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Ernie Smith

Ernie Smith

Ernie Smith is the editor of Tedium, and an active internet snarker. Between his many internet side projects, he finds time to hang out with his wife Cat, who's funnier than he is.
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Articles By Year 2025 2024 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 February A Dossier Container Dossier A Dossier Container Dossier February 3, 2025 A Dossier Container Dossier How we got Manila folders and envelopes, and what “Manila” means in the context of said folder. Hint: It’s not a color, and you may find the source surprising. January Don’t Call Me, I’ll Call You Don’t Call Me, I’ll Call You January 29, 2025 Don’t Call Me, I’ll Call You On large language models, artificial intelligence, DeepSeek, and trying to find the middle lane between skepticism and surety. I mention bionic arms a lot for some reason. Just Moving Data Around Just Moving Data Around January 27, 2025 Just Moving Data Around We take the idea of copying files across folders and drives for granted today, but the guy who invented the original tool considered it a leap of faith. My Big Dumb Webmail Client My Big Dumb Webmail Client January 25, 2025 My Big Dumb Webmail Client They say you don’t know what email’s all about until you’ve built a webmail client of your own. I guess I kind of get it now. This Is Definitely A Test This Is Definitely A Test January 19, 2025 This Is Definitely A Test The history of color bars, the most common television test pattern out there, and what they actually do. (Also, Netflix has some weird test programming.) Good Look Taken Good Look Taken January 17, 2025 Good Look Taken A believed-to-be-forgotten “lost” episode of an old Ernie Kovacs show is about to resurface on YouTube after 65 years. Here’s how it happened. RIP Power Player RIP Power Player January 15, 2025 RIP Power Player On the passing of Mark Discordia, a ’90s video game fan who got a troll’s welcome to the internet. He was a plumber who loved Mario. Nothing wrong with that. Saving One Screen At A Time Saving One Screen At A Time January 12, 2025 Saving One Screen At A Time Pondering the screen saver, a cultural artifact which can mean one of two things: Fun animated graphics and screens that automatically go dark. The difference matters. Pinpointing The Actual Problem Pinpointing The Actual Problem January 10, 2025 Pinpointing The Actual Problem A blog post from Automattic lays out their decision to pull back on the WordPress project. But in the process, the company may have accidentally explained why competitors were able to one-up them. Tic-Tac-D’Oh Tic-Tac-D’Oh January 7, 2025 Tic-Tac-D’Oh Dell decides to rebrand its machines along a 3x3 grid—and ditches a number of popular product lines along the way. (Was it worth it?) Divisible By 5 Divisible By 5 January 2, 2025 Divisible By 5 That feeling of dread that you’re feeling about 2025 doesn’t need to need to define the way you approach the world. Perhaps you need a push.