Now *that* is a sweet image. Aaron, do you know the name of the artist/designer? I want that on a shirt.

Cassette tape was not "deeply flawed." When Norelco intro'ed the first portable cassette recorders (intended for office dictation), they were revolutionary. "Street Fighting Man" started out life as a guitar riff Keef recorded on one of those contraptions. Also, a lot of my cassette tapes have outlasted most of the digital files I've downloaded.

What #2 said.

Sure, there were idiots who didn't know how to care for their tapes and their equipment (hey, lets just toss this cassette into the back seat). But it wasn't "deeply flawed" in general. By your same measure, streaming music is "deeply flawed" since it kills my phone battery faster, requires an internet connection (usually), (typically) requires a subscription if I don't want ads, etc. Stored mp3s also have their down sides.

And if you were spending "many minutes" using your pinky then perhaps you should have used a pen or something else instead.

@3: the eraser on the end of a fresh pencil worked great.