Entrepreneur’s Novelty Item Is Designed to Scare Off Those Pesky Computer Bugs

The ultimate indignity for L. J. Scamahorn probably came when he realized why he had only initials where most of the rest of the world had full names. “Honest and true,” says the 31-year-old software developer-turned-novelty item entrepreneur, “it was a computer error.”

According to his carefully told story, Scamahorn was originally named Luther Jacob until a computer bug somewhere in southeastern Indiana devoured all but the two initials.

Scamahorn relates his story by way of explaining his fixation on computer bugs, the damage they can do to well-meaning, unsuspecting souls, and why the world needs his remedy, “Bugaboo.”

Patterned after the wildly successful pet rocks of a decade ago, these multi-legged computer chips with painted capacitor faces and spindly antennae are supposed to ward off computer bugs and other electronic glitches. And if they aren’t entirely successful at keeping word processors from devouring prose or automated teller machines from swallowing deposits, the $4.95 item is at least supposed to generate a few chuckles.

“If we can give people a chance to smile and to give a gift for under $5, then we’re happy,” says Scamahorn, who’s described as the “chief electronic entomologist” of Santa Monica-based DownTime Inc.

But Bugaboo may not end with a few laughs. Scamahorn and his partner in the novelty business, former Los Angeles business lawyer Hank Schaeffer, have an entire life as a licensed product mapped out for their little critter. A song, “The Bugaboo Blues,” has already been recorded; a music video is in the works, and a cartoon show is under active consideration.

Scamahorn says the company has shipped about 120,000 items in the five weeks that the products have been available, including several thousand for a special promotion at Bloomingdale’s department store in New York. The items are currently available in about a dozen Southern California gift stores and are expected soon in major book and department store chains.

For its next act, DownTime is preparing post cards for banks, utility companies, department stores, oil companies and other users of electronic billing services to send customers apologizing for computer bugs that fouled up their records.

“Computers can really get out of hand and cause some real problems,” Scamahorn says. “We’re just trying to have a little fun with it.”