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While the cost of pay-TV service is going up and draining savings accounts, something as popular as the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament can be easily live streamed, even if you don’t have a cable subscription.

The average monthly cable bill had reached $103.10, according to a 2016 study by Leichtman Research Group. Let’s take a step back and realize this is just the average, so that means there are plenty of people paying well over $100 per month for a cable package.

Some people can’t live without cable, but others are hanging on for all the wrong reasons. One of the biggest reasons for the reluctance to cut cable is the concern about missing live sports. Admittedly, just three years ago, this was an incredibly valid reason and there weren’t many alternatives, but times have changed.

With people from all over the country tuning in to watch the NCAA tournament, you can likely watch every single March Madness game for a fraction of the average monthly cable bill.

Low-cost and free options to watch March Madness basketball

Check out the guide below to learn about what are the best and most cost-efficient options for watching the NCAA tournament without cable.

Sling TV: $20 per month

The most affordable setup will be subscription streaming service Sling TV combined with a TV antenna. Not only is it inexpensive, it lets you watch nearly every single March Madness game live via TBS, TNT and CBS.

Sling TV costs $20 per month for the Sling Orange package for access to the games on TNT and TBS. There’s also almost 30 other popular cable channels to live stream in the package, including several ESPN networks. Check out this Sling TV review for more details.

The cost for the antenna is entirely dependent on which antenna you choose. There are several different options to choose from, like a Mohu, with a wide cost range. But, the only cost included is the purchase of the antenna as watching TV with the antenna is free. This can be your option to get CBS, but make sure it’s available in your location.

CBS All Access: $5.99 to $9.99 per month

If you can’t get live access to CBS with your antenna, then CBS All Access might be the next best thing. It’s a subscription streaming service that lets you live stream everything that CBS is broadcasting in your area. This means anytime there’s a game on CBS, you can live stream it on the service without needing a cable subscription. Plus, it only costs $5.99 per month to start or $9.99 per month if you want live streams without commercials.

PlayStation Vue: $29.99 per month

Streaming service, PlayStation Vue, is another option to watch March Madness games. Depending on your location, you may even be able to watch every single game. This means potentially getting streaming access to CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV.

No matter where you live, the starting package will get you TBS, TNT and truTV. But, in around 80 markets in the U.S., you’ll also get CBS live streaming. This package costs only $29.99 per month and ultimately gets you around 45 cable channels to live stream.

One more way to watch NCAA tournament games with a PlayStation Vue subscription is through the March Madness Live app. A PlayStation Vue subscription can be used as authentication on the app to stream tons of games during the tournament.

How to watch March Madness for free

Theoretically, you can watch almost the entire NCAA tournament if you utilize the free trials offered by the multiple streaming services on the market. Sling TV, CBS All Access and PlayStation Vue all offer week-long free trials. Plus, another service, DIRECTV NOW, also has free trials and includes TBS, TNT and truTV in its streaming package.

You could move from one to the other and watch nearly all of the games without having to pay a dime. And, it’d give you a good sense of which service you liked best for future televised events.

There’s clearly no reason to miss March Madness games. Even if you don’t have cable, you’ll still have plenty of options to watch without having to break the bank!

Chris Brantner is the founder of the largest cord cutting resource on the web, CutCableToday.com. He also contributes to Business Insider, VICE and more. 

Readers: Do you plan on watching the March Madness basketball tournament? How will you watch the games?

The post How to Watch NCAA March Madness Basketball Without Cable (and Save Big) appeared first on Get Rich Slowly.

submitted by Mikey Bautista

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When looking for the perfect gear, sometimes it's not all about the specs. It can be something as seemingly simple as the pocket clip. A pocket clip could make or break how you carry your gear, and there are a few good reasons why.

A good clip makes retrieving your gear easier, saving you time by keeping things securely within reach. A bad clip on a great tool could make you stop carrying it altogether. It slows you down and makes the tool inconvenient to carry, and an inconvenient tool is an unused one.

Pocket clips also affect how you handle the tools themselves. If you've heard of the term “hotspot” when referring to a clip on knives or flashlights, this means that the clip digs into your hand when holding the tool, causing discomfort over time.

And then there's the fact that clips give you options with how you carry your EDC. When clipped to your pocket, you won't have to waste time fishing for gear at the bottom of it or in the recesses of your bag. Tools get the most use when clipped to an outer pocket where they're much easier to grab.

Clips also play a part when dealing with knife laws. Certain locales won't let you carry a knife if any part of the knife itself is sticking out of your pocket, so in those cases a deep-carry clip that completely conceals it would let you carry it. The clip in this case spelled the difference between carrying your favorite knife and leaving it at home.

The Benefits of a 4-Way Pocket Clip on Knives

So we know that pocket clips are useful, but how do they work on actual tools? Let's take a standard 4-way clip on a knife as an example to show the above benefits and usage cases.

As the name implies, with a 4-way clip, you have 4 orientations with which to carry the knife. You can attach the clip on either of its sides to match your dominant or preferred hand (great for lefties like me), or remove it altogether if that's the most comfortable (or legal).

The 4-way clip also lets you choose between tip-up and tip-down carry for the knife. While for most use cases this won't matter, it helps for opening mechanisms like the Emerson Wave feature that lets you rapidly open a knife straight out of a pocket when clipped and positioned tip-up.

And for flipper-type opening mechanisms, ease and speed of use comes down to where the clip is and how the knife tip is positioned. As a lefty, a flipper with a fixed pocket clip in the tip-down position on the handle side meant for righties is practically unusable. It's backwards with how I would want to open the knife (lefty side, tip-up).

With these 4 positions you can already see how much of an impact a clip has on carrying and basic use, without even touching the features of the knife itself! Below I'll go a bit more in-depth with how a pocket clip benefits specific EDC tools.

Pocket Clips on Lights

While most flashlights don't get a 4-way clip because of their shape, 2-way clips (bezel up or down) still gives you options for usability. Having a clip that can flip how a light faces in your pocket gives you a choice in comfort and ease of use depending on where its switch lies.

In a more tactical flashlight where the switch is on its tail, having a clip that lets you carry it bezel-down means you have faster access to the switch with your thumb. Conversely, if you have a light with a side switch designed for overhand use, having it bezel-up in your pocket puts the switch nearer to your thumb when pulling it out.

And one underrated feature for bezel-up clips: this clip lets you attach the light to the brim of a hat for hands-free use. Instant headlamp!

Pocket Clips on Pens

A pocket clip on a pen is the most relatable and common example for most people. Basically, it's the only thing keeping you from losing your pens all the time. Good pocket clips also makes a pen comfortable to write with for long periods (no hotspots!) and stops it from rolling off the table when setting it down.

The position of the clip also affects how the pen functions. A clicky pen benefits the most from a tip-down clip so you can pull it out and click it in one motion, while fountain pens benefit most being tip-up with the clip on the cap so the ink doesn't keep flowing down the nib.

Now think about how much something as popular and useful as the Fisher Space Pen can become even better with a clip. It makes it easier to carry, prevents it from rolling off your desk, and adds to its usefulness as an EDC pen.

Pocket Clips on Keys

Finally, keeping things handy doesn't have to end with your tools. With accessories like a suspension hook, even things that are usually left in a pocket or bag become much more accessible. A keychain with a suspension hook like the above means quicker access to your keys or tools. Another good example is a Swiss Army Knife. A versatile keychain tool like a Manager or Classic becomes much more useful with a suspension hook, since it's always at your side.

What EDC tool do you carry has benefited the most from a pocket clip and how? Let us know in the comments below!

Dilbert readers - Please visit Dilbert.com to read this feature. Due to changes with our feeds, we are now making this RSS feed a link to Dilbert.com.

Do you go to the store for “cupcakes, vanilla, and chocolate” or “cupcakes, vanilla and chocolate”? There’s a long-running debate over whether it’s proper to include that last comma in a list. Well, forget proper. The comma makes things clearer, and a recent lawsuit proves that.

Read more...

Most modern TVs come with a feature called game mode, which basically stops the television from processing the signal that comes from your game console, such as your PS4 or Xbox one. If the signal gets processed by both the game console and the TV, this can cause the video quality to become blurry or slightly lag, making it difficult if not impossible, to play your games.

If you're old Garador/Hormann remote control breaks, unfortunately, there is no other option to buy an expensive new one which will cost £40 on average. Thankfully they are easy to program by simply finding the receiver located on top of the garage door motor.

Pillmawr Road is a narrow, accident-prone country lane that connects Malpas and Caerleon, Newport.

Notorious accident-prone road that connects Caerleon and The Coldra, Newport.

Driving through High Street and Lodge Road, Caerleon.

A drive along high cross road through Rogerstone, Newport, Gwent.

Cwmcarn Forest, also known as Forest Drive in Abercarn is currently still shut due to diseased trees being felled, but you can still visit and use the main facilities.

A drive through Risca town and the surrounding area, which is part of Caerphilly County Borough.

A drive along Cefn Road, Rogerstone, Newport.

This is a close-up shot of my cat's face who is called Pikelet.

A little while back Jorel wrote a post introducing our new logo and design. We’ve rolled it out slowly on our blog and twitter accounts and some emails, but this weekend we’ll be pushing it out to our public website and within The Old Reader application. 

Most of the feedback has been really positive and for that we’re grateful. But as with any change, we’re sure there will be a bit of pushback. The important thing to know is that while some colors and the logo may be different, the interface remains largely unchanged.

There is one big exception to that which is our new reading view. This is one of the most exciting updates we’ve made in a while and it’s changed the way that I personally I use The Old Reader. It’s revolutionary only its simplicity, but it truly puts the focus on reading and has improved that experience for me dramatically. I use it constantly on my iPhone and have really enjoyed it weekend mornings with a cup of coffee in a nice chair.

It’s like old school Instagram in that the only view is most recent to oldest, although you can modify that by changing your sorting preference. Most of the other chrome is gone, you just read and swipe to move forward or backward. You can share, like, comment as usual but the really great thing is the format feature. It basically takes partial posts and brings them back in their entirety and formatted for the browser.  

As of this weekend it’ll be available for all premium subscribers in the Experiment’s section. We just want to get some initial feedback from this group and then we’ll be rolling to the entire community.

We hope you guys are excited about the new look and new view. We’ve never been more excited about The Old Reader and we’ve never been more convinced of the importance of RSS, the open web, and people who make the effort to be informed and educated. You guys are the best!

My business partner and I were talking a while back about the internet. We’ve been working together now since 1999 in 3 or 4 different web startups. We’ve been really successful together. Grown huge teams. Made decent money and had lots of fun. And it was all based on building things for the web. So it was a big deal when he admitted to me that he sorta hates technology these days. And it was a relief because I got to express my true feelings out loud for the first time.

The internet sucks.

Here is a very partial list of some of the most hate-worthy aspects of the web:

Trolls and cyberbullying.

Fake news.

Ads everywhere

Mobile apps that take up 50 minutes of the day.

Remote/constant work.

All of the killer apps that the internet has made possible seemed great at first, didn’t they? I can listen to any song I want for free on any number of apps. It’s amazing… except that I miss holding an album cover in my hands and hearing the crackle of a needle on vinyl. I can binge watch entire seasons of a million TV shows or stream one of a billion highly mediocre movies for a low monthly fee. But I really miss finding great movies at a locally owned video store. We had some great ones around here and most are gone. And frankly, binge watching isn’t a good use of the short time we have on this planet.  

I miss letters and postcards. I miss newspapers. I miss reading real books. (I know I sound like an old curmudgeon).

I miss going to shopping malls. Nope, I don’t miss that at all. Especially given that before the internet I couldn’t even find size 14 shoes so I just jammed my feet into 13’s. And that’s the thing, I’m sure anybody reading this is thinking of all kinds of amazing things that they love about the internet. I get it. But I hate what this thing has become. I hate the internet giants that are running the networks these days. Companies like Comcast and Verizon and AT&T.

We’re huge advocates of the open web, but even with the open web, people willingly hand over so much of their private information, time, and well being to the internet giants like Google and Facebook. These are advertising companies that can afford to build useful technology by getting you to spend too much and save too little. And now people are installing them in their homes. Hey, I know these guys are recording my conversations and using it to sell me useless crap, but I can just ask Alexa what the weather is going to be tomorrow and it responds. Let’s take a broader perspective on these things people. Technology IS change by definition, but not ALL change is for the better… even when it does offer some niceties.

I’m nostalgic for the early days of the internet. When you could find information quickly, but without somebody watching over everything you searched and read. When you could communicate with people, but without somebody listening. I’m nostalgic for the days when the internet didn’t suck.