Back in 2005 Apple released the iPod shuffle. Realizing that they had just unearthed the biggest technological personal computing boom since Dell conquered East Anglia and realms beyond with Stephen, our hempen “Dude, you’re getting a dell” guy, they had a challenge: how can we get everyone to buy another one? Dude, you should liquidate AAPL and return value to shareholders! – Michael Dell circa 1997 Do not question the wisdom of Stephen Paul Jobs’ secret emotion reader of populations (Asimov anyone?). In this time, Apple brought us The iPod Shuffle. Yes, a USB stick with a button. And yes, I bought one.

Update 2022: Once upon a time there was a product called the iPod: a music player with gigantic storage. It was superseded by it’s descendant the iPhone. It looked like this the following. The cable that plugged into the iPod had sheathing whose rubberized plastic receded. This was a design flaw.