你的同事说你公司发行的新设备是fob，而你说是软件狗。在水冷却器前发生争吵之前，让我们调查一下。

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问题

超级用户阅读器Hogan有一个简单但紧迫的问题：

What is the difference between a fob and a dongle?

有什么区别？或者，正如汉普蒂·达姆蒂在刘易斯·卡罗尔的《透过镜子》中所说，“当我使用一个词时，它的意思就是我选择它的意思——既不多也不少。”

答案

超级用户撰稿人比尔·韦弗（Bill Weaver）深入探讨了这个问题：

I love this question. Fob and dongle. (For some reason those words remind me of Miller’s Crossing, though i’m probably thinking of fop and dangle.) A fob is, of course, that plastic thing on your keys that locks/unlocks your doors and more. A dongle is that thing that Autodesk makes you hang off the back of your PC to run Autocad or Maya.

As words, fob has been around for centuries while dongle is a more recently made-up word to describe a hardware key. Fob is interesting in that it meant a **all pocket, while now we put fobs in pockets with our keys. You can also have a keyring with a fob and a dongle on it, the former to open your car and the latter to open Maya.

Definiti*** and Links

fob (from Online Etymology Dictionary) n. 1653, “**all pocket for valuables,” probably related to Low Ger. fobke “pocket,” High Ger. fuppe “pocket.” Meaning “chain attached to a watch carried in the fob” is from 1885. v. “to cheat,” 1583, from obsolete noun fobbe “cheat, trickster” (1393), perhaps from O.Fr. forbe “cheat.” Alternative etymology holds that the word is perhaps related to Ger. foppen “to jeer at, make a fool of” (see fop); or from Ger. fuppen, einfuppen to pocket stealthily, which would connect it to fob (n.). To fob (someone) off is first recorded 1597.

fob off (from Yahoo Education) v. To dispose of (goods) by fraud or deception; palm off: fobbed off the zircon as a diamond.

dongle (from Wordnik) n. noun A hardware device that serves as copy protection for certain software by rendering the software inoperable when the device is not plugged into a printer port.

换句话说，fob和加密狗都可以与其他硬件交互（无论是车上的硬件还是计算机上的硬件），但只有加密狗直接连接到机器上。

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