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Tedium. The newsletter all your other newsletters look up to.

Since 2015, Ernie Smith's Tedium has been hunting for the end of the long tail, and we've yet to find it. But we'd sure love it if you followed us on our journey. Especially now that we're ten friggin' years old and we're still using a Street Fighter II slogan as our subscribe button. Validate the use of obscure video game slang as a successful subscription strategy. Click the button.

 

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Over-Filtering The Internet
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Over-Filtering The Internet

Despite many, many failed attempts to do so, people keep trying to filter the internet. Let’s look at the lens of the current moment through past attempts—including one led by, of all people, a librarian.

By Ernie Smith • August 26, 2025
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Blue In Mississippi

Bluesky’s decision to drop out of the Mississippi market, while understandable, is a clear sign that we cannot take our digital access for granted.

By Ernie Smith • August 23, 2025

Breaking Bubsy News

Oh no, someone made a new Bubsy game. And that someone was Atari. How concerned should we be?

By Ernie Smith • August 19, 2025

Me And The Bean

On the massive success of Focus Friend, the ADHD-support app, backed by Hank Green, that is currently at the top of the iOS App Store. It’s like an inverted Tamagotchi.

By Ernie Smith • August 19, 2025

Thinking Quick Hit

A new post format for Tedium.

By Ernie Smith • August 18, 2025

Connecting A Fresh Node

The exciting new 2D open-source image editor PixiEditor is still a bit rough around the edges, but it innovates by bringing thinking from the game development world to the traditional paint tool paradigm. It feels like the start of a trend.

By Ernie Smith • August 16, 2025

Far-Flung Modems

AOL is ditching dial-up. They’re not required to continue running their dial-up service forever. But it would sure be nice.

By Ernie Smith • August 11, 2025

The AdTech Underbelly

Ever wonder why online advertising is so confusing, complicated, and privacy-threatening? A new book by an industry insider helps explain why—and how Google put its giant hand on the scale.

By Ernie Smith • August 7, 2025

Come Back, Gil Amelio

If Tim Cook is busy having Apple make unnecessary ornaments as appeasement for political leaders, why not have Gil Amelio lead the company instead?

By Ernie Smith • August 6, 2025

Bring Back Recurrents

How a decision sparked by the death of one of the world’s biggest pop stars knocked the Billboard 200 out of alignment.

By Ernie Smith • August 1, 2025
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