According to one embodiment, a display and a sensor signal acceptor which accepts detection signals from a sensor are provided. A first display controller displays a first instruction for instructing a first work on the display, based on the detection signal which indicates an end of preparation for the first work. And, a second display controller displays a second instruction for instructing a next second work on the display, based on the detection signal which indicates an end of the first work.

A method and a device for configuring a hardware component, in particular of a configurable safe input/output module, includes using a configuration program that is designed to display a graphical user interface on a display apparatus that is connected to a data processing system, which user interface provides function blocks having inputs and outputs. By way of the method and the device, two function blocks can be interconnected so as to form a combined function block having at least one input and one output, at least one of the inputs or outputs of the first function block and at least one of the inputs or outputs of the second function block forming at least two of the inputs/outputs of the combined function block.

Methods and electronic devices are provided. Account access information is received, at an electronic device, from an external electronic device. The account access information is transmitted to a server. Account-related information about the external electronic device is received from the server. An account of the external electronic device is logged into based on the account-related information. A configuration of the electronic device is changed while logged into the account of the external electronic device.

A flash memory initialization method executed by a flash memory initialization device to initialize a flash memory device having a flash memory and a flash memory controller includes: determining an acceptable maximum number N of candidate addresses; determining a number M of different capacity sizes; classifying the candidate addresses into M portions; determining a difference value between two address values of any two adjacent addresses among the m-th portion of candidate addresses; determining multiple address values of the m-th portion of candidate addresses according to the difference value; and determining actual addresses of the m-th portion of candidate addresses according to the multiple address values; and controlling the flash memory controller to write the boot up information into at least one storage location corresponding to at least one of the m-th portion of candidate addresses according to the actual addresses.

Configurations for rack communication systems are disclosed. In at least one embodiment, a non-contact communication signal is formed between a rack and an installed component.

A scheme for restoring a password-protected endpoint device (e.g., a memory device) of a computer system to an operational state from a low power state without requiring user input of a device password. A password received for unlocking the device during a boot process is stored in a secure memory. The password-protected endpoint device subsequently enters the low power state, causing it to lock. During a transition from the low power state to an operational state, it is detected that the password for the endpoint device is stored in the secure memory. The password is fetched from the secure memory and used to unlock the endpoint device, thereby restoring the endpoint device to an operational state.

A network device may obtain information concerning a virtual chassis that indicates that the network device and an additional network device are to be included in the virtual chassis. The network device may determine, based on the information concerning the virtual chassis, that the network device is connected to the additional network device, wherein the network device is connected to the additional network device via a link between a network interface of the network device and a network interface of the additional network device. The network device may cause the network interface of the network device to be converted to a virtual chassis interface and the network interface of the additional network device to be converted to a virtual chassis interface to enable the network device and the additional network device to be included in the virtual chassis to allow bootstrapping of the virtual chassis as a single logical device.

A processor chip includes a logic circuit. The logic circuit is configured to be coupled to an electronic device. A configuration of the logic circuit corresponds to a plurality of candidate configurations. The configuration of the logic circuit is switched among the candidate configurations, and the electronic device associates with the processor chip to implement a function corresponding to the configuration of the logic circuit. When the configuration of the logic circuit is a first configuration and the electronic device executes a first driver program, the function is a first network-connection function. When the configuration of the logic circuit is a second configuration and the electronic device executes a second driver program, the function is a second network-connection function different from the first network-connection function.

An information processing apparatus includes a printer driver configured to generate a print command compliant with a predetermined printing protocol based on print data obtained from a data generation application, one or more extension modules configured to generate a print command compliant with another printing protocol different from the predetermined printing protocol, a storage unit configured to store information associating the one or more extension modules to be used for generating the print command compliant with said another printing protocol with the printer driver, and an output unit configured to output the print command compliant with said another printing protocol, the print command being obtained through processing of the print data obtained by the printer driver, and the processing being performed by the one or more modules indicated by the information.

Various embodiments of the teachings herein include a computer-implemented method for automated configuration of a joining computing device into a computing system. The method may include: using a device management service to listen for messages from joining devices; connecting via secure shell and factory default credentials to a discovered device; configuring the joining device based on device descriptions, including: downloading a description from the joining device; creating new security certificates which enable secure communication; closing the default ssh services and triggering a reboot; reading the description from the joining device; using the description to identify the set of connectors required for the container runtime environment to be deployed; and receiving into and executing containerized software in a deployed container runtime environment on the joining computer device.