2024 Tedium Highlight by Ernie Smith: A new ruling could shift our thinking on Section 230. 

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Ernie Smith’s 2024 Highlights

November 2024

The Floater Manifesto

Our technology should be good enough to work across operating systems now. The best way to test that is by using literally every platform. Which is what I plan to do.

Leaning Towers

Considering recent innovations in cell phone towers, which have been shrinking in the 5G era. Are they still NIMBY targets? Are we still trying to hide them with fake trees?

The Network Serves Us

Thoughts on the sudden surge of success Bluesky has seen this week—without a network-dampening algorithm in sight.

The Loophole

On the history and psychology of free samples—from free bars of soap to free AOL—and why you can no longer get drunk in Gatlinburg for free.

The Hacker Ring

I bought a ring because I heard about it on Hacker News. And it turns out that it’s my best tech purchase in months.

Know What You Control

If you’re stuck dealing with a bug that you can’t seem to fix, there’s nothing wrong with getting some white space from it. No harm in that.

Everything Zen

You’re getting hit by pre-election chaos on every other part of the internet. Let’s take a step back and get a bit of a palate cleanser. Personally, I find a little Tedium goes a long way.

Pixel-Perfect?

Apple makes a move to acquire an app so Apple-like that you might be surprised to learn it’s not first-party: Pixelmator. During an age when Adobe is laser-focused on the enterprise to its peril, this might be a good thing.
October 2024

Caught In The Middle

The mess with Bezos and The Washington Post is reflective of a trend that keeps popping up this year: The powerful entity stepping in it without considering the collateral damage.

Why Butterfingers Break

I’ve always been deeply curious about the brittle nature of Butterfinger candy bars—so with that in mind, I thought way too hard about it in this piece.

Stressing The Protocol

I’m trying to import as many of my old tweets as I can to Bluesky. Which is fun, because I have a lot of them.

So, Your CMS Blew Up

If your favorite content management system feels like it’s sinking into a shallow well of hubris, you might want alternatives. I have a few ideas.

More Signs, Worse Signal

A presidential get-out-the-vote campaign learns the hard way that rural areas have pretty terrible internet access.

Gatekept

Thoughts on a bruise to the ol’ ego that hurt a little more than I thought it would. But hey, it gives me a chance to talk about gatekeeping.

Gateway Country

Thinking about the globalization of the computer industry through a tech company so American it prominently promoted its birth on an Iowa farm on its packaging.

Sick Of Fake Meat

On meat analogues and the way that lucrative algorithm waves gradually burn us out on our interests. Call it an “interest analogue.”

Domains For The Masses

The tale of the founder of GoDaddy, a Vietnam vet who figured out the formula for getting regular people to buy domain names.

Hooked On Clarendon

I saw a font recently, and it inspired me to kick off work on a full redesign. The funny part: It’s the most common font, ever.

When Benevolence Fades

The WordPress situation devolves further, which raises an obvious question: What does this mean for every other open-source project?
September 2024

Entering The Fray

Becoming a commentator-turned-creator? Hope you’re getting hazard pay. Some thoughts on the art of creation when you’re usually a critic.

The Paywall’s Final Frontier

Word that CNN is getting a paywall feels like a sign that good information is more expensive than ever.

Content Fighting Systems

The co-founder of WordPress steps in it, repeatedly, in a forest-for-the-trees fight with WP Engine that makes me feel sad for the open internet.

Party In The Rear

Considering the legacy of rear-projection TVs, the most efficient route to a big-screen TV in the pre-LCD era.

Moore’s Flinch

The rumor mill is picking up steam that Intel might become the target of a takeover by Qualcomm. Which, honestly, would be the most dramatic shift in the history of the PC industry.

Locking A Loophole

The Biden administration’s push to close an obscure loophole on imports highlights just how disruptive the Temu model really is.

Can Weird Creatures Survive?

Unfortunately for all of us, the internet doesn’t reward noble ideas just because they’re noble. Hence, what happened to cohost.

Tethered

On the freedom that cellular modems gave to consumers—and how mobile companies tried to claw it back during the iPhone era.

Taking A Mile

The risk of the open internet is that someone will exploit your well-intentioned openness thoughtlessly. That’s how the internet slowly stops being open.

The Worst Form On The Internet?

Oracle’s form to access free cloud server space seems designed to discourage you from taking advantage of the offering. It’ll leave you frustrated.
August 2024

Did Section 230 Meet Its Match?

A new ruling from a federal appeals court finds that Section 230 protections may not apply to algorithms like the one TikTok uses. That could (potentially) be a big problem for the internet.

Getting A Second-Hand Bill

The makers behind connected gadgets are using software trickery to work around the first-sale doctrine. Now’s a good time to update that law for the Internet of Things era.

Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too

Pondering “You Get What You Give,” the one-hit wonder recorded by a guy smart enough to realize that it would be a one-hit wonder. It’s a survival story.

When The Coffee Sweats

Starbucks, which has devolved from laptop destination to coffee pickup counter, hires a burrito maven. The third place hangs in the balance.

From Segments To Pixels

Handheld calculators saw a massive amount of innovation in the 1970s—thanks in no small part to LCD screens and a primitive form of typography.

All That Glitters

I just learned an amazing fact about gold records from the Beastie Boys that you need to learn about, too.

Platforms Built On Quicksand

Given the choice between protecting creators and protecting a business relationship with a dominant, toxic company, Patreon chooses the business relationship. Maybe they shouldn’t.

Dead On A Friday

The Friday night death slot, and why Fridays carry such a hard-to-shake reputation as a place where good broadcast television goes to die.

Mac As Appliance

Apple ticks off its non-casual users by upping the naggy permissions menus in the upcoming version of MacOS.

Best Foot Under

My thoughts on using an elliptical machine under my desk for a couple of weeks. Can you exercise and type at the same time?

Writearound

How I gradually fell out of love with the idea of using a code editor for all of my writing—in part because of a subtle MacOS feature that Linux doesn’t have.

Shape-Shifting Companies

How the aggressive machinations of investor interests and corporate culture can significantly reshape a company’s focus. Just ask the company behind Frogger.

The Rich Data Wonk

There‘s something weirdly comforting about Steve Ballmer’s unusual second act as a nonpartisan truth-teller, through his USAFacts nonprofit.

Subscribe, Forever

Logitech’s hinting at a “forever mouse” suggests hardware companies want to become addicted to subscription revenue, too.
July 2024

Cassingle Culture

Why the single version of the cassette didn’t feel as worthy of a purchase as, say, a 45. Or, perhaps, even a digital download.

Too Close To The Kernel

The CrowdStrike mess points out just how close some developers get to the kernel—and efforts to lock things down will help highlight the tension between security and user choice.

Linking Through Hoops

You would not believe the level of insanity you have to go through to allow a link to see an organic audience on LinkedIn.

Reviewers Deserve Respect

Manufacturers that strong-arm reviewers who don’t say nice things about products cannot become the norm. Which is why it’s good to see reviewers pushing back.

Not So Tenacious

The hiatus and possible breakup of Tenacious D makes me feel sad about the state of creative partnerships, and how power dynamics can break them.

Never A Dull Moment

How sharp knives disappeared from the dining room table, only to return, centuries later, in steak knife form. Kings, cardinals, and factories are involved.

Knives Out, Knives In

Someone gave me a set of kitchen knives to review, and surprisingly, I didn’t cut my fingers off in the process. My onion-cutting game did improve, though.

Comedic Consultant

Trevor Noah has been on the Microsoft payroll for years, and nobody apparently noticed until now. Is that a problem? (Hint: Yes.)

Splog Prevention

Why I ended up taking ownership of the domain where my late-2000s newspaper lived—and why you might want to consider doing the same.

Mind The Pregap

Pondering the compatibility issues and complications of a clever element of the audio CD hidden track boom: The before-album pregap.

Keys To The Future

Thoughts on a new phone keyboard from an organization that is making a convincing case we need to rethink our discussion around FOSS and self-hosting.

Controlled Panic

An upcoming iteration of the Linux kernel could take a user-friendly direction: A Linux version of the Blue Screen of Death, complete with QR code.
June 2024

The Art Of Annoyance

When it comes down to it, it’s best to think of advertising as a coordinated, decades-long campaign to annoy the heck out of you. And it works pretty well.

Paramount Concerns

In an immediate austerity measure after a failed merger, Paramount kills a ton of online content—an ironic move for a brand that has long exploited nostalgia.

The Northern Mariana Touchdown

After years in a British prison, Julian Assange is going back to Australia—minus a short layover in one of the world’s most remote places. As day trips go, it’s fascinating.

Turn Off The Pillow Machines

Amazon’s plans to shift its packaging strategy points at a new front in the lengthy tug of war between paper and plastic—a war that started in grocery stores.

Finish The Job, Adam

If Meta is going to support the fediverse, it needs to actually support people who don’t live on Threads. No lip service. No half-finished betas.

When Robots Aggregate

The mess between Forbes and Perplexity AI highlights how soulless and extractive aggregation can be in the wrong hands. It’s the wrong direction for LLMs.

Artifacting

How the JPEG file—and the lossy compression it allowed and encouraged—became the dominant way we shared digital photos on the internet.

CHIP FIGHT GO!

The emergence of a conflict between Qualcomm and Arm over desktop chip dominance feels like a revival of one of the PC industry’s most important conflicts.

Adobe’s Slow Decay

The problem with Adobe is not any single decision it has made. It is the company’s longer track record, which suggests a genuine lack of respect for non-enterprise users. They’re allowing things to rot.

The Barleycorn Measurement Scheme

How the Brannock Device—a measuring tool you’ve definitely seen but didn’t know the name of—made it a lot easier to figure out our shoe size.

Let’s Bring Back Small Tools

Thoughts on the misadventure of udm14, or what I hope to gain from successfully reviving the single-serving site for a couple of weeks.

Quadruple-Booked

The latest artificial intelligence use cases, like Windows’ Recall and Zoom’s digital twins, appear to be built specifically for managers and executives, and literally nobody else. That’s a problem.

The Bargain Bin Evolves

Thoughts on modern commerce from going to a bin store. It’s a place where e-commerce returns go to die.
May 2024

Losing Sight Of Creators

Instead of building ways to block ads, we need to make the case for the tech-minded to build creator-supporting ideas. Creators would help.

Color Is The Enemy

If you enjoyed our last issue about plastic, you’ll love this one, which suggests that colorful plastic could be a potential long-term health hazard.

Macroplastics

Discussing the invention of HDPE, one of the best plastics around, and how it evolved from Hula Hoops to milk crates to plastic lumber.

The AI Laptops’ Secret Feature

Ignore the AI that Microsoft is selling everyone. The reason why the new ARM laptops are exciting is because Qualcomm did the work with Linux. Also: I built a site.

Defeating Mouse Lint

The rise of the optical mouse, a device so good at its job that it effectively killed off the rubber ball, and the sometimes questionable people who invented it.

Does One Line Fix Google?

Forget AI. Google just created a version of its search engine free of all the extra junk it has added over the past decade-plus. All you have to do is add "udm=14" to the search URL.

Everything Becomes Growth Hacking

If your platform is being exploited by growth hackers, you need to moderate it, or you threaten its long-term health, reputation, and survival. It’s not easy—because growth hacking always finds a way.

Press, Pause

Beyond misunderstanding its iPad consumer base, Apple’s infamous “Crush” ad deeply misunderstands the role of the hydraulic press in meme culture.

Chaos, Coyotes & Palm Trees

John Mulaney’s pop-up Netflix show Everybody’s In L.A. is my absolute new favorite thing. If you’re not watching, you’re missing out on something special.

When It Rains, It Pours

Umbrella design is an interesting conundrum. Sure, it could be better, but nobody's come up with a successful new design in hundreds of years. Why is that?
April 2024

Interface Interference

The problem that’s bugging me about the Rabbit R1 and Humane AI Pin dunk-fests: A seeming discouragement of hardware innovation.

Your Phone’s Other Number

Where did the IMEI number come from, why is it so freaking long, and why does your phone need it? If you’ve ever wondered, we’ve got you covered.

The Protest Song Wakes Up

A buzzy protest song about the definition of war, timed perfectly to public protests against the Israel–Hamas War, shows that there’s room for social media and protest singers to coexist.

Post-Post

The demise of Post, one of the social networks that emerged from the 2022 Twitter exodus, shows how users have come to understand that vibes aren’t everything with social media.

Trip’s Big Interactive Reset

Why 3DO’s true innovation wasn’t its early 3D hardware, but its business model—a model that perfectly matches its founder’s philosophy.

Berliner Goes Tabloid

Considering the tale of the longtime NPR editor who decided to pull a Bulworth at the tail end of his long career.

It’s Easy. But Is It Easy Enough?

Self-hosted apps are having a moment, but people are still a little freaked out by them. Could a Flatpak-style approach to self-hosting help matters?

What’s A Workgroup?

How groupware gave us the first glimmers of what collaboration could be like in the online era, then became so pervasive that we don’t even think about it anymore.

The Post-SEO Era

What happens when a news site launches that basically ignores the SEO orthodoxy? Easy: They do fascinating stuff. Hence, Robinhood’s Sherwood.

My Final Hackintosh Rodeo

As we near what might be the final days of Hackintoshing, I tried out a VM-based technique for installing MacOS, complete with full-speed GPU, and you know what? It worked amazingly well.

Three Flavors, One Carton

Explaining why the multi-layer Neapolitan ice cream exists, and why it’s never actually appeared on a space shuttle despite strong suggestions otherwise.

The Venue’s Too Small

A popular indie-pop band announces just ahead of the beginning of a major arena tour that their show can’t fit in the minor-league hockey venue they chose.

xz, tarred

One of the most common programs in computing history gets nailed by a supply-chain attack—almost exactly a decade after Heartbleed highlighted similar structural weaknesses in the FOSS ecosystem.
March 2024

Recapturing Real Time

A decade ago, real-time social news coverage was a machine that simply worked. With our recent social media disarray, it feels broken. Can it be fixed?

The Value Of A Promise

When you hear a company like Substack or Canva make a promise, you may get pretty cynical that they’re going to keep it. Honestly, I get that.

A Creative Market Reset

Canva’s purchase of Affinity creates a new market dynamic for creative professionals, and it could have ripple effects as big as AI.

Songs About Superman

Why was alternative rock inundated with hit songs about Superman throughout the 1990s and early 2000s? Consider the monoculture.

The House Always Wins

The drama around G/O Media, including the mess with Deadspin I wrote about last week, points to the ways that the individual suffers at the hand of corporate greed.

Hackintosh In The Pastintosh?

If the Hackintosh ecosystem is about to fade away, it’s because it fulfilled its purpose as a way station between two vastly different eras of Apple.

Digital Training Wheels

Looking back at a bunch of toy electronics that may have latently inspired the tech that we use today. Might as well hook ’em young.

Linux Lessons (So Far)

My Linux journey has not been all sunshine and rainbows, but I think I’m getting the hang of it. A few thoughts.

Spinning The Dead

I am so obsessed with trying to figure out who Deadspin’s new owners are that it led me to some late night spam-blog sleuthing.

Circles And Slashes

One of the best-known icons of modern society is a classic example of a symbol—it’s easy to spot, but hard to explain. Who came up with it?

Save Our Emulators

Nintendo’s strong-arming of the Switch emulator Yuzu shows how little the company understands its own fan base. Emulators will not die so quietly.

When The Ware Isn’t Firm

A viral car review by tech-reviewing’s biggest name highlights the all-too-common pitfalls of shipping before the firmware is ready.

Luster Lost

Pondering the way that physical objects, like newspapers and photos, degrade over time, and why digital objects won’t fade in exactly the same way.
February 2024

Missing The Human Touch

Tech and creativity once had a symbiotic relationship in the push towards innovation. As generative content matures, it feels like they’re starting to diverge. And that’s bad for creative people.

When Stewards Go Astray

A pair of recent controversies around the tech-publishing giant Automattic raise an important question in my mind: Do we have to worry about the future of WordPress?

Create For Yourself

With disruption hitting the media industry acutely in 2024, now is the time to lean into owning your creative work. Have a say in your creative destiny.

Losing The Buzz, Keeping The Heat

BuzzFeed’s sale of Complex Networks (minus Hot Ones) shows how on the ropes the one-time media innovator really is. It feels reflective of the rest of the industry, too.

Spammy Saturday

A fediverse spam crisis highlights an inherent flaw in the decentralized social networking model: Some people are bad at updating and maintaining their apps.

The Liaison

How firmware became the layer between our hardware and software experiences. It was only sorta like Halt and Catch Fire.

The Web App Switcheroo

In its quest to do as little as possible to comply with the EU’s Digital Markets Act, Apple randomly kneecaps web apps. Also: Am I sending this newsletter to fake people?

Retro Zeitgeist

Jon Stewart’s fascinating late-career return to The Daily Show is further evidence that linear television is no longer what it once was.

The Sneaky Standard

How Intel screwed over a standards body in the midst of giving computer users one of the most resilient technologies around.

sudo embrace

Microsoft’s decision to introduce sudo for Windows is strangely symbolic of how influential UNIX has been even on non-UNIX ecosystems.

Remaking Podcasts For Text

Podcasts are far and away the great example of how RSS can empower creators. Today’s thought experiment: How can we bring these benefits to written content?

The Ballad Of Mark Discordia

Considering an infamous target of trolling in the early online era. Did the middle-aged Nintendo fan really deserve it?
January 2024

Cache Clearing

Google appears to hide away an important feature from its search engine—an easily accessible cache of search results. (It’s still there, if you know where to look.)

No Frame Of Reference

The mixed-feelings reviews about the Framework 16 laptop show how complicated it is to pull off the hat trick of ambitious, powerful, and repairable.

Locked Up In Regions

The history of region-locking, a once-unintentional process of keeping devices built for one region from being used in another. (Now Apple’s doing it.)

The YouTube Boogie

A livestreaming pianist accidentally steps into an international incident—and nobody ends up looking particularly good.

Cropping Into A Debate

I took a pretty rough swipe at GIMP last week, and rather than letting sleeping dogs lie, I’d like to explain my POV on the popular open-source image editor.

Counterfeit Computing

Discussing the piratical efforts to rip people off by counterfeiting computer hardware. It’s been happening for more than 40 years.

Out With The Pitchforks

What Condé Nast did to Pitchfork this week is a travesty, and worse, it deeply misunderstands the publication Pitchfork was becoming.

Making My Linux Move

Why I decided to mostly move to Linux in 2024, and what I’ve learned in the process of that move.

What Was ISDN?

For decades, the telephone industry supported a new technology designed to make copper lines more useful to the average consumer. It’s great—if you’re a voice actor.

Barely Minimum

Substack favors the quick fix for its moderation crisis over the fundamental change, leaving a lot of longtime users in the lurch.

Mac All The Keyboards

The standard Macintosh keyboard layout makes it easy to add writer-desired special characters without pulling up a menu or relying on software trickery. Here’s how to get it on Linux and Windows.

Snapping The Cable

2024 feels like the year cable television is going to lose a lot of its cultural influence. Here’s why.

The Gator Bites Back

Facebook’s new “Link History” anti-feature reminds me of a very old data-siphoning trick: Create something of nominal value to convince consumers to give up the goods.

We Beat The Machine

The story of a 13-year-old gamer crashing the NES version of Tetris in a record-setting run is one of the best stories we have going right now.

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