Man Replaces Lost Finger with USB Drive

Katherine Mangu-Ward | March 11, 2009

Too bad about losing your finger in a motorcycle accident, Mr. Jerry Jalava of Riihimäki, Finland. But replacing the missing chunk with a USB drive concealed inside a rubbery fake finger is a pretty brilliant silver lining.

His friend, who first blogged on this, writes:

Now he carries a Billix Linux distribution and the Freddy Got Fingered movie as part of his hand. 

Jalava says:

I'm planning to use the other prosthetic as a shell for the next version, which will have removable fingertip and RFID tag.

Click the image to see the whole flickr set of the USB finger in action.

Not only is this a neat open-sourcealicious hack, it's an interesting study in someone opting against privacy and in favor of reputation-building. Jalava posted the whole story on his blog, each post of which is geotagged with his exact location. He's planning to add an RFID chip to his body, which will make him even easier to track. Dude is not worried about protecting his privacy, even though he's a nine-fingered geek freak (which I mean in the most positive possible way). Instead, he's worried about building his reputation, which is currently experiencing a pretty big bump.  

Via former Reason intern Mike Riggs, who tweets that "the singularity is near, or some shit like that."

More on the upside of zero privacy from me here. Me on Clay Shirky on reputation vs. privacy here. And "Database Nation" here.

Comments

|3.11.09 @ 4:59PM|#

Damn I want to be the first on my block to go cyborg.

|3.11.09 @ 5:02PM|#

Gives new meaning to the term "thumb drive"

Orange Line Special|3.11.09 @ 5:09PM|#

Good job! Katherine Mangu-Ward gets in a plug for getting chipped and just repurposes SchlongSchlong material for those who probably already read that site.

Excellent work!

And, here's a comment I left on an earlier KMW entry:

Here's an interesting article from way back in 1993 about the "Kochtopus" pushing NAFTA. Interesting, and oh so relevant.

As for the "conspiracy theory", the intellectually honest reader will note that Katherine Mangu-Ward is engaging in the standard trick of trying to claim that if it isn't four football fields wide, it isn't being planned. What the intellectually honest reader should note is that it doesn't have to be four football fields wide in order to fulfill its purpose of allowing China to "mainline" cheap goods into the central U.S., bypassing U.S. (i.e., union) ports along the way.

Not only that, but the NAFTA Superhighway has been confirmed, and by Reason's choice to be president no less.

Fail.

Jeff P|3.11.09 @ 5:13PM|#

The potential for pick-up lines is endless.

"If you'd like I can mount a firmware update to your V-drive..."

JayC|3.11.09 @ 5:19PM|#

Hit & Run readers interested in this sort of cutting-edge stuff might get a kick out of H+ Magazine. It's a free read.

PantsFan|3.11.09 @ 5:21PM|#

Shut the fuck up, Lonewacko.

SpongePaul|3.11.09 @ 5:23PM|#

Wow a premptive strike at LW, Funny!

Warty|3.11.09 @ 5:24PM|#

I seem to have started a meme. Awesome.

Warty|3.11.09 @ 5:26PM|#

Personally, I'd put a stun gun in my fake finger. Or maybe a cocaine dispenser.

Taktix®|3.11.09 @ 5:27PM|#

OMG NAFTAsuperHIghway !!!!!1!!1!!11!!one!!

I second PantsFan, in honor of Warty...

SpongePaul|3.11.09 @ 5:33PM|#

I would get a small vibrator attached to the nub. that way i would really have magic fingers for the ladies, LOL

SpongePaul|3.11.09 @ 5:34PM|#

sorry could not resist a fingerbang joke with a bionic fingertip, lol

Martin|3.11.09 @ 5:37PM|#

People often say that they have more brains in their little fingers than the entire government has in their heads; this guy can say it for real, though.

|3.11.09 @ 5:39PM|#

Here it comes.

Hugh Akston|3.11.09 @ 7:18PM|#

This is certainly less bulky than a kilowatt laser and less hassle than a fountain pen.

|3.11.09 @ 8:11PM|#

It's just like The F.N.G.R.

JB|3.11.09 @ 11:37PM|#

I highly recommend the book "Distraction" by Bruce Sterling.

It talks about reputation networks along with many other interesting topics.

wingnutx|3.12.09 @ 12:26AM|#

Maybe I've just read too many William Gibson novels, but I am this close to chopping a finger off so that i can get one of these.

|3.12.09 @ 1:31AM|#

May I just say that I already hate Twitter.

Seriously. I don't need to know every random thought in your head. I don't need to know, and I don't WANT to know.

Abdul|3.12.09 @ 8:10AM|#

This dude uses his bionic finger to hold a copy of a lousy Tom Green movie? I think we have to revoke his cyborg license.

Matt|3.12.09 @ 2:43PM|#

See The Demon With The Glass Hand (Outer Limits)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lImaly19Yps

tom|10.13.09 @ 4:19AM|#

I don't need to know every cvs