I know that there isn't a soul alive whose heart burns with a passion for thumb drives. But just like underpants the humble thumb drive has become a necessary accessory of modern computing life. I recently picked up a 4 gig Sandisk Cruzer Micro, and it has been a fine product. I've also dropped it a few times, and I wish that I had bought one with a bit more physical protection.

The new Corsair Survivor line is designed to be tough and to never miss a beat when in the thick of battle. The actual flash memory is encased in a two-piece machined aluminum body, and beyond providing structural support the end caps are rubber sealed for a watertight fit. There's also a large amount of heavy rubber cushioning inside the drive to hold the flash memory in place when taking serious abuse. The drives come in 8GB ($129.99) and 4GB ($59.99) capacities, and ship with 256 bit encryption software for adding a little bit of lockdown flavor to the data on the drives.

These thumb drives are rated for water resistance up to 200 meters, but not many of us will capsize our sailboats often enough to even consider buying a drive for the water resistant promise on the package. To be honest, the real value of a ruggedized thumb drive is the protection from accidental dunking in a cup of coffee or a two storey drop down a flight of stairs. Accidents happen, and I'd hate to be caught without a copy of a final project because I left the top off my latte.