Cassette

I was laying here, in my bed, in the dark, staring up at the T-shirt tacked to my ceiling and listening to 'Slow Ride' by Foghat when it hit me; cassette tapes are the pinnacle of musical technology. Mp3's and CD's are just cookie-cutter storage devices, you can put anything in them, they're stale. The tape is perfect, its a little package of music in a sleek plastic case, built for one purpose only. Tapes are aesthetically pleasing, they fit in the palm of your hand, and they're just more satisfying to plop into a stereo. I'm not knocking my iPod, I'd die without it but I really love the Walkman as well, and I never appreciated a car stereo more than when I first plunked 'Hunky Dory" by David Bowie into the Bronco's tape deck.
Anyway, it just amazes me that my favorite invention came decades before my birth.