Shocked Roku owner makes ‘awesome’ discovery by opening streaming box – amazed fans now want to ‘take theirs apart’ too

A ROKU owner opened up the streaming box and made an unexpected discovery.

The user posted their find to Reddit on Tuesday, explaining that the device had died before being split apart.

Reddit

A Roku owner was shocked to uncover more than a dozen mystery signatures after dissembling the streaming box[/caption]

“Was very surprised to find what looks like the creators’ signatures etched into the plastic,” the user wrote.

Accompanying the post was photographic proof of a shard of plastic marked with more than a dozen mysterious names.

The unexpected find sparked excited reactions from other Roku owners. “Now I want to take mine apart…but I’m still using it,” one netizen lamented.

Others pondered over where the signatures might have come from.

“Looks like the entire Roku product team got their names etched into this Roku,” one user wrote. “My guess they did this for the entire run on this specific model.”

Some users postulated that the signatures came from those working on the production line. “I’ve been a mold maker for almost 20 years and have done this more than once,” another user claimed.

The history of signing hardware

Signing hardware is a fairly common phenomenon – just look at the earliest Mac computers.

Andy Hertzfeld, a member of the original Macintosh development team during the 1980s, recalled how the developers gathered for a “signing party”.

Steve Jobs devised the idea after the team finalized the computer’s plastic case design in early 1982.

“Since the Macintosh team were artists, it was only appropriate that we sign our work,” Hertzfeld wrote.

Jobs decided the signatures would be engraved on the tool that molded the case, meaning their names would wind up inside every computer produced.

“Most customers would never see them, since you needed a special tool to look inside, but we would take pride in knowing that our names were in there, even if no one else knew,” Hertzfeld wrote.

Following one weekly meeting, the team gathered for what he deemed a “signing party”.

Amazon

While it is unclear where the names came from, production teams at companies like Apple included their signatures inside computer cases in the 1980s[/caption]

Jerry Mannock, the manager of the industrial design team, first unfurled a large piece of drafting paper.

Jobs gave a speech, and cake and champagne were passed around the room as each team member stepped up to leave their signature.

“It took forty minutes or so for around thirty-five team members to sign,” Hertzfeld recalled.

“Steve waited until last, when he picked a spot near the upper center and signed his name with a flourish.”

This tradition has been observed at other tech companies, including one with an interesting connection to Roku.

The Amiga connection

The Amiga 1000, the first personal computer from Commodore International, sported designers’ signatures inside the case when it was released in 1985.

This tradition continued throughout the model’s short life, as production ceded in 1987.

Interestingly enough, one man who played a key role in the development of Amiga computers later worked at Roku.

Carl Sassenrath joined Amiga Computer in 1983 when it was just a small startup. As manager of operating systems, he designed Amiga OS, the first multitasking operating system for personal computers.

Sassenrath worked in product development at Roku, Inc. from 2010 until his retirement in 2023.