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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 March Shaking The Wasp’s Nest Shaking The Wasp’s Nest March 11, 2025 Shaking The Wasp’s Nest Looking back at Gamergate, a flash point in internet history, and what it has to tell us about our current moment. Everything To Everyone Everything To Everyone March 8, 2025 Everything To Everyone Companies like Amazon and Apple are attempting to do business in so many spaces that, when the cracks show, they really show. Hence why Apple Intelligence looks like a hot mess right now. Tiny Type On Yellow Pages Tiny Type On Yellow Pages March 5, 2025 Tiny Type On Yellow Pages Why AT&T had to redesign its primary phone-book font in the late 1970s to keep with the times, and the clever typographical trick it used. Dial-An-Advertiser Dial-An-Advertiser March 4, 2025 Dial-An-Advertiser Considering the long history of phone books, particularly the Yellow Pages, where local businesses learned all the marketing tricks they eventually brought to the internet. Mission Drift Mission Drift March 1, 2025 Mission Drift If a company or service you rely on changes owners, you can’t be guaranteed that its mission will match what you’ve come to expect—even if, at least initially, it seems like everything’s on track. Hence why I returned a new messenger bag. February Framing Element Framing Element February 26, 2025 Framing Element The really exciting part of Framework’s latest product release cycle is the cheap 12-inch laptop—not the beefy desktop machine. That tiny laptop seems to have nailed its target audience. Hooked On Velcro Hooked On Velcro February 24, 2025 Hooked On Velcro How Velcro became one of the most important inventions of the 20th century, despite simultaneously gaining an unfashionable reputation. Windows On Linux, The Clever Way Windows On Linux, The Clever Way February 23, 2025 Windows On Linux, The Clever Way Forget WINE; a weirdly fascinating technique to make Photoshop work on Linux involves chopping up a remote access client into a windowing interface. It’s wild, but it kinda works. The USB That Wasn’t The USB That Wasn’t February 17, 2025 The USB That Wasn’t A few years before the Universal Serial Bus took over the world of peripherals, another upstart standard aimed to do the same thing. And I’m not talking about FireWire. New Rust, Old Drama New Rust, Old Drama February 14, 2025 New Rust, Old Drama The periodic Rust-induced conflicts happening with the Linux kernel hint at underlying generational problems facing the project. And it’s already led a prominent maintainer to quit. The Legacy Of SNARF The Legacy Of SNARF February 11, 2025 The Legacy Of SNARF BuzzFeed, the ultimate social media team player, decides that it needs a social media platform of its own. In the process, it gave us a crazy new buzzword. The Eggshell’s Outer Shell The Eggshell’s Outer Shell February 10, 2025 The Eggshell’s Outer Shell Just in time for the eggs to completely fall out of the affordability range of the middle class, let’s talk about egg cartons. Broken Bits Broken Bits February 7, 2025 Broken Bits Bitly, the link-shortening service used by millions, decides it’s going to drop an ad between you and your link. Don’t like it? It’ll cost ya. The New DVD Bargain Bin The New DVD Bargain Bin February 5, 2025 The New DVD Bargain Bin A major studio is apparently treating YouTube as a place to drop some of its archive films that have lost their cinematic luster. My mind is admittedly blown. 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.