Programmer from Finland has lost finger replaced with USB drive | Hacker News Reader

Programmer from Finland has lost finger replaced with USB drive

telegraph.co.uk

65 pointsrglovejoy29 comments

What he should do is install a USB security device on his door. So to get in, he sticks his finger in, and then a voice says: "Welcome home, Dave", and the door swings open.

That would be cool, but I would be afraid of people trying to take my finger (maybe even the wrong one!). I'd rather just have someone take my keys like everyone else.

If I ever rigged up a biometric scanner, it would scan my entire body, including checking for heart-rate and EEG readings. In order to get in, I'd have to be present in full, alive, and not stressed out by an act of duress (calibrated to my normal level of stress during the pre scan, obviously.)

Aren't there situations where this could backfire? What if you just finished running around the block and need to get inside? What if you just finished running around the block away from rabid dogs and need to get inside FAST?

Perhaps this wouldn't be a good choice for a front door to a regular home. Perhaps the entrance to a secure facility, though, where time would never be an issue (with a keycard and a vocalized passphrase as well, for additional factors.) Not a nuclear launch silo, but perhaps a top-secret research facility.

I wonder what sort of impact losing part of a finger like that has on typing. I guess you'd probably adapt pretty quickly (I was wondering if the prosthetic was useful for things like typing, or a hinderance).

But if the USB drive is plugged-in, he can't use it for typing. I'd be curious to know if he types with or without the prosthetic.

Probably only plugs it in while copying files, so no Linux distro. Would also lose its novelty factor pretty quickly with me because my desk means I have to have my PC on the right side!

I'm sure losing any finger would affect your typing, but with practice the human body is capable of learning amazing things (like the people who learn to write fluently with their feet after losing both arms). Of course age affects this learning process too; a younger brain will more easily rewire itself. Typing doesn't require much strength. Losing your pinky finger, for example, has a huge effect on your grip strength (see Yubitsume: http://www.japanslate.com/pinky-fingers/ ).

Does this make anyone else think of that old Are You Afraid of the Dark episode with the midget playing the computer virus, and how the kid gets a serial port in his palm?

It made me think of the little switch/port Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation has on his hand which he accesses flipping a fingernail upward.

I don't remember that specific episode, but for being on Nickelodeon, that show was quite frightening.

He should get together with the 'Beautiful Prosthetics' guy: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=518860. Functional + Beautiful = Win.

Why the downvote? I think this is a great hack and I'm definitely not disrespecting his work - it's awesome. However, imagine the potential of great ideas like this combined with amazing looking prosthetics as discussed in the other article. If that's not a startup idea I don't know what is!

>after crashing his one week old Ducati Monster 696 motorbike.

doh!

People need to learn that the first bike you get should be <50 hp, and cheap enough you don't care when you drop it. Do not start with a Ducati.

That said, the 696 isn't THAT fast...

Was it mentioned that this was his first bike ?!

Did anyone else read the title as "Programmer from Finland has lost (finger replaced with USB drive)"? I have a tendency to lose USB keys...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_path_sentence

I don't think this qualifies as a garden path sentence because the reader doesn't "build an incorrect structure because the next word doesn't fit into that structure".

This is more an example of syntactic ambiguity where a sentence may be "reasonably interpreted in more than one way": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntactic_ambiguity

Interesting link, though. I didn't know the formal term for these types of sentences.

He should make it into a Live Finger so he can boot Linux wherever he goes!

But because of the GPL he'll have to Open Source his brain.

</sarcasm>

I don't recall where I red the story of people implanting tiny magnets under the skin of a finger tip. But I did find it interesting that they quickly developed a sense for magnetic fields, like from live wires. And if I were an electrician I'd get one of those.

But a USB drive?

The story is from Wired.com:

"People who have rare earth magnets implanted in their fingers...a finger that feels electromagnetic fields along with the normal sense of touch."

"Appliance cords in the United States give off a 60-Hz field, a sensation with which Huffman has become intimately familiar. "It is a light, rapid buzz," he says."

Sounds really interesting, although the obvious health risks keep me from considering it myself.

http://www.wired.com/gadgets/mods/news/2006/06/71087

A more interesting (to me) and less dangerous was a belt with an array of motors and an internal compass such that there was always a light buzz from the North. Apparently after wearing it for a few weeks you develop an uncanny sense of direction.

I've heard about this story alllll week - so why this is on the front page of HN now is a bit strange.

Forgive me for being a curmudgeon, but I would likely be voting this story down given the chance.

He should get a laser pointer. Much cooler than a USB drive.

he should carefully check the electrical design of every motherboard he puts his "finger" into :>

and what if the USB port is UNDER THE DESK? hihihi

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