How Dumping TV Allowed Me to Quit My Job • Hacker News Board

Re: How Dumping TV Allowed Me to Quit My Job

#61

Post by demallien » Tue, Apr 28, 2009, 4:39 AM UTC

varjag wrote: post #59

demallien wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Be sure to unplug and if it's an old crt, wait for an hour or so - those tubes can carry a heck of a static charge!

It will not discharge on AC cord.

That may be the theory, but believe me, in practice it's not always true. I ended up with a reprimand on my service record when a technician working for me in the Air Force did precisely this, cutting the ac cord, with a pair of uninsulate scissors, which then went flying across the room. The reprimand was because I hadn't put measures in place to stop technicians using uninsulated scissors for technical work - fair enough.

I'm guessing that the ground wire in the cable hadn't been correctly hooked up to the ground pin in the plug, a not uncommon flaw in cables...

Re: How Dumping TV Allowed Me to Quit My Job

#62

Post by sokoloff » Sun, May 03, 2009, 2:24 PM UTC

nolanbrown23 wrote: post #3

I'm actually getting rid of my TV when I move. It's not worth the cost, plus 90% of what I watch is on Hulu the next day anyway. I've also thought about buying a Slingbox and hooking it up to my parents cable if I really miss some shows that aren't on Hulu. There are some amazing gems of entertainment on TV but the ridiculous cost is what bothers me ($42 for basic cable, WTF comcast).

$42 for basic cable?

I have Comcast and pay -$2.09 (not a typo) for basic cable. I have internet from them (FiOS not in my town), and they give you $10 off internet if you also have a TV package. Their cheapest TV package is $7.91/month for "basic cable". Even if I never watched it, I'd buy it...

Re: How Dumping TV Allowed Me to Quit My Job

#63

Post by benmathes » Tue, May 05, 2009, 6:02 PM UTC

electromagnetic wrote: post #27

benmathes wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>There's not enough jobs to go around the people we have already, if people suddenly double their hours then lots of people would likely loose their job. There is not a fixed amount of work to do. If the author of this article just watched TV instead of creating the blog network that he did, he wouldn't have put anyone out of a job.

In the immediate, yes there's a very finite number of jobs. If there was an unlimited supply of jobs, not a single person in the world would be unemployed. Jobs are tied to the economy, until the economy grows there can't be more jobs. The system might handle a flux of 10% new workers (either from a bizarre immigration mistake or a ton of people working over time or double full-time jobs) however, resources are finit…

I agree with that point, and perhaps I was a little callous in my original (grandparent) comment. The demand for workers is often very inelastic because it requires someone to figure out new ways to add value that requires workers.