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

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“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 sporting 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”.

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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 seen at other tech companies as well, including one with an interesting connection to Roku.

What is Roku?

The company is best known as a popular provider of free, ad-supported streaming television – or SMART TV for short.

Roku, Inc. was founded in 2002 by Anthony Wood, an English-born businessman who relocated to the United States as a teenager.

Wood wanted to help TV fans watch what they wanted when they wanted and came up with the idea of a TV operating system with access to online content.

Roku released its first product in 2008 – a streaming box called the Roku DVP, which sold 10 million units in just six days.

The company’s hardware is compatible with any TV that has an HDMI connection. This means virtually anyone can access the streamer’s growing body of content.

Each player comes with a Roku remote to navigate on-screen menus and control playback.

The company also licenses its operating system to television manufacturers like Toshiba and Hisense to create Roku-branded TVs.

The streamer has steadily been expanding its portfolio on The Roku Channel.

It boasts free content from over 250 partners, including live news from networks like NBC, Fox, and CBS.

The ever-growing library boasts over 350 live TV channels and 80,000 free movies and shows.

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.