2023 Tedium Highlight by Ernie Smith: A few of the most influential pioneers in the history of blogging. 

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Ernie Smith’s 2023 Highlights

June 2023

Bad News Beepers

Considering the reputation that pagers and beepers had as a tool for drug trafficking, especially in schools. Did it smother a legitimately useful technology?

Manufactured Gloss

Our continuing journey to write a Tedium glossary takes us through the manufacturing process—and the weird products it sometimes led to.
May 2023

Social Network Drift

Maybe the reason why social networks fade away over time is as simple as different generations wanting different experiences. Picnic, an emerging social network, exemplifies this point.

Reviving a Dinosaur

Nearly two decades after its final version, the Silicon Graphics community has deep hopes for bringing the platform’s operating system back to life—the hard way.

Dress Down

Thoughts on dressing up in a world where members of Congress are trying to get away with wearing sneakers inside the Oval Office. Hoodies in the Senate? Sure!

Consider the Jackalope

How a happy taxidermy accident created the jackalope legend. But it’s a legend that might have some real-world grounding. Jackalopes may have even helped us solve cancer.

Make Digital Preservation Easier

If major companies think it’s too hard or costly to leave up user-generated content, perhaps we need to change the motivations.

The Artist and the Amiga

Andy Warhol was enamored with the first computer he ever owned—and he didn’t seem all that worried about the risks of disruption.

News of the Monoculture

For those who weren’t there, a quick explanation as to why MTV News was once something worth giving a crap about.

The Cover-Up

How screen protectors became a part of our lives, and the weird reason some early cathode ray tubes needed them.

Social Gloss

In continuing with our long series of glossary entries, let’s take a look at some online-community-related terms hiding in the archives.
April 2023

Switching Pad

OnePlus’ first attempt at a tablet makes a strong case for iPad users to make the move to Android. Does it stick the landing?

CISC-y RISC-ness

An unusual type of processor from the early 2000s seemed to offer the best of all worlds—and may be the most inventive approach to the CPU ever developed.

The Next Chapter

Online culture sure feels like it’s in a transition phase, doesn’t it? In an attempt to understand what we learned this week, let’s compare it to some prior internet-era shifts.

Textbooks of the Air

Long before there were podcasts, there were attempts to use the radio as a way to distribute educational programming.

Socket To Me

Why the processor socket, an important part of most desktop computers, lost its upgrade path as computers became smaller and more integrated.

The Whole Stack

Substack got an unexpected wave of momentum last week that threatens to upend the game for people who just want email to be email. What should indie newsletter publishers think of that?

Hiding in the Basket

A conversation about Easter eggs hiding in software, why they’re fun, and why they might not always be seen as good things by IT admins.

Mile-High Productivity

Making room for in-flight productivity has long been a source of both consternation and electronic interference. But for some reason, it persists.
March 2023

A Side of Gloss

Tedium continues on its long journey to fill its glossary with hundreds of entries, and today’s list takes a long, hard look at all things food-related.

When Atari Was Politicized

The story of how the “Atari Democrats” came to shape the way politics and technology work together, for good and bad.

Appetite for Destruction

The history of the paper shredder, a device that’s most important when you have something to hide. Not all shreds are alike.

Field of Bankruptcies

It’s hard out there trying to do something new, which is why we want to look back on some of the notable failed sports leagues.

On “Ernie”

Having learned that Baidu is about to steal my first name for its AI chatbot that’s launching this month, let’s talk about the name Ernie for a bit. (Can I stop them?)

Point, Shoot, and Forget

Before Instagram, the disposable camera helped pave the way for digital photography. But the basic idea was a century old by the time it went mainstream.

Self-Host All the Things?

In a world where every service wants to put you on a subscription forever, is now the time to start self-hosting your apps instead? Let’s look at the landscape.
February 2023

Robot Hand is the Future

What I learned about YouTube’s algorithm from creating an account that only watched videos related to Elliott Smith. I fought hard, but the algorithm won.

The Hayes Code

The obscure command set that gradually helped us move past acoustic couplers and brought dial-up modems into the mainstream. For a while, at least.

Old Archives, New Controversy

The New York Times has the most robust online archives of any newspaper, but it’s proving difficult to square their handling of a recent controversy with the quality of those archives.

A Layer of Gloss

Tedium is slowly working on its glossary over the next year, taking time to develop definitions for the literally thousands of things it’s discussed since 2015. Today’s starting point? Software.

Bridge To Nowhere

Trying to understand why bridge is an influential enough game that the BBC felt it was deserving of its own dedicated video game console in the ’80s.
January 2023

Films on Wheels

Pondering the under-the-radar legacy of the TV cart on wheels, a simple object as known for its substitute-teacher value as its risk as a tip-over hazard.

The Chris Gaines Shuffle

Discussing the evolution and popularity of alter egos, particularly those that aren’t very successful. If we don’t talk about the bad ones, how are they ever gonna learn?

When Money Doesn’t Look Like Money

A roundup of unusual types of currency, many of which don’t properly fit into a world of dollars and cents. Would you like your change in tea bricks or giant stones?

So Many Itches To Scratch

The sometimes-innovative power of things that can be scratched, one of our lesser-appreciated forms of physical interaction.

Turner Tunes

That time Ted Turner tried to compete with MTV by launching a competing music network of his own. It lasted five days longer than CNN+ did.

The Year Canada Recalled Pop

Resurfacing that time, in the summer of 1979, when the Canadian government recalled every large soda bottle on the shelf because the bottles would literally explode when shattered.

The Pioneers

Now that everyone seems interested in blogging again, here’s a list of early and influential bloggers that helped to shape the genre. Maybe you can borrow some pointers.

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