Unobtrusive rule-based computer usage enhancement system

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#1. Field of the Invention

#For a detailed description of the preferred embodiments of the invention, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings in which:

#FIGS. 1a and 1b show examples of representative personal computer systems in which the preferred embodiment may be implemented;

#FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of a personal computer system in which the preferred embodiment may be implemented;

#Certain terms are used throughout the following description and claims to refer to particular system components. As one skilled in the art will appreciate, computer companies may refer to a component by different names. This document does not intend to distinguish between components that differ in name but not function. In the following discussion and in the claims, the terms “including” and “comprising” are used in an open-ended fashion, and thus should be interpreted to mean “including, but not limited to . . . ”.

#Turning now to the figures, FIGS. 1a and 1b show examples of a desktop computer system 20 and a portable computer system 50, respectively. Each of these computer systems 20, 50 represent the type of computer system typically purchased by individuals and home users. Each computer system 20, 50, preferably includes a keyboard input device 25, 55 and a video display device 30, 60. Other peripheral input or output devices such as a mouse, scanner, or printer may be coupled to the computer systems 20, 50, but are not specifically shown in FIG. 1. The personal computer systems shown in FIG. 1 are configured to operate independently of any computer network, but are preferably equipped with at least one network connection device shown in FIG. 2 and discussed below.

#Referring now to FIG. 2, a schematic representation of computer system 20, 50 in which the preferred embodiment may be implemented is illustrated. It is noted that many other representative configurations exist and that this embodiment is described for illustrative purposes only. The computer system of FIG. 2 preferably includes one or more CPUs 202 coupled to a bridge logic device 206 via a CPU bus 203. The bridge logic device 206 is sometimes referred to as a “North bridge” for no other reason than it often is depicted at the upper end of a computer system drawing. The North bridge 206 also preferably comprises a memory controller to access and control a main memory array 204 via a memory bus 205 and may further couple to a graphics controller 208 via an accelerated graphics port (AGP) bus 209. The graphics controller 208 drives the video display 30. The North bridge 206 couples CPU 202, memory 204, and graphics controller 208 to each other and to various peripheral devices in the system via one or more high-speed, narrow, source-synchronous expansion buses such as a Fast I/O bus and a Legacy I/O bus. The North bridge 206 can couple additional “high-speed narrow” bus links other than those shown in FIG. 2 to attach other bridge devices and other buses such as a PCI-X bus segment to which additional peripherals such as a 1 Gigabit Ethernet adapter may be coupled. The embodiment shown in FIG. 2 is not intended to limit the scope of possible computer architectures.