Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Microsoft Corporation

Jai Srinivasan

Mukund Sankaranarayan

Matthijs Arjan Gates

Sean C McDowell

Jayachandran Raja

David S Bakin

Andy R Raffman

Alok Chakrabarti

Dale Alan Sather

Michael B Jones

Jason S Flaks

William G Parry

Forrest Curtis Foltz

Terje Kristian Backman

Kanchan Mitra

Jack Creasey

Mark James Encarnacion

George H Shaw

Michael Koenig

Robin C B Speed

Philippe Ferriere

Ira Snyder

Ehab Sobhy

Robin C Speed

Robin Speed

Mukund Sankarayan

Xuedong D Huang

Curtis Glenn Wong

Igor B Peev

Jonathan Jay Cadiz

Clark David Nicholson

Gursharan Singh Sidhu

Jay Beavers

Jonathan Edgar Fay

Rolando Jimenez Salgado

B Scott Ruble

Zlatko Michailov

Robert C Elmer

John Zhongqi Wang

Kevin Fan

Alexandru Croicu

Jay R Rathi

Shaofeng Zhu

Kaushik Barat

Robert Ion Gavrila

Hardik V Shah

Thomas Alexander Morrison

Hailei Zhang

Chae Seong Lim

Michael J Saunders

Hoe Jin Kim

Sudheer Maremanda

Abhimanyu Sharma

Nicholas Weinandt

Mark J Encarnacion

Matthijs A Gates

Jason Flaks

Systems, methods, and computer-executable instructions for supporting custom functions within an application. An application add-in is received that includes a custom function and a custom function location. The application is available across multiple platforms. The custom function is also available across multiple platforms. The custom function is registered within the application using the custom function location. A request to invoke the custom function is received within the application A custom function implementation is downloaded from the custom function location. The custom function implementation is executed. A return value is received from the custom function implementation. The return value may be displayed within the application.

Cross platform custom functions

Concepts and technologies are described herein for displaying temporal information in a spreadsheet application. In accordance with the concepts and technologies disclosed herein, spreadsheet data can be obtained at a computer system. The spreadsheet data can include data values, temporal information, and geographic information. The computer system can generate a visualization of the spreadsheet data based, at least partially, upon the data values, the temporal information, and the geographic location information. The computer system also can output the visualization.

Displaying temporal information in a spreadsheet application

Techniques for enabling software-assisted assignment of control of peripherals (e.g., assigning ownership of or assigning access to the peripherals) by a computing device. In accordance with techniques described herein, assignment of control of peripherals is aided by input from software facilities that instruct a peripheral management facility regarding assignment of peripherals. Software facilities may instruct the peripheral management facility in different ways. In some cases, a software facility may instruct the peripheral management facility how to assign control of a peripheral in a particular way, while in other cases a software facility may instruct the peripheral management facility how to assign control of a group of peripherals. In other cases, a software facility may not instruct a peripheral management facility how to assign control of peripherals, but may identify one or more groups of peripherals for which control should be assigned as a group.

Assignment of control of peripherals of a computing device

Resource management architectures implemented in computer systems to manage resources are described. In one embodiment, a general architecture includes a resource manager and multiple resource providers that support one or more resource consumers such as a system component or application. Each provider is associated with a resource and acts as the manager for the resource when interfacing with the resource manager. The resource manager arbitrates access to the resources provided by the resource providers on behalf of the consumers. A policy manager sets various policies that are used by the resource manager to allocate resources. A resource consumer creates an 'activity' at the resource manager and builds one or more 'configurations' that describe various sets of preferred resources required to perform the activity. Each resource consumer can specify one or more configurations for each activity.

Methods and architectures for resource management

Described herein are various techniques and principles for determining how to assign control of peripherals and assigning control of peripherals. In some embodiments, determining how to assign control of peripherals comprises reviewing connections of peripherals to the computing device and evaluating rules to determine management points in the connections. In some cases, the connections of peripherals to the computing device may be organized into a hierarchy corresponding to a hierarchy of physical connections of the peripherals, including physical connections of peripherals located remote from the computing device and possibly connected through another computing device. When management points are identified among the connections, control of peripherals associated with the management points may be assigned in the same way. For example, access rights to each of the peripherals may be assigned to a same user session.

Rule-based assignment of control of peripherals of a computing device

A computing system that has access to a streamed multimedia sample that is stored on a storage medium applies a zero-based presentation timestamp numbering scheme to the data packets of the multimedia sample, on-the-fly, and after each seek operation. After seeking to a desired starting point, the computing system reads ahead a maximum number of data packets within each media stream of the multimedia sample. A smallest timestamp (normalizing presentation timestamp) is identified and then subtracted from the timestamps of the data packets that are transmitted to the appropriate rendering devices, thereby creating appropriate presentation timestamps for the data packets for synchronizing the playback of the multimedia sample.

Audio/video synchronization with no cleanpoints

A user interface for a telephone system may include a telephone portion operable to provide telephone administration functionality for each of a plurality of telephones of a telephone system. The telephone portion may include a telephone icon corresponding to at least one telephone of the plurality of telephones, the telephone icon operable to provide the telephone administration functionality for the at least one telephone. Other portions of the user interface may include an external line portion, an extension portion, or a user portion, which may include, respectively, an external line icon, an extension icon, and a user icon, where each icon may provide associated administration functionality. Accordingly, the user interface allows an administrator of the telephone system to easily view and administer the devices and elements of the telephone system.

User interface for telephone system administration

Resource management architectures implemented in computer systems to manage resources are described. In one embodiment, a general architecture includes a resource manager and multiple resource providers that support one or more resource consumers such as a system component or application. Each provider is associated with a resource and acts as the manager for the resource when interfacing with the resource manager. The resource manager arbitrates access to the resources provided by the resource providers on behalf of the consumers. A policy manager sets various policies that are used by the resource manager to allocate resources. One policy is a priority-based policy that distinguishes among which applications and/or users have priority over others to use the resources. A resource consumer creates an 'activity' at the resource manager and builds one or more 'configurations' that describe various sets of preferred resources required to perform the activity. Each resource consumer can specify one or more configurations for each activity. If multiple configurations are specified, the resource consumer can rank them according to preference. This allows the resource consumers to be dynamically changed from one configuration to another as operating conditions change.

Resource manager architecture utilizing a policy manager

A programmable video recorder (PVR) includes a writer application programming interface (API) and a reader API that operate essentially independently to enable the PVR to be networked to multiple reader applications. The writer API creates a backing store and a shared memory mapped file. The backing store stores streamed data in temporary files. The shared memory mapped file stores state information of the backing store files. The reader API receives requests from reader applications to access the stored streamed data. In response to the requests, the reader API permits the reader applications to access the shared memory mapped file to determine where the stored streamed data is located. Upon locating the stored data, the reader API permits the requesting reader applications to access the stored streamed data.

Scalable programmable video recorder

A media server in a Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) network includes a resource sharing service to govern the distribution of resource information regarding resources to rendering devices. In one case, the resource sharing service consults a criterion to determine whether an identified network device is authorized to receive resource information. In another case, the resource sharing service consults another criterion to determine whether a specified individual associated with the media server must consent to the transfer of the resource information in order for the transfer to occur. The resource information may include resource metadata that describes high level information regarding resources, as well as resource content. The media server includes various user interface presentations that allow the media server user to specify shared resources and distribution criteria.

Routing of resource information in a network

A network architecture in a Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) network includes a resource sharing service to govern the distribution of resource information from a server to a recipient entity (such as rendering device or a control point). The network architecture includes one or more of the following provisions: (a) setting the server to operate in a predetermined private address range or an Auto IP range; (b) operating one or more parts of the network architecture on the same subnet; (c) setting a time to live (TTL) parameter associated with messages transmitted by the server to a predetermined number; (d) setting a number of permitted recipient entities to a predetermined number; (e) setting a number of permitted concurrent content distribution sessions to a predetermined session number; (f) granting access to a recipient entity on condition that the recipient entity has generated a message that conforms to the UPnP protocol; and (g) retiring a URL used to identify a location of a resource provided by the server after a predetermined amount of time.

Techniques for limiting network access

A system receives a broadcast program and temporarily stores the program data. A request is received to permanently record the broadcast program. This request is received after a portion of the broadcast program has been received and temporarily stored. The broadcast program is then permanently recorded, including the temporarily stored program data. A metafile identifies portions of the broadcast program and is accessible by a reader to continuously retrieve the stored portions of the broadcast program.

Method and apparatus for storing content

A media server in a Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) network includes a resource sharing service to govern the distribution of media resource information to rendering devices. The media server includes: a media service module operating in a clamped down user context (e.g., a local service user context) and configured to share resource information over the network; a supplemental module operating in a local system user context and configured to assist the media service module in sharing resource information over the network; and a control panel module operating in a logged on user context and configured to interact with a user via a user interface display. The local system user context provides a higher level of access to media server resources compared to the clamped down user context. The media server also provides fast user switching (FUS) functionality that allows multiple users to have respective instances of the control panel module pending at the same time. Further, the media server includes a mechanism to prevent rogue applications from masquerading as the control panel module and thereby gaining unauthorized access to the media service module.

Server architecture for network resource information routing

Growing community of inventors

Kirkland, WA, United States of America

Jai Srinivasan