Holiday Furby
THE FURBORG
It started innocently enough with a cute (though somewhat irritating) child's toy dressed up like Santa.
But underneath the furry red suit of this adorable little gremlin lies the cold heart of a ruthless robotic maniac...
A few years ago, I designed a device called a SPIRT (Serial Port Infra-Red Transmitter) that could take special commands from a computer serial port and convert them to infra-red signals. Using the SPIRT, I can control various devices such as TVs, VCRs, cable set-top boxes and satellite receivers. One day after seeing my nephew's Furby, I decided that I should be able to control that too.
After a slight modification to the serial protocol and the firmware and some research on some other "Hack Your Furby" web sites ( http://www.phobe.com/furby/, http://www.hackfurby.com/ ), I was soon controlling my Furby. Eventually, after sending too many "Sneeze" commands, Furby caught a cold. Then he began to speak Spanish.
Finally, I realized that having computer control of my Furby was about a useful as... well... something useless. He was so annoying that I installed a switch just to get him to shut up. I gave him to my three-year-old boy who promptly destroyed him.