HMM: Sales of Flat-Panel TVs Weaken. I wonder if this has anything to do with people giving up their cable? Speaking of which, reader Tim Boppre writes:

We canceled our satellite two years ago and have never looked back. The cost kept slowly creeping up while the quality of the content was plummeting. At first the kids weren’t real happy but they got over it in time when they found all the useful things that you can do with your time (and brain cells) if you aren’t in front of a TV. So after two years I got the big payback this past August. We were on vacation and the first night in the hotel room one of the kids turned on the TV. Within three minutes of turning it on and finding nothing interesting to watch our fifteen year old daughter turned to my wife and I and said “You guys were right. TV is really lame.” It’s not too often you get a return on your parenting investment so quickly. We figured we’d have to wait until the kids were at least thirty to have them tell us that we weren’t full of beans. Postman was right.

So there you are. Plus, young people watch less TV. But you can sure get a lot more for your money than you could a year ago. Meanwhile, I’m looking for a laptop with HDMI out, so I can put Internet TV programming on the big screen.