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13-Year-Old Trades iPod For a Walkman For a Week
BBC Magazine convinced 13-year-old Scott Campbell to trade in his iPod for a Walkman for a week and see what he thought. Scott thinks the iPod wins when it comes to sound quality, color, weight, and the shuffle feature. The Walkman, however, offers two headphone sockets, making it much easier to listen to music with a friend. My favorite part of the review is, "It took me three days to figure out that there was another side to the tape. That was not the only naive mistake that I made; I mistook the metal/normal switch on the Walkman for a genre-specific equalizer, but later I discovered that it was in fact used to switch between two different types of cassette."
About giving him an 8 track cartridge tape ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereo_8
At least, there is only one side to those. I still remember listening to Pink Floyd "The dark side of the moon" and "Echoes" while cruising in my car. Even today, when I listen to it on more modern media, I still remember where the sound track would cut for a few seconds in the middle of a song in order to allow the player to change tracks. They did a fade-out in the middle of a song in order to make it sound more appropriated... ;-)
8-tracks came before 4 track mini-cassette :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini_Cassette
For those who don't know 8 tracks, the tape is arranged in a endless loop so it was impossible to rewind the tape ;-))) I still have an 8 track recorder in the basement somewhere, I used to record my own tapes ;-)
Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
Sony's audio cassette devices didn't manage to contain any rootkits...
The sound of, say, Metallica's Garage Inc on tape is way better than on mp3. Cassettes are beautiful. They are durable, unlike CD/DVDs, and I have 25 year old cassettes that still work. They are hardware, tangible mechanical form of music. And there's just something about it that no CD/DVD/MP3s can match. And then there's the cover art sitting on an actual cover. Man I miss those days.
Real men read Slashdot articles at -1, bottom up.
..was there to make my C64 games load faster...
It comes with a handy belt clip screwed on to the back, yet the weight of the unit is enough to haul down a low-slung pair of combats.
Pull your pants up and wear a belt! You damn kids
I guess they're durable as long as you don't listen to them much. The mere act of playing a cassette degrades it. And then there's the sound quality issue. Comparing cassettes favorably to mp3 is one thing, but to CD/DVD? Seriously?
As I listen to Dëthklok, I marvel at a radio that would have a Metal/normal equalizer preset.
That would be pretty metal.
If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
and for next week's assignment have him carry around a ghettoblaster ;-)
Either he writes well or I was an idiot when I was 13.
?
I didn't read the article yet, but did the reporter give the kid a manual for operating the Walkman? If so, the kid could have resolved some of those issues by reading it. If not, then I understand his confusion. CD's have been the standard for physical media since the early 90's, and manufacturers probably stop making cassette tapes for new albums when he was 3 or 4. CD's are, after all, one-sided.
... figure out a rotary-dial phone?
.. pa-ra-bo-la, pa-ra-bo-la, 2 pi R, 2 pi R, where's your latus rectum, where's your latus rectum, 2 pi R
I'd like to introduce to my friend, h|tler:
<h|tler> HOW THE FUCK CAN YOU TELL THAT I'M 13 BY LOOKING AT WHAT I'M WRITEING????????????????
(From http://bash.org/?14207)
The slashdot filter had me remove a bunch of question marks. Yes, there are even more in the original.
I agree the Sony MP3 players are much better in terms of features like FM radio, bluetooth headphone support, easy to upload and change music as well as use to store other files like your resume. It is also cheaper for the size of storage and options you get.
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I'm relieved that the majority of technological advancement happened before I was born..
Aw, that's cute. We'll see what he says when he's forty and he gives his kid an iPod to play with.
Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.
FYI, there's actually 4 tracks on a cassette tape. Each side has two tracks for left and right, and they are interleaved from top to bottom: left side 1, right side 2, right side 1, left side 2.
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It's not the writing style of an average 13 year old, but the average 13 year old, or even average much older person doesn't get to write articles for the BBC.
That was not the only naive mistake that I made; I mistook the metal/normal switch on the Walkman for a genre-specific equalizer, but later I discovered that it was in fact used to switch between two different types of cassette."
Wait wait wait. They had actual METAL cassettes? Like, made out of metal?
The scary part is that I'm being completely serious. I'm only 21 but I had a Walkman for a few years before I got my first CD player, I always wondered about that switch but since I never saw a cassette made out of metal I assumed the same thing he did, that it was being genre-specific.
Now one of the great mysteries of my life is solved.
I find it disturbing that, according to the article at least, this particular kid had problems working out for himself that a cassette tape is two-sided and what half of the controls on the Walkman do.
As a kid, I can remember taking some bits of machinery apart to clean or service them, and just to see how they worked. (For example, my parents were in the clothes-making/tailoring trade and I frequently messed about with old sewing machines to fix them or clean them.) I also got into electronics at a fairly young age and knew some basics about car mechanics.
It seems a shame that kids these days don't get the chance to (or are just not interested in) take things apart just to see how they work - from my perspective, I developed an "engineering brain" from a really early age that has served me well throughout my career.
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
Listening to a walkman with a friend constitutes a public performance. You have not acquired the proper license for for said performance. You now owe the RIAA $80,000 for infringement.