While doing my morning reading, I came across an article in the London Sun about the harsh conditions of prisons in the UK. From 2005-2008, the UK Prison Service spent roughly 220,000 pounds (or around $350k) on game console systems that were given to inmates for good behavior. A convicted child murderer got a Wii, while another prisoner got a PS3. There was a large public outcry that went up, and now the prison bureau has decided that in the future prisoners must buy their own consoles. The last time I checked, prison was about punishment. Even in our own country, prisoners are treated to decent meals, cable TV, and can even get a college education. time to get these jokers back to busting up rocks.

I read an interesting article that says that Wal-Mart has plans to start taking used games for store credit. This is the second story that I have read today that is showing a much more offensive retail strategy for “the Wal-Mart”. The trade in strategy is aimed directly at the exil empire known as EB/Gamestop. The Wal-Mart plan has a twist though. Rather than some pimple-faced, bespectacled nerd taking your trade in, this one will be done at a Redbox style kiosk. To do a trade, you scan the barcode on the game box, then insert the game disc followed by the box. Here’s the kicker…..then you insert your credit/debit card, which I am guessing is how they’ll keep people honest. Once you are done, the machine will print out a voucher for your in-store credit. It’s an interesting concept, but we’ll have to wait and see if this works out the the point of a nationwide rollout. My guess is that the pilot program was run in Florida, which is where the stores were that sold the Special Edition DS (box full ‘o rocks) and PSP (stick full ‘o porn).

Article is HERE. I almost fell out of my chair reading it. Moral of the story, if you’re going to try and steal a car, make sure that it doesn’t belong to a cop.

As was one of the topics on GHR Epidose #63, Time Warner has plans to start a tiered system for their cable Internet service, charging based on usage. What should come as no surprise to anyone is that there are not a whole lot of fans of this approach, and fortunately a lot of TW customers in San Antonio and Austin, Texas made their displeasure with these plans be know. Time Warner has decided to put off their test run of the comsumption based pricing until October, which will buy them time to formulate a PR campaign to ease the blow. In another one of TW’s test markets, Rochester, NY, Time Warner is facing a mass exodus of customers to their rival, Frontier Communications. Frontier had formerly announced a tiered plan, but has since rescinded this idea because of public outrage. If your cable company has plans for consumption based pricing, let your voice be heard. The best way to speak is with your wallet. Full article can be found here.