What are those obscure adapters?

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Fred Langa’s article about “Reusing old-style IDE/PATA hard drives” in issue 2013-09-11 was interesting.

Several times I’ve used external enclosures to reuse hard drives and DVD-drives. I’ve always understood the need for compatible interfaces/cables/connectors, IDE to USB, SATA to USB, SATA to eSATA, SATA to Firewire, etc.

But often I’ve read about intermediate adapters which were never adequately described or shown. Not being native to English, I have trouble understanding exactly what hardware was meant.
I would love to have descriptions and images of these obscure adapters.
What are they and what do they look like?

“Piece o’ cake” (in Fred’s aforementioned article)
“Easy-peasy”
“Duck soup”
“Dongle”
“DIY”
and others just as confusing. :confused:

Thanks in advance,

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These are slang words or phrases which are often used by writers to appear ‘matey’ or ‘chummy’ or ‘too-friendly’, without thought for those whose native language is not American (nor even English!).

“Piece o’ cake” – short for “piece of cake”, meaning easy, straightforward, simple
“Easy-peasy” – also means easy, but a childish version with an added rhyming word
“Duck soup” – I’d have to look this one up myself. “Duck Soup” was the name of a Marx Brothers film.
“Dongle” – a device inserted into a USB port (nowadays) but previously using the serial port of a PC. A USB Wireless Adapter is often called a “dongle”
“DIY” – an initialism for “Do It Yourself”, a task which you do yourself rather than paying a professional to do the work

Yes, I agree that the writers on Windows Secrets should write clearly and without jargon or slang, and bear in mind that not everyone understands or is familiar with Americanisms. (If I see yet another mention of “DefCon n” (n=1..5) from a writer whose name begins with a ‘W’, I shall scream!)

HTH – Hope This Helps, or Happy To Help…!

BATcher

Plethora means a lot to me.

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I was familiar with the Dongle as being an interface cable, generally used on a laptop.
For example, back in the 90’s laptops didn’t have ethernet connections built-in, so you’d use a PCMCIA card with it’s own, non-standard connection. The dongle converted the PCMCIA interface to the required ethernet connection, usually through a 6″ cable.
The web also defines some security devices that are plugged into your computer as dongles: http://www.techterms.com/definition/dongle

Doug

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“Duck soup” – I’d have to look this one up myself. “Duck Soup” was the name of a Marx Brothers film.

See Piece O Cake. Another slang term that means the same thing (easy, straight forward, simple).

Love the Marx brothers. Duck Soup is a real classic.

Jerry

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Who’d have thunk youse guys would fall for my little prank!
Your legs came right off.

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http://i-is-for-italy.blogspot.co.uk/2007/05/e-pericoloso-sporgersi.html

Eliminate spare time: start programming PowerShell

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Who’d have thunk youse guys would fall for my little prank!
Your legs came right off.

Serves me right for trying to be helpful. Don’t ask again…

BATcher

Plethora means a lot to me.

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Serves me right for trying to be helpful. Don’t ask again…

His English is perfect in his original post. He doesn’t sound like someone who struggles with English.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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The clue was in his signature:rolleyes:

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LOL

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…

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Actually, years ago, there was software that was sold with a “Dongle” that had to be plugged into a port on the back of the PC, before the software would work. The Dongle was an attempt by the software writers to thwart software piracy. Often, a dongle was encased in a solid block of plastic, to thwart copying, of the circuitry inside.

There was quite a Black Market in “Dongles”, for programs costing hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

The name has been erroneously applied to things we use today, that have nothing to do with thwarting Software Piracy.

And yes, many people from the EU speak and write better English than we Americans do. :rolleyes:

The Doctor

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Actually, years ago, there was software that was sold with a “Dongle” that had to be plugged into a port on the back of the PC, before the software would work. The Dongle was an attempt by the software writers to thwart software piracy. Often, a dongle was encased in a solid block of plastic, to thwart copying, of the circuitry inside.

There was quite a Black Market in “Dongles”, for programs costing hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

The name has been erroneously applied to things we use today, that have nothing to do with thwarting Software Piracy.

And yes, many people from the EU speak and write better English than we Americans do. :rolleyes:

The Doctor

I remember them especially with Microfocus Cobol.

The dongle was plugged into the parallel port of the PC that the software was being used on but had a passthru function to allow printers to perform as normal.

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I remember them especially with Microfocus Cobol.

The dongle was plugged into the parallel port of the PC that the software was being used on but had a passthru function to allow printers to perform as normal.

Yes.

In German folklore cobolds (Heinzelmännchen in Cologne, Germany) were gnomes with a big d… erm … dongle, and they performed the same useful chores as the English and Scottish brownies. :B):

Microfocus borrowed the name but because they wanted to avoid upsetting any sensitivities, they dropped the d from cobold, hence Microfocus Cobol with a separate dongle.

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