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Valve commends Team Fortress 2 'Guard Dog' concept creator
A Team Fortress 2 forum poster named Pyranodon recently uploaded a magnificent piece of fan art for the cartoony shooter: A fake TF2 Class Update detailing the abilities of the game's new "Guard Dog." Though this canine is obviously way too overpowered to be implemented (it's a spy-tracker and a Jarate dispenser!), it's a pretty convincing mock-up -- so convincing, in fact, that Valve's Saxton Hale recently drafted a letter of commendation to the update's creator. Well, perhaps "drafted" isn't the appropriate word to use there. Now that we think about it, neither is "commendation." We don't want to spoil it for you -- check out the fake update, check out the letter, and then join us as we happily remember why we love Valve so very much.
Military-grade "Guard Dog" hard drive degausser
When even a $13,000 hard drive degausser leaves you a little worried that someone, somehow might still be able to pick out a few bits of top secret data, you might want to turn to these guys at the Georgia Tech Research Institute, who developed a fool-proof drive destroyer dubbed the "Guard Dog" that works without electricity. Like most drive wiping devices, the Guard Dog employs massively powerful magnets that not only render hard drives useless, but VHS tapes, DAT tapes, ZIP drives, and any other magnetic media to boot. Of course, they didn't just use any old off the shelf magnet, instead designing custom neodymium iron-boron models that produce just the right magnetic field necessary to make that hard drive completely useless. The Guard Dog also speeds things up by letting you crank drives through a mechanism that'll wipe them as they pass through, even if they're enclosed in metal cases. The system was developed in conjunction with defense contractor L-3 Communications Corp who foresees producing hundreds or thousands of the devices for both government agencies and private companies, but probably not for individual use -- if you know how much 125 pounds of neodymium magnets cost, you'll know why.[Via Digital World Tokyo]
