It was the giant aliens.

Or possibly sandals...

I don't know about this. There's a Kindle android app. Also, I don't know how much of a profit they make on a Kindle fire. So there's that to consider...

More pain. I can't be bothered with that, I prefer Linux to Windows, but I don't have a desperate need to use it. Most of what I need (Firefox, etc) runs natively on Windows, so there's no need to waste resources and virtualise a Linux box...

It's a pity you don't like it I guess. I think it was a bold move by Microsoft but most of the people I know who have been using it now actually like it. There are a couple that don't, and those that don't are computer literate enough to remove the things they don't like. Changes will never be universally liked I guess.

Ja, the new task manager is pretty cool :)

As I mentioned though, if I had a choice I'm a Linux man, to me it just feels more comfortable, but since I need to use certain software for work and I don't like dual-booting, I stick with Windows. It's not as bad as it was historically. Each to their own though, it's a matter of opinion. And as I said, once you work around the start screen the Metro GUI almost disappears.

What I did first thing was uninstall all the Metro-style apps, Mail, Music, etc. Stupid things insist on being full-screen. Goodbye to them. I installed all my own things, Firefox, Songbird, etc. They work like normal desktop apps. From there it looks exactly like a slightly slicker Win7 interface, except without a Start button. To get around that, as soon as I press the start button on the keyboard I just start typing the name of whatever I want and the search function takes away all the irrelevant stuff, so I can either press enter or click on it. My frequently used applications though I just pin to the taskbar exactly as I did with Win7,

Some features of Win8 I actually really like, for example the new, more informative copy dialog, and the ribbon at the top of Windows Explorer (I was one of those who liked the ribbon in Office). The start screen is a bit annoying but not enough to make my life miserable since I can exploit its features to get places faster. So all in all a positive experience.

I've been sort of forced to use Win8 for the last few weeks on my new laptop (yeah I guess I could probably get it to work with 7 instead, but I'm too lazy...) and to be honest it's really not bad. Once you get used to the different interface it's really no problem.

Also, as far as marketplace lock-in, that's complete rubbish. I've installed all my own applications, haven't had to use a single one from the Windows / Metro thingy, most of the time I don't even realise I'm on a new OS. It's somewhat faster than Win7, though that difference isn't huge.

All that being said, I still prefer Linux, I'm one of those who have specific applications packages for work reasons which have to use Windows. But Win8 isn't the big loss for M$ that you make it out to be.

Sarah Brightman isn't that bad... though I can think of several others I'd rather send into space.

China. They're big allies of North Korea, and I don't think they'd take kindly to America having significant military presence right there.

Not least of which, because if their recent tests are anything to be judged by, they would get it horribly wrong. That rocket that they launched? Crashed without doing anything useful. I don't know why the States is worried, China has more to fear if NK actually aims at the US.

Ferrari's hypercars are super exclusive. If you were buying one of the 499 that they're making, they would have already contacted you to let you know ;)

Incidentally, IIRC, this isn't like a regular hybrid in that you can let it run on the electric motor alone, that would turn the engine off which would defeat the point of a V12 Ferrari. It's basically just an upgraded F1-KERS system. I guess the engine might turn off in stop-start traffic, but other than that, no.

Isn't there a lot of precious metal in E-waste? AFAIK harvesting that can be quite lucrative as well. It surprises me that one needs initiatives such as this, one would think that the firms would want to recycle electronics anyway...

My grandparents would fall into this category. While uncapped services are available here in South Africa, ones with e.g. 2GB caps are cheaper, and they seldom use more than about 200-300 MB on emails and the occasional crossword answer search... So 1GB free would be ideal for them.