Patent ID: 6950835

Claim:
In a distributed computing system capable of synchronizing data between devices, a method of determining if a value for a property on a 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 a current value for a remote property and a remote representation for a prior value of the remote property; receiving a remote representation of time date information associated with the remote property, wherein the remote representation of the time-date information is one or more of a Hexadecimal number, stored down to the seconds, stored down to the minutes or stored in a time zone independent format; generating a local representation of the remote property from the current value for the remote property; 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 potentially unreliable.