Tedium: The Dull Side of the Internet

23/03/2023

Sandra Bullock’s internet-themed 1995 movie “The Net” actually inspired one of the most important parts of the modern internet: Food delivery. https://bit.ly/2EX2Z87

22/03/2023

“RIPscrip’s fundamental design and philosophy is geared toward allowing you, the service provider, the ability to display information in any manner that you want. This is simply not possible in most traditional GUI environments.” https://bit.ly/2WJ9wfh

22/03/2023

Atari once gave centrist Democrats something to believe in. If you were looking for a retro politics-plus-tech take, here you go:

The story of how the “Atari Democrats” came to shape the way politics and technology work together, for good and bad.

22/03/2023

“While it may not be as popular today, scale modeling impacted an entire generation and left its mark on our pop culture.” https://bit.ly/2zjW0C0

21/03/2023

“Success, to me, is making a living off my art.” The story of Weird Paul: https://bit.ly/2VfeHnq

20/03/2023

How Bart Simpson became the poster child for bootleg T-shirts: https://tedium.co/2020/07/07/t-shirts-bootlegging-history/

19/03/2023

“Companies started treating humans as resources around this time, and many workers traded in their blue collars for white ones. It was a big shift, and the résumé was in the middle of it.” https://bit.ly/3hofSsl

18/03/2023

Who invented the paper shredder? If you read a lot of sites that pop up on Google, you might read a story about a man who opposed N***s inventing the first mechanical version of the device.

Our site, of course, has evidence that guy was extremely important—but nowhere near first. https://tedium.co/2023/03/18/paper-shredder-history/

18/03/2023

Here’s a fresh supply of Purple People Eater content:

The bizarre history of one of the greatest novelty records of all time, “The Purple People Eater,” and the dumb joke that brought it to life.

17/03/2023

“By being able to apply pressure to affix a label rather than by moistening the surface as one might do with a vintage stamp, it made the adhesives easier to manage and more foolproof.” https://bit.ly/37purIo

16/03/2023

“While he had a hit single, the odds of scoring a second one weren’t great. He knew what was coming. He got ahead of it before it defined his career and life.” https://bit.ly/2C3EUvr

15/03/2023

“History shows that the tech industry, no matter the progress, is notoriously bad with two things: making chargers and following standards.”

Just like your pile of old chargers, the world of mobile connectors was always messy. Standards did not help. Will regulation?

15/03/2023

Back in 1989, an entrepreneur had an idea. “What if we created a league where old ballplayers could continue to play baseball?”

The league lasted a season and a half. They were playing to empty stadiums. https://tedium.co/2023/03/15/failed-sports-leagues/

15/03/2023

“The PowerPC architecture was the most successful part of a partnership that aimed to produce the future of computing in numerous forms, including with hardware and software.” https://tedium.co/2020/06/16/apple-powerpc-intel-transition-history/

14/03/2023

Soon enough, the military’s interest in these shirts led to stuff being printed on them. https://bit.ly/3e0R4o0

13/03/2023

Why did Epic Games get in an earth-scorching battle with two of the world’s largest companies? Perhaps the company’s roots can help explain it. https://tedium.co/2020/08/18/epic-games-history-app-store-battle/

Why did Epic Games decide to go scorched-earth on the App Store model last week with Fortnite? Perhaps it reflects the company’s shareware roots.

13/03/2023

Ever had a language model named after you? Our creator, Ernie Smith, has. He learned recently that the search engine Baidu is launching a bot named Ernie. Here’s how he feels about it. https://tedium.co/2023/03/11/ernie-name-meaning/

12/03/2023

“Despite all these efforts to simplify my cabling life, rule everything around me.”

Pondering the many ways that dongles have taken over our lives, for better and for worse. One port will never rule them all, apparently.

11/03/2023

“Music is an amazing thing and being a fan of Sparks gives it a little extra value.” https://bit.ly/36L5Kq8

10/03/2023

What app stores looked like before the App Store: https://bit.ly/3rfQL0Y

09/03/2023

When a TV station or cable channel ends its run, they each take different approaches. In 2014, G4 ended things with a simple game of pong. https://bit.ly/36JXmqV

08/03/2023

One manifestation of what remote work looked like before computers were common: Tupperware. https://bit.ly/3hwvWuI

08/03/2023

In the early ’90s, seemingly every new PC looked like this. There’s a reason for that. https://bit.ly/2UsnROW

07/03/2023

"As I search so aggressively I set off CAPTCHAs sometimes because Google thinks I’m a bot, I feel like I might have a unique perspective on the search engine that made Google worthy of our time." https://tedium.co/2018/10/02/google-20th-anniversary-culture-importance/

06/03/2023

“It’s an inefficiency built into one of the most widely consumed products on earth, and it stares me in the face every time I’m near the end of my loaf.” https://bit.ly/2IkPGiA

05/03/2023

The secret to Hot Pockets’ functionality has everything to do with that plastic sleeve. https://bit.ly/2YYhSRI

04/03/2023

The researchers who specialize in finding new cuts of beef.

For years, the beef industry has leaned on universities to discover new cuts of steak. Don't laugh: Meat science is behind at least one breakout hit.

03/03/2023

Raffi, the children’s music legend, once used his major-star clout to push for smaller CD cases. https://bit.ly/2IhVTdj

02/03/2023

“If you buy the Pinebook Pro, you’re buying into the community as much as the device—and Pine64 has a really interesting community right now, one that will become fundamental to its future growth.” https://bit.ly/2GA3XqN

01/03/2023

Is there anything worse than a bright LED light in your face, making it impossible to sleep? Perhaps product designers should move away from them.

Have we let the LED indicator light go too far? These lights are everywhere, and they make it hard to sleep. Here’s a case for some less-annoying indicators.