Bryan Thomas Starbuck, 5316430 NE 50Th St, Redmond, WA 98052

6944636, Sep 13, 2005

Apr 30, 2004

10/835830

Bryan T. Starbuck - Redmond WA, US

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

G06F017/30

707203, 707 10, 707201, 707236

Generally, the present invention provides for a distributed computing system that is capable of associating time-date information with a property value in the database. The distributed computing system has a device that stores properties in a database without corresponding time-date fields, and thus is considered a low fidelity or legacy device. Example embodiments provide that time-date information corresponding to remote property values can be identified and formatted in a standard format parsable by one or more devices in the distributed computing system. The formatted time-date information is sent to the remote database for storage in a field associated with the remote property values. The formatted time-date information can then subsequently be used in resolving conflicts between property values.

6950835, Sep 27, 2005

Jun 28, 2004

10/878717

Bryan T. Starbuck - Redmond WA, US

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

G06F017/30

707203, 10201, 709248

During synchronization of data between a remote device and a local device, it can be determined if a value for a property on a remote device has changed since a last synchronization of the property between the remote device and a local machine. A remote representation of a property value is compared to a local representation associated with the same property value. If the representations are identical, it can be determined that the property value did not change on the remote device. If, however, they are not identical then the property value must have changed after the remote representation was generated.

6977993, Dec 20, 2005

Apr 30, 2004

10/835823

Bryan T. Starbuck - Redmond WA, US
Deana R. Fuller - Seattle WA, US
Martijn E. Van Tilburg - Seattle WA, US

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

H04M001/64

379 8821, 379 8823

A mechanism for placing a telephone call while at the same time communicating context (e. g. , subject, importance and/or nature) of the telephone call. The caller uses a mechanism on a user interface to instruct a caller computing system to place a telephone call to a callee computing system. Using the same user interface, the caller also identifies some contextual information for the telephone call such as, for example, the subject, importance and/or nature of the telephone call. The caller computing system then constructs a call invitation data structure that includes both an invitation to the callee to engage in a telephone conversation and the user-entered identification of the context of the telephone call. Upon receiving the call invitation data structure, the callee computing system reads the identification of the context of the telephone call, and then takes appropriate action based on the context for the telephone call.

7007045, Feb 28, 2006

Jun 28, 2004

10/878095

Bryan T. Starbuck - Redmond WA, US

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

G06F 17/30

707203, 707 10, 707201, 709236, 709248

Example embodiments provide for preserving memory resources by selecting property values to be assigned time-date information used in resolving conflicts between sync values. The property values may be selected based on the available resources of a remote device, e. g. , when the time-date information is to be stored in a field of limited space. Further, the property values may be selected based on historical information, such as the most recently or frequently modified values. Other example embodiments also provide for storing an upper and/or lower boundary of time-date information for the remaining property values not selected. For example, the most recently modified property time-date value may be used for the upper boundary and the oldest modified time-date value may be used for the lower boundary.

7062021, Jun 13, 2006

Oct 24, 2005

11/256732

Bryan T. Starbuck - Redmond WA, US
Deana R. Fuller - Seattle WA, US
Martijn E. Van Tilburg - Seattle WA, US

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

H04M 1/64

379 8821, 379 8823, 379 9317, 37914204

A mechanism for placing a telephone call while at the same time communicating context (e. g. , subject, importance and/or nature) of the telephone call. The caller uses a mechanism on a user interface to instruct a caller computing system to place a telephone call to a callee computing system. Using the same user interface, the caller also identifies some contextual information for the telephone call such as, for example, the subject, importance and/or nature of the telephone call. The caller computing system then constructs a call invitation data structure that includes both an invitation to the callee to engage in a telephone conversation and the user-entered identification of the context of the telephone call. Upon receiving the call invitation data structure, the callee computing system reads the identification of the context of the telephone call, and then takes appropriate action based on the context for the telephone call.

7155479, Dec 26, 2006

Jan 30, 2002

10/060489

Steven A. Cover - Redmond WA, US
Chad M. Whitney - Seattle WA, US
Bryan T. Starbuck - Duvall WA, US
Chee H. Chew - Redmond WA, US
Yu Zhang - Bellevue WA, US

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

G06F 15/16

709203

A requesting computer system accesses an identifier, which is representative of services (e. g. electronic mail or news groups provided over a network) that will be consumed by consumer modules included in a consuming computer system. The identifier may be received at a configuration computer system that contains configuration information associated with the consumer modules. Receiving the identifier causes a search of the configuration information contained in the configuration computer system. As a result of the search, the configuration computer system may identify configuration information associated with the network services that will be consumed. A configuration computer system may identify configuration information associated with itself or other external services providers. The configuration computer system causes the identified configuration information to be sent to the consuming computer system. The modules that consume the services may automate entry of configuration information to reduce the manual entry of the configuration information.

7194070, Mar 20, 2007

Aug 17, 2005

11/205676

Bryan T. Starbuck - Redmond WA, US
Deana R. Fuller - Seattle WA, US
Martijn E. Van Tilburg - Seattle WA, US

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

H04M 1/64

379 8811, 379 8813

A mechanism for placing a telephone call while at the same time communicating context (e. g. , subject, importance and/or nature) of the telephone call. The caller uses a mechanism on a user interface to instruct a caller computing system to place a telephone call to a callee computing system. Using the same user interface, the caller also identifies some contextual information for the telephone call such as, for example, the subject, importance and/or nature of the telephone call. The caller computing system then constructs a call invitation data structure that includes both an invitation to the callee to engage in a telephone conversation and the user-entered identification of the context of the telephone call. Upon receiving the call invitation data structure, the callee computing system reads the identification of the context of the telephone call, and then takes appropriate action based on the context for the telephone call.

7194516, Mar 20, 2007

Oct 23, 2003

10/692201

Gail Borod Giacobbe - Seattle WA, US
Bryan T. Starbuck - Redmond WA, US
Randy Knight Winjum - Vashon WA, US
John Heinrich Lueders - Seattle WA, US
Alexander E. Vaschillo - Redmond WA, US
Stephen T. Wells - Seattle WA, US
Robert C. Combs - Redmond WA, US
Sridhar Sundararaman - Bellevue WA, US
Raghavendra Rachamadugu - Hyderabad, IN
Hubert Louis Marie Van Hoof - Seattle WA, US

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

G06F 15/16

709206, 709217, 709250, 707 3, 379 8813

The present invention extends to methods, systems, computer program products, and data structures for presenting different types of electronic messages at a common interface. Electronic message items are stored in an item database along with other types of items, such as, for example, contact items, folder items, document items, etc. Electronic message items have some common defined data fields and possibly other differently defined data fields that represent protocol and/or application specific properties. Computer systems can query the item database for message related data (e. g. , from commonly defined data fields) and display links to message related data at a common messaging interface. Links to different types of electronic messages (as represented by protocol and/or application specific properties) may be displayed simultaneously at the common messaging interface.