A method and system for supplying gardening/agricultural information and advice uses an inventory of plant life on a user's property to generate a recommended plant maintenance plan. The method and system may be automated by a computer. The recommended maintenance plan includes recommended gardening materials and a schedule of times or time windows during which the materials should best be applied for all of the various plants. Also, specific instructions may be supplied to the user in a timely fashion as to when and how to apply various gardening materials, as well as exactly which gardening materials should be applied, to the various types of plant life on the user's property. If the user so chooses, the recommended materials may be automatically sent to the user at the appropriate times and an account (e.g., credit card) of the user may be automatically debited accordingly.

A method 10 for displaying warranty information by use of a display of indicators 72, 74 having one of a variety of colors. Various item function groups 68, 70 are created and each function group has a certain indicator 72, 74. The color of each indicator 72, 74 is based upon the number of warranty claims received for the unique function group 68, 70 to which each indicator 72, 74 respectively pertains. These selectively colored indicators 72, 74 allow a user of the methodology 10 to be quickly and efficiently warned of the existence of an undesirably high amount of warranty claims.

A method and apparatus identifies an appropriate gardening based upon user responses to a plurality of inquiries. Inquiries may include location of the gardening need (lawn, vegetable, house, pet, etc.), as well as type of pest (insect, weed, etc.). In a preferred embodiment, the method is practiced as an Internet site that provides the user with the opportunity to purchase identified gardening materials through the Internet. In a preferred embodiment, the gardening materials are identified based at least in part upon the geographic location of the user, which may be specified by zip code, state, region of the country or any combination of these. The product label, which may differ from state to state, is also displayed in a preferred embodiment based upon the state indicated by the user.

A web-based application is used to assist customer service representatives or others answer questions about various items such as electronic equipment. The application provides the user with an interface with links to additional pages of information. In one embodiment, the application can be configured to allow the user to answer questions about DSS satellite television systems, including installation, operation and programming information. The web-based application provides information to the user as well as interactive displays that simulate the actual operation of the unit under investigation. The displays can be rotated to assist the user in visualizing the unit under investigation and dialog boxes can be nested to appear when specific portions of a display are selected. For example, the display of a decoder box could be rotated and functional keys selected to obtain additional information about their function.

In an example information processing apparatus, three information groups divided by type into general information, system-inherent information, and user information, are utilized to give operational directions. The information processing apparatus selects one or more best information from a plurality of input information based on the three information groups, whereby the best information can be selected with flexibility and high reliability.