ALAN MICHAEL SNYDER
Pilots at Middlefield Rd, Palo Alto, CA

6353860, Mar 5, 2002

Dec 23, 1997

08/996784

Dwight F. Hare - La Selva Beach CA
Robert B. Hagmann - Palo Alto CA
Michael L. Powell - Palo Alto CA
Alan Snyder - Palo Alto CA
Peter Vanderbilt - Mountain View CA

Sun Microsystems, Inc. - Palo Alto CA

G06F 954

709316

A variety of methods, apparatus and data structures for managing collections of objects are described. In one aspect of the invention, an object that is intended for use in a distributed object operating environment has a structure including a group designation, a co-activation designation and a co-process designation. The group designation is arranged to identify a group to which the object belongs. The group is defined as a collection of objects which share a common persistent state. The co-activation designation is arranged to identify a co-activation set to which the object belongs. The co-activation set is a collection of objects which are to be activated at the same time. The co-process designation is arranged to identify a co-process set to which the object belongs. The co-process set is a collection of objects which are to be activated within a single process. A various embodiments, a variety of methods of utilizing one or more of these designations to facilitate efficient operation of a distributed computing system are also described.

6161147, Dec 12, 2000

Mar 31, 1995

8/414923

Alan Snyder - Palo Alto CA
Rod J. McChesney - Redwood City CA
Mark W. Hapner - San Jose CA
Arthur A. Van Hoff - Palo Alto CA
Maurice Balick - Fairhaven MD
Rafael Bracho - Cupertino CA
David M. Brownell - Palo Alto CA

Sun Microsystems, Inc. - Palo Alto CA

G06F 15163, G06F 900, G06F 946

709310

A variety of methods and apparatus for managing deactivation and deletion of objects and server processes are taught. According to some embodiments of the present invention, a thread of execution termed the reaper thread systematically cycles through a computer process deactivating and/or deleting objects based upon a variety of criteria. One suitable criterion for object deactivation is based upon the amount of time lapsed since a client has requested services of the object. According to the timeout criterion, the reaper thread determines the period of time since the last client requested services from the object, compares this to a timeout value which may be defined by any suitable entity, and proceeds with deactivation and/or deletion accordingly. Object deletion may have a separate criterion or be specifically requested by a client. A deletion flag may be set to indicate that object deletion is requested.

5692183, Nov 25, 1997

Mar 31, 1995

8/414770

Mark W. Hapner - San Jose CA
Alan Snyder - Palo Alto CA

Sun Microsystems, Inc. - Mountain View CA

G06F 1730

395614

A number of methods and apparatus are disclosed for providing transparent persistence in a distributed object operating environment are disclosed. In general, the present invention teaches replacing the value in the object's data pointer (addressing information which points to the objects limited persistent memory) with a pointer value which points out to another persistent storage device. In preferred embodiments, a persistent storage manager (external and transparent to the distributed object) maintains the object data. In a specific embodiment, a distributed object framework is provided which has the mechanism for providing the transparent persistent strategy of the present invention. An object developer develops object implementations which the distributed object generates distributed objects with, in the process automatically providing transparent persistence.

6157953, Dec 5, 2000

Jul 28, 1998

9/124181

April S. Chang - Los Altos CA
Andrew R. Large - La Selva Beach CA
Alan Snyder - Palo Alto CA

Sun Microsystems, Inc. - Palo Alto CA

G06F 1300

709225

A method and apparatus of securing access to a service manager for the administration of services residing on multiple service host computers from an administration server computer is described. A user identifier, such as a user name, and a corresponding password are provided to the service manager. The user identifier is associated with a system administrator having administrative access to the services. The service manager authenticates the user by comparing the user identifier and password against a list of user identifiers and corresponding passwords stored in a persistent memory. A list of services to which the system administrator has administrative access is derived from the data in persistent memory. When the system administrator makes a request to administer one or more services from the list of services, the administrator's access control is verified at the service host computers on which the requested services reside by examining access control data in the persistent memory. Management files are transferred from the service host computers to the administration server computer thereby facilitating manipulation of the management files utilizing the service manager.

6219700, Apr 17, 2001

Jul 28, 1998

9/124349

April S. Chang - Los Altos CA
Andrew R. Large - La Selva Beach CA
Alan Snyder - Palo Alto CA

Sun Microsystems, Inc. - Palo Alto CA

G06F 1300

709222

A method and apparatus for managing computer network services from a central management console program residing on an administration server is disclosed. A service, such as an e-mail program, is installed, typically by a system administrator, on a host server computer. During installation, data relating to the service's management module is stored in a well-known location on the host server computer. A central management console program residing on an administration server causes the retrieval of the data relating to the management module from the well-known location. The central management console program stores the data relating to the management module in a storage area accessible by the console program and the host server computer and thereby facilitates the management and modification of the service from the central management console program. The central management console program can be accessed using a single uniform locator, such as a URL, instead of having to access each individual host service computer to manage services on a computer network.

5630136, May 13, 1997

Jun 9, 1995

8/494117

Andrew E. Davidson - Boulder Creek CA
Maurice Balick - Fairhaven MD
Alan Snyder - Palo Alto CA

Sun Microsystems, Inc. - Mountain View CA

G06F 1516

395676

An improved technique for serializing access to multithreading unsafe resources is described. A baton manager is used to manage the serializing of accesses to a multithreading unsafe resource. For a thread to access the multithreading unsafe resource, the thread must first obtain a baton from the baton manager. Then, once the thread has finished accessing the multithreading unsafe resource, the thread releases the baton to the baton manager. Hence, by using the baton manager to manage the baton, accesses to multithreading unsafe resources are serialized while program crashes or deadlocks are minimized. The multithreading unsafe resource will typically have a plurality of baton objects associated therewith. The baton objects are objects of object-oriented programming. The baton manager will permit at most one of the baton objects for a given multithreading unsafe resource to own the baton at a time.

5848419, Dec 8, 1998

May 21, 1997

8/859888

Mark W. Hapner - San Jose CA
Alan Snyder - Palo Alto CA

Sun Microsystems, Inc. - Palo Alto CA

G06F 1730

707103

A number of methods and apparatus are disclosed for providing transparent persistence in a distributed object operating environment are disclosed. In general, the present invention teaches replacing the value in the object's data pointer (addressing information which points to the objects limited persistent memory) with a pointer value which points out to another persistent storage device. In preferred embodiments, a persistent storage manager (external and transparent to the distributed object) maintains the object data. In a specific embodiment, a distributed object framework is provided which has the mechanism for providing the transparent persistent strategy of the present invention. An object developer develops object implementations which the distributed object generates distributed objects with, in the process automatically providing transparent persistence.

6941556, Sep 6, 2005

May 24, 1999

09/317714

Peter B. Kessler - Palo Alto CA, US
Swee Boon Lim - Mountain View CA, US
Peter Vanderbilt - Mountain View CA, US
Michael L. Powell - Palo Alto CA, US
Li-Wen Chen - Cupertino CA, US
Dwight F. Hare - La Selva Beach CA, US
Alan Snyder - Palo Alto CA, US

Sun Microsystems, Inc. - Santa Clara CA

G06F009/00

719316

A system and method provides dynamic and static type support for multiple definitions of individual types in a distributed object environment. Fully scoped object names incorporating prefixes are used to distinguish objects. The fully scoped names are used for both dynamic type determination through an interface repository and for statically compiled types in client and server stub routines. In the interface repository, a prefix naming context is provided for each root interface definition language context, allowing multiple definitions for objects with the same interface definition language object name, where each such definition resides in a separate prefix naming context. In one embodiment, the prefix naming contexts are defined by prefix interface definition objects. In another embodiment, the fully scoped object names are embedded by an interface definition language compiler in stub and skeleton code routines. RRS.

7983260, Jul 19, 2011

May 20, 2009

12/469263

Alan Michael Snyder - Palo Alto CA, US

Rovi Solutions Corporation - Santa Clara CA

H04L 12/28

370390, 370250, 370252, 370235, 370476

Techniques for watermarking and distributing are provided. Content is broken into frames, each frame includes a watermark. Resources request the content and each frame of each resource's acquired version of the content includes a watermark. The frames of each resource's acquired version of the content form unique watermark sequences or unique keys. Each watermark sequence or key is uniquely associated with a particular resource. Each resource is also provided one or more delivery plans for acquiring that resource's uniquely watermark and sequenced version of the content over the network.

7570641, Aug 4, 2009

Aug 23, 2005

11/211037

Alan Michael Snyder - Palo Alto CA, US

Macrovision Corporation - Santa Clara CA

H04L 12/28

370390, 370252, 370250, 370235, 713170

Techniques for watermarking and distributing are provided. Content is broken into frames, each frame includes a watermark. Resources request the content and each frame of each resource's acquired version of the content includes a watermark. The frames of each resource's acquired version of the content form unique watermark sequences or unique keys. Each watermark sequence or key is uniquely associated with a particular resource. Each resource is also provided one or more delivery plans for acquiring that resource's uniquely watermark and sequenced version of the content over the network.