2021 Tedium Highlight by Ernie Smith: Why Hooked on Phonics was surprisingly controversial. 

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Ernie Smith’s 2021 Highlights

December 2021

Arbitrary Calendar Marker Commentary

Another year of Tedium is behind us, and gotta say—it’s looking like another thousand years of it. Here’s the tedium you should expect in 2022.

Down Is Up, Up Is Down

Pondering why “natural scrolling” exists, despite the fact that the first thing a lot of people do when setting up a new computer is turn it off.

You Know, For Kids

Pondering the uncomfortable relationship kids and parents have with technology—and making a case that kids deserve the chance to fall in love with gadgets.

Give Like You Don’t Care

This year’s Tedium gifts-for-strangers guide has a bunch of additional gift ideas from eBay, too. Just wait until you see the boxed water from Farm Aid II.

These Eyes Are Trackin’

Pondering the tale of Gator, a company that created a password manager way back in 1999, but ruined goodwill by going full spyware. (Oops, I mean adware.)

Cut-Up Culture

Pondering how coupons became the lingua franca of the grocery store, and why they might be important to the survival of the newspaper.

Booting Up The Cash Register

Computers didn’t immediately lend themselves to retail, but ambitious early computer retailers sold ‘em anyway. Eventually, they got trampled.

A Linux Labor of Love

The JingPad A1, a flashy new tablet from Linux-land, shows a ton of potential, though you might want to wait for a few rounds of software updates first.
November 2021

Pushing Photos Through Wires

The technology used to distribute photos through news wire services inspired a whole bunch of innovations with use cases beyond newspapers. Like television.

The Scrolling Orb

The evolution of the trackball, which is more than an upside-down mouse. It's the Royal Canadian Navy’s greatest gift to modern-day computing. Really.

Open To Conversion

From PCX to TGA to VRML, considering a number of image formats that the world forgot. Not every image standard is going to last, no matter how pretty it is.

The Cold Cocktail

How NyQuil, the over-the-counter cold medicine of choice for millions of sniffling people, innovated by combining a bunch of drugs together in a novel way.
October 2021

The Animal Years

Discussing why anthropomorphism came to dominate early animation, and why that trend never really faded away, while rubber-hose animation quickly did.

Embrace Your Inner Stooge

Considering the cultural role of The Three Stooges, one of the most important comedy troupes in history, in the modern day.

Source Tags & Codes

The saga of the Missouri governor reflects a failure by the powerful to embrace curiosity—curiosity encouraged by the HTML language he fails to understand.

Does This Ring A Bell?

The chatter around breaking up Facebook makes it a great time to talk about why the last effort to break up a communications giant, AT&T, didn’t really work.

Repetition, In Four Parts

Pondering the issue of repetition in four different ways, in an effort to not repeat myself. Ever feel like you’re repeating yourself? Read this.

Braids of Nylon, Everywhere

How braided nylon became such a hip part of our charging cables. Long story short: people like it when their cables feel like rope!
September 2021

The Story Behind A Box

The cable converter box, a relic of the cable era of the 1970s, was developed in part by one of the first people to install a cable system. Here’s his story.

ACE in the Hole

Discussing the unusual legacy of the CableACE Awards, the cable industry’s attempt to promote its quality to subscribers. Eventually, the Emmys did the job.

v4

Tedium has a new, fresher coat of paint, with a design intended to get you to dive in even deeper, if you so choose.

How I Research Stuff

If you’re a longtime reader of Tedium, you might wonder how I manage to uncover so many strange stories. Well, let me tell you. Hopefully it’s inspiring.

Vestigial Tales

Why the products you use every day, especially electronics, might come with parts or functions you weren’t expecting or have no actual use for.

Let’s Go To The Tape

Why Memorex, Silicon Valley’s first true startup, evolved into something of a ghost kitchen of computing.

I Love LAMP

Giving some well-deserved appreciation to the LAMP stack, a key building block of the modern-day internet that you use daily. It’s everywhere. It may never die.
August 2021

No Sprouts

Why the fast-casual sandwich shop Jimmy John’s struggled with selling sprouts for so long, despite their obvious health risks.

A Downgraded Downgrade

Why does it suck so much to downgrade an operating system on a modern computer—particularly, on a Mac—and why do we put up with it? Here’s what I had to do.

This Old Scandal

Why Bob Vila, perhaps the most famous handyman in history, may have set the stage for a digital era in which stars aren’t afraid to cash in on their names.

Train Tracks

Pondering how Tom Waits seemingly created the perfect tune for other people to sing. Major rock stars were fighting with one another to cover “Downtown Train.”

Package Deal

Why did the television industry put so much energy into combining TV sets with VCRs, anyway? It seems like they were everywhere for a while.

Plug and Pray

Why an early design decision around the IBM PC created the need for an innovation called plug and play—something we very much take for granted today.
July 2021

The Dial-Up Volunteer Army

Considering the fact that many early online networks relied on volunteers to help build up their base—until one such network, AOL, got too big.

Crashing The Soda Wars

The story of Virgin Cola, Richard Branson’s bold attempt to take on Coca-Cola and Pepsi at their own game. Of course it failed, but it did so stylishly.

Changing The Channel

Analyzing the complicated state of affairs, and the long goodbyes, that come when one TV network or cable channel replaces another. Here are 10 examples.

Slot Insecurities

What the heck is a Kensington security slot, and why does your computer probably have one? And how well does it really work, anyway?

No Computers Allowed

Thinking about what, exactly, remote work and the creator economy looked like before all these computers got in the way.

Bog-Standard Multimedia

Why the PC industry standardized on multimedia in the early ’90s, and why that standardization effort didn’t really last.

A Slow-Burning Hot Take

The modern day evolution of charcoal actually has a lot in common with early automobiles. (At one point, some argued charcoal should replace gasoline!)
June 2021

Ribbon-Cutting Overkill

The evolution of the ribbon-cutting ceremony, as seen through the sharp blades of a huge pair of ceremonial scissors. Did a bridge just open nearby?

ProtoAppStore

Assessing the landscape of the app store concept in the years before it became an idea “originated” by Apple. The prior art is strong with this one.

Wrapped Up

Discussing the radiant techniques required to shrink-wrap an object before you buy it. You can thank frozen turkeys for making it possible.

Electric Ink Analysis

A lot of innovation has been happening in the e-paper space, to the point where the technology can be used for far more than reading. Would you want to?
May 2021

A Home for Mobile Linux

The $149 PinePhone isn’t a perfect device, but the nuanced ecosystem it’s going to build for Linux-based smartphones is going to be amazing.

It’s Not Delivery, It’s …

The evolution of the frozen pizza, the ideal form of sustenance for people who have an oven, a microwave, or an aversion to delivery. (Possibly all three.)

Phar Too Ambitious

The story of Phar-Mor, the pharmacy chain that decided that just being a pharmacy chain wasn’t interesting enough and tried to beat Walmart.

The World Of Whiteboards

The whiteboard, despite being designed specifically for schools at first, became a huge hit with the business world before schools really embraced it.

Boot Vector

How the live CD, now an essential part of playing around with Linux-based operating systems, found its early footing using a widely mocked disc variant.

Worked For Me

Why it seemed like Hooked on Phonics commercials were everywhere in the 1990s—and why the cassette-tape program was a lot more controversial than you remember.
April 2021

So Much Stuff Out There

It’s been a while since we’ve done a grab bag, so let’s grab that bag and see what’s inside.

Hesitancy On Display

Why the active-matrix LCD panel, despite largely being invented and developed by American companies, was never really manufactured in the United States.

Too Terrible For Television

For decades, TV networks have spent millions of dollars on unsold pilots that will never become series. Here's how they've tried to recoup their investment.

Europe’s Big Tech Bet

How the European Union invested heavily in local manufacturing of microprocessors … only for that technology to become completely globalized anyway.
March 2021

Novell Cooperation

How a networking software company with an unusual approach to competition nearly convinced Apple to bring MacOS to Intel computers in the early ’90s.

Newsletter, Untethered

There’s no real reason you have to use a platform like Substack to send email. If you want to get into making a newsletter of your own, understand your options.

Tangential Juice Innovation

The story of how we got the juice box is really the story of how we got a lot of other things first. And those things look like rabbit holes.

Caddy Confusion

Trying to answer a complicated question for myself, as a computer user during the multimedia era: Why did the CD-ROM caddy exist, and why didn’t I have one?

Even Better Than The Real Thing

The history of the fake electronics that you sometimes see in furniture stores or in houses for sale. No, that 60-inch flat-screen TV doesn’t turn on.

37’s Signals

Explaining why analog television sets never had a channel 37, despite TVs generally able to tune it. Turns out some scientists simply needed that channel more.

Thunderbolt Road

How Thunderbolt, the ultra-fast connector that recently turned 10, started life with a completely different look. (Fun fact: $400 Thunderbolt 3 cables exist.)
February 2021

Distorting The Electron Gun

Discussing the process of degaussing a CRT screen, which is a surprisingly awesome way to spend a Saturday afternoon with a magnet.

Scanning And Sorting

How the banking industry, with an assist from tech, turned an incredibly frustrating, manual process—sorting checks—into an excellent example of automation.

I’m Controlling Your Cursor

The evolution of remote desktop access, and why it’s a bad idea for water supplies to be managed through remote desktop access without decent security measures.

Tab It Your Way

How the power-user web browser Vivaldi has managed to maintain a flexible design philosophy in an era when so much is decided for you online.
January 2021

Respect Your Power Users

Pondering why, in the internet era, it has become so common for big tech companies to treat their power users like dirt. (Yes, this is about Google Reader.)

Dr. Koop’s Digital Korner

How famed U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, at the age of 82, became an internet entrepreneur, and why his namesake website burned out, fast.

Power Struggle

The most quietly innovative thing that emerged from the latter half of the ’90s was the on-battery power meter. It was the subject of a complex patent battle.

The Default Router

How Linksys’ most famous router, the WRT54G, tripped into legendary status because of an undocumented feature that slipped through during a merger.

Nothing Lasts Forever

The key thing to remember about this week’s Congressional chaos is that it seems to be in the rearview. Here are some thoughts about renewal and fresh starts.

Correcting An Error

Why error-correcting memory, long an obscure computing concept, suddenly has major relevance outside of the server room. At least according to Linus Torvalds.

Thoughts On Flash

Pondering the demise of Adobe’s Flash through shifting approaches to digital creation these days—and why we may not have anything quite like it again.

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