1. Dispensing apparatus comprising
a surface for supporting a layer of material, said surface having a rotary axis and a periphery;
a motor for rotating said surface about said axis;
a first scraper positioned opposite the surface and extending cross-wise to the direction of movement of said surface, said first scraper having an inner end adjacent to said axis and an outer end adjacent to said periphery, said first scraper engaging said surface while said surface is rotating to scrape said material from said surface into a row of scrapings in front of the first scraper;
a second scraper positioned opposite the surface in front of the first scraper and extending generally perpendicular to the first scraper, said second scraper engaging said surface and being movable parallel to the first scraper between an inner position adjacent to the inner end of the first scraper and an outer position adjacent to the outer end of the first scraper, and
an actuator for moving the second scraper between said inner and outer positions so that the second scraper pushes said row of scrapings from said surface to said periphery.
2. The apparatus defined in claim 1 and further including a receptacle supported adjacent to said periphery for receiving and collecting the row of scrapings pushed to said periphery.
3. The apparatus defined in claim 1, wherein
the first scraper comprises a channel supported above said surface, said channel having opposite walls defining between them an alley that extends along said surface and contains the second scraper, one of said walls located behind the second scraper supporting a scraping edge that contacts said surface, and
said second scraper is movable along said alley between said inner and outer positions.
4. The apparatus defined in claim 3, wherein said scraping edge is separable from said one of the walls.
5. The apparatus defined in claim 3, wherein said channel has a generally inverted U-shaped cross-section.
6. The apparatus defined in claim 3, wherein said actuator comprises
a rack extending along said channel, and
a motorized pinion in mesh with said rack.
7. The apparatus defined in claim 1, wherein said surface is circular and is of a thermally conductive material.
8. The apparatus defined in claim 1 and further including a depositing mechanism for depositing the layer of material on said surface.
9. Dispensing apparatus comprising
a generally horizontal surface having a rotary axis and a periphery and for supporting a layer of material;
a motor for rotating said surface about said axis;
a vertical forming cylinder positioned adjacent to said periphery, said cylinder having a side window opposite said periphery and a bottom opening spaced below said surface;
a first scraper positioned above the surface and extending cross-wise to the direction of movement of said surface, said first scraper engaging said surface while said surface is rotating to scrape said material from said surface into a row of scrapings in front of the first scraper;
a second scraper positioned above said surface in front of the first scraper and extending generally perpendicular to the first scraper, said second scraper engaging said surface and being movable parallel to the first scraper;
motive means for moving the second scraper between a first position on said surface spaced from said cylinder and a second position on said surface at or adjacent to said cylinder so that the second scraper pushes said row of scrapings from said surface into the forming cylinder through said window thereby collecting the scrapings within the cylinder, and
an ejector slidable within said forming cylinder to push the collected scrapings as a shaped product out of the cylinder through said bottom opening thereof.
10. The apparatus defined in claim 9, wherein the ejector comprises
a shaft having an end facing the bottom opening and being moveable within the forming cylinder;
an ejector member positioned at said shaft end, and
an actuator for moving the shaft between a first position wherein the ejector member is above said window and a second position wherein the ejector member is adjacent to said bottom opening.
11. The apparatus defined in claim 10, wherein the ejector member includes
a concave wall facing said bottom opening, and
an elastomeric cover covering said concave wall.
12. The apparatus defined in claim 11, wherein said cover normally spans the concave wall so that it is substantially parallel to said bottom opening.
13. The apparatus defined in claim 12, wherein said cover stretches to conform to the contour of said concave wall when said shaped product is being ejected from said cylinder.
14. The apparatus defined in claim 9 and further including
a closure member for selectively opening and closing said bottom opening, and
means for controlling the closure member so that the bottom opening is closed when said scrapings are being collected within the cylinder and open when the collected scrapings are being pushed from the cylinder through the bottom opening thereof.
15. The apparatus defined in claim 9, wherein
the first scraper comprises a channel supported above the rotary surface, said channel having opposite walls defining between them an alley that extends over said surface and contains the second scraper, one of said walls located behind the second scraper supporting an edge that contacts said surface, and
said second scraper is moveable along said alley between said first and second positions.
16. The apparatus defined in claim 15, wherein the second scraper is shaped to close said window when the second scraper is in said second position.
17. Apparatus for dispensing a product comprising
a substantially flat surface having an edge;
a scraping device including a channel supported above said surface, said channel having opposite walls defining between them an alley that extends over said surface and one of the walls supporting a scraping edge that contacts said surface;
motive means for moving said scraping device and said surface relatively so that the scraping edge scrapes a product deposited on said surface from said surface into said alley as a ridge row of product scrapings, and
a pusher for pushing said ridge row of scrapings along said alley to the edge of said surface.
18. The apparatus defined in claim 17, wherein the pusher comprises
a movable scraper slidable along said alley, and
an actuating device for moving the scraper along said alley between a retracted position spaced away from the edge of said surface and in an extended position close to the edge of said surface.
19. The apparatus defined in claim 17, wherein the scraping device includes a biasing device for biasing said scraping edge toward said surface.
20. The apparatus defined in claim 17, wherein the scraping edge is releasably secured to said one of said walls for easy replacement.
21. The apparatus defined in claim 17, wherein the scraping device supports the channel so that the channel is self-leveling relative to said surface.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A system for identifying users of Internet Protocol addresses within an organization’s communications network by matching user identification information from an organization’s directory information with non-encrypted user identification information and current Internet Protocol addresses extracted by a discovery apparatus, comprising:
a database storing the organization’s directory information, the organization’s directory information including user identification information but not requiring a list of devices;
a discovery apparatus for extracting non-encrypted user identification information and associated Internet Protocol addresses, having at least one connection to a switch in the communications network for passively monitoring traffic thru the switch; and
a server, connected to the discovery apparatus and having access to the database via the communications network, the server capable of matching the extracted non-encrypted user identification information and the user identification information from the organization’s directory information as keys to link the extracted Internet Protocol addresses to contacts in the organization’s directory information, automatically determining which contacts in the organization’s directory information are currently using each of the extracted Internet Protocol addresses.
2. The system of claim 1, wherein the communications network is a local area network.
3. The system of claim 2, wherein the local area network is an Ethernet network.
4. The system of claim 1, further comprising:
a central repository, accessible by the discovery apparatus and a Web server, for storing the traffic monitored by the discovery apparatus.
5. The system of claim 1, wherein the database is a formatted database.
6. The system of claim 1, wherein the database contains the following fields of data: (i) First Name and Last Name; and (ii) electronic mail address andor user name.
7. The system of claim 6, wherein the database also contains one of the following fields of data: (i) Middle Initial; (ii) Nick Names; (iii) Name Aliases; (iv) Building; (v) Room; (vi) Permanent E-mail; (vii) Temporary E-mail; or (viii) AffiliationOrganization; or (ix) any combination thereof.
8. The system of claim 1, wherein the server is a Web server capable of responding to browser-based queries to identify which user is using which computer.
9. The system of claim 1, wherein the user identification information includes an electronic mail address andor a user name.
10. A method for identifying users of Internet Protocol addresses within an organization’s communications network by matching user identification information from an organization’s directory information with non-encrypted user identification information and current Internet Protocol addresses extracted by a discovery apparatus, the method comprising the steps of:
monitoring traffic through a switch in the communications network;
extracting non-encrypted user identification information and associated Internet Protocol addresses from the monitored traffic;
accessing a database of the organization’s directory information, the organization’s directory information comprising user identification information but not requiring a list of devices; and
matching the extracted non-encrypted user identification information and the user identification information from the organization’s directory information as keys to link extracted Internet Protocol addresses to contacts in the organization’s directory information automatically determining which contacts in the organization’s directory information are currently using each of the extracted Internet Protocol addresses.
11. The method of claim 10, further comprising the step of:
storing the user identification information and associated Internet Protocol addresses in a central repository.
12. The method of claim 11, further comprising the steps of:
accessing the central repository; and
producing a data file, on a pre-determined time interval, the data file containing information on which user used which Internet Protocol address during the pre-determined time interval.
13. The method of claim 10, wherein the user identification information includes an electronic mail address andor a user name.
14. The method of claim 13, wherein the extracting step comprises the step of:
using pattern matching based upon a known electronic mail protocol andor authentication protocol to extract the non-encrypted user identification information and associated Internet Protocol address from the monitored traffic.
15. The method of claim 10, wherein the communications network is a local area network.
16. The method of claim 15, wherein the local area network is an Ethernet network.
17. The method of claim 10, wherein the database is a formatted database.
18. The method of claim 10, further comprising the step of:
receiving, via the communications network, a query to identify a user of a computer within the communications network, the query including an Internet Protocol address; and
responding to the query using the matching of a subset of the extracted Internet Protocol addresses with a subset of users, using the received Internet Protocol address.
19. The method of claim 10, wherein the database contains the following fields of data: (i) First Name and Last Name; and (ii) electronic mail address andor user name.
20. The method of claim 19, wherein the database also contains one of the following fields of data: (i) Middle Initial; (ii) Nick Names; (iii) Name Aliases; (iv) Building; (v) Room; (vi) Permanent E-mail; (vii) Temporary E-mail; or (viii) AffiliationOrganization; or (ix) any combination thereof.
21. The method of claim 19, further comprising the step of:
receiving, via the communications network, a query to identify a user of a computer within the communications network, the query including at least one of the fields of data; and
responding to the query using the matching of a subset of the extracted Internet Protocol addresses to a subset of users and using a received field of data.
22. A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having instructions and control logic stored therein for causing a computer to execute instructions to identify users of Internet Protocol addresses within an organization’s communications network by matching user identification information from an organization’s directory information with non-encrypted user identification information and current Internet Protocol addresses extracted by a discovery apparatus, the control logic comprising:
first computer readable program code means for causing the computer to monitor traffic through a switch in the communications network;
second computer readable program code means for causing the computer to extract non-encrypted user identification information and associated Internet Protocol addresses from the monitored traffic;
third computer readable program code means for causing the computer to access a database of the organization’s directory information, the organization’s directory information comprising user identification information but not requiring a list of devices; and
fourth computer readable program code means for causing the computer to match the extracted non-encrypted user identification information and the user identification information from the organization’s directory information as keys to link the extracted Internet Protocol addresses to contacts in the organization’s directory information;
wherein the matching automatically determines which contacts in the organization’s directory information are currently using each of the extracted Internet Protocol addresses.
23. The computer program product of claim 22, further comprising:
fifth computer readable program code means for causing the computer to store the extracted non-encrypted user identification information and associated Internet Protocol addresses in a central repository.
24. The computer program product of claim 23, further comprising:
sixth computer readable program code means for causing the computer to access the central repository; and
seventh computer readable program code means for causing the computer to create a data file, on a pre-determined time interval, the data file containing information on which user used which terminal during the pre-determined time interval.
25. The computer program product of claim 22, wherein the user identification information includes an electronic mail address andor a user name.
26. The computer program product of claim 25, wherein the second computer readable program code means comprises:
fifth computer readable program code means for causing the computer to perform pattern matching based upon a known electronic mail protocol andor authentication protocol to extract the non-encrypted user identification information and the associated Internet Protocol address from the monitored traffic.
27. The computer program product of claim 22, wherein the database is a formatted database.
28. The computer program product of claim 22, further comprising:
fifth computer readable program code means for causing the computer to receive, via the communications network, a query to identify a user of a terminal within the communications network, the query including an Internet Protocol address; and
sixth computer readable program code means for causing the computer to respond to the query using the matching of a subset of the extracted Internet Protocol addresses with a subset of users, using a received Internet Protocol address.
29. The computer program product of claim 22, wherein the database contains the following fields of data: (i) First Name and Last Name; and (ii) electronic mail address andor user name.
30. The computer program product of claim 29, wherein the database also contains one of the following fields of data: (i) Middle Initial; (ii) Nick Names; (iii) Name Aliases; (iv) Building; (v) Room; (vi) Permanent E-mail; (vii) Temporary E-mail; or (viii) AffiliationOrganization; or (ix) any combination thereof.
31. The computer program product of claim 29, further comprising:
fifth computer readable program code means for causing the computer to receive, via the communications network, a query to identify a user of a terminal within the communications network, the query including a field of data; and
sixth computer readable program code means for causing the computer to respond to the query using the matching of a subset of the extracted Internet Protocol addresses with a subset of users, using the fields of data.