dongle

[Ben Zimmer]

More from Mark Liberman:

http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1475


On Wed, Sep 21, 2011 at 9:15 AM, Darla Wells <lethe9 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> A new one for me, from Wikipedia
>
> A *software protection dongle* is a small piece of
> hardware<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_hardware>that connects
> to a
> laptop <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laptop>,
> desktop<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desktop_computer>or
> server <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server_%28computer%29#Server_hardware>computer.
> The term "dongle" was originally used to refer only to
> software-protection dongles; however, currently "dongle" is often used to
> refer to any small piece of hardware that plugs into a computer. This
> article is limited in scope to dongles used for the purpose of copy
> protection <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copy_protection> or authentication
> of software <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software> to be used on that
> system.[1]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_protection_dongle#cite_note-0>
>
>
> Ah, the things one learns as a computer tech.
> Darla

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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