Method of and content delivery server for delivering content to a personal computer having a disk drive which includes a network address for the content delivery server and a server-contacting program
View Patent ↗A content delivery server delivers digital content to a personal computer having a disk drive which stores a network address and server-contacting program for establishing a connection between the content delivery server and the personal computer. The content delivery system provides a variety of digital content including AVI, MPEG and MP3 format files to the personal computer and periodically refreshes the content according to user preferences.
1. A method of delivering content from a content delivery server to a personal computer system that includes a computing subsystem and a disk drive, the method comprising:
selecting a network address for the content delivery server;
selecting a server-contacting program;
storing the network address and the server-contacting program in the disk drive;
installing disk drive executable code in a disk controller circuit in the disk drive to initiate execution of the server-contacting program after the disk drive is connected to the computing subsystem in the personal computer system, wherein execution of the server-contacting program includes using the network address for connecting the personal computer system to the content delivery server; and
configuring the content delivery server, the configuring comprising:
receiving user information from the personal computer system while the personal computer system is connected to the content delivery server; and
delivering content to the personal computer system in response to the user information.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein:
the disk drive includes a protected area; and
the network address and the server-contacting program are stored in the protected area.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the disk drive executable code resides in a disk controller circuit.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the disk drive executable code delays initiating execution of the server-contacting program until a predetermined period has lapsed.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the personal computer system displays the content during a boot sequence.
6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the content is periodically changed according to a presentation schedule.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the disk drive executable code delays initiating execution of the server-contacting program until the disk drive executable code determines that a selected number of monitored events exceeds a threshold.
8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the monitored events includes the number of boot-ups in the computing subsystem.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the content is selected from the group comprising: a content display program, a game, an entertainment program, a utility program, entertainment data, advertisement data, and music data.
10. A content delivery server for delivering content to a personal computer system that includes a computing subsystem and a disk drive, the content delivery server comprising:
means for communicating with a personal computer system, wherein the personal computer system comprises:
a disk drive comprising:
a network address for identifying the content delivery server; and
a server contacting program;
a disk controller circuit for, upon the occurrence of a selected condition that is determined by the disk controller circuit, initiating execution of the server-contacting program after the disk drive is connected to the computing subsystem in the personal computer system, wherein execution of the server-contacting program includes using the network address for connecting the personal computer system to the content delivery server;
means for receiving user information from the personal computer system while the personal computer system is connected to the content delivery server;
means for maintaining a database including the user information associated with the disk drive in the personal computer system; and
means for delivering content to the personal computer system in response to the user information.
11. The content delivery server of claim 10 , wherein the disk controller circuit automatically initiates the execution of the server-contacting program when the disk drive is connected to the computing subsystem in the personal computer system.
12. The content delivery server of claim 10 , wherein the disk controller circuit delays initiating execution of the server-contacting program until a predetermined period has lapsed.
13. The content delivery server of claim 10 , wherein the firmware delays initiating execution of the server-contacting program until the firmware determines that a selected number of monitored events exceeds a threshold.
14. The content delivery server of claim 13 , wherein the monitored events includes the number of boot-ups in the computing subsystem.
15. The content delivery server of claim 10 , wherein the personal computer system displays the content during a boot sequence.
16. The content delivery server of claim 15 , wherein the content is periodically changed based upon a presentation schedule.
17. The content delivery server of claim 15 , wherein the content is selected from the group comprising: a content display program, a game, an entertainment program, a utility program, entertainment data, advertisement data, and music data.