Man, I had a walkman growing up and even THEN I knew the thing sucked and that there had to be a better way.
Really? I loved my walkman. I never went anywhere without it tucked into the mickey pocket of my leather jacket.
I loved my discman too, but like I said, this required a man-purse to carry, and as a result, I was subjected to regular drive-by catcalls of "nice purse!" etc. from adolescent males.
I can't say I love my iPod--I still have a discman, for when I want to listen to my classical music. But I do appreciate the fact that my consumption of AA batteries has dropped by 99 per cent.
There's no question that the cassette walkman was doomed to disappear. Although revolutionary, it was invented around the same time as something equally if not more revolutionary, the compact disc
As a military historian, the history of the walkman reminds me, oddly enough, of the history of the submachine gun.
This, too, was a revolutionary weapon--a light, fully automatic carbine designed for offence--the first true 'assault weapon'. And you can get a sense of just how destructive even these early weapons could be in Michael Mann's recent film
Public Enemies.
The trouble with the SMG (as with the walkman) was its ammunition. Pistol ammunition lacked the range, accuracy, and power of rifle ammunition. So, for a while, you had soldiers armed with a mixture of rifles and SMGs--just as, for a while, you had people using a mixture of CDs and cassettes.
The challenge was to combine the features of both weapons in a
single weapon. And this was done, ultimately, by changing the ammunition.
The first solution--the discman of infantry combat, if you will--was the German MP44 and the Soviet AK-47, which were loaded with shortened rifle cartridges, but fired a full-sized bullet.
But this, like the discman, was never a fully satisfactory solution. The true solution was a small-caliber rifle bullet fired at very high velocities--the 5.56 mm cartridge of the American M-16 rifle.
This, if you will, was the iPod of infantry combat. And virtually every industrialized country nowadays arms its soldiers with a variation on the M-16 'serial bullet rifle' concept. Among other advantages, it, much like the iPod, allows the soldier to carry much more ammunition into battle. But just as the iPod uses a 'lossy' format, the modern assault rifle lacks the range and accuracy provided by a full-powered rifle cartridge.
With that unusual but, I think, apt metaphor, it's time for bed.
(well, not really.. i'd chuck this Walkman in the bin if i could have gotten an Ipod or any digital technology 
).
