Kontiki, Inc.

Autodesk, Inc.

John B Wainwright

Wade L Hennessey

Michael Pittman

Frank DeLise

Frank Delise

Michael Malone

One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates optimizing content delivery on a network. During operation, the system receives an item of content at a first client. During the download of the content or after downloading the content, the first client receives a broadcast request for the content from a second client on the same local subnet. Upon receiving the broadcast request, the first client sends a broadcast response to the local subnet, wherein the broadcast response identifies a multicast address to which the first client will deliver the content. The first client then delivers the content to the multicast address so that the second client and any other interested clients on the local subnet can receive the content.

Method and apparatus for optimizing content delivery on local subnets

A method and apparatus for establishing relationships between attributes of objects is provided. According to one aspect, a set of first user input data that selects a first attribute that is associated with a first object is received. A set of second user input data that selects a second attribute that is associated with a second object is also received. A first set of data that indicates how changes to a value associated with the first attribute are to affect a value associated with the second attribute is then stored.

Parameter wiring

A method and apparatus are provided for specifying that an operation should be performed on an attribute of each object of a group of objects. A statement, for example, in a script, specifies an operation to perform on an attribute of a set of objects. The statement may specify the set in a variety of ways that may be easier to program. According to an aspect of the present invention, the statement may specify an operation identifier and pattern matching criteria for identifiers associated with objects. Objects that are associated with identifiers that satisfy the pattern matching criteria are identified, and for each identified object, the operation is applied to the attribute of the object. According to another aspect of the present invention, the statement may specify an operation identifier and an identifier associated with a collection of objects. The operation is applied to the objects that belong to the collection of objects.

Specifying operations to be applied to the attributes of a set of objects

A mechanism for incorporating user input modes in a scripting language are provided for. A context allows use of user input modes in a scripting language in a manner that corresponds to their use in a GUI. A programming construct, referred to as a context, specifies at least one user input mode and a state for the user input mode that are applied to a set of instructions. The operations specified by the instructions that are referenced by a context are executed as if the user input modes referred to by the contexts have the state specified by the contexts.

Using context prefixes that correspond to user input modes to control execution of scripting language

One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates determining the network topology in a peer-to-peer network. The system operates by performing a tracerouting operation to obtain a traceroute from a first client to a directory server, wherein a traceroute describes a path through which a packet travels between the first client and the directory server, including addresses of the routers through which the packet travels. Next, the system sends the traceroute to the directory server from the first client. The directory server then uses the traceroute to build a router graph that represents the topology of the peer-to-peer network.

Method and apparatus for determining network topology in a peer-to-peer network

One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates receiving content at a client from one or more servers that can potentially provide the content. The client starts by sending a request for the content to a directory server. In response to the request, the client receives a list of candidate servers that can potentially provide the content from the directory server. Once the client has received the list of candidate servers, the client sends a request to one or more of the candidate servers for the content, and subsequently receives the content from one or more of the candidate servers.

Method and apparatus for facilitating distributed delivery of content across a computer network

One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates receiving content from a primary peer and forwarding it to a secondary peer, wherein blocks of the content are sent to the secondary peer prior to all of the blocks of the content being received from the primary peer. The system starts by receiving an encrypted list of checksums from a server, wherein each checksum in the list is associated with a corresponding block of the content. Next, the system decrypts the encrypted list of checksums to form a list of decrypted checksums. The system then receives a block of the content from the primary peer and calculates a checksum for the block of the content. The system subsequently compares the calculated checksum with a corresponding checksum from the list of decrypted checksums received from the server. If the calculated checksum matches the corresponding checksum, the system sends the block of the content to the secondary peer.

Method and apparatus for facilitating secure distributed content delivery

One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates dynamically configuring communication parameters for an application on a network node. During operation, the system monitors activities on the network node that are external to the application. If the level of the activities exceeds a specified threshold, the system adjusts the communications parameters for the application, so that activities external to the application on the network node are not adversely affected by communication activities of the application.

Dynamically configuring network communication parameters for an application

A method and apparatus for performing operations using drag and drop features is provided. For example, a source object, which includes instructions that perform the operations, is applied to a target object, such as a graphical object or a window, by a user performing a drag and drop gesture. This can be accomplished by the user clicking on an icon or an item in a menu, which results in a representation of the source object being displayed on the user's computer. The representation moves across the display as the user performs the drag. When the user drops the representation on the intended target object, the instructions are executed and the operations are performed.

Growing community of inventors

Los Gatos, CA, United States of America

John B Wainwright