Claims
- 1. A method for managing data comprising:
producing a probabilistically unique identifier for a digital sequence; and comparing said probabilistically unique identifier to a list of other identifiers with their corresponding digital sequences.
- 2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
adding said probabilistically unique identifier to said list if said probabilistically unique identifier is not previously in said list.
- 3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
removing said probabilistically unique identifier from said list if said probabilistically unique identifier is previously in said list.
- 4. The method of claim 2 further comprising:
adding said digital sequence corresponding to said probabilistically unique identifier to said list.
- 5. The method of claim 3 further comprising:
removing said digital sequence corresponding to said probabilistically unique identifier from said list.
- 6. The method of claim 4 further comprising:
adding a correspondence between said digital sequence and said probabilistically unique identifier for that sequence.
- 7. The method of claim 1 wherein said step of producing comprises:
hashing said digital sequence to produce said probabalistically unique identifier.
- 8. The method of claim 7 wherein said step of hashing is carried out by means of an industry standard digest algorithm.
- 9. The method of claim 8 wherein said step of hashing is carried out by one of an MD4, MD5, SHA or SHA-1 algorithm.
- 10. The method of claim 1 wherein said step of producing comprises:
generating a checksum for said digital sequence to produce said probabilistically unique identifier.
- 11. The method of claim 1 wherein said digital sequence is descriptive meta data of at least one other digital sequence.
- 12. The method of claim 1 wherein said digital sequence is descriptive meta data of at least one probabilistically unique identifier.
- 13. The method of claim 1 wherein said digital sequence describes a method that represents at least one digital sequence.
- 14. A method for managing data comprising:
dividing a digital sequence into a plurality of shorter digital sequences; and producing probabilistically unique identifiers for each said plurality of shorter digital sequences; and comparing said probabilistically unique identifiers to a list of other identifiers.
- 15. The method of claim 14 further comprising the step of:
dividing said digital sequence into a plurality of shorter digital sequences; and producing a like plurality of probabilistically unique identifiers corresponding to each of said plurality of shorter digital sequences.
- 16. The method of claim 14 further comprising;
comparing each plurality of identifiers to said list.
- 17. The method of claim 14 wherein said step of dividing produces said shorter digital sequences having individually variable lengths.
- 18. The method of claim 14 wherein said step of dividing is based on the content of said digital sequence.
- 19. The method of claim 14 wherein said step of dividing is based on meta data describing said digital sequence.
- 20. The method of claim 14 wherein said step of dividing produces said shorter digital sequences having substantially invariable lengths.
- 21. The method of claim 14 wherein said step of producing said like plurality of probabilistically unique identifiers comprises:
individually hashing said shorter digital sequences to produce said like plurality of probabilistically unique identifiers.
- 22. The method of claim 14 further comprising the step of:
adding said plurality of shorter digital sequences and said corresponding like plurality of probabilistically unique identifiers to said list.
- 23. The method of claim 14 further comprising the step of:
removing said plurality of shorter digital sequences and said corresponding like plurality of probabilistically unique identifiers from said list.
- 24. The method of claim 9 further comprising the step of:
utilizing at least a portion of said probabilistically unique identifier as an indicator to a location in said list for said step of comparing.
- 25. A computer program product comprising:
a computer usable medium having computer readable code embodied therein for managing data, said computer program product comprising: computer readable program code devices configured to cause a computer to effect producing a probabilistically unique identifier for a digital sequence; and computer readable program code devices configured to cause a computer to effect comparing said probabilistically unique identifier to a list of other identifiers corresponding to other digital sequences.
- 26. The computer program product of claim 25 further comprising:
computer readable program code devices configured to cause a computer to effect adding said probabilistically unique identifier to said list if said probabilistically unique identifier is not previously in said list.
- 27. The computer program product of claim 26 further comprising:
computer readable program code devices configured to cause a computer to effect adding said corresponding digital sequence to said list.
- 28. The computer program product of claim 25 wherein said computer readable program code devices configured to cause said computer to effect producing comprises:
computer readable program code devices configured to cause a computer to effect hashing said digital sequence to produce said probabilistically unique identifier.
- 29. The computer program product of claim 28 wherein said computer readable program code devices configured to cause a computer to effect hashing is carried out by means of an industry standard digest algorithm.
- 30. The computer program product of claim 29 wherein said computer readable program code devices configured to cause a computer to effect hashing is carried out by one of an MD4, MD5, SHA or SHA-1 algorithm.
- 31. The computer program product of claim 25 wherein said computer readable program code devices configured to cause a computer to effect producing comprises:
computer readable program code devices configured to cause a computer to effect generating a checksum for said digital sequence to produce said probabilistically unique identifier.
- 32. The computer program product of claim 25 further comprising:
computer readable program code devices configured to cause a computer to effect creating a directory list containing said probabilistically unique identifier for said digital sequence.
- 33. The computer program product of claim 25 further comprising:
computer readable program code devices configured to cause a computer to effect dividing said digital sequence into a plurality of shorter digital sequences; and computer readable program code devices configured to cause a computer to effect producing a like plurality of probabilistically unique identifiers corresponding to each of said plurality of shorter digital sequences.
- 34. The computer program product of claim 33 wherein said computer readable program code devices configured to cause a computer to effect dividing produces said shorter digital sequences having individually variable length.
- 35. The computer program product of claim 33 wherein said computer readable program code devices configured to cause a computer to effect dividing produces said shorter digital sequences having substantially invariable length.
- 36. The computer program product of claim 33 wherein said computer readable program code devices configured to cause a computer to effect producing said like plurality of probabilistically unique identifiers comprises:
computer readable program code devices configured to cause a computer to effect individually hashing said shorter digital sequences to produce said like plurality of probabilistically unique identifiers.
- 37. The computer program product of claim 33 further comprising:
computer readable program code devices configured to cause a computer to effect adding said plurality of shorter digital sequences and said corresponding like plurality of probabilistically unique identifiers to said list.
- 38. The computer program product of claim 25 further comprising:
computer readable program code devices configured to cause a computer to effect utilizing at least a portion of said probabilistically unique identifier as an index into a table of locations for said list for said step of comparing.
- 39. A method for managing data comprising:
producing a probabilistically unique identifier for a digital sequence; and comparing said probabilistically unique identifier to a list of other identifiers corresponding to other digital sequences.
- 40. The method of claim 39 further comprising:
adding said probabilistically unique identifier to said list if said probabilistically unique identifier is not previously in said list.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATIONS
[0001] The present invention claims priority from U.S. Provisional Patent Application Serial No. 60/183,762 for: “System and Method for Decentralized Data Storage” filed Feb. 18, 2000, the disclosure of which is herein specifically incorporated by this reference.
Provisional Applications (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
|
60183762 |
Feb 2000 |
US |
Continuations (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09777150 |
Feb 2001 |
US |
Child |
10757753 |
Jan 2004 |
US |