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Slightly Weird Browser-Based Game Challenges You to Survive Poverty

Carolyn Glatz — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 22:58:49 +0000

Imagine that you’re just one bad circumstance away from getting evicted. Or having your electricity shut off. Or having your car repossessed.

Actually, that’s the way that most of us live right now — balancing on a precipice of late bills, keeping up with rent and cutting back on personal expenses.

Well, now you can play a game that lets you feel what it’s like to be poor — for free!

“Spent” is a free browser-based game that attempts to raise awareness about poverty circumstances in the USA. You can choose a job (server, warehouse worker or temp), and attempt to survive for 30 days of being super-poor. Will you have your pet put to sleep to save money, or pay the $400 in veterinary bills? Will you let your gas or your electricity get shut off this month? Will you enroll your child in a sports program, when it’s going to cost you several hundred dollars in lost hours at work, not to mention equipment costs?

Anyway, if this sounds like… fun, you should head over to the website and check it out. How many days would you last in poverty?

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Drawing of HP Touchpad Selling for $100,000 on eBay

Carolyn Glatz — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 03:55:59 +0000

The craziness surrounding the $99 price of the HP Touchpad tablet has created an incredible amount of buzz in the tech world. While most of this buzz is about the rumors that HP will be selling additional Touchpad stock, not everyone is happy about the price cut. One eBay user has taken out his frustrations by placing a really poorly drawn replica of a HP Touchpad up for auction.

The crazy part? The bidding for this awful drawing is now up to $100,000.

Admittedly, the winner of this auction probably won’t end up paying. I mean, seriously. Even so, it’s an interesting sign of how incredibly influential HP’s firesale has been on the general mentality surrounding its tablet products.

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Netflix Pricing Plans Go Up, Customers Rage

Carolyn Glatz — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 19:53:58 +0000

Just like the cost of gas, Netflix is now feeling the effects of inflation. Today, Netflix announced that they’ll be changing their pricing plan, splitting snail-mail DVDs and streaming video into two separate plans. Basically, this means that if you want one DVD per month, and streaming video, you’ll be paying $15.98 per month (up from the previous $9.99 per month). Want two DVDs? Prepare to shell out $17.98 per month.

Needless to say, most consumers aren’t reacting well to this news. Some TV shows have episodes that are only available on DVD, and many popular movies are still DVD-only.

In a time when most Americans are already feeling the effects of the economic recession, price increases in entertainment services definitely aren’t welcome for many consumers.

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