this post was submitted on 04 Jan 2026
152 points (97.5% liked)
Technology
78435 readers
3884 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
The 80s, I think, thanks to AutoDesk. AutoCAD required their DB9 serial dongle (in-line with the mouse) for the software to function.
As you say, well before DRM was the default for everything. I thought they were an awful company for it, but little did I know how things would pan out due to the DMCA... ๐
Lol, tell me about it.
And the serial dongle sounds much more sensible than requiring what amounted to a SCSI terminator, of which you could typically only have one. Need to use other software with a SCSI dongle? Shut down your machine, swap them out, and start it up again, 'cause SCSI don't like that hot swapping.
I'd forgotten about that. How dumb. ๐คฆ๐ปโโ๏ธ