Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!mit-eddie!ll-xn!ames!ucbcad!pasteur!ucbvax!hplabs!hp-pcd!hpcvca!charles
From: charles@hpcvca.HP (Charles Brown)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: An Idea for Hardware Protection
Message-ID: <4410017@hpcvca.HP>
Date: 14 Jan 88 18:27:58 GMT
References: <8801090958.AA20842@ucscb.UCSC.EDU>
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Co., Corvallis, Oregon
Lines: 24

>   First, every computer would be shipped with a "personal dongle" (Actually,
> probably would be shipped with two, just to be safe...).  This "dongle"
> is a chip on a simple mount with a pass-through so you could plug another
> dongle on to the end.  The chip on the dongle would recieve power from the
> computer, and whenever it was accessed it would a) tell the computer the
> serial number of the computer (person?) it came from, and b) access any
> dongle(s) after it, passing this information on through as well.  This is
> plugged into a special dongle port on the side of the computer (maybe a
> depression on the side, with a door you can close if there's only one dongle
> plugged in...)
> larry      /   hastings        _/    BITNET: lupin3@ucscb@ucscc.BITNET

I am not a pirate, and I would not buy such a machine.  This "feature"
is of NO benefit to me as a user, and may reduce the reliability of
the computer.  Furthermore, if a problem does appear, it is much
harder to isolate it.  Currently, if I have a problem with a disk, I
can visit a friend with another Amiga and try the problem disk on his
computer.  If the disk is faulty, he will have the same difficulty
that I do.  If my drives are faulty, (or some other component) then
his system should show no problem.

With your dongle protection, this method of debug becomes virtually
unusable.  Effectively, each computer becomes unique.  No thanks.
	Charles Brown	hplabs!hp-pcd!charles