. The user opinions are primarily in the form of both comments and ratings about which natural-language terms best describe a particular subject, enabling user searches of the subject database to be by way of preferred such descriptive natural-language terms, which terms are further preferred to be evaluative and approving.

The present invention includes a method and system for interactive Internet advertising and e-commerce. The method and system delivers advertisements to viewers wherein a viewer is rewarded for viewing advertisements by being offered the opportunity to win prizes, request information from the advertiser or link directly to the advertiser's e-commerce site. In one embodiment the advertisements are delivered in series as interstitial, full-screen or full browser window, static or dynamic ads. In a further embodiment, the viewers are offered the opportunity to win prizes, request information, or link to the advertiser's web site only after viewing the ad for a period of time without having these opportunities.

A computer system utilizing a local area network and multiple computers used in association with a trapshooting competition of the type wherein each entrant in each event is, at one of multiple squad-assignment stations, assigned to a squad (of particular entrants) scheduled for shooting at a specific time and place. This system's operators, software, and hardware efficiently manage the competition, including computer-assisting assignment of each entrant to a position in a squad. The computer system has a method for temporarily restricting access to an entrant list for a squad of an event to a particular computer workstation, enabling efficient assigning of an additional entrant to a temporarily-restricted entrant list, as well as handling functions like handicapping, scoring, fees, prizes, etc.