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Comment by msluyter | Hacker News Reader

In college I had some back problems, so I improvised (an incredibly unwise) lay-down desk by putting my monitor face down on two chairs and just lying with my face underneath it. This was a heavy CRT, not a modern LCD monitor. (Did I mention this being incredibly unwise...?)

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Did it ever drop? Sounds about 20 times worse then dropping your phone on your face when laying in bed.

A phone is usually less than 200g, a CRT monitor can easily be >10kg, so at least 50 times worse

And damage does not scale linearly. I'd much rather have 50 200g rocks falling on my head than a single 10kg rock :)

And with a CRT you can also have the tube implode, and then you get 1000s of 1g sharp glass shards in your face.

Then the EHT (extra-high tension, ~25kV) module lands in what was your face. 'Incredibly unwise' seems sound!

> And damage does not scale linearly.

This must be today's "most HN" comment.

Saying something obviously true makes it the "most HN" comment?

This may be today's "Most HN" reply...

When I think of a "most HN" comment, I think of one of four options:

- Dismisses a new project that simplifies a task and makes it more approachable to non-technical folks (Like the famous Dropbox comment [0])

- Is extremely pedantic and serves only as a distraction from a discussion

- Argues in favor of pure functional programming

- Misses obvious sarcasm, even when the /s is included.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224

please add

- tries to come up with an overly precise technical definition of something entirely subjective and unserious.

;-)

The functional programming one could probably be generalized to "argues for switching to a programming language or programming paradigm when it doesn't even make sense for the particular context or HN thread topic".

There's always someone that's religious about their particular technical choices.

And lately:

* dismisses the thought by referring to the commenter's privilege for having it in the first place, rather than commenting on the value or feasibility of the thought itself.

pure functional programming is so 2010. rewrite it in Rust is the 2020 way.

You forgot "find a wordy way to criticize something while pretending you're suggesting an improvement so that you can pander to some viewpoint that it's hard to argue against with the demographics here being what they are"

Those are all negative. Lots of HN comments are positive.

Can you think of any other community where someone can discuss the damage of a CRT monitor falling into your face with terms like "scale linearly" and everybody just nods in agreement?

I think it's delightful, one of the little pleasures of hanging around here.

> a CRT monitor can easily be >10kg, so at least 50 times worse

And some of the later generation CRTs breached 20" and were a good 30+kg.

Sony's 24" GDM-FW900 was a pretty incredible 42kg.

I used to have a large CRT monitor that was 30kg (I don't recall the actual screen size, but it was somewhere between 20-30". It was an absolute behemoth, and I remember the desk sagged down at least an inch in the centre. It looked pretty dodgy, but it sat there for years without incident!

I injured my eye from dropping my phone on it. Scratched it, at least far away from the center. I had a visible wound for many months.

I suspended a kindle over my bed on two 2-meter rails used for reinforcing wall edges. Best reading I did while recovering from leg injuries, but risky as you mentioned.

I 3d printed the rather popular clamping system from thingiverse. Worked pretty well until it broke.

In a small apartment I used to rent, there was a rod for hanging clothes over the bed. I didn't use the rod, so I just hung a tablet from the rod and watched movies in bed. It's a very comfortable position to be in, don't have to strain your neck.

If you miss that relaxation, try out some prism glasses. Great for zero-next-strain reading while supine.

I have a cantilevered tablet holder over my bed, it can hold a Kindle or iPad without effort and has both clamps and an elastic cord to retain them.

Then for ultimate convenience (laziness) I connected a bluetooth presentation clicker to my iPad to turn the pages for me so I didn't have to keep reaching up or take my arms out from under the blanket on cold nights. In two years it's never dropped.

That sounds amazing.

Is there a way to use the clicker with the kindle?

Yes, it's called KindleLazy.

> or take my arms out from under the blanket on cold nights

I keep thinking of assembling about the same thing, but missed the warm-blanket factor. Now I definitely must do it.

I just hang mine with a long string and adjustable friction knots for tilt. The downside is it can still spin but my non-ideal fix is to throw a heavier shoelace string off to the side and move it as needed.

One thing that could make it easier to set these up is prism glasses, which have mirrors so that when you look forward, you're seeing your toes.

I use them for reading in bed, although sites do everything in their power to make landscape mode on mobile phones unusable.

Interesting, are these like belay glasses, but with the prisms turned around?

I had to look that up, but yes that looks correct. Except that, from the diagram, it bends your view by less than a right angle. Opposite vertical direction though.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belay_glasses

me too! I've recommended them to so many people at this point (including another commenter upthread). kindle landscape mode is great for prism glasses, just at the upper bound of what their vertical FOV can hold.

Damocles, is that you?

the CRT of Damocles just doesn't have the same ring to it.

Similar risks with this early VR headset: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sword_of_Damocles_(virtual...

Laying down is not a good thing for my back. I can't even sit with my feet up (AKA "in a recliner").

I have a standing desk that earns me a closed cyan ring every day.

Cool project, but would not be one that I would use.

> closed cyan ring

Is this referring to some tracking software?

My guess is an Apple Watch? (My girlfriend has one and iirc it has a cyan ring, but not 100% sure.)

Yes. Apple Watch. The "Stand" ring is cyan.

I used a recliner under a loft bed with some chains (connected by bolts) making a harness around my CRTs.

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