iPod as portable computer

I use my iPod as my almost fail-safe backup for my computer: if I leave my computer somewhere unsafe, like in a train station locker, I keep my iPod on me. It sucks if I lose my computer, but in the short term, the most painful part is losing all my data.

Then last week, I heard from a physicist at my work at CERN that some people have portable drives that they can boot up any computer with--albeit subject to the expected bugs. I figured an iPod would work for this too, but didn't think about how to do it. Well, slack pays off again. (Thanks, Bob!) Someone else figured it out for me. See these directions at Engadget. (from boing boing)