Laptop Or Tank? You Be The Judge

Today I've discovered the
"Rough Rider III", from Rugged Notebooks, which looks to me to be the Hummer of laptops. That's right, it's pricy and designed to deal with a lot of situations the average person wouldn't encounter but inexplicably causes you to want one anyway. This thing is absolutely amazing in terms of what it can handle. It's got a magnesium alloy chassis and it's water tight. It can withstand extreme heat, extreme cold, dust, rain, being run over by a car, being dropped up to 3 feet and it looks completely bad @$$. In terms of performance it's pretty average, nothing too exciting, but hey! YOU CAN OPERATE IT IN THE MIDDLE OF A FIRE.

If you're in a profession involving oil rigs or the military this may be the product for you. As a writer, my profession doesn't involve oil rigs or the military. So if I buy one of these things I will justify my purchase by insisting it will inspire me to lead a more active lifestyle. Maybe that's not true, but at the very least, I want to see the look on my friends' faces when I invite them for a rousing game of laptop catch. If I get the most rugged of the laptops offered, maybe we can play laptop baseball.

Even if you're not planning on buying one of these, at least check out the
Rugged Notebooks website. I can't explain it, but there is something fascinating about watching video of a guy bashing a laptop with a rock in order to prove you can't mess up the LCD screen because it's got a plexi-glass shield.

posted by: TechDiva