Andre E Nel, 60Peoria, AZ

2002017, Nov 21, 2002

May 18, 2001

09/860796

Andre Emil Nel - Fremont CA, US
David Snelgrove - Greer SC, US

B26D005/00
B26D001/00

083/768000, 083/597000, 083/932000

A slicing apparatus for slicing a food item having a flat bottomed base for placement upon a work surface; a bifurcated outer annulus attached to the base and extending perpendicularly upward from the base, the annulus having an arcuate slot formed on the peripheral centerline of the annulus; the annulus further having a first pair of diametric opposed knife attachment points formed on the inner surface of the annulus; an inner annulus located within the outer annulus and rotatable thereat, the inner annulus further having a second pair of diametrically opposed knife attachment points and an attached handle extending radially outward passing through the peripheral slot of the outer annulus; a left cover and a right cover, each cover having a convex circular outer surface and a concave circular inner surface, the periphery of the respective inner surfaces sized to matingly abut with the respective sides of the outer annulus, the covers further being pivotally attached to the base; an upper and a lower knife, each knife being arcuate in shape and having a cutting edge on the smaller diameter edge thereof, and further having a first end and a second end, each of the ends having an attachment point; each of the first ends being pivotally attached to a respective knife attachment point of the outer annulus and each of the second ends being pivotally attached to a respective knife attachment point of the inner annulus; whereby, movement of the handle through an arc rotates the inner annulus moving the knifes across the inner open part of the annuli and slices the food item.

2003003, Feb 20, 2003

Aug 15, 2001

09/930640

Andre Nel - Fremont CA, US

G06F017/60

705/007000

Systems and methods for allocating freight haulage jobs are described. In one aspect, a global freight haulage job manager is configured collect excess capacity information and freight haulage job information on the fly, and automatically match freight haulage jobs to excess capacity in real time. The global freight haulage job manager is configured to receive carrier capacity attributes, including position information, route information and excess capacity information, for each of a set of mobile carrier entities, and to receive from one or more shippers shipping attributes for each of a set of freight haulage jobs. Based upon the received mobile carrier capacity attributes, the global freight haulage job manager is configured to compute a projection of available carrier capacity. One or more freight haulage job candidates then are identified from the set of mobile carrier entities based upon the computed projection of available carrier capacity and the received shipping attributes for the set of freight haulage jobs. In this way, a mobile carrier entity may be notified of freight haulage job attributes while on route to a destination for a current freight haulage job and, thereby, fill any excess capacity that it may have at any particular time. In another aspect, a portable device allows an operator of a mobile carrier entity to easily obtain excess capacity information and to wirelessly communicate that information to the global freight haulage job manager.

2003006, Apr 10, 2003

Oct 9, 2001

09/973430

Noel Hancock - San Jose CA, US
Andre Nel - Fremont CA, US
Jean-Christophe Pautrat - Sunnyvale CA, US

G06F017/60

705/010000

Systems and methods of benchmarking product samples that are provided to a purchasing entity by multiple independent suppliers are described. This benchmarking scheme avoids the need for the purchasing entity to use its own testing equipment to perform evaluation testing of the product samples. At the same time, suppliers may obtain information regarding the performance of their products relative to the performance of products from competing suppliers, oftentimes well in advance of the time at which the products are released. In one aspect, multiple sets of performance parameter values corresponding to results of testing each of the product samples at test facilities of each of the suppliers are collected. An evaluation report is generated based upon the multiple sets of performance parameter values.