Tough toys for the Territory

Given the climate of the Territory, it came as little surprise to hear that over a third of the (brand new) laptops provided to the first lot of CEBs in late 2007 have since died.
With the humidity up north, the heat down south, and dust everywhere between, the Northern Territory is an IT Manager's worst nightmare.
Until now - enter the Panasonic CF-30, or as it's commonly known as, the Toughbook.
This is the Hummer of the laptop world. Originally designed for the US Army, the Toughbook is big, bulky and the perfect choice when you want to tell any AirBook carrying tree-huggers to eat your shorts.
Deep down, the Toughbook is just like any other laptop - screen, keyboard, touchpad, hard disk - but that's where the differences end. Outside, the Toughbook is wrapped up in a magnesium casing and a quarter-inch plexiglass screen, has huge rubber gaskets and seals all over, and there's a two-stage locking mechanism before you can access pretty much any of the Toughbook's ports.
If it looks heavy, that's because it is!
Panasonic's marketing men call the Toughbook 'ruggedised' (yeah, I didn't think such a word existed, either) and in fact, the Toughbook is so damn tough that it doesn't even need a fancy-schmancy carry case - it comes with its own built-in handle!
Of course, being ex-Military, the Toughbook is all about security. The hard drive can be removed in seconds (so long as you know how to use those two-stage locking mechanisms), data can be permanently deleted in three clicks and login is via a standard Windows password and an external PIN token.
Dust, heat and humidity mean nothing to a Toughbook - but that's probably because the thing is so heavy, it never gets taken anywhere near any of 'em!