Abstract: A hybrid system and method for delivering “streaming” media within the home. According to the method, small portions of media items from a controlling device are received at a rendering device for pre-caching into a cache. Upon a user selecting a media item for playback, play of the media item is immediately started from the cache in real-time while the remaining portions of the selected media item are downloaded from the controlling device and appended to cache at a rate faster than real-time.

Abstract: A hybrid system and method for delivering “streaming” media within the home. According to the method, small portions of media items from a controlling device are received at a rendering device for pre-caching into a cache. Upon a user selecting a media item for playback, play of the media item is immediately started from the cache in real-time while the remaining portions of the selected media item are downloaded from the controlling device and appended to cache at a rate faster than real-time.

Abstract: A client device receives one or more identifiers for one or more access-protected resources from a server. An identifier for an access-protected resource is communicated to a remote user interface (RUI) client. The RUI client requests the access-protected resource from a RUI server and sends an access code to the RUI server. The access-protected resource is received in response to transmitting the access code.

Abstract: The claimed subject matter relates to dynamically routing content to a dedicated entertainment device and, more particularly, to the dynamic routing of content from a content server to one or more dedicated entertainment devices.

Abstract: A method of creating transparent graphics for display in a computer system. A first frame buffer is provided to store display components to be displayed transparently on a computer monitor, the display components having a plurality of pixels. A second frame buffer is provided as a new output frame buffer. Pixels of the first frame buffer are color mixed with pixels of the computer system's original output frame buffer to produce color mixed pixels. The pixels of the output frame buffer are interleaved with the color mixed pixels, the interleaved pixels are stored in the second frame buffer, and the pixels of the second frame buffer are displayed. The color mixing is accomplished by a weighted average of the color components of the pixels of the first frame buffer and the output frame buffer.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for securing a computer from unauthorized access via the Internet. The binding monitor service detects when an unauthorized protocol, typically a non-Internet protocol has a binding to an adapter such as an external network interface connector. When such a binding is detected, an alert is generated alerting the user or hardware to take care of the potential security breach.

Abstract: Providing input signals to a computer system having a display, the computer system being coupled to a video camera or other video source, is accomplished by capturing video data signals generated by the video camera, the video data signals representing a scene, rendering the scene on the display such that the scene is reflected and transparently visible on the display, analyzing the video data signals to detect an object in the scene, and generating an input signal for the computer system in response to the detected object.