Tired of searching for a flash drive when you need one? Finnish computer engineer Jerry Jalava never has that problem, but only because he made a 21st-century technology decision when he lost most of his finger in an accident.
In 2018, Jalava was riding his motorbike near Helsinki when a deer jumped out in front of him. The collision cost Jalava his left ring finger. When it came time to get a prosthetic digit, Jalava decided to have a USB drive embedded under the nail of the removable finger. Now, whenever he needs it, he can detach the finger and plug it into any USB port in order to store digital information, from photos to programs.
Plugging into some USB facts:
- Also called pen drives or thumb drives, USB flash drives are popular for transferring and storing large amounts of data. They exponentially simplified the process of moving data.
- Jalava’s prosthetic finger hides a 2GB USB key, loaded with Billix distribution, CouchDBX, and Ajatus. Jalava simply pulls the finger off, plugs it in, and comes back to pick it up after the transfers are made.
- The first USB product was released in 1996. In 2000, the second generation of these handy plug-ins debuted, featuring a much faster data-transfer speed.