Scott W Elliott

US Patent:

6630946, Oct 7, 2003

Filed:

Nov 10, 1999

Appl. No.:

09/438076

Inventors:

Scott C. Elliott - Hillsboro OR
K. Jeffrey Percy Carr - Tigard OR

Assignee:

Symantec Corporation - Cupertino CA

International Classification:

G06F 300

US Classification:

345781, 345803, 345806, 345853, 707202, 711161

Abstract:

A machine-automated system tries to save vital-data of a crashed or otherwise frozen application program by: (a) attempting to revive a program that has apparently become frozen; (b) identifying the apparently-frozen program; (c) identifying one or more windows within the identified program that are most likely to immediately contain data which the user is likely to consider as vital and in need of saving; (d) sending one or both of a SAVE and a CLOSE command message to each of the identified one or more windows so as to thereby cause that window to itself save its vital data contents and to thereafter gracefully close itself. A profiling database may be constructed for helping to identify the vital data-containing windows of both popular (well known) and obscure application programs. One such profiling database has ID records which define parent/child hierarchy relationships between vital data-containing windows and other windows of various application programs.

US Patent:

6631480, Oct 7, 2003

Filed:

Nov 10, 1999

Appl. No.:

09/438020

Inventors:

Art Zeigler - Beaverton OR
Scott Elliott - Hillsboro OR

Assignee:

Symantec Corporation - Cupertino CA

International Classification:

G06F 1100

US Classification:

714 20

Abstract:

The present invention is directed toward creating backup copies of previously saved data before it is modified by a crashed computer program executing in a preemptive multitasking operating system environment. The invention is advantageous in that it protects against data loss and corruption caused by operating system calls issued by malfunctioning, crashed computer programs. A method in accordance with the invention comprises the steps of: (a) monitoring operating system calls made by a crashed program; (b) intercepting a selected group of operating system calls made by a crashed program before they are executed by an operating system; (c) logging a subset of the selected group of intercepted operating system calls in a memory; (d) creating backup copies of data potentially modified by a further subset of the selected group of intercepted operating system calls; and (e) passing intercepted operating system calls to an operating system. In one embodiment of the present invention, backup copies of data are stored in backup files extracted from data appended to an undo file. In another embodiment of the present invention, backup copies of data are stored directly in backup files.

US Patent:

6662310, Dec 9, 2003

Filed:

Nov 10, 1999

Appl. No.:

09/438135

Inventors:

Marco Lopez - Beaverton OR
Scott C. Elliott - Hillsboro OR

Assignee:

Symantec Corporation - Cupertino CA

International Classification:

G06F 1100

US Classification:

714 15, 714 38

Abstract:

A machine-automated system tries to save vital-data of a crashed or otherwise frozen application program by: (a) identifying the apparently-frozen program; (b) identifying one or more windows within the identified program that are most likely to immediately contain data which the user is likely to consider as vital and in need of saving; and (c) instructing the frozen application program to itself transfer the data of said one or more of said identified windows to a separate, data-saving thread. A profiling database may be constructed for helping to identify the vital data-containing windows of both popular (well known) and obscure application programs. One such profiling database has ID records which define parent/child hierarchy relationships between vital data-containing windows and other windows of various application programs.

US Patent:

7320125, Jan 15, 2008

Filed:

May 23, 2002

Appl. No.:

10/155825

Inventors:

Scott Clementson Elliott - Hillsboro OR, US
Kenneth A. Gengler - Portland OR, US

Assignee:

Techtracker, Inc. - Portland OR

International Classification:

G06F 9/44

US Classification:

717131, 717133, 717124, 714 38, 714 45

Abstract:

A digital computer call stack or combined call stack and data stack is traced and analyzed following the occurrence of an unhandled exception or crash. Stack frame sizes and other artifacts are used to form a distinctive stack signature that generally reflects execution of the program up to the point of failure, without being finely detailed. Stack signatures can be associated with program bugs, and stack signatures collected from other failure instances, at other times or on other machines, can be conveniently compared for recognizing particular types of failures, without access to source code and without detailed study of memory dumps.

US Patent:

7716686, May 11, 2010

Filed:

Feb 14, 2006

Appl. No.:

11/354392

Inventors:

Gregory William Dalcher - Tigard OR, US
Scott Clementson Elliott - Hillsboro OR, US
Joe C. Lowe - Aloha OR, US

Assignee:

McAfee, Inc. - Santa Clara CA

International Classification:

G06F 3/00

US Classification:

719328, 719331

Abstract:

A system, method and computer program product are provided. In use, a holding instruction is inserted. After inserting the holding instruction, the hooking of an interface is completed.

US Patent:

7877641, Jan 25, 2011

Filed:

Nov 20, 2007

Appl. No.:

11/943515

Inventors:

Scott Clementson Elliott - Hillsboro OR, US
Kenneth A. Gengler - Portland OR, US

Assignee:

Techtracker, Inc. - Portland OR

International Classification:

G06F 11/00

US Classification:

714 38, 714 33, 714 37, 714 45, 717128, 717131

Abstract:

A method of forming a stack signature responsive to execution of a computer program in a digital computer according to one embodiment comprises halting execution of the computer program, tracing the program's call stack to determine a series of stack frames resulting from execution of the program, capturing a selected metric with respect to each stack frame in the series, encoding each captured metric into a corresponding symbol, and assembling the series of encoded symbols into an ordered list thereby forming a stack frame signature that reflects generally the execution of the computer program.

US Patent:

8156379, Apr 10, 2012

Filed:

Nov 20, 2007

Appl. No.:

11/943528

Inventors:

Scott Clementson Elliott - Hillsboro OR, US
Kenneth A. Gengler - Portland OR, US

Assignee:

Techtracker, Inc. - Portland OR

International Classification:

G06F 11/00

US Classification:

714 381, 714 33, 714 37, 714 45, 717128, 717131

Abstract:

A method of assessing a computer program under actual working conditions according to one embodiment comprises executing the computer program multiple times under actual working conditions, in response to each unhandled exception encountered during execution of the computer program, creating a corresponding stack frame signature to characterize the state of the program, and comparing the stack frame signatures to determine which unhandled exceptions are likely to have resulted from similar features.

US Patent:

8438424, May 7, 2013

Filed:

Feb 24, 2012

Appl. No.:

13/404316

Inventors:

Scott Clementson Elliott - Hillsboro OR, US
Kenneth A. Gengler - Portland OR, US

Assignee:

CBS Interactive, Inc. - New York NY

International Classification:

G06F 11/00

US Classification:

714 381, 714 33, 714 37, 714 45, 717128, 717131

Abstract:

A method of assessing a computer program under actual working conditions according to one embodiment comprises executing the computer program multiple times under actual working conditions, in response to each unhandled exception encountered during execution of the computer program, creating a corresponding stack frame signature to characterize the state of the program, and comparing the stack frame signatures to determine which unhandled exceptions are likely to have resulted from similar features.