Donald H Ferguson, 83808 Worchester Dr, Fenton, MI 48430

2002016, Nov 7, 2002

Jun 25, 2002

10/179118

Donald Ferguson - Dearborn Heights MI, US

B25J001/00

294/019100

A winch hook holding device includes a body having a proximal end connected to an elongated handle and a distal portion including a hook-shaped curved cradle for at least temporarily holding a winch hook. The cradle features a curved recess corresponding to the back surface of the hook and an opening corresponding to the opening of the hook, enabling the hook to be supported in the cradle and brought to the eyelet and released from the cradle once engaged. An alternative embodiment further includes a biasing element such as a spring-loaded lever disposed within a portion of the groove for applying pressure to the hook for active retainment therein. The connector at the proximal end of the handle preferably includes a threaded connector that mates with an elongated handle having a threaded end, thereby allowing handles available for other purposes to be utilized. Custom handles may also be provided according to the invention, including telescoping varieties. Preferably the hook-holding body is a unitary piece of molded plastic.

5475813, Dec 12, 1995

Jul 18, 1994

8/277377

Randall A. Cieslak - Scarsdale NY
Donald F. Ferguson - Yorktown Heights NY
Jakka Sairamesh - New York NY

International Business Machines Corporation - Armonk NY

G06F 1134

39518202

Failures are detected in servers of a transaction processing system, and transactions are routed to less failure prone servers in the system. Servers in the transaction processing system which are faulty for some transaction classes but good for others are detected, and such servers are used in a judicious manner to maximize the throughput and minimize the response time of the system. Error prone servers are occasionally probed to determine if they have improved in terms of their error characteristics. The mechanism implemented consists of three elements. The first is the selection of a routing algorithm based on the state of the transaction processing system. Second, transactions are used to probe systems considered too faulty for use in order to determine if they have improved in terms of their failure characteristics. Finally, soft ABENDs are detected. The algorithm for transaction routing to detect and control the problem of failing servers in a transaction processing system consists of two parts: The first part routes transactions to servers based on the length of the server queues, the response time of the transactions (i. e.

5504894, Apr 2, 1996

Apr 30, 1992

7/876670

Donald F. Ferguson - Bayside NY
Leonidas Georgiadis - Chappaqua NY
Christos N. Nikolaou - New York NY

International Business Machines Corporation - Armonk NY

G06F 946

395650

In a multiple processor transaction processing system, a class response time goal for each class of transactions is enforced by a workload manager, which computes a current average class response time for each transaction class and derives a current class performance index for each of these classes with respect to its class response time goal. Whenever a transaction arrives, the workload manager considers a number of different possible transaction servers to which that arriving transaction could be routed and predicts estimated new values for the class performance indices for each of the considered routing choices. An overall goal satisfaction index is determined for each one and the routing choice corresponding to the best overall goal satisfaction index is selected as the routing choice. In the preferred embodiment, the workload manager also priority rates or orders the classes in accordance with the current class performance indices so that a transaction of a class which is performing more poorly (as judged by its class performance index) gets a higher dispatch priority at the server to which it is routed than a transaction of a class that is performing better.