I've spent this week wrangling with my old, superseded laptop, which fell to its death when a cyclist recently bolted out in front of my car. I am not good at such things, and the operation has been unsuccessful.
In many ways its unsurprising. I've had the damn thing for over five years, and much of that time it has been held aloft in my hand as I careen around the house. It ... has had a good run.
Sadly, much like my need to follow the opening of a packet of chips by eating an entire pattern of chips, this is a bit of a pattern of mine. I love gadgets, but they tend to corrode in my presence.
When I was taking a bus to school every day I bought myself a cheap-ass cassette Walkman - moving parts were all the rage in the personal music scene back then. The Walkman lasted all of three weeks, and was replaced by what would become a long line of cheap-ass Walkmans. It was always the same. One headphone would drop out, a minor problem, but one which I would grow to recognise as the beginning of the end. When a headphone drops out, you can eke another week of life out of it by fiddling with the cord, bending and forcing it to re-establish and increasingly fleeting connection. The whole experience is an exercise in despair, hearing just enough of a song to not enjoy it until finally both headphones drop out, the tape unspools and while you're winding it back in with an old pen the Walkman slips out of your lap and hits the ground with a sickening crack.
There is nothing more frustrating that an object that appears intact but simply will not work. iPods and the like have removed a great deal of mechanical malfunction, but not the frustration of inexplicable breakdown.
Eventually I invested in a Walkman of quality. Costing ten times that of the previous models, it's main selling point was that it was drop-proof and nigh indestructible. It was coated in thick, rubberised plastic and could be locked shut by a giant, silver key on the side. It lasted for months.
One day I lent it to a friend and he accidentally left it on a desk in a computer classroom. Despite its distinctiveness it was never seen again. I took up humming on the bus.
1 comment:
I bought a expensive mini disc player back in the day for community radio. it came with a small minidisc walkman, but unfortunately at the time didn't realise it needed rechargable batteries. the cheapos i used to buy would last an hour or two if i didnt skip too many tracks.
still works, i have a small collection of mini discs in my cupboard. actually own a proper album on mini disc as well - got radiohead's the bends. at the time, the quality of the discs were brilliant compared to a cassette.
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