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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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Inches & Miles
The Latest

Inches & Miles

The AI era seems to be emboldening startups to once again take bold swings and use your data without even bothering to ask so they can build a startup around it.

By Ernie Smith • October 27, 2026
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Death & Domains

A recent piece on “forever domains” sparked bigger questions about permanence online: when domain owners die out, do we need new systems that don't rely on domains at all?

By Ernie Smith • October 20, 2026

The X is Off-Target

Is X good again? That's probably the wrong question. The right one: Are we past the era when a single social network needs to be everything to everyone?

By Ernie Smith • October 12, 2026

Name Shame

The concept of nominative antideterminism, or when your name goes against everything that you represent, whether intentionally or not. Cecil Fielder, sadly, wasn't a great fielder.

By Ernie Smith • October 9, 2026

Let’s Deconstruct Photoshop

A quixotic new project takes an AI-first approach to battling Adobe, and while it’s unclear where it leads, it raises important questions about what happens when companies ignore their users.

By Ernie Smith • October 8, 2026

Missing Link

Some spare thoughts about Link, a newspaper that turned 20 years old today—but more or less changed my life. It's been 18 years, but I still miss that job.

By Ernie Smith • October 5, 2026

Combo Platter

Admit it, you were wondering where the hell the gas-station staples Combos came from just as much as I was. Anyway, I figured it out. At one point a drill was involved.

By Ernie Smith • September 27, 2026

Cursed Napster

If you haven't looked at the Napster website lately, get ready for some major AI-related indigestion. The former music-sharing rebel is now peddling AI digital twins of teachers and serving the Saudi market.

By Ernie Smith • September 21, 2026

Corporate Sunset

Pondering the circumstances that led to the retirement of a 64-year-old cable brand in a merger. Turns out, brand loyalty matters less than we thought.

By Ernie Smith • September 17, 2026

alt.time-capsule.reopened

A new tool for digging into Usenet history holds much potential for researchers. But it’s also a reminder that many users thought, at the time, that it was ephemeral. (They were wrong.)

By Ernie Smith • September 14, 2026
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