2022 Tedium Highlight by Ernie Smith: Meet USA Today’s first foray into the online landscape. 

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Ernie Smith’s 2022 Highlights

December 2022

The Number 2023

Tedium dives into its eighth anniversary with a look ahead to 2023. We’re still in constant trash fire mode, but at least the trash looks different. In this look-ahead, we’re announcing some important decisions.

How Santa Morphs

Santa Claus as a figurehead has long represented a control on society, what we should aspire to be. But for someone who is portrayed as an icon of permanence, his image is sure subject to influence.

Giving Without Restraint

It’s near the end of the year once again, which means that it’s time for another list of poorly considered gift ideas from us at Tedium. Consider it our gift to you.

Willow’s Second Wind

Why the NES game Willow somehow resonates more than the film that inspired it. It might have been the mindset of the company that made it.

Math + The Mechanics

The story of the Curta Calculator, a stylish portable mechanical calculator that doesn’t use electricity and has a surprisingly dramatic origin story.
November 2022

A Tale of Two Tablets

A year after the JingPad dropped on the market and its parent company immediately disappeared, a new entrant in the Linux tablet game, the Fydetab Duo, aims to do things the right way. Can it succeed?

Stuffed With History

Breaking down the 50th anniversary of Stove Top, the foodstuff that changed our relationship with stuffing. There’s a lot of herbs and spices here.

Rejection, In Four Parts

How rejection shapes the way we think, for good and bad—and if we let it, we take important lessons from it. (Tylenol helps in this process, we hear.)

Floppy Copy Classics

A few copy-protection schemes, of varying levels of success, you’ve possibly run into over the years. Don’t lose your code wheel.

The Technorati Generation

The search engine that kept up at the speed of blogging created a “search war” with Google. But eventually, the speed of blogging just wasn’t fast enough.

Keeping You On Your Zs and Qs

From the standards bodies to the FDA to the airwaves, the weird processes that go into naming prescription drugs—and why so many use relatively obscure letters, like Z and X.
October 2022

The Social Circle

The completed purchase of Twitter by Elon Musk reflects a symbolic victory for those who saw its power as a tool of influence, rather than for communication.

Slot Wars

The battle to replace the standard expansion slot in the IBM PC reflected an effort by two sides of the PC world to gain control. Spoiler: The clone-makers won.

UHF 2.0

In a world of overwhelming media conglomerates, do regular folks have a shot at building TV for themselves anymore? In one rural Georgia mountain town, the answer is yes.

More Thoughts About Dongles

In honor of the new terrible dongle that Apple just released, let’s talk about dongles some more—including who came up with the term.

Published Via Desktop

A list of programs from the all-too-brief golden era of desktop publishing that “didn’t make it.” The GUI’s killer app didn’t slay forever.
September 2022

Stuck On You

Discussing my longtime frustration with nonstick cookware and what I learned from a new innovative type of pan, the HexClad.

Sell Out With Me, Oh Yeah

Musicians selling out isn’t really that big a deal anymore—except when it’s done really poorly, as in the case of Beck’s odd NFL ad that made Neil Young mad.

A Quiet Odyssey

The Magnavox Odyssey², a groundbreaking video game console, never reached the heights of the Atari 2600—but it lived plenty of extra lives.

USA Yesterday

Looking back at a sports-themed online service the now-40-year-old USA Today launched way back in 1989. Not all disks were left unscathed.

The Execution of All Things

A list of executable file formats that didn’t make it. That said, if you want to load up an Adobe AIR application, we can’t stop you.

Lord of the Ring Prevention

The evolution of the drink coaster, which started from not-so-modest roots to become the source of many bizarre patent filings.
August 2022

Trapped, Kept

If a company decides not to do anything with a beloved brand or product, does the public have any recourse? Depends on if the product is physical, honestly.

The Hissing of Vintage Tapes

The ongoing fight against tape hiss has proven a useful creative tension for the music industry—even if you’re not into lo-fi music recorded on a four-track.

The Original “Universal” Port

The Atari 2600’s joystick port had a history that survived for nearly two decades on a variety of systems, from the Sega Master System to the 3DO. Not that cross-compatibility is exactly perfect.

This Is My Shocked Face

Discussing power outlets, both very old and in current use, whose charge veers far from the norm. I plug all my devices into EmPower connectors.

Camper Van Mainframe

Why the first “portable” computers, produced before integrated circuits, would really stretch the term today. Some portables needed a truck to move.

When Newsletters Were Printed

What can modern newsletter authors learn about newslettering from an era when people actually mailed these things? A lot, it turns out, according to this book I bought.

Who Sets the Prices?

The legal decision that fostered the idea of the manufacturer’s suggested retail price, and why it still sticks around even though that decision was overturned.

When Movies Get Canned

In the wake of the cancellation of the nearly complete Batgirl, a list of films that are generally thought to have been complete but never saw release for some reason.
July 2022

The Codecs of Streams Past

From CD-ROMs to Star Wars trailers to YouTube, the video format technology that got pushed off to the side as standardization crept in.

Surf Like A Shark

That time the company behind the GameShark cheating device came up with a dial-up online service for the Nintendo 64. SharkWire strangely targeted 7-year-olds.

From Cable to Local

It’s not common for cable networks to pivot to traditional antenna-driven broadcast networks, but it’s been known to happen—especially if said network can be directly monetized.

Longform Brevity

Alt-form storytelling, a key magazine-and-newspaper design trend, hasn’t truly flourished on the modern internet. Axios could go way further than it does.

Whipped Cream, No Other Delights

How whipped cream, of all things, helped to drive innovation in the food technology space. Henry Ford and the humble soybean had something to do with it.

Plot Point Does Not Compute

On laughably bad uses of computers in mainstream movies and shows, starting with the virus upload in Independence Day.
June 2022

Life Between Charges

Discussing the evolution of the rechargeable battery, and the flashlight that proved that there was a market for battery-powered devices you plug in.

Where The Action Was

A list of social networks that failed to stick around in any real way, except as memories. Some of them were more influential than others. Others scored big paydays.

We Value Your Feedback

How the suggestion box, once a simple tool for giving feedback, played a role in the weirder and darker data-hungry present for many companies.

Reflection, In Four Parts

Looking through the mirror at mirrors, in the hopes of seeing an interesting reflection, or maybe to figure out that weird mirage thing you see on the highway.

Gaming The Charts

Pondering the way that gaps in Billboard’s music charts have, for decades, created opportunities for bands and artists to maximize their exposure.

All Over the TV Dial

Like reading about odd broadcasting and television standards? Perfect—this post is for you. We’re starting in Jamaica.

The Hard Pivot

Considering companies that ended up in a far different place from where they started. You know, like Samsung, Shell, Hasbro, and American Express.
May 2022

Social Imagineering

Despite what you’ve heard, the word “imagineering” is not unique to Disney. In fact, it’s a phrase that was first used in World War II corporate propaganda.

Stumbled Into a Discount

Cheap Tickets, one of the first big digital travel companies, has a hell of a corporate history—one with nothing to do with the internet.

Disposability Interchange

Considering the tension between disposability and interchangeable parts, and how right to repair opponents are trying to have it both ways.

Shuffled By the iPod

The iPod is leaving the market, which means that now’s as good a time as any to consider the many audio players it vanquished along the way.

Cathode Ray Context

A few ways cathode ray tubes were used that you might not have been aware of by simply watching the boob tube.

Right Track, Wrong Station

KarTrak, an innovation originally built for the rail system, was quickly discarded by train operators. But without it, we wouldn’t have modern barcodes.
April 2022

CNN Plus Innovation

Everyone is ripping on CNN right now for shutting down CNN+ after like three weeks. Let’s remember the network’s long legacy of innovation for a second here.

Stirrup Stir-Up

How an experimental take on stirrups—a.k.a. the things you put your feet in while riding on a horse—led to a longstanding debate among historians.

❝The Quote Issue❞

“We use a lot of quotes at Tedium, but we’ve never done an issue of Tedium ABOUT quotations,” Ernie said when writing this piece. “Let’s fix that.”

Free As In Internet

In the '80s, a defining online phenomenon—being able to use the internet for free—came from (of all places) Cleveland. Here’s the story of the Free-Net.

Net Losses

Because we don’t know how to stop doing lists of obscure or forgotten technology, here’s another one on dated networking tech. Apologies in advance.

The Central Question

What is the difference between centralization and decentralization, and what should you know? I was asked this question recently; here’s my attempt to answer.

Low-Hanging Fruit

The Razzie Awards made a big mistake this week, and honestly, it makes me question the idea of pop-culture mockery for sport. Perhaps some empathy is necessary.
March 2022

Utensil Fandom

Why do utensils start and end with the knife, fork, and spoon? Let’s highlight a few attempts over the years to create utensils that think outside of the plate.

ARMed with Linux

The release of the M1-native Asahi Linux is one heck of a feat, isn’t it? It may be the most impressive thing the open-source world has done in some time.

Belt, Buckled

The legacy of the seat belt, the world’s most prevalent safety device, and the act of corporate goodwill that ensured everyone‘s car got the best design.

New Fake Shemp

The odd state of affairs that leads film studios to fake an actor so that they can keep shooting. A CGI Jeff Garlin was just added to the Fake Shemp pantheon.

Fluorescent Dreams

We don’t talk enough about vaporware over here, so let’s discuss two attempts to make optical discs fluorescent … both of which went absolutely nowhere.

Good Luck Opening These

In the latest entry in our periodic series on failed file formats, we dig into word processor document formats that didn’t make it through to the present day.
February 2022

Word Up

The evolution of online word games before Wordle made them popular again. You haven’t lived until you’ve played Acrophobia.

You Spin Me Right Round, Baby

Before hard drives became the main way for us to back up our stuff, they were a key evolution for the business world. They were also huge and costly.

Cloud Caper

What I learned about trying to run my own cloud from a few weeks of trying to run the whole dang thing myself. (Hint: I found myself trying multiple solutions.)

Heart of Mold

Why we’re obsessed with heart-shaped foods around Valentine’s Day—especially the suddenly ubiquitous heart-shaped pizza.

You’re Being Misled

Considering the challenges and complications that consumers face with misleading product labeling and design. Those veggie burgers don’t contain enough veggies.
January 2022

Randomness, in Four Parts

Despite the fact that this package is about randomness, it’s actually fairly well structured. But as it turns out, order might be more random than it looks.

Sounding Board

After pissing off half the internet with our list on faded graphics formats, we’re doing the same thing with outdated audio formats. We’re fearing the worst.

Surfing Upstream

In an era when hundreds of free web browsers exist, Orion Browser has a novel idea: It wants to charge money. Why’s that? Simple: It wants to fix the paradigm.

Let's Get Sauced

Yes, this is an article about ranch dressing. And yes, ranch dressing was invented at Hidden Valley Ranch. Here's some stuff you didn't know about ranch.

Lessons in Pivoting

The story of an online education platform that learned something about its own ability to survive during the pandemic.

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