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Tedium. The newsletter all your other newsletters look up to.

Since 2015, Ernie Smith's Tedium has been hunting for the end of the long tail, and we've yet to find it. But we'd sure love it if you followed us on our journey. Especially now that we're ten friggin' years old and we're still using a Street Fighter II slogan as our subscribe button. Validate the use of obscure video game slang as a successful subscription strategy. Click the button.

 

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Having Fun On Stage
The Latest

Having Fun On Stage

Pondering why, despite the fact that bands and musicians have to do it every single night, many suck at stage banter—particularly, but not limited to, Elvis.

By Ernie Smith • November 8, 2025
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Frost On The Pumpkins

Coming back for a second helping of pumpkin spice pop culture as a way to try to get relief from these trying times.

By David Buck • October 31, 2025

Rotate 180°

Canva makes a bold bet with Affinity: The real money is in the rank-and-file office worker, not the professionals. It just turned the pro tool into the loss leader.

By Ernie Smith • October 30, 2025

Grokked & Pilfered

Elon Musk’s new Wikipedia clone has been criticized for nicking Wikipedia. Something else it also does: Aggressively cite the Tedium archive.

By Ernie Smith • October 29, 2025

The Sky Is Falling, The Web Is Dead

In looking for examples of people calling the Web dead, I learned that, apparently, you can say the Web is dying for 30 years and get away with it.

By Ernie Smith • October 25, 2025

Pitchfork Doesn’t Need Comments

The legendary music site’s message board is the broader internet—where people are going to agree or disagree with its ratings and keep it in the conversation. But on-site comments are apparently coming anyway.

By Ernie Smith • October 22, 2025

Waves Of Interference

The reason that the PC industry first landed on the FCC’s radar had little to do with the computers themselves and everything to do with the electrical noise they emitted. Blame the CB radio.

By Ernie Smith • October 20, 2025

The Hyped Distro

A guy stuck in a cabin with weak internet decides to try out Omarchy and learns some stuff along the way. Will the learning curve turn you off, or the inherent ethical issues?

By Ernie Smith • October 13, 2025

A Prescription for Laughter

A Dr. Demento superfan looks back on the novelty radio icon as he finally hangs up his microphone after a 55-year run. Oh, he pulled in a bunch of other superfans, too.

By David Buck • October 7, 2025

Tiny Tubes

For years, subminiature vacuum tubes were looking like the future of electronics—until a key figure in their rise heard about something better.

By Ernie Smith • October 2, 2025
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