Linux at Your Fingertip

Mar 31, 2009

Finnish software developer Jerry Jalava uses Linux on a USB stick, although in a rather unusual way: the USB is part of his prosthetic finger.

Jerry Jalava lost his left ring finger in a motorcycle accident in May 2008. When the hand surgeon found out that Jalava was a hacker, he suggested enhancing his replacement prosthesis with a USB "finger drive." Jalava agreed to the idea and now wears a 2-GByte removable "You-SB" silicon finger that he can plug into his laptop and pick up again when he's done.

Linux users would be happy to know that Jalava has the multi-boot distro Billix constantly at his fingertip. Billix derives from Damn Small Linux 4.2.5 and brings with it USB Linux netinstalls for Ubuntu, CentOS, Debian and various other distros.

Jalava seems to have another prosthesis he replaces it with when the USB is in the drive, one that acts as a regular digit. He also plans another attachment with a replaceable fingertip and integrated RFID chip.

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