Shawn

Clearly, you have no idea what you are talking about. As someone has already said, the issue is not South Carolina's academic standards, it is those standards being applied so late in the game. USC should have told these kids back in January or February that they weren't going to be accepted, so that they could accept another D1 school offer and scholarship and get on with their athletic and academic lies. Denying a kid 3 days before fall practice starts? That is terrible, and no wonder Spurrier views it as an affront to his credibility. There needs to be better communication between the athletic department and the admissions board. The standards don't need to be dropped, Spurrier just wants the decisions made sooner.

And to all of you bashing Spurrier's recruits intelligence, the intelligence of our football team, and the university in general--you are as clueless as this journalist. Despite the fact that 80% of Spurrier's recruits have been considered "special admissions cases" by our University, our football team just posted the highest average GPA in school history for the Spring '07 semester. So the University thought 80% of his recruits might not make it in college...and the team posts a record GPA. Clearly, Spurrier cares about academics more than most of you give him credit for, so much so that he suspended fifth-year senior and starting quarterback Blake Mitchell for the first few days of fall practice because he and a few others missed too many classes in Summer School.

But hey, what's the value in knowing what you are talking about when you can make witty comments?

The Halo 3 trailer on Monday is NOT going to look anything like the gameplay. Microsoft and Bungie have been very upfront about this, which is how it will differ from what Sony has done. Essentially, this is going to be a mix of live-action and CG shots, and is designed to promote the halo franchise as well as to remind people about Halo 3.

The ultimate goal for this commercial goes much deeper, however. Notice how a director for the commercial has never been named, yet Bungie has admitted that there IS a director. I'll bet money that Blomenkampf directed the commercial. Because this trailer is representative of what the Halo movie, not the game, will look like.

Don't confuse the two. Go read the updates on Bungie.net, they have been very forward in saying that Halo 3 will not look like the commercial.

"Hey Shawn, do you have next week's lotto numbers too? From what I see, and I could be wrong here, Vista hasn't launched, no launch date has been given, and hardly a lot of people know about Vista yet."

Nope, unfotunately I don't play the lotto. However, if you want me to throw some numbers out there for you, I will.

You are correct in that no firm launch date has been given, although January 2007 is the new window...after what is this now, 3 delays? Or are we up to 4?

My point is that Zune will most likely be in some way integrated with Vista. And Microsoft would be stupid not to market the Zune when they market Vista. And while the general public doesn't know too much about Vista at the moment, Zune isn't out at the moment either. By the time it comes out, I'd imagine, so long as Vista stays on its newest release schedule, the general public will start to catch wind of Vista.

And while we don't necessarily know how successful Vista will be, I think it's pretty likely that it will be successful. Given the 90-95% market penetration that XP has and all.

Let's face it. Vista is eye candy. It just looks a lot nicer than XP. And if anything will convince the ignorant consumer to upgrade, it will be pretty graphics. Clear menus. Pretty screensavers. etc.

hey Dolemite, can you give me next week's lottery numbers as well? Seeing as how you are so good at predicting the future and all...

And for all the Microsoft haters out there...get a life. You were the same people laughing at the Xbox, saying it was irrelevant, outdated, bulky, and that they could never break into the market while Sony and Nintendo were there.

And laught all you want at the PSP (i hate them myself), but it has defied the prognosticators as well, and has successfully cracked the once impervious Nintendo handheld market.

Zune will be successful because it will be heavily marketed in concert with two incredibly successful and well-known microsoft brands: Windows Vista and Xbox 360.

And lets not forget that MTV will likely get behind Zune as well, due to Zune likley pushing the Urge service. MTV has quite a sway with the prepubescent teen market...

Donald, did you ever play over mIRC?