Patent ID: 7284021

Claim:
In a distributed computing system capable of synchronizing data between devices, a method of determining if a value for a property on a low fidelity remote device has changed since a last synchronization of the property between the remote device and a local machine, the method comprising the acts of: receiving, from said low fidelity remote device, a current value for a remote property and a remote representation, the remote representation having a value which is dependent on a prior value of the remote property; receiving, from a field of a remote database at the remote device, a remote representation of time-date information that is associated with a change to the value of the remote property, wherein the field of the remote database which includes the remote representation of time-date information is not reserved for storing time-date information; after receiving the current value for the remote property and the remote representation for a prior value of the remote property, generating, at the local machine, a local representation of the remote property by using the current value for the remote property received from the remote device; after generating the local representation, comparing the remote representation to the local representation; determining, based on the comparison, that the prior value of the remote property was changed after the remote representation was generated; and based on the determination that the prior value of the remote property was changed, determining that the remote representation of time-date information is unreliable.