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Showing papers by "Amazon.com published in 2007"


Proceedings ArticleDOI
14 Oct 2007
TL;DR: D Dynamo is presented, a highly available key-value storage system that some of Amazon's core services use to provide an "always-on" experience and makes extensive use of object versioning and application-assisted conflict resolution in a manner that provides a novel interface for developers to use.
Abstract: Reliability at massive scale is one of the biggest challenges we face at Amazon.com, one of the largest e-commerce operations in the world; even the slightest outage has significant financial consequences and impacts customer trust. The Amazon.com platform, which provides services for many web sites worldwide, is implemented on top of an infrastructure of tens of thousands of servers and network components located in many datacenters around the world. At this scale, small and large components fail continuously and the way persistent state is managed in the face of these failures drives the reliability and scalability of the software systems.This paper presents the design and implementation of Dynamo, a highly available key-value storage system that some of Amazon's core services use to provide an "always-on" experience. To achieve this level of availability, Dynamo sacrifices consistency under certain failure scenarios. It makes extensive use of object versioning and application-assisted conflict resolution in a manner that provides a novel interface for developers to use.

4,349 citations


Patent
20 Dec 2007
TL;DR: In this paper, an Internet-based referral system that enables individuals and other business entities ("associates") to market products, in return for a commission, that are sold from a merchant's Web site is described.
Abstract: Disclosed is an Internet-based referral system that enables individuals and other business entities ("associates") to market products, in return for a commission, that are sold from a merchant's Web site. The system includes automated registration software that runs on the merchant's Web site to allow entities to register as associates. Following registration, the associate sets up a Web site (or other information dissemination system) to distribute hypertextual catalog documents that includes marketing information (product reviews, recommendations, etc.) about selected products of the merchant. In association with each such product, the catalog document includes a hypertextual "referral link" that allows a user ("customer") to link to the merchant's site and purchase the product. When a customer selects a referral link, the customer's computer transmits unique IDs of the selected product and of the associate to the merchant's site, allowing the merchant to identify the product and the referring associate. If the customer subsequently purchases the product from the merchant's site, a commission is automatically credited to an account of the referring associate. The merchant site also implements an electronic shopping cart that allows the customer to select products from multiple different Web sites, and then perform a single "check out" from the merchant's site.

1,683 citations


Proceedings ArticleDOI
01 Apr 2007
TL;DR: This work proposes a real-time spectrum auction framework to distribute spectrum among a large number wireless users under interference constraints and concludes that bidding behaviors and pricing models have significant impact on auction outcomes.
Abstract: We propose a real-time spectrum auction framework to distribute spectrum among a large number wireless users under interference constraints. Our approach achieves conflict-free spectrum allocations that maximize auction revenue and spectrum utilization. Our design includes a compact and yet highly expressive bidding language, various pricing models to control tradeoffs between revenue and fairness, and fast auction clearing algorithms to compute revenue-maximizing prices and allocations. Both analytical and experimental results verify the efficiency of the proposed approach. We conclude that bidding behaviors and pricing models have significant impact on auction outcomes. A spectrum auction system must consider local demand and spectrum availability in order to maximize revenue and utilization.

328 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors demonstrate that methane emissions downstream from hydroelectric dams can also be large and demonstrate that the downstream emission alone represented the equivalent of 3% of all methane released from central Amazon floodplain.
Abstract: [1] Tropical reservoirs upstream from hydroelectric dams are known to release significant amounts of methane to the atmosphere. Here we demonstrate that methane emissions downstream from hydroelectric dams can also be large. Emissions of CH4 downstream of Balbina reservoir in the central Amazon basin (Brazil) were calculated from regular measurements of degassing in the outflow of the turbines and downstream diffusive losses. Annual emissions from the reservoir surface and downstream from the dam were 34 and 39 Gg C, respectively. The downstream emission alone represented the equivalent of 3% of all methane released from central Amazon floodplain.

264 citations


Patent
09 May 2007
TL;DR: In this paper, a system for transporting inventory items includes an inventory holder capable of storing inventory items and a mobile drive unit, which is capable of moving to a first point with the inventory holder at least one of coupled to and supported by the mobile drive units.
Abstract: A system for transporting inventory items includes an inventory holder capable of storing inventory items and a mobile drive unit. The mobile drive unit is capable of moving to a first point with the inventory holder at least one of coupled to and supported by the mobile drive unit. The mobile drive unit is additionally capable of determining a location of the inventory holder and calculating a difference between the location of the inventory holder and the first point. The mobile drive unit is then capable of determining whether the difference is greater than a predetermined tolerance. In response to determining that the difference is greater than the predetermined tolerance, the mobile drive unit is also capable of moving to a second point based on the location of the inventory holder, docking with the inventory holder, and moving the mobile drive unit and the inventory holder to the first point.

263 citations


Patent
29 Mar 2007
TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe techniques for managing the execution of programs on a plurality of computing systems, such as computing systems organized into multiple groups, and a program execution service manages the program execution on behalf of multiple customers or other users.
Abstract: Techniques are described for managing the execution of programs on a plurality of computing systems, such as computing systems organized into multiple groups. A program execution service manages the program execution on behalf of multiple customers or other users, and selects appropriate computing systems to execute one or more instances of program, such as based in part on locations of one or more previously stored copies of the program from which copies of the program to execute may be acquired. For example, in some situations the selection of an appropriate computing system to execute an instance of a program is based in part on physical or logical proximity to other resources, such as stored copies of the program, executing copies of the program, and/or available computing systems.

257 citations


Patent
29 Mar 2007
TL;DR: In this article, a technique for managing communications between multiple intercommunicating computing nodes, such as multiple virtual machine nodes hosted on one or more physical computing machines or systems, is described.
Abstract: Techniques are described for managing communications between multiple intercommunicating computing nodes, such as multiple virtual machine nodes hosted on one or more physical computing machines or systems. In some situations, users may specify groups of computing nodes and optionally associated access policies for use in the managing of the communications for those groups, such as by specifying which source nodes are allowed to transmit data to particular destinations nodes. In addition, determinations of whether initiated data transmissions from source nodes to destination nodes are authorized may be dynamically negotiated for and recorded for later use in automatically authorizing future such data transmissions without negotiation. This abstract is provided to comply with rules requiring an abstract, and it is submitted with the intention that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims.

228 citations


Patent
29 Mar 2007
TL;DR: In this paper, a method of presenting a digital work includes displaying a portion of the digital work on a display screen under a set of display conditions, and providing one or more invariant location reference identifiers corresponding to the portion of a digital file on the display screen.
Abstract: A method of presenting a digital work includes displaying a portion of the digital work on a display screen under a set of display conditions, and providing one or more invariant location reference identifiers corresponding to the portion of the digital work on the display screen. The invariant location reference identifiers are separate from the digital work, and each invariant location reference identifier is provided along with the corresponding portion of the digital work, regardless of the display conditions under which the portion of the digital work is displayed.

214 citations


Patent
Florian M. Waas1
24 Jul 2007
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors propose a distributed query processing system where the query plan is divided into segments, and each segment may be instantiated on a remote query processing node of the distributed system by a query coordinator node according to metadata accessed at runtime by remote sub-query operators in the plan.
Abstract: A system and method for distributed query processing may compile and optimize query plans for incoming query requests independent of hardware configurations and/or physical locations of data partitions in a distributed storage system (e.g., a data grid). The query plan may be divided into segments, and each segment may be instantiated on a remote query processing node of the distributed system by a query coordinator node according to metadata accessed at runtime by remote sub-query operators in the query plan. The metadata may include an indication of the physical locations of data partitions in the system and may be stored on one or more of the query processing nodes. The remote query processing nodes may execute the query plan segments and return results to the requestor. Cached query plans may be re-executed without recompilation, according to current metadata, even in the event of a node failure or data partition move.

210 citations


Patent
Francis J. Kane1, Cory Hicks1
28 Dec 2007
TL;DR: In this paper, a content provider system interacts with a network of web sites to provide behavior-based content to users by adding widgets to selected web pages of their sites, when executed on the computing devices of users who view the selected Web pages, report user-generated events to the content provider.
Abstract: A content provider system interacts with a network of web sites to provide behavior-based content to users. Operators of the web sites add widgets to selected web pages of their sites. The widgets, when executed on the computing devices of users who view the selected web pages, report user-generated events to the content provider system. The content provider system analyzes the reported events to detect behavioral associations between particular web sites, web pages, products, and/or other types of items. The widgets may also retrieve and display behavior-based content that is based on these item-to-item behavioral associations. For example, when a user views a particular web page, a widget on that page may request and display descriptions of, and links to, other sites or pages that are (a) behaviorally related to the page being viewed or an item represented thereon, and/or (b) behaviorally related to the past browsing activities of the particular user.

181 citations


Patent
27 Jun 2007
TL;DR: In this paper, a web page architecture is provided for enabling a user browse the web within an inline frame embedded in web pages and drag and drop content rendered in the inline frame into a receiving panel in the web page for transmission to the user's mobile device.
Abstract: A web page architecture is provided for enabling a user browse the web within an inline frame embedded in a web page and drag and drop content rendered in the inline frame into a receiving panel in the web page for transmission to the user's mobile device. The delivery mechanism to receive such content on the user's mobile device may be either through SMS messaging or through communicating with a client application on the user's mobile device.

Patent
08 Mar 2007
TL;DR: In this article, a mobile device user's recent movements may be analyzed to determine trails or traffic patterns for device user among various locations, and destinations may be recommended to mobile device users based on the recent locations the users have visited.
Abstract: Mobile device users may be tracked either via mobile-signal triangulation or via Global Positioning Satellite information. A mobile device user's recent movements may be analyzed to determine trails or traffic patterns for device user among various locations. Mobile device trail information, either for an individual user or aggregated for multiple users, may be analyzed to determine a next destination for the user. Electronic advertising content, such as advertisements, coupons and/or other communications, associated with the next destination may be sent to an electronic device likely to be viewed by the mobile device user. Additionally, the identity of the mobile device user may be known and the advertisements or coupons may be tailored according to demographic information regarding the mobile device user. In addition, destinations may be recommended to mobile device users based on the recent locations the users have visited.

Patent
01 Jun 2007
TL;DR: In this article, a method of rotating an inventory holder includes moving an inventory holders towards a rotation area along a straight segment of a path with a first face of the inventory holder facing a first direction.
Abstract: A method of rotating an inventory holder includes moving an inventory holder towards a rotation area along a straight segment of a path with a first face of the inventory holder facing a first direction. The rotation area includes a portion of a workspace designated for rotation of inventory holders. The method further includes moving the inventory holder into the rotation area along a first arced segment with an orientation of the first face perpendicular to the first arced segment. The method additionally includes executing a rotation maneuver within the rotation area and moving the inventory holder out of the rotation area along a second arced segment with a second face facing the first direction.

Patent
08 Jun 2007
TL;DR: In this article, a method for moving one or more mobile drive units within a workspace includes receiving, from a first mobile drive unit, a reservation request requesting use of a first path segment to move in a first direction.
Abstract: A method for moving one or more mobile drive units within a workspace includes receiving, from a first mobile drive unit, a reservation request requesting use of a first path segment to move in a first direction. The method further includes determining that a second mobile drive unit is currently located on the first path segment and determining whether the second mobile drive unit is moving in the first direction. Additionally, the method includes transmitting a reservation response indicating that the reservation request is denied, in response to determining that the second mobile drive unit is not moving in the first direction. The method also includes transmitting a reservation response indicating that the reservation request is granted, in response to determining that the second mobile drive unit is moving in the first direction.

Patent
29 Jun 2007
TL;DR: In this article, a recommender system is provided in various embodiments for selecting items to recommend to a user, including a recommendation engine with a plurality of recommenders, and each recommender identifies a different type of reason for recommending items.
Abstract: A recommendations system is provided in various embodiments for selecting items to recommend to a user. The system includes a recommendation engine with a plurality of recommenders, and each recommender identifies a different type of reason for recommending items. In one embodiment, each recommender retrieves item preference data and generates candidate recommendations responsive to a subset of that data. The recommenders also score the candidate recommendations. In certain embodiments, a normalization engine normalizes the scores of the candidate recommendations provided by each recommender. A candidate selector selects at least a portion of the candidate recommendations based on the normalized scores to provide as recommendations to the user. The candidate selector also outputs the recommendations with associated reasons for recommending the items.

Patent
30 Mar 2007
TL;DR: In this paper, a system and method for preventing fraud in an online transaction is presented, where requests for financial transactions between on-line account holders are detected as well as relationships between the accounts, and an indication of a likelihood of fraud is provided if the fraud value exceeds a predetermined amount.
Abstract: A system and method for preventing fraud in an online transaction is shown. Requests for financial transactions between on-line account holders are detected as well as relationships between the accounts. A fraud value related to a likelihood that a fraud is occurring in the transactions is determined based on the relationship. An indication of a likelihood of fraud is provided if the fraud value exceeds a predetermined amount. Thus the transaction is terminated and the appropriate parties are automatically notified.

Patent
27 Aug 2007
TL;DR: In this article, a system and method for facilitating transactions utilizing phrase tokens are provided, where individual entities can be associated with unambiguous transaction phrase tokens, such as multiple word phrases.
Abstract: A system and method for facilitating transactions utilizing phrase tokens are provided. Individual entities can be associated with unambiguous transaction phrase tokens, such as multiple word phrases. The transaction phrase tokens are associated with transaction accounts by a service provider such that the entities can complete a transaction without having to exchange transaction account information. In a transaction, a transaction phrase token is offered to an accepting party, which tenders the offered transaction phrase token to the service provider. The service provider processes the offered transaction phrase token according to configuration information specified for the transaction phrase token. The service provider can automatically process the transaction request or request additional information.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors presented new wood density estimates for the southern and southwest Brazilian Amazon (SSWA) portions of the arc of deforestation, using locally collected species weighted by their volume in large local inventories.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the relationships between the tree α -diversity of small rain forest plots in Africa and in Amazonia and compare the diversity variation among and between regions.
Abstract: Summary 1. Comparative analyses of diversity variation among and between regions allow testing of alternative explanatory models and ideas. Here, we explore the relationships between the tree α -diversity of small rain forest plots in Africa and in Amazonia and climatic

Patent
Sean M. Scott1, Douglas J. Gradt1, Doug Irvine1, Nimrod Hoofien1, Eva Manolis1, Amy Bates1 
30 Mar 2007

Patent
30 Mar 2007
TL;DR: In this paper, a service is described for enabling web sites and other entities to provide item recommendations and other behavior-based content to end users, which can be implemented as a web service that is remotely accessible over the Internet.
Abstract: A service is disclosed for enabling web sites and other entities to provide item recommendations and other behavior-based content to end users. The service can be implemented as a web service that is remotely accessible over the Internet. Web sites use the web service's interface to report events descriptive of item-related actions performed by end users (e.g., item views, item purchases, searches for items, etc.). The web service analyzes the reported event data on an aggregated basis to detect various types of associations between particular items, and stores resulting datasets that map items to associated items. The web service's interface also provides various API calls for enabling the web sites to request item recommendations and other behavior-based content, including but not limited to personalized recommendations that are based on the event history of the target user. Advantageously, the web sites need not host the infrastructure for providing such content.

Patent
14 Jun 2007
TL;DR: In this article, a list of one or more electronic items stored in memory of the user device may be displayed, and a status of index generation for the electronic item stored in the memory of a device may also be presented.
Abstract: Electronic items may be searched using search indices. Search indices may be generated for electronic items at a user device. In that case, a list of one or more electronic items stored in memory of the user device may be displayed, and a status of index generation for the electronic items stored in memory of the device may be presented.


Patent
05 Apr 2007
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a system for converting the audio input of a user (Vl) of a hand-held client device or mobile phone (120) into a textual representation (T4) by means of a backend server accessed by the device through a communications network.
Abstract: Methods, systems, and software for converting the audio input (Vl) of a user (110) of a hand-held client device or mobile phone (120) into a textual representation (T4) by means of a backend server (160) accessed by the device through a communications network (130A, 140, 150). The text is then inserted into or used by an application of the client device to send a text message, instant message, email to a recipient device (170, 180), or to insert a request into a web-based application or service. The method includes the steps of initializing or launching the application on the device; recording and transmitting the recorded audio message from the client device to the backend server through a client-server communication protocol; converting the transmitted audio message into the textual representation in the backend server; and sending the converted text message back to the client device or forwarding it on to an alternate destination directly from the server.

Patent
22 May 2007
TL;DR: In this paper, a probabilistic scoring method is used to increase the likelihood that at least some of the items recommended over a sequence of visits will be useful to the target user.
Abstract: A recommendations system (100) uses probabilistic methods to select, from a candidate set of items, a set of items to recommend to a target user. Some embodiments of the methods effectively introduce noise into the recommendations process, causing the recommendations presented to the target user to vary in a controlled manner from one visit to the next. The methods may increase the likelihood that at least some of the items recommended over a sequence of visits will be useful to the target user The methods may be implemented by using a probabilistic scorer (110) to probabilistically vary the rankings of candidate items selected by a recommendation engine (106). and by using a filter (114) to filter the probabilistically varied item set.

Patent
30 Mar 2007
TL;DR: In this paper, computer-implemented processes for clustering items and improving the utility of item recommendations are disclosed. But, they do not describe how to apply these techniques to the real world.
Abstract: Computer-implemented processes are disclosed for clustering items and improving the utility of item recommendations. One process involves applying a clustering algorithm to a user's collection of items. Information about the resulting clusters is then used to select items to use as recommendation sources. Another process involves displaying the clusters of items to the user via a collection management interface that enables the user to attach cluster-level metadata, such as by rating or tagging entire clusters of items. The resulting metadata may be used to improve the recommendations generated by a recommendation engine. Another process involves forming clusters of items in which a user has indicated a lack of interest, and using these clusters to filter the output of a recommendation engine. Yet another process involves applying a clustering algorithm to the output of a recommendation engine to arrange the recommended items into cluster-based categories for presentation to the user.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Estimates of CWD stocks and annual CWD inputs from forests in southern Peru indicate that these sites have not experienced a recent, large-scale disturbance event and emphasise the distinctive, rapid nature of carbon cycling in these western Amazonian forests.
Abstract: The stocks and dynamics of coarse woody debris (CWD) are significant components of the carbon cycle within tropical forests. However, to date, there have been no reports of CWD stocks and fluxes from the approximately 1.3 million km2 of lowland western Amazonian forests. Here, we present estimates of CWD stocks and annual CWD inputs from forests in southern Peru. Total stocks were low compared to other tropical forest sites, whether estimated by line-intercept sampling (24.4 ± 5.3 Mg ha−1) or by complete inventories within 11 permanent plots (17.7 ± 2.4 Mg ha−1). However, annual inputs, estimated from long-term data on tree mortality rates in the same plots, were similar to other studies (3.8 ± 0.2 or 2.9 ± 0.2 Mg ha−1 year−1, depending on the equation used to estimate biomass). Assuming the CWD pool is at steady state, the turnover time of coarse woody debris is low (4.7 ± 2.6 or 6.1 ± 2.6 years). These results indicate that these sites have not experienced a recent, large-scale disturbance event and emphasise the distinctive, rapid nature of carbon cycling in these western Amazonian forests.

Patent
30 Mar 2007
TL;DR: In this paper, computer-implemented processes for clustering items and improving the utility of item recommendations are disclosed. But, they do not describe how to apply these techniques to the real world.
Abstract: Computer-implemented processes are disclosed for clustering items and improving the utility of item recommendations. One process involves applying a clustering algorithm to a user's collection of items. Information about the resulting clusters is then used to select items to use as recommendation sources. Another process involves displaying the clusters of items to the user via a collection management interface that enables the user to attach cluster-level metadata, such as by rating or tagging entire clusters of items. The resulting metadata may be used to improve the recommendations generated by a recommendation engine. Another process involves forming clusters of items in which a user has indicated a lack of interest, and using these clusters to filter the output of a recommendation engine. Yet another process involves applying a clustering algorithm to the output of a recommendation engine to arrange the recommended items into cluster-based categories for presentation to the user.

Patent
11 Dec 2007
TL;DR: In this article, a method for fulfilling inventory requests includes receiving an inventory request requesting an inventory item and selecting the requested inventory item from an inventory holder, and storing the ordered inventory item in an order holder associated with the inventory request and moving the order holder to a storage space.
Abstract: A method for fulfilling inventory requests includes receiving an inventory request requesting an inventory item and selecting the requested inventory item from an inventory holder. The method further includes storing the requested inventory item in an order holder associated with the inventory request and moving the order holder to a storage space. In addition, the method includes detecting a triggering event and in response to detecting the triggering event, retrieving the order holder from the storage space.

Patent
21 Aug 2007
TL;DR: In this paper, a facility for determining whether to consistency-check a cache entry is described, where the facility randomly or pseudorandomly selects a value in a range, and if the selected value satisfies a predetermined consistency-checking threshold within the range, the facility consistency-checks the entry, and may decide to propagate this knowledge to other cache managers.
Abstract: A facility for determining whether to consistency-check a cache entry is described. The facility randomly or pseudorandomly selects a value in a range. If the selected value satisfies a predetermined consistency-checking threshold within the range, the facility consistency-checks the entry, and may decide to propagate this knowledge to other cache managers. If, on the other hand, the selected value does not satisfy the consistency-checking threshold, the facility determines not to consistency-check the entry.