In the computer industry, the word ''dongle'' was used for many years to primarily refer to a small hardware device that connects to a computer and acts as an authentication key for a particular piece of software. When this software protection dongle is present, the software will run properly; when it is not, the program will run in a restricted mode or refuse to start. Dongles are used by some proprietary vendors as a form of copy prevention or digital rights management because it is much harder to copy the dongle than to copy the software it authenticates. Dongle can also be used to refer to any thing that plugs into a computer, especially things with wires that "hang off" of (dangle from) laptop computers. For example: *A jack (connector) wired to a small edge connector on a Type I or II PCMCIA card, typically an RJ45 or RJ11 jack for an Ethernet or telephone cable. This type of dongle has no copy prevention purpose. PCMCIA card dongles are notoriously fragile and unreliable. They are falling out of favour as more laptops include built-in Ethernet and modem sockets. *USB adapters, such as for memory cards. *Other USB devices, primarily flash memory "drives", used only for data storage (as opposed to USB Hardware Token Devices). *The word has also been applied to Bluetooth antennas. Software protection dongles are typically used with very expensive packages and vertical market software, such as CAD/Computer-aided manufacturing software, Digital Audio Workstation applications and some translation memory packages. Efforts to introduce dongle copy prevention in the mainstream software market were generally met with stiff resistance from users. Despite being hardware, dongles are not a complete solution to the trusted client problem. Vendors of software protection dongles (and dongle-controlled software) often use terms such as hardware key, hardware token, or security device in their written literature. In day-to-day use however, the jargon word "dongle" is much more commonly used. ==History== The word ''dongle'' has been used as a placeholder name since the 1970s. Its origin is unknown. The American Heritage Dictionary, 4th edition, says it is "probably [an] arbitrary coinage." Claims that it was derived from the name "Don Gall" are an urban myth popularized by a 1992 advertisement for Rainbow Technologies, a dongle vendor. ''Dongle'' as the name of a device was used well before 1980 within the telecoms industry to refer to BNC connector cable joiners of either sex (such as the Coaxial_cable#Standard_cable_types used on 10 meg Ethernet#10_Mbit.2Fs_Ethernet). WORDCRAFT was the first program to use a software protection dongle, in 1980. Its dongle was a simple passive device that supplied data to the pins of a cassette port in a pre-determined manner. That first dongle was invented and named by Graham Heggie in the UK. The two cubic inch (33 cm³) resin-potted first generation were called "dongles" by the inventor as there was no other suitable term to hand on the day. The device increased WORDCRAFT sales eight-fold overnight, which illustrated the background level of software copying even in those days. It made millionaires of the software authors and the distributor, Dataview Ltd., then based in Colchester, UK, who then went on to produce a derivative dongle which became their core business. Dongles rapidly evolved into active devices that contained a serial transceiver (UART) and even a microprocessor to handle transactions with the host. Later versions adopted the Universal Serial Bus interface in preference to the serial port or parallel interface. According to a contributor claiming to be "Paul Handover, founder and managing director of Dataview Ltd.":
==Origin of USE of name DONGLE [for application security hardware]== As the Inventor and Namer of the Dongle, I guess I should set the record straight; after all, it HAS been 25 years, and perhaps I should have mentioned this sooner. However, it didn't seem important at the time . . . This is the definitive statement on the matter; I can produce accounting records showing the first ever documented sale of Dongles, and Press Articles describing the launch. I write purely in the interests of veracity - after 25 years, I clearly have no personal angle . . . There is some duplication of this text elsewhere on the site, (and some corroborating notes below by COMPILERBITCH), but this is how it went: The concept originated in 1979 around the then-world-leading computer, the Commodore 'PET'. The Dongle attached to the Cassette Recorder port (which was driven by a serial comms chip). The code to access it was encrypted within the application package being protected, WORDCRAFT by Peter Dowson, which was then the most comprehensive Word Processor. The expression 'dongle' is not an original name, but was used well before that time within the telecomms industry to refer to BNC cable joiners of either sex, (like the RG58 cable used on 10 meg Ethernet). After a little research, I now feel that this may have been a localised use of a word which may, in fact, have originated from the dawn of pre-history ! However: coming from a Telecomms background, the two-cubic-inch resin-potted first generation of Software Protection Devices I called Dongles, as there was no other suitable term to hand on the day. Exciting, isn't it ? The device increased WORDCRAFT sales eight-fold overnight, which illustrated the background level of plagiarism even in those days. It made millionaires of the Software authors, and their Distributor, Dataview Ltd. based in Colchester, UK, then went on to produce a derivative Dongle which became their core business. Graham Heggie UK Feb. 2005 :[April 2005] It is great to have historical info on use of word, but note that it's just historical now. A more current definition, since the word was adopted for Ethernet adapters for laptops, would be:
"Once used to refer to a hardware device required for a specific software program, but now more generally used to mean any funny-looking device attached to a computer using a cable." See also 'old-school vs modern', below. - User:Liberty_Miller 03:56, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC) == Origin of name, etc. == Because the word "dongle" sounds funny, it arouses curiosity about its origins, and I feel that the article should discuss this. So I added the note about it ''not'' being derived from any fictional eponymous "Don Gall." said the true origin was unknown, because I personally have not seen anything convincing. I'm thinking of adding something more. Proposed wording: :The name 'dongle' is often perceived as slightly undignified, disrespectful, or indicating a distaste for the device. Vendors of dongles and dongle-protected software usually use more dignified terms in their written literature, such as "hardware key" or "security device." Nevertheless "dongle" is prevalent outside of such literature, and is used in informal parlance ''even by dongle vendors.'' (My personal perception is that the word "dongle" is intentionally disrespectful, and that it is probably a portmanteau of "dangle" and "dong." Of course I have no evidence for this conjecture). And should entries for "hardware key" and "security device" be created and redirected to "dongle?" It seems to me that putting the article under the entry "dongle" without any further discussion represents a subtly non-neutral point of view. (One that I happen to agree with. Vehemently. ''Personally'' I believe dongles are the spawn of the Devil and should be consigned to the deepest reaches of perdition). Thoughts? User:Dpbsmith 18:08, 27 Oct 2003 (UTC) :I don't know the origin of the name, but it's been called a dongle since the 70s at least. I think your perception of it being a play on "dangle" and "dong" are probably not far off, programmer types being the people they are ;-) I imagine the very earliest dongles were probably jury-rigged affairs that consisted of a bit of veroboard hanging out of the back of an RS-232 or parallel port plug on the end of a bunch of wires; they would definitely dangle! Later productionised versions probably looked a lot neater, being not much bigger than an inline port gender-changer. Modern USB dongles have gone back to dangling though - they sometimes have a short flexible lead, though other types are rigid and look like USB key memories. As for the redirect, I'd support "hardware key", but not "security device" - it's too general. User:GRAHAMUK 23:31, 27 Oct 2003 (UTC) Since when is the word ''crack'' more professional than ''hack''? -- User:Viajero 15:11, 27 Oct 2003 (UTC) ---- I'm not sure that enumerating examples of software types that have dongles helps much - I can think of a number of others I happen to know use dongles, but by listing them makes it seem as if these are exclusively using dongles, whereas the reality is that any software could use a dongle, if its vendors so chose. User:GRAHAMUK 01:35, 28 Oct 2003 (UTC) ---- In the late 1970s, during my first ever paid programming job, I worked at a software house specialising in accounting software for the Commodore PET. At the time, the Wordcraft wordprocessor was protected by a hardware key that was _very definitely_ referred to as a 'dongle'. In the culture of the time, the source for the name was that Wordcraft's author used the word as a generic thingummy/cadigan, and the name stuck. User:COMPILERBITCH 00:03 Tue 14th Dec 04 ---- I sorta like the enumeration... ...That wasn't ''my'' addition, but I think it's fairly appropriate. I see your point, but concrete examples do help to clarify the way in which dongles are ''typically'' used. The choice of examples in a case like this is always arbitrary. But I that giving a few examples is more helpful that just saying "expensive programs" or "low-volume programs used by professionals" or whatever. In explaining what gasoline is used for, it's helpful to say that it is typically used in motor vehicles and aircraft, even though it potentially has many other uses.... Just my $0.02 User:Dpbsmith 03:21, 28 Oct 2003 (UTC) ---- "The word "dongle," as a word for something unnamed (akin to "doodad" or "whatchamacallit") has been used since the 1970s." Hmmm, is there any evidence for this? I think the term exists solely to refer to the software protection device, not just any old unnamed thingy. Now, the jargon file reference cited says that the first dongle appeared in 1984. I dispute this - I can distinctly recall the term being used in connection to some mainframe stuff that I saw being done at ICL in about 1978 - or was it Honeywell, I'm not sure now. They were definitely talking about it in reference to a device used to "protect" software. In was a passive device that hooked up a parallel port in such a way that if you wrote a value to it, it would readback a different value - that was considered adequate protection back in those innocent days! Perhaps the term originated as some internal name but didn't reach a wider public until the 80s - who knows? User:GRAHAMUK 05:46, 28 Oct 2003 (UTC) == local slang == :Going back to my school years in Australia (late 60s, early 70s) the term "dongle" was local slang for the male appendage. Given the above description of early computer dongles I suggest an easy parallel could be drawn. ;-) User:Gaz 10:44, 28 Oct 2003 (UTC) ::I had wondered about your addition myself. As I noted in above, I've always perceived "dongle" to be a portmanteau of "dong" (slang in the U. S. for the male appendage) and "dangle." I've never heard it used in the generic sense of "watchamacallit" (which is a good, common, familiar U.S. colloquialism, synonymous with "thingamabob."). ::I just checked Wentworth and Flexner's Dictionary of American Slang and it indeed has a short entry, "dong [taboo] n. The penis" but no entry for "dongle." ::If we have a reasonably good idea where the word came from, we should say so, but I don't think we should put in something euphemistic and false. If "dongle" meant "watchamacallit" in sixties Australia, fine. If it meant "penis" in sixties Australia, we should ''not'' say that it meant "watchamacallit" (unless, of course, ''watchamacallit'' clearly means ''penis,'' which it doesn't—not to me, anyway. Although perhaps all these "watchamacallits" and "thingamabobs" have a double meaning? ::Does a mention of the Wentworth and Flexner definition of "dong" belong in this article? ::User:Dpbsmith 11:02, 28 Oct 2003 (UTC) :No, I think the reference is not clear enough to put anything in the main page. I just checked the Macquarie Dictionary (THE Aussie reference) and it too includes "dong" as slang for penis. It also contains "donger" to mean the same thing. So maybe, "dongle" was just local to where I grew up. I'll leave this edit with a choice piece of Aussie slang that I am sure would roll off the tongue of Croc Dundee... '''"...as dry as a dead dingo's donger!!"''' User:Gaz 11:20, 28 Oct 2003 (UTC) == Bongle == The word 'Bongle' actually seems to be the name of a specific commercial product. To my personal knowledge, it's not (yet?) in general use as a generic term. Does it really belong in Wikipedia? If so, it should be identified as a product of Hide & Seek Technologies. This company seems to have no website and I'm not clear on whether or not "Bongle" is trademarked. Experienced Wikipedians, how should this be handled? I sort of think it (and the page that describes it) should be removed in a couple of weeks unless someone supplies a positive justification for including it, but I don't know the normal channels for making or implementing such a decision. User:Dpbsmith 13:40, 29 Oct 2003 (UTC) :I've taken "bongle" out - it appears to be using a CD-ROM, customised per copy of the application, as a dongle. The gimmick is that they claim the CD cannot be copied, but nevertheless works just fine in any random CD-ROM drive. Looking around the Web, I can see no information that suggests this thing works or even exists yet! (See [http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Articles/Specific.asp?ArticleHeadline=CD+Protection+Overview&index=13] [http://www.cdmediaworld.com/hardware/cdrom/cd_protections_copy-protected_cd_bongle.shtml] and a few other copies of the same press release.) If we really want this bit included, it should only be as part of a list of dongle vendors. Assuming someone does vend the thing. - User:David Gerard 20:03, Feb 14, 2004 (UTC) ==old-school definition vs. modern usage== Aren't adapters called dongles too? Such as from a compound or miniature port (computing) on a cellphone or notebook computer to a full-size plug or socket? – User:Radiojon 00:33, 2003 Dec 2 (UTC) :[ User:Liberty Miller 03:12, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC) ] Yep. News flash old-timers: Just because a generic word was adopted by the security access/software protection industry, said industry doesn't "own" the word. For some reason the authors of this page have mostly ignored other uses for the term.
Even the Jargon File clearly indicates that the use of Dongle, as "invented" by Heggie (see above) is OBSOLETE.
See also definition 3 of the Jargon file [http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/D/dongle.html]
"3. An adaptor cable mating a special edge-type connector on a PCMCIA or on-board Ethernet card to a standard 8p8c Ethernet jack. This usage seems to have surfaced in 1999 and is now dominant. Laptop owners curse these things because they're notoriously easy to lose and the vendors commonly charge extortionate prices for replacements."
[This comment refers to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dongle&oldid=11781693 March 25 2005] version of this article.]
Fact is that there are more general laptop users than there are users of Hardware-based secured application access, so the definition of "dongles" as "things that plug into my laptop" is just more widely known and used.
We can keep this wikipedia definition, but it should probably be changed to the past-tense.... fact is, as USB Keys replace the old serial plug-ins, the use of dongle for just application-control hardware will probably pass into history... - User:Liberty_Miller ---- ==misc comments== [ User:Liberty Miller18 Apr 2005 ] Moving "Despite being hardware, dongles are not a complete solution to the trusted client problem." from the Main definition section to "See also". This statement does not seem to add anything to the essential definition of what a dongle is/was, and borders on opinion. The author has already elaborated on this point in the "Implementation problems" section. Thanks, - Liberty
See other meanings of words starting from letter:
Words begining with Dongle:
Dongle
Dongle
Dongle
In the computer industry, the word ''dongle'' was used for many years to primarily refer to a small hardware device that connects to a computer and acts as an authentication key for a particular piece of software. When this software protection dongle is present, the software will run properly; when it is not, the program will run in a restricted mode or refuse to start. Dongles are used by some proprietary vendors as a form of copy prevention or digital rights management because it is much harder to copy the dongle than to copy the software it authenticates. Dongle can also be used to refer to any thing that plugs into a computer, especially things with wires that "hang off" of (dangle from) laptop computers. For example: *A jack (connector) wired to a small edge connector on a Type I or II PCMCIA card, typically an RJ45 or RJ11 jack for an Ethernet or telephone cable. This type of dongle has no copy prevention purpose. PCMCIA card dongles are notoriously fragile and unreliable. They are falling out of favour as more laptops include built-in Ethernet and modem sockets. *USB adapters, such as for memory cards. *Other USB devices, primarily flash memory "drives", used only for data storage (as opposed to USB Hardware Token Devices). *The word has also been applied to Bluetooth antennas. Software protection dongles are typically used with very expensive packages and vertical market software, such as CAD/Computer-aided manufacturing software, Digital Audio Workstation applications and some translation memory packages. Efforts to introduce dongle copy prevention in the mainstream software market were generally met with stiff resistance from users. Despite being hardware, dongles are not a complete solution to the trusted client problem. Vendors of software protection dongles (and dongle-controlled software) often use terms such as hardware key, hardware token, or security device in their written literature. In day-to-day use however, the jargon word "dongle" is much more commonly used. ==History== The word ''dongle'' has been used as a placeholder name since the 1970s. Its origin is unknown. The American Heritage Dictionary, 4th edition, says it is "probably [an] arbitrary coinage." Claims that it was derived from the name "Don Gall" are an urban myth popularized by a 1992 advertisement for Rainbow Technologies, a dongle vendor. ''Dongle'' as the name of a device was used well before 1980 within the telecoms industry to refer to BNC connector cable joiners of either sex (such as the Coaxial_cable#Standard_cable_types used on 10 meg Ethernet#10_Mbit.2Fs_Ethernet). WORDCRAFT was the first program to use a software protection dongle, in 1980. Its dongle was a simple passive device that supplied data to the pins of a cassette port in a pre-determined manner. That first dongle was invented and named by Graham Heggie in the UK. The two cubic inch (33 cm³) resin-potted first generation were called "dongles" by the inventor as there was no other suitable term to hand on the day. The device increased WORDCRAFT sales eight-fold overnight, which illustrated the background level of software copying even in those days. It made millionaires of the software authors and the distributor, Dataview Ltd., then based in Colchester, UK, who then went on to produce a derivative dongle which became their core business. Dongles rapidly evolved into active devices that contained a serial transceiver (UART) and even a microprocessor to handle transactions with the host. Later versions adopted the Universal Serial Bus interface in preference to the serial port or parallel interface. According to a contributor claiming to be "Paul Handover, founder and managing director of Dataview Ltd.":
Although I can't remember the precise date, I well remember the conversation that I was having with Graham Heggie when he used the term 'dongle' and my immediate response that we couldn't use it as a term as it seemed vaguely vulgar. But we did and it became the generic term for a software protection key. In fact our sales of Wordcraft didn't rise anything like "eight-fold" much more like a steady doubling of sales over about a 6 month period. The biggest rise in sales were from larger organisations who had only purchased a single copy of Wordcraft. One large organisation in East Anglia, a single user of Wordcraft, turned out to have the product installed on over 200 Commodore PCs.
The other small amendment is that it didn't "make millionaires" of those involved. Certainly Peter Dowson, the author of Wordcraft, made a very good living out of the sales of Wordcraft for a number of years. But this was much more down to his commitment to a constant development of Wordcraft than the impact of the dongle.
Finally, the idea of the 'dongle' came out of a visit that I had made to our Canadian distributors, Canadian Micro Distributors (just slightly unsure if I recall the name correctly), in Milton, Ontario. They had developed a softtware key in conjunction with their local university and I saw this cube-like device stuck on the cassette port on the back of the Commodore. They avoided my questions about what it was doing but I guessed it was a software key. Upon my return to the UK, I rang Graham and explained what I had seen. It took him only a few days to deduce what it was doing and make a prototype. So, ultimately, we have our Canadian friends to thank for the idea of the Dongle.
==Problems with software protection dongles==
===Implementation problems===
There is the potential for weaknesses in the implementation of the protocol (cryptography) between the dongle and the copy-controlled software. It requires considerable cunning to implement this in a fashion that is not easy to Software cracking. For example, naïve implementations might simply define a subprogram to check for the dongle, returning "true" or "false" accordingly, reducing the prevention scheme to a single bit value at one point in the program.
Modern dongles include built-in strong encryption and use fabrication techniques designed to thwart reverse engineering. Typical dongles also now contain non-volatile storage — key parts of the software may actually be stored on the dongle.
However, security researchers warn that dongles still do not solve the trusted client problem: that if you give a user the cryptography encryption, the algorithm and the key (cryptography), your cipher is likely to be breakable, even with the algorithm and key encoded in hardware. (Grand, 2000)
===User problems===
Dongles tie up a port on the host machine. This has been ameliorated to some extent by the adoption of USB, but is still a serious drawback. To get around this, most practical dongles include a replacement port, so as to become an inline device.
In fields where dongle-controlled software is common, users often need more than one such application installed on a given computer. Manufacturers claim that multiple dongles can be successfully stacked or daisy-chained, but operational problems with stacked dongles are common. The number of dongles can also become physically problematic.
There is the obvious problem of losing the dongle, rendering the copy-controlled software useless until a replacement can be obtained. This is particularly likely if one needs to swap dongles for different applications.
==References==
* [http://www.grandideastudio.com/files/security/tokens/usb_hardware_token.pdf Attacks on and Countermeasures for USB Hardware Token Devices] (Portable Document Format) (Joe Grand, Grand Ideas Studio, ''Proceedings of the Fifth Nordic Workshop on Secure IT Systems Encouraging Co-operation'', Reykjavik, Iceland, October 12-13, 2000, pp 35-57, ISBN 99799483-0-2
==See also==
*[http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/D/dongle.html Jargon File: dongle]
*trusted client
Dongle
==Origin of USE of name DONGLE [for application security hardware]== As the Inventor and Namer of the Dongle, I guess I should set the record straight; after all, it HAS been 25 years, and perhaps I should have mentioned this sooner. However, it didn't seem important at the time . . . This is the definitive statement on the matter; I can produce accounting records showing the first ever documented sale of Dongles, and Press Articles describing the launch. I write purely in the interests of veracity - after 25 years, I clearly have no personal angle . . . There is some duplication of this text elsewhere on the site, (and some corroborating notes below by COMPILERBITCH), but this is how it went: The concept originated in 1979 around the then-world-leading computer, the Commodore 'PET'. The Dongle attached to the Cassette Recorder port (which was driven by a serial comms chip). The code to access it was encrypted within the application package being protected, WORDCRAFT by Peter Dowson, which was then the most comprehensive Word Processor. The expression 'dongle' is not an original name, but was used well before that time within the telecomms industry to refer to BNC cable joiners of either sex, (like the RG58 cable used on 10 meg Ethernet). After a little research, I now feel that this may have been a localised use of a word which may, in fact, have originated from the dawn of pre-history ! However: coming from a Telecomms background, the two-cubic-inch resin-potted first generation of Software Protection Devices I called Dongles, as there was no other suitable term to hand on the day. Exciting, isn't it ? The device increased WORDCRAFT sales eight-fold overnight, which illustrated the background level of plagiarism even in those days. It made millionaires of the Software authors, and their Distributor, Dataview Ltd. based in Colchester, UK, then went on to produce a derivative Dongle which became their core business. Graham Heggie UK Feb. 2005 :[April 2005] It is great to have historical info on use of word, but note that it's just historical now. A more current definition, since the word was adopted for Ethernet adapters for laptops, would be:
"Once used to refer to a hardware device required for a specific software program, but now more generally used to mean any funny-looking device attached to a computer using a cable." See also 'old-school vs modern', below. - User:Liberty_Miller 03:56, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC) == Origin of name, etc. == Because the word "dongle" sounds funny, it arouses curiosity about its origins, and I feel that the article should discuss this. So I added the note about it ''not'' being derived from any fictional eponymous "Don Gall." said the true origin was unknown, because I personally have not seen anything convincing. I'm thinking of adding something more. Proposed wording: :The name 'dongle' is often perceived as slightly undignified, disrespectful, or indicating a distaste for the device. Vendors of dongles and dongle-protected software usually use more dignified terms in their written literature, such as "hardware key" or "security device." Nevertheless "dongle" is prevalent outside of such literature, and is used in informal parlance ''even by dongle vendors.'' (My personal perception is that the word "dongle" is intentionally disrespectful, and that it is probably a portmanteau of "dangle" and "dong." Of course I have no evidence for this conjecture). And should entries for "hardware key" and "security device" be created and redirected to "dongle?" It seems to me that putting the article under the entry "dongle" without any further discussion represents a subtly non-neutral point of view. (One that I happen to agree with. Vehemently. ''Personally'' I believe dongles are the spawn of the Devil and should be consigned to the deepest reaches of perdition). Thoughts? User:Dpbsmith 18:08, 27 Oct 2003 (UTC) :I don't know the origin of the name, but it's been called a dongle since the 70s at least. I think your perception of it being a play on "dangle" and "dong" are probably not far off, programmer types being the people they are ;-) I imagine the very earliest dongles were probably jury-rigged affairs that consisted of a bit of veroboard hanging out of the back of an RS-232 or parallel port plug on the end of a bunch of wires; they would definitely dangle! Later productionised versions probably looked a lot neater, being not much bigger than an inline port gender-changer. Modern USB dongles have gone back to dangling though - they sometimes have a short flexible lead, though other types are rigid and look like USB key memories. As for the redirect, I'd support "hardware key", but not "security device" - it's too general. User:GRAHAMUK 23:31, 27 Oct 2003 (UTC) Since when is the word ''crack'' more professional than ''hack''? -- User:Viajero 15:11, 27 Oct 2003 (UTC) ---- I'm not sure that enumerating examples of software types that have dongles helps much - I can think of a number of others I happen to know use dongles, but by listing them makes it seem as if these are exclusively using dongles, whereas the reality is that any software could use a dongle, if its vendors so chose. User:GRAHAMUK 01:35, 28 Oct 2003 (UTC) ---- In the late 1970s, during my first ever paid programming job, I worked at a software house specialising in accounting software for the Commodore PET. At the time, the Wordcraft wordprocessor was protected by a hardware key that was _very definitely_ referred to as a 'dongle'. In the culture of the time, the source for the name was that Wordcraft's author used the word as a generic thingummy/cadigan, and the name stuck. User:COMPILERBITCH 00:03 Tue 14th Dec 04 ---- I sorta like the enumeration... ...That wasn't ''my'' addition, but I think it's fairly appropriate. I see your point, but concrete examples do help to clarify the way in which dongles are ''typically'' used. The choice of examples in a case like this is always arbitrary. But I that giving a few examples is more helpful that just saying "expensive programs" or "low-volume programs used by professionals" or whatever. In explaining what gasoline is used for, it's helpful to say that it is typically used in motor vehicles and aircraft, even though it potentially has many other uses.... Just my $0.02 User:Dpbsmith 03:21, 28 Oct 2003 (UTC) ---- "The word "dongle," as a word for something unnamed (akin to "doodad" or "whatchamacallit") has been used since the 1970s." Hmmm, is there any evidence for this? I think the term exists solely to refer to the software protection device, not just any old unnamed thingy. Now, the jargon file reference cited says that the first dongle appeared in 1984. I dispute this - I can distinctly recall the term being used in connection to some mainframe stuff that I saw being done at ICL in about 1978 - or was it Honeywell, I'm not sure now. They were definitely talking about it in reference to a device used to "protect" software. In was a passive device that hooked up a parallel port in such a way that if you wrote a value to it, it would readback a different value - that was considered adequate protection back in those innocent days! Perhaps the term originated as some internal name but didn't reach a wider public until the 80s - who knows? User:GRAHAMUK 05:46, 28 Oct 2003 (UTC) == local slang == :Going back to my school years in Australia (late 60s, early 70s) the term "dongle" was local slang for the male appendage. Given the above description of early computer dongles I suggest an easy parallel could be drawn. ;-) User:Gaz 10:44, 28 Oct 2003 (UTC) ::I had wondered about your addition myself. As I noted in above, I've always perceived "dongle" to be a portmanteau of "dong" (slang in the U. S. for the male appendage) and "dangle." I've never heard it used in the generic sense of "watchamacallit" (which is a good, common, familiar U.S. colloquialism, synonymous with "thingamabob."). ::I just checked Wentworth and Flexner's Dictionary of American Slang and it indeed has a short entry, "dong [taboo] n. The penis" but no entry for "dongle." ::If we have a reasonably good idea where the word came from, we should say so, but I don't think we should put in something euphemistic and false. If "dongle" meant "watchamacallit" in sixties Australia, fine. If it meant "penis" in sixties Australia, we should ''not'' say that it meant "watchamacallit" (unless, of course, ''watchamacallit'' clearly means ''penis,'' which it doesn't—not to me, anyway. Although perhaps all these "watchamacallits" and "thingamabobs" have a double meaning? ::Does a mention of the Wentworth and Flexner definition of "dong" belong in this article? ::User:Dpbsmith 11:02, 28 Oct 2003 (UTC) :No, I think the reference is not clear enough to put anything in the main page. I just checked the Macquarie Dictionary (THE Aussie reference) and it too includes "dong" as slang for penis. It also contains "donger" to mean the same thing. So maybe, "dongle" was just local to where I grew up. I'll leave this edit with a choice piece of Aussie slang that I am sure would roll off the tongue of Croc Dundee... '''"...as dry as a dead dingo's donger!!"''' User:Gaz 11:20, 28 Oct 2003 (UTC) == Bongle == The word 'Bongle' actually seems to be the name of a specific commercial product. To my personal knowledge, it's not (yet?) in general use as a generic term. Does it really belong in Wikipedia? If so, it should be identified as a product of Hide & Seek Technologies. This company seems to have no website and I'm not clear on whether or not "Bongle" is trademarked. Experienced Wikipedians, how should this be handled? I sort of think it (and the page that describes it) should be removed in a couple of weeks unless someone supplies a positive justification for including it, but I don't know the normal channels for making or implementing such a decision. User:Dpbsmith 13:40, 29 Oct 2003 (UTC) :I've taken "bongle" out - it appears to be using a CD-ROM, customised per copy of the application, as a dongle. The gimmick is that they claim the CD cannot be copied, but nevertheless works just fine in any random CD-ROM drive. Looking around the Web, I can see no information that suggests this thing works or even exists yet! (See [http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Articles/Specific.asp?ArticleHeadline=CD+Protection+Overview&index=13] [http://www.cdmediaworld.com/hardware/cdrom/cd_protections_copy-protected_cd_bongle.shtml] and a few other copies of the same press release.) If we really want this bit included, it should only be as part of a list of dongle vendors. Assuming someone does vend the thing. - User:David Gerard 20:03, Feb 14, 2004 (UTC) ==old-school definition vs. modern usage== Aren't adapters called dongles too? Such as from a compound or miniature port (computing) on a cellphone or notebook computer to a full-size plug or socket? – User:Radiojon 00:33, 2003 Dec 2 (UTC) :[ User:Liberty Miller 03:12, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC) ] Yep. News flash old-timers: Just because a generic word was adopted by the security access/software protection industry, said industry doesn't "own" the word. For some reason the authors of this page have mostly ignored other uses for the term.
Even the Jargon File clearly indicates that the use of Dongle, as "invented" by Heggie (see above) is OBSOLETE.
See also definition 3 of the Jargon file [http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/D/dongle.html]
"3. An adaptor cable mating a special edge-type connector on a PCMCIA or on-board Ethernet card to a standard 8p8c Ethernet jack. This usage seems to have surfaced in 1999 and is now dominant. Laptop owners curse these things because they're notoriously easy to lose and the vendors commonly charge extortionate prices for replacements."
[This comment refers to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dongle&oldid=11781693 March 25 2005] version of this article.]
Fact is that there are more general laptop users than there are users of Hardware-based secured application access, so the definition of "dongles" as "things that plug into my laptop" is just more widely known and used.
We can keep this wikipedia definition, but it should probably be changed to the past-tense.... fact is, as USB Keys replace the old serial plug-ins, the use of dongle for just application-control hardware will probably pass into history... - User:Liberty_Miller ---- ==misc comments== [ User:Liberty Miller18 Apr 2005 ] Moving "Despite being hardware, dongles are not a complete solution to the trusted client problem." from the Main definition section to "See also". This statement does not seem to add anything to the essential definition of what a dongle is/was, and borders on opinion. The author has already elaborated on this point in the "Implementation problems" section. Thanks, - Liberty
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