Xircom Pocket Network adapter -TractorGrip

 Originally ideated, developed and patented in-house, the TractorGrip was first presented to Intel Corporation’s PCED Group as a means of creating an intuitive parallel-port network adaptor.  Beloved by a lunchroom of Intel engineers, but rejected by management because the category wasn’t in the corporation’s pricing sweet-spot, the prototypes were taken down the coast to a then-unknown startup by the name of Xircom.  Funny name…  As it turned-out, the ”X” in Xircom was simply a variable that stood for both Kirk and Dirk, the founders.  Geek humor at its best. 

The TractorGrip was created to be absolutely the easiest and most intuitive way imaginable to dock a “DB” style connector, even if it was hiding under your desk and behind your computer in the dark. Consisting of a geartooth belt that engages geared pulleys that drive (spring-loaded) jackscrews, the TractorGrip is a blindfolded, one-hand-behind-your-back way to mate these connectors. 

Xircom immediately (like same day) ran with the product and within 18 months went from a brooder startup in Calibasas to virtually a household name.  Funny too that Kirk and Dirk ultimately cashed-in and sold the company to Intel!  

Gotta love it when a good plan comes together and the arc of a plot develops fully.

BTW: Kirk and Dirk are off doing their own thing again, but this time their company is Xirrus.  

Hmmmm…