I’ve Got A Crush!

img-0468-norazza-data-destroyer-webPeople probably won’t consider this the pinnacle of high tech, but I got the chance today to witness what is probably the most interesting devices at the show in action. First, though, remember back to those days when you were a little kid and would, say, look at a rock on the playground and think to yourself, "I wonder what that tastes like," or maybe think to yourself, "Gee… mom would sure love it if I took apart the television while she was away." You know, that general sense of naïve curiousity that makes us do stupid things. Or maybe that was just me.

Anyway, this device, produced by a company called Norazza is called the Data Destroyer. Sounds mundane, right? I thought so too at first when I read their press release. A giant magnet, maybe? Or just a fancy name for a shredder? Oh, no, my friends. No, this is much, much more interesting. It actually crushes things using thousands of pounds of pressure.

Ideally, the device is used to crush hard drives or cell phones, which is what the Norazza representative demonstrated to me. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to offer a few other items that I’d brought along for it to crush. I figured soda cans would be too easy (heck, we can do that ourselves), so I tried to come up with a few "non-traditional" suggestions for what we could crush. Like, maybe a book. Or a bottle of shampoo. Or a rubber ducky.

The potential for this thing is huge, I think. I mean, much in the same vein as Will It Blend, I can imagine a series of videos of people crushing different things. Heck, I can imagine a kind of bizarre cult of people springing up around this thing, like sky divers or cyclists or taxidermists. The cost is a little high at around $8,000, but once they solve that problem, Norazza is golden.