The name for Apple’s new iPod, iPod Shuffle reminds me of the very first Sony MD player I bought . If I’m not wrong, I was one of the first people to actually have one. (I think it was that old, it’s not even listed on this page [note to Alfons: picture please?]). Two completely different technologies: one apparently meant to replace the audio-cassettes. The other, well, to make you look fancy.
It’s the name that bothers me and it’s the name that brings up memories (note, exactly last year I wrote something about MD players too) to my MD player’s random/shuffle mode: it never worked. It did work, but after a couple of hours listening I was always able to exactly guess which song was going to be played next. To make matters worse: every individual disk appeared to have its own ‘randomness’ factor. I always wondered if I was the only person in the world who ever noticed this behaviour. Maybe things went better after.
Note: I’m aware of the fact that true randomness does not really exist on computers. Actually, it’s one of the more complex problems in computing and programming.