Abstract: An authorization method includes establishing a password for a user, wherein the password includes password characters in a defined order. The method further includes assigning a code character to each of the password characters at an authorization site, transmitting the code characters assigned to the password characters to a remote client and authorizing a user at the remote client upon entry of the code characters corresponding to the password characters in the defined order.

Abstract: Attributes of a digital image are conveyed using the case of letters in an extension of a file name associated with the digital image. The technique is applicable to a wide variety of image attributes, including orientation.

Abstract: A timer subsystem which provides a data processor servicing the timer subsystem with the ability to inhibit the match recognition logic of the timer subsystem while the processor is servicing the subsystem. The disclosed embodiment comprises a sixteen-channel timer subsystem with a dedicated service processor. The service processor, under control of the micro-coded programs executing thereon, is capable of disabling a match recognition latch in the timer channel currently being serviced. This feature provides the ability to prevent unwanted matches which occur while the service processor is updating the match register, for instance. Another feature of the timer subsystem is the inhibition of multiple matches to a single match register value by disabling the match recognition latch upon the occurrence of a match and re-enabling it only when the match register is written by the data processor.

Abstract: A serial peripheral interface achieves compatibility with devices having previous such interfaces while singificantly reducing the amount of intervention required on the part of the controlling data processing device. Many serial transfers are written to a memory by the controlling device together with command and control information. The interface then executes the stored, or queued, transfers autonomously. Features such as programmable transfer length, programmable chip selects, an alterable queue pointer, and others contribute to the flexibility and usefulness of the interface.