Think Geek’s Vilcus Plug Dactyloadapter has some great product pictures and even better copy. Designed by Art Lebedev, the developer of the Optimus Maximus keyboard, it’s being marketed by Think Geek as a tool — inspired by various Soviet-era KGBA “persuasion” devices — that lets any one quickly and easily test the functionality of any electrical socket. Lebedev himself is being less coy: “Vilcus dactyloadapter was developed specially for people who enjoy closing electrical circuits with their own fingers.” For example, a sensuous duo of Castro Street electricians.
I think it’s a great gag product, especially for $12.99, but what I find more interesting about the Vilcus is the fact that it must be safe… or at least, safe enough that Think Geek isn’t terribly worried about selling it, their bolded humorous legal patter aside. Fantastic bullet point features include “Exclusive Russian Design” and “Become more alert through free electroshock therapy.”
Vilcus Plug Dactyloadapter [Think Geek via book of joe]
Wow! I would’ve loved this as a kid — and, since it closes the circuit entire with one hand, undoubtedly safer than my practice in those days of sticking a screwdriver into an outlet.
In retrospect, it explains a lot, really…
Gah. I hate April’s Fools. “Ha ha! We got you! We just lied!” It’s all fun and games on April 1st, but then some poor, innocent blogger discovers it on December 8th three years later, and the comments are immediately filled with people calling him an idiot for not checking the date.
Uh… yeah…
This was originally posted by Think Geek as an April fools joke.
Hey, I live in the USA, and it’s perfectly reasonable to test 120 VAC circuits with your fingers. You folks that live in civilized, non-torturing countries with your fancy-pants 240 VAC 50 Hz systems get teh bejeezus shocked out of you if you try that kind of thing, but over here in the colonies I’ve been testing wires for current by touching them for decades. Suckers!
–Charlie
It’s an April Fools product. You can tell by /41/ in the URL and the nonintegral number of ‘Geek Points’.
Did you try to add it to the cart? It is a leftover from April Fools Day.
This is actually an April Fools joke. Click the “Add to cart” button to spoil the fun. It’s a shame too, I want one! They just need to make a tongue adapter.