My least favorite (USB) hardware keys. Picture this: you have a 50-100K+ of scientific equipment. It plugs into a computer via usb (if you are lucky), parallel

My least favorite (USB) hardware keys. Picture this: you have a 50-100K+ of scientific equipment. It plugs into a computer via usb (if you are lucky), parallel, serial, or something proprietary (if you are unlucky). Now you need a special piece of software to run said hardware. Of course that software has to have a physical hardware liscense key, because the expensive hardware isn't enough, it too can be usb (you hope) but parallel can be found. You also have a software license on served by the lowest budget server in a foreign country, that randomly pings to make sure you aren't using it on more than one computer. This can happen a few times an hour to a few times a month, and the software is completely unusable until that ping completes. To complicate things, some companies do all of this, and also provide the computer that the equipment comes with. All the software is locked down to that computer, and any changes to the computer hardware (ram upgrades, new hard drive) cause the software to not boot at all. And that kids is how some companies lock you into long term service agreements.