Top all-time · #228
Ernie Smith
Personal blog · tedium.co · on HN as shortformbloghistoryhardware
Ernie Smith writes Tedium, a personal blog at tedium.co about history and hardware. Since 2015, 212 different Hacker News readers have linked it 543 times, most often “How I Made Google's "Web" View My Default Search”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-27, and you can follow it by feed.
Rarely recommended · 5 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Tedium for its deep dives on obscure technology and internet history, often as a source for a precedent, such as Sony's removal of Linux support, the 1988 RAM shortage, or Stacker.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 40 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Tedium is a twice-weekly offbeat digital newsletter that mines the depths of the long tail in search of obscurities. Dig in.
Most-linked posts?
- How I Made Google's "Web" View My Default Search8 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2024-05-20
- GeoWorks: The Other “Windows”6 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2019-06-26
- /5 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2017-04-12
- /5 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2018-04-04
- A Kernel of Failure4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2019-03-01
- 10 Weird HTML Hacks That Shaped the Internet4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2023-11-26
- /3 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2016-05-27
- Disk Compressor History: A Microsoft Antitrust Prelude (2018)3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2020-01-10
- MSX History: The Platform Microsoft Forgot3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2019-01-30
- Learning At 300 Baud – The story of the world’s first Electronic University3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2019-05-26
What Hacker News says?
This is the actual reason the "Other OS" support was pulled. The other speculation in here is pretty funny. It was also pretty limited for many purposes - you couldn't access the GPU at all reducing total system memory to 256mb IIRC. https://www.theregister.com/2010/01/25/playstation_cracked_w... https://tedium.co/2020/11/27/sony-linux-otheros-geohot-histo... It's arguable giving hackers a platform to explore the in…
Comment linking /2020/11/27/sony-linux-otheros-geohot-history/
on “Valve Steam Deck”Submitted WRT54G History: The Router That Accidentally Went Open Source as a story · 679 points
HN discussionIf the PowerPC to Intel transition was any indication, they'll do just fine. Most consumers won't care, or will want to wait until Apple works out the kinks. To put it a different way: the initial sales of the ARM-based chips won't be as strong as you think they might be, or as wide spread. Having both Intel and ARM based systems in the market will even out the sales. History is repeating itself, it's worth reviewin…
Comment linking /2020/06/16/apple-powerpc-intel-transition-history/
on “Apple announces it will switch to its own processors for future Macs”Submitted Why is Warner Bros. Discovery putting old movies on YouTube? as a story · 641 points
HN discussionI support this, but I think that RSS services for publishers need to be a part of this conversation, too. I wrote a piece a while back about how FeedBurner has basically been allowed to survive in zombie form at Google—with literally no improvements since at least 2011. https://tedium.co/2017/11/14/google-feedburner-rss-history/ There are alternatives to FeedBurner that are quite good (I personally use FeedPress) bu…
Comment linking /2017/11/14/google-feedburner-rss-history/
on “It's time to head back to RSS?”Submitted Why Apple's Severance gets edited over remote desktop software as a story · 573 points
HN discussion> CentralPoint PC Tools seems little remembered nowadays. Indeed, up to the point that the name was usurped by some unrelated software. It was very useful even in the later DOS era; it was a standard part of my travelling tech toolkit. It had one of the fastest floppy formatters around, and just about the fastest DOS disk-defragmenter I ever saw, nearly an order of magnitude quicker than Norton's. The PC Tools backu…
Comment linking /2018/09/04/disk-compression-stacker-doublespace-history/
on “Broot – A new way to see and navigate directory trees”Submitted How AltaVista, the first good search engine, fell into the digital abyss as a story · 349 points
HN discussionIn the article [0] (also posted on HackerNews [1]) they share a link to page, which is a guide how to run new Affinity (v3) using Wine/Bottles combo [2]. [0]: https://tedium.co/2025/10/30/canva-affinity-free-loss-leader... [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45771211 [2]: https://affinity.liz.pet/
Comment linking /2025/10/30/canva-affinity-free-loss-leader-strategy/
on “Affinity Studio now free”Submitted The NES Homebrew Scene as a story · 323 points
HN discussionEncarta is a great example of Microsoft winning a market, and after it was defeated, letting it fade out. Wikipedia in some ways beat it, but the interactivity elements of Encarta make it something that you kind of wish had a more direct role in the modern day. I wrote about this topic a few years ago ( https://tedium.co/2017/07/13/who-killed-the-encyclopedia/ ), and it led a former CEO of Encyclopaedia Britannica t…
Comment linking /2017/07/13/who-killed-the-encyclopedia/
on “I Miss Microsoft Encarta”Submitted The IMEI Code: Your phone’s other number as a story · 282 points
HN discussionI run Tedium, which is an obscurities newsletter/blog: https://tedium.co/ It’s been a passion project of mine for about five years, with the general idea of using the internet to find/surface obscure things that don’t get written about very often, with a goal of going against the grain of virality. I would say this dives into tech topics about half the time. (Last week I wrote a piece on the HP TouchPad.) I keep a f…
Comment linking /what-is-tedium
on “Ask HN: What is your blog and why should I read it?”Submitted Why Apple ditched PowerPC, and what it says about Apple ditching Intel as a story · 261 points
HN discussionThis is my toot. I’d like to point out I have written a lot of content for Motherboard over the years about the importance of digital preservation. While the story is still online (hopefully it stays there), I’d like to point out this piece in particular: https://www.vice.com/en/article/qvg5z3/what-if-we-treated-we... Also posted at Tedium: https://tedium.co/2019/10/17/historic-websites-preservation/ Too many good w…
Comment linking /2019/10/17/historic-websites-preservation/
on “Vice website is shutting down”Submitted The NYC subway system runs on OS/2 as a story · 239 points
HN discussionhttps://tedium.co A newsletter that also has a website attached. I set up the backend so it spits out full code for a newsletter in a specific backend view.
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: Share your personal site”Submitted How CD pregaps gained their hidden track superpowers as a story · 235 points
HN discussionIt wouldn't be unprecedented. Sony released the Playstation 3 with the ability to run Linux and removed it later using a firmware update. https://tedium.co/2020/11/27/sony-linux-otheros-geohot-histo...
Comment linking /2020/11/27/sony-linux-otheros-geohot-history/
on “Asahi Linux: Linux on Apple Silicon project”Submitted The charm of buying old workstation hardware on the cheap as a story · 235 points
HN discussionNo need to wonder, it's not the first time something like this has happened: https://tedium.co/2016/11/24/1988-ram-shortage-history/ https://www.theverge.com/2012/4/19/2960606/qualcomm-snapdrag...
Comment linking /2016/11/24/1988-ram-shortage-history/
on “The global chip shortage is starting to have consequences”Submitted Gumroad's Interestingly Timed "Open-Source" Play as a story · 210 points
HN discussionI wrote a piece about power users recently that gained some notice on HN a little over a week ago. It seems to fit in the same mindset as this, except written from the power user’s perspective: https://tedium.co/2021/01/27/power-users-history/ Comment thread here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25978396 This honestly feels like my argument written from the perspective of the product maker. I hope we meet in th…
Comment linking /2021/01/27/power-users-history/
on “Don't Offer a Free Plan”Submitted NYC Telecom Raid: What's Up with Those Weird SIM Banks? as a story · 205 points
HN discussionThat happened with the Mac in the mid 90s and Apple closed the deals immediately when the clones started to sell well, because they were better machines than the ones Apple sold. If Apple didn't stop the clones they would be a software company by now and we'd probably have a PC market with 90% of Mac compatible machines and 10% of Windows PCs + Linux. The first link I googled about it is https://tedium.co/2025/09/02…
Comment linking /2025/09/02/apple-macintosh-clones-history/
on “iPhone Pocket”Submitted How I Made Google's "Web" View My Default Search as a story · 176 points
HN discussionIt looks like GeOS from GeoWorks. https://tedium.co/2019/06/20/geoworks-geos-history/
Comment linking /2019/06/20/geoworks-geos-history/
on “DESQview/X: Forgotten mid-1990s OS from the future”Submitted The death of the key change as a story · 176 points
HN discussionMy newsletter, Tedium ( http://tedium.co ), has slightly more than 3,000 subscribers, and produces a lot of content each week—between 3,000 and 4,000 words over two pieces. My strategy for building it out has essentially meant being willing to syndicate these articles far and wide. I currently work with three different outlets (Atlas Obscura, Motherboard, and Neatorama) to republish the work, all of which bring in n…
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: $1k+ side projecters, what was the best thing you did to market it?”Submitted Apple has announced its final version of macOS for Intel as a story · 174 points
HN discussion
