FACTS

Okay, I have done a lot of research on this subject. Here is what we know to be FACTS:

* Troy Aikman was always listed at 6'4" by the Dallas Cowboys

* Hulk Hogan was listed as 6'7" for most of his adult life

* Hulk Hogan specifically told Larry King that he currently stands 6'4"

* Hulk Hogan specifically told Larry King that he stood 6'7" until he had several surgeries on his back where several discs in his spine were removed.

* A cartilage disc in the human spine of an adult male is approximately one inch thick. Each time a disc is removed, it is replaced with a sheet of metal that is as thin as a piece of paper. In other words, each disc you lose costs you one inch of height. I know this is true from personal experience because my cousin was in a motorcycle accident where he needed two discs replaced, which caused him to lose two inches of height. My cousin ended up 6'2" even though he previously stood 6'4". A similar situation happened when a friend of mine was in an auto accident; he also lost two inches of height because two discs were removed.

* Lou Ferrigno was listed as 6'5" when he was cast as an actor on The Incredible Hulk

* Lou Ferrigno currently stands 6'3.5" tall

* When Hulk Hogan and Lou Ferrigno stood next to each other when both were in their prime, Hulk Hogan was noticably taller

* Arnold Swarzenneggar was measured at 6'2" when he applied for the job on The Incredible Hulk. It was specifically stated that the reason why Arnold was not selected was because of his height.

* Dwayne Johnson was listed as standing 6'5" by the University of Miami Football team.

* When Hulk Hogan wrestled The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) it was obvious that Hogan was taller

* There are times in the Rent-a-Center commercial when Hogan stands equally tall next to Troy Aikman, and others when Hogan appears to be slightly shorter.

* Hulk Hogan currently has severe back pain as a result of multiple back surgeries. This causes Hulk Hogan to occasionally lean forward, which costs him up to one inch at times.

Bottom Line: Hulk Hogan really was 6'7" for most of his adult life. And we know that Lou Feriggno was 6'5" when he was cast to play the part of The Incredible Hulk. These two issues are not debatable.

The "worst" place to preorder from is Best Buy.

I strongly recommend that you stay away from Best Buy and avoid giving them your business for videogames or electronics. I purchased a $400 insurance policy on my HDTV set, and Best Buy refuses to honor it. Best Buy constantly tells people "These problems are within 'Acceptable Tolerances.'" I talked to other stores and I was told that they would instantly replace a product with that type of problem. I found out that there are over 40,000 complaints against Best Buy with the Better Business Bureua. And there are currently five states who have Attorney Generals seeking legal action against Best Buy for refusing to honor warranties and refusing to honor insurance. There is even a Senator from Connecticut who is seeking legal action against Best Buy because the Best Buy organization does not honor warranties and insurance.

And if you don't buy insurance from a Best Buy product, but your product requires service, you better get ready to pay an insanely inflated price! For example, my HDTV set cost $1800. When the Geek Squad from Best Buy came to my home, they claimed it would be $3200 to order a part and install it in the HDTV. Obviously, that was absolutely disgusting to hear information like that. Hearing that reminded me of when I heard Best Buy employees in the store telling people "It isn't a good idea to buy cheap $5 HDMI cables online; it is better to pay the $80 for our brand in the store." I have a friend who works for Best Buy and he gets everything for the discount of "cost plus five percent." The HDMI cables that Best Buy sells for $80 can be purchased by my friend for $5.25. In other words, even though Best Buy charges $80 for their HDMI cables, it costs them only $5, just like if you bought them on Amazon or some other website.

As far as the Xbox 360 goes, I can tell you that Best Buy is a place to stay away from. When you buy their expensive insurance policy on the Xbox 360, you are now forced to send in your Hard Drive as part of the transaction in order to get your money back or to have your unit replaced! My console had a problem other than the RROD, so I needed to use the insurance policy. I wanted to keep my hard drive, because it had all my files saved on it. But Best Buy would not allow this. I asked to speak to different Supervisors and Managers, but best buy would not do anything to help me out. There were even three separate times when Best Buy claimed a Manager would call me within two to three business days, but I never once received a call from Best Buy.I needed to spend $30 on a 512MB Memory Unit and spend three hours transferring all my saved files, one at a time, from the Hard Drive to the Memory Unit. That sucked!

Let the buyer beware! Stay away from Best Buy!

The online retailers I have had really good experiences with in terms of shipping with orders and preorders are:

* Amazon: They ship items quickly and on time for both orders and preorders. I recently preordered Forza Motorsport 3. It was shipped the day the game was released, and I received it just two business dayslater with free shipping. If shipping is important to you, I believe you can pay extra to get the item shipped even faster.

* K-Mart: I once ordered The Genesis Hits game with all those classic Sega Genesis games on one Xbox 360 disc. The game arrived at my home the very next day! This was amazing to me! I think the reason this might have happened is because I placed my order really late at night, which essentially made it about 1.5 days. Still, this was really fast!

* Meijer: I recently ordered a digital camera from Meijer, and it arrived at my home in two business days. This was very fast and I was very pleased.

I have heard a couple rumors like that lately:

* I have heard Microsoft is going to receive Grand Theft Auto 5 exclusively for the Xbox 360

* I have heard Micorosoft is going to receive Call of Duty as an exclusive franchise

I'm not really sure what to believe and for what reasons. It seems very reasonable that Microsoft could have purchased exclusive rights to Grand Theft Auto 5, especially when you consider that Microsoft purchased exclusive rights to the extra episodes for Grand Theft Auto 4. As far as Call of Duty goes, it is still necessary to program the software, so buying the "franchise" doesn't really help them. Microsoft probably would have purchased the exclusive release so that the next Call of Duty game is still developed by Infinity Ward and/or Treyarch, and then have it released only for Xbox 360.

Time will tell.

Microsoft has done a terrible job of handling this offer.

Microsoft, for crying out loud, you are advertising this deal on Xbox Live. You NEED to point out which retailers are participating in this deal. You NEED to point out the expiration date of this deal. You NEED to point out whether this deal is in-store only or if it can also take place online.

Do it right, Microsoft!

Let me explain.

1. Xbox 360 does upconvert standard DVD movies to true 1920x1080p resolution. However, this type of "upconversion" only occurs if you are using an HDMI cable. Only the HDMI cable allows a digital form of "upconversion" to occur in any type of electronic device. It doesn't matter whether you have an Xbox 360, PS3, Blu-ray player, HD-DVD player, or A/V Receiver. The only way you are going to be able to send an upconverted signal to your HDTV is if you are using the HDMI cable.

2. VGA cables are not capable of sending an "upconverted" high definition signal in order to play movies. However, the VGA cables are capable of sending a high-definition signal. If you have your Xbox 360 set to output resolution at something like 720p/1080i/1080p, you will be sending out resolution from the source at the 720p/1080i/1080p resolution that you have selected. This works fine with Xbox 360 videogames and HD-DVD movies, because the Native Resolution of those sources is 720p/1080i/1080p. However, when you are playing a standard DVD movie, it will cause a problem when using a VGA cable, since the Native Resolution of the standard DVD movie is 480p.

3. Your monitor may say the resolution it is receiving is something like 720p/1080i/1080p; however, the resolution actually being output from the source is at 480p. The solution to this problem is lowering the "Sharpness" or "Detail" setting on your monitor. This will reduce the pixilated and jagged look of the standard DVD movies. Even with an HDMI connection, it is often better to lower the Sharpness/Detail setting when watching a standard DVD. But using a VGA cable makes it so the need is definitely required to a higher degree.

With my 61" HDTV set, I have an HDMI cable. The setting for "Detail" (which is Sharpness) goes from -30 to +30. I have a testing device that told me the optimal setting for viewing HDTV material is +12, while viewing non-HDTV material is -12. That is a difference of 24 clicks, and it means that my Sharpness is set at about 25%, but it really does make a noticeable difference in order to make the standard DVD material look a lot better. When I am watching things like Star Wars that have been Digitally Re-mastered on DVD, or Starship Troopers on DVD, which was optimized with HD filming, I actually put the Detail (Sharpness) at the setting of 0, which is halfway between -12 and +12. It is not an exaggeration to say that when I watch these Star Wars and Starship Troopers movies that have been digitally re-mastered and optimized to work with Digital HD sources, it looks noticeably better than the majority of Blu-ray movies. Remember, most Blu-ray movies have NOT been Digitally Re-mastered, which is why they have all that "digital noise," jagged lines, and pixilated backgrounds.

With VGA cables it is probably going to be required even more so to lower the Sharpness/Detail setting. At first it may seem as if you are losing something, but you aren't. You will reduce the background "mosquito noise" by lowering the sharpness, you will eliminate the jagged lines, and you will get rid of that pixilated look. Try watching Star Wars, Terminator 2, Alien, or Starship Troopers and you will see what I'm talking about. It will look great.

I hope this helps you out.

I still need to beat Halo 3 on Legendary, and there are a few skulls I still need to get...some of the more difficult ones. If anyone out there would like to exchange Gamer Tags and play sometime, write to me and let me know.

Actually, when consumers buy from Best Buy, there is a very realistic chance that the product that is "supposed" to be "new" is NOT "new." One of the reasons why the Attorney Generals from Connecticut, Florida, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Pennsylvania are seeking legal action against Best Buy is because of the fact that Best Buy often charges people a "restocking fee" when items are returned to the store. Best Buy then puts that previously owned and used item back on the store shelf saying that it is "new," when it fact it actually has been "used."

For example, some of the most common products Best Buy does this with are video cameras, audio/video receivers, and speakers. Every year when high-school kids graduate, parents buy video cameras that they intend on using one time only--to record their kid graduating. Best Buy then charges a restocking fee to people who return those used items to the store. Best Buy then repackages those items and puts them on the store shelf again, saying that they are "new," even though they aren't. Those items should be sold as "previously owned" items, but they aren't. This is a deceptive practice that is immoral and unethical. This is the reason why the states mentioned above are seeking legal action against Best Buy.

The simple FACT that over 40,000 (yes, forty-THOUSAND) complaints have been filed against Best Buy with the Better Business Bureau over the last four years is devastating, and it shows that consumers should NOT be giving Best Buy their business.

Wopps,

I can tell you for sure that Best Buy is NOT a place you want to do business with. I dealt with three different Best Buy stores in Michigan, and I can tell you that Best Buy is a TERRIBLE place to do business with. The worst of all was Best Buy store 415 in Port Huron Michigan. A Customer Relations Manager named Brian and a General Manager named Dave would NOT allow me to exchange my Xbox 360, even though it was less than two days old!!! The system had never even been hooked up to a TV. I simply wanted to exchange the games, because they were shattered due to the fact that the system had been dropped or handled very carelessly when it was being restocked with the games during the deal in 2007 when Forza Motorsport 2 and Marvel Ultimate Alliance were packed in with the system. I called 888 BEST BUY to complain against those managers, and they were literally laughing at me saying "We will lie to back each other up; do you really think they will believe you instead of us. We get to do whatever we want in our store." The woman named Pilar at 888 BEST BUY actually heard those idiots saying such things, so SHE filed a corporate complaint against them. When I told an assistant manager named Jeff about the situation, he said, "The complaint from 888 BEST BUY won't do anything against Brian, because ultimately it will end up on the desk of Dave, since he is the GM of the store, and there is no way he will punish his buddy Brian. He will throw that complaint in the trash as soon as he see's it." I asked Jeff how he knew that would happen, and he said "Because I've seen this happen before while I've worked at Best Buy." When I called Best Buy corporation in Minnesota to talk about this situation, I found out that those arrogant managers were correct--the people at Best Buy Corporate didn't care about what the customer had to say.

It isn't just the Xbox 360 that I have had problems with at Best Buy. I also found out that their insurance is 100% useless on computers and also televisions. I bought a laptop and found out that virtually anything wrong with it will be labeled as a "software problem," which is something that the insurance does NOT cover. My laptop clearly had a defective hard drive, but I was continuously told to partition my hard drive and reinstall everything. Nothing would work, and Best Buy refused to admit there was a hardware problem. I even sarcastically said "I should just break the thing so then the hardware will be damaged." Best Buy then said, "Insurance does not cover that type of hardware problem." The type of hardware problems they are apparently referring to are the ones where CPU motherboards melt on their own and things that very rarely happen within the time period that insurance covers.

Oh, then there is my HDTV. I spent $400 on my 60" HDTV insurance. In just over a year I started to see what appeared to be greenish tint all over the screen. It was especially bad on white background and blue backgrounds. The entire lower-left of the screen was a green ball, as well as the outside perimeter of the left, top, and right. I called Best Buy about this. A Geek Squad guy came to my house. He said, "I see the problem, but I think you should leave it as it is." I said "WHAT!" I said, "Why would you say such a thing?" He said "I don't think I can repair this problem." I said, "Well, then I guess that means you will replace this HDTV with another Projection HDTV." The guy from Best Buy said, "We aren't going to replace an HDTV with this problem, because the center of the screen is where most of the action takes place in movies, and that area isn't affected." I said "WHAT!" The man then said, "It's like that with Plasma HDTV sets, too. People think that just because they bought insurance from us that it means we will replace their HDTV just because a few dozen pixels burn out. But we aren't going to replace an entire HDTV with hundreds of thousands of pixels just because a few dozen burn out." I could not believe what I was hearing, but when i called Best Buy corporate, they sided with the repair guy. I am currently staring at a 60" HDTV set with green tint as a background that looks like burn-in on a picture tube TV...But hey, at least I have that $400 insurance that is 100% useless.

TRUST ME...PLEASE....Do NOT waste your money on products from Best Buy. I have since found out that during the last 48 months there have been over 40,000 complaints filed against Best Buy with the Better Business Bureau because they refuse to honor warranties and insurance polices. In fact, there are currently FIVE states who have Attorney Generals that are seeking legal action against Best Buy for refusal to honor warranties and insurance, false advertising, bait-and-switch advertising, and other factors. Those states are Connecticut, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

I hope this helped you out. But I don't want you to get burned the way that I did with Best Buy. I will never give Best Buy another cent of my money. Best Buy only cares about getting rich off of people, and they do not care about customers...especially the Best Buy store 415.

I noticed that the Xbox 360 has a really good sale at K-Mart right now until February 28, 2009. If you buy the $399 Xbox 360 Elite at K-Mart, you get a $50 discount that can be used on any game that costs $50 or more. So, for example, if you buy your Xbox 360 for $399, and you decided you want to buy Street Fighter 4, which sells for $59, you will actually only pay $9.99 for Street Fighter 4. I think that is a really good deal. K-Mart also has the Xbox 360 controller on sale for $49, if that helps. But personally, I think it is a better idea to buy a controller online for a lot less. Amazon is a really good website to buy from.

Please let me know what your thoughts are. I hope I helped you out.

Xbox 360 is a much better game console than the Playstation 3.

Xbox 360 receives a larger number of third-party exclusive games, and the multi-platform games released on both consoles are almost always better on the Xbox 360. Gamespot is not biased because they point out that the Xbox 360 versions of games are better. For example, Gamespot was not the only website to point out that the Xbox 360 version of Street Fighter 4 had load times faster than the Playstation 3 version. This is a useful piece of information that many people appreciated.