🚀 go-pugleaf

Matthew Dillon writes

>     AARRRGRG!! :-)  No serial or parallel port dongles!  They are
>     a mess...  a huge mess.  I have to deal with them on our IBM's
>     and, frankly, it is WORSE then machine-id keys.

Most dongle implementations are indeed really horrid.

If you absolutely have to have something physical, what might work
would be a single user-tied dongle, sort of like a start-up key
that you can take with you in your pocket.  It's insertion at the
end of an easily accessible chain (such as at an extra ADB port on
the top of the keyboard) would be required for powerup.  All software
would talk this one dongle protocol, and would tag itself to the
user's id contained in the dongle.

In this way, if the software was network installed, you could enable
it for a set of users, who could run it from any machine on the
network.  Or you could take your software to a service bureau on
a floppy, have it work there, and if you accidently leave it behind,
you've not violated any license agreement since it won't work
without your particular dongle plugged into the machine.

Of course, I personally think that user names & ids work just fine.

Tying a piece of software to host ID, however, is about the worst
thing I can think of.  Even worse than the stupid dongles hanging
off the serial port.

--
Scott Byer                             NeXTMail: byer@mv.us.adobe.com
Adobe Systems Incorporated               These are *my* opinions, and  
1585 Charleston Road, P.O. Box 7900        do not necessarily reflect
Mountain View, CA 94039-7900             the opinions of my employer.
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