Notices by Ernie Smith (ernie@writing.exchange), page 3

@vkc Let me just say: Sort of at the point where I refuse to use this software in part because of the name thing.

Krita fits most of my use cases, so why even give it a second of my time?

Took this in a weird direction

https://writing.exchange/@ernie/114179207707273866

Once I have this polished I think I will monetize it in two ways:

- One, an affiliate link to a Domino’s gift card to send to someone with this pizza recommendation
- Two, a direct order from Domino’s for people who want to order a green pepper and pineapple pizza of their own

I now own the domain unsolicited.pizza. What should I do with it?

Word that udm14 might be at risk of getting an infusion of AI frustrates me to no end. And if you just want Google to give you the basics, you should be frustrated, too.

https://tedium.co/2025/03/14/udm14-search-hack-google-ai-testing/

new @tedium

@Sustainable2050 Hate to be that guy, but this is an MSN republishing of a source named BallerAlert, which itself does not name its sources. I saw this story last night and could not source it from any better sources, so I did not share it.

There is this Spanish-language source, but it does not blame the decision on a tweet: https://expansion.mx/tecnologia/2025/02/28/america-movil-corta-lazos-con-spacex

MSN is an aggregator—fake news can get in there. Be vigilant.

There's an interesting trend in cheap laptops of late. To get you to buy, they soup up all the specs, including RAM and screen size, around a dog slow processor.

An 18.5 inch screen on a $379 laptop is kind of absurd.

@foone LOL, I should have known it’d be on your radar.

Found a piece of tech so obscure that one of the few modern-day references to it that I’ve found is in a Twitter thread by @foone from six years ago.

It’s so obscure that if you try to look it up on Google or Twitter it brings up a completely unrelated thing.

Clearly, I need to write about it.

Apparently Warner Bros. is just straight-up posting old movies on their YouTube channel now.

All within the last three weeks. There are 22 of them. Some stone-cold classics like Waiting for Guffman are in the mix, but most are DVD bargain bin fare.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7Eup7JXScZyvRftA2Q5hv69XiegDm6tQ

Proton deleted their replies, but I’m still cancelling them.

Thoughts on this? Based on the fact that two Mozilla Foundation folks are in the mix of advisors, I imagine it’s probably tied to them.

Kind of weird we didn’t see this type of org being built for the fediverse.

https://freeourfeeds.com/

@mastodonmigration @pluralistic Whatever your point of view on this, there has to be a better term you could use to make that point. It carries some pretty charged associations.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/05/11/527459106/tar-baby-a-folktale-about-food-rights-rooted-in-the-inequalities-of-slavery

@mastodonmigration @pluralistic Thanks. I get you’re passionate about this, and I don’t want to come off as dismissing your point (even if I have a less skeptical POV personally), but that was an important callout.

@pluralistic @josh I’m glad you signed onto this by the way.

@murph @tedium @jwz Sorry, I probably should have. I admit that I really got sucked into the “prior art in hardware form” rabbit hole when writing the piece.

When did the screen saver come to life? And why are they more boring now than they were 30 years ago?

I’d like to argue that when we talk about screen savers, we’re talking about two very different things.

https://tedium.co/2025/01/12/screen-saver-history/

new @tedium

Automattic decides to stop investing in WordPress more than it has to.

Because of course

https://automattic.com/2025/01/09/aligning-automattics-sponsored-contributions-to-wordpress/

Existential dread is on the menu for 2025. Here’s my attempt to work through it.

https://tedium.co/2025/01/02/tedium-trends-2025/

new @tedium

Hi, @tedium has a new website.

I just launched it as of two seconds ago. I would be chuffed if you came to visit it.

https://tedium.co