Yup, that got clarified now :)

hmm-sounds similar to the DOS extenders that allowed 16 bit DOS to access more than 1 MB of RAM..

They're not 'licensed' to top out, it's a physical limitation of 32 bit architecture and makes no difference whether you use 32 bit Windows or 32 bit Linux. A 32 bit CPU can address 2^32 memory addresses, which translates to 4 GB. In practice, a 32 bit Windows installation with 4 GB RAM will report 2.91 or 2.92 GB as usable. So if you plan on using 4 GB RAM or more, you'll have to have a 64 bit operating system.

Frankly, enough already about Vader and Solo. Talented authors like Timothy Zahn have taken the series in new directions, with new characters (Mara Jade, Luke's future wife and their son Ben Skywalker), but will we get to see these characters play out?

  The Thrawn Trilogy, set a decade after ROTJ ought to have been made. But no, the movies get to go in an entirely different direction, so how do you reconcile the expanded universe fiction that's been written so far - the entire New Jedi Order series for example?
Oh well, it's only a bunch of old time Star Wars fans that are gonna grumble.

Wow, ask a question and get modded flame bait. Fucking fan boys.

..HTC phones come with an added Apple Tax? The article doesn't mention what the patents in question were. I have a One X, and I'll say this - If I had to choose a manufacturer skin I'd go with Sense anyday over Samsung's Touchwiz. Can't imagine what HTC might have copied off Apple if it's UI related. They have a fully customizable home screen, themes, skins, extra widgets...none of which you'll find on any iPhone.

I run Windows 8 and I've tried both the built in support for VMs by running an XP virtual machine, and Virtualbox. I prefer the latter, I use it now to run Linux Mint, and also successfully tested Haiku alpha 3.

since I use a desktop and have no use for Metro. I use Classic shell which returns a fully customizable 'normal' start menu to Windows 8.

...back when they introduced chat within Gmail. Suddenly people who could not install chat clients at work due to IT policies were perfectly able to chat with other Gmail users. I used to be a big user of Yahoo messenger, ever since web based chat started hardly anyone I know uses it anymore. As for MSN/Live, the less said the better - old accounts seem to have been taken over for spam. It took several years for Yahoo to play catch up and offer chat within their webmail, but it's too late.
(This of course excludes IRC users and those who have their own Jabber setups).
I now use the open source Windows client Miranda IM - fully featured, has a 64bit version, supports all popular networks including Jabber and extensible via plugins.

Was it a portion of Noah's freakin Circle?

I don't get it, does this refer to Metro apps? I upgraded Win 7 Ultimate to Win 8 Pro on my desktop, and it hasn't affected my ability to install regular windows applications at all. In fact, I use Classic Shell to bring back the old start menu and I don't use the Metro UI at all.

It has a firewall component, probably for that. Phone state and identity, not sure.

Interesting you mentioned this, as it is depicted as a constant point of conflict in Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy - where one group of settlers is violently opposed to the ongoing terraforming of Mars and argue that humans have no right to change its pristine state.

Speaking of the Drake equation, I think we have to content ourselves with exploring whatever prospect of life there is in our solar system only. If not Mars then Europa holds the next big hope of finding life in its ice locked sea. All the breathless announcements of yet another Earth like exoplanet are of no use unless someone invents warp drive or FTL propulsion so that one can get there(forget about radio communications at that range) in a time period that's not measured in centuries.
For some perspective, the farthest man made object Voyager 1 is just around 17 light hours away after 35 years of travel. In stellar terms it's barely gotten up from the couch, much less left home!

If you ignore for a moment that Android was bought over by Google whose raison d'etre is advertising, it's ironic that adware has become so acceptable on Android when it's synonymous with spyware on Windows and is flagged as such by decent antivirus programs.

Most of the ad supported Android apps ask for internet access in order to display ads. The problem is you have no idea what else they're doing with that internet access. I would be very leery of something like a task manager that's ad supported..something with sufficient privileges to kill processes and yet be able to do who knows what with its internet permission.
Rooting and installing an adblocking hosts file, (or using AdAway which automates the process) is one solution, but then it deprives the app devleoper of ad revenue (for something that's otherwise free).

Seems like Google ought to separate the permission for displaying ads from that for internet access - so if your app wants to show ads, it should only be allowed to connect to Google's ad servers and do nothing else. At least that way one has peace of mind that one's ad supported contact list manager isn't surreptitiously transmitting one's phonebook somewhere.