Damn the stupidity!

[Sonic Glitch]

No, not the Onion. A 13yr old could not figure out the operation of a Walkman and cassette tape.

Walkman, at 30, a mystery to teen
Alejandro Martinez-Cabrera

Wednesday, July 1, 2009


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What better way to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Sony's iconic Walkman than to ask a teenager for some feedback on the device?


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The BBC couldn't think of one, and neither can I.

I like to imagine that the experience was similar to an archaeologist rediscovering how a recently excavated artifact was employed thousands of years ago. But I'm well aware that it must have been different for 13-year-old Scott Campbell, who co-edits his own news Web site. For one, teenage impatience must have stood in the place where I fantasize scientific curiosity should have been.

"My dad had told me it was the iPod of its day," Campbell wrote. "He had told me it was big, but I hadn't realized he meant that big. It was the size of a small book."

Sure enough, people on the street noticed the antique clinging from his belt with amusement and friends on his school bus were quick to come up with some witty remark.

Campbell went on to criticize the portable cassette player's size, appearance, functionality and the "hissy backtrack and odd warbly noises."

Even when he discovered the cassette had more music on the other side (it took him three days), Campbell was still disappointed it could only hold a small fraction of what an iPod can.

"Did my dad ... really ever think this was a credible piece of technology?"

Ouch.

Read it Here

[Aaron]

Credible technology? Frak, no one tell him about 8 Track or records then...

[Tyyr]

Slap the kid upside the back of his head, violently. Kid needs some perspective.

[Tsukiyumi]

Slap the kid upside the back of his head, violently. Kid needs some perspective.

Seriously.

I never even owned a walkman or discman, but you'd have to be an imbecile not to recognize that they're the precursors to the iPod. There would be no iPod without the prior development of walkman.

"Not credible technology". I wonder how well that kid would do in the wilderness without his technology. Probably starve to death in a couple of days. What a weenie generation.

[Sionnach Glic]

Someone slap that kid. Jesus.

"Credible piece of technology" my arse. I wish I could see his expression when, in twenty years or so, his kids say the same about his Ipods.

[Monroe]

Actually I wonder how ipods could ever be replaced... only change shape and location. The idea of how an ipod works is pretty top technically speaking. Sure you can make it a tooth, or a cybernetic implant of the brain or a ring but it'll run the same way. Playing music from its memory.

[Sionnach Glic]

Ten years ago people would say the same about walkmen.

[Tyyr]

Precisely. "They'll never top that," is pretty much a guarantee they will.

[Monroe]

Precisely. "They'll never top that," is pretty much a guarantee they will.

Usually I agree. But in this case I don't see how. You've already gotten rid of the physical element of the media. Only thing left is getting rid of the physical element of the music. And where's the fun in that?

[Lighthawk]

Precisely. "They'll never top that," is pretty much a guarantee they will.

Usually I agree. But in this case I don't see how. You've already gotten rid of the physical element of the media. Only thing left is getting rid of the physical element of the music. And where's the fun in that?

Just cause we can't see how doesn't mean it isn't there. Do you think people ever saw computers coming?

[Tsukiyumi]

...Do you think people ever saw computers coming?

Do you mean "do you think people in the 1920's saw 1950's computers coming", or are you referring to personal computers?

If the former, then no, for the most part. If the latter, then yes, of course. Anyone working in the industry in the '70s knew they were inevitable.

[Lighthawk]

...Do you think people ever saw computers coming?

Do you mean "do you think people in the 1920's saw 1950's computers coming", or are you referring to personal computers?

If the former, then no, for the most part. If the latter, then yes, of course. Anyone working in the industry in the '70s knew they were inevitable.

I meant in general. Go back 200 years, and half the stuff that makes a simple PC possible would have been beyond most people's ability to grasp, let alone imagine on their own.

[Tsukiyumi]

Oh, well yeah. No way in hell they saw it coming.

[Lighthawk]

Oh, well yeah. No way in hell they saw it coming.

That's technology for you, we can imagine how good existing stuff might get, but it's the stuff that doesn't exist yet, that we just have no clue on.

Hell, easy to see in action, look back at TOS, look at the control panels they were passing off as "futuristic". The stuff would be a joke in modern day now, but there was no way the writers could have imagined what kind of things would be coming.

[Reliant121]

Hey, Even I had a walkman CD player. And I'm the youngest on this website!