The analogy reminds me of Shrek. Ogres have layers, so they're like onions, which have layers, but not like cakes that have layers? I think the article would have been fine without that analogy, and just dove into the relationship and differences between the 'layers'.
While that's a nice thought, I don't think that ruling in favor of Oracle will magically make Android poof into a new language/api/framework. It'd take lots of effort, and in the meantime fall way behind Apple. I'm not even sure the cost of trying to keep up with the iPhone would be justified in that case.
Yeah, there's going to be these trade-offs (complexity/efficiency), but I've seen this end up in fellow student's personal projects after learning it in class.
Aside from that though, I think if you're clever enough to come to this and implement it well, I hope you're clever enough to understand whether or not it's the RightWay(TM).
If you're counting the Samsung, Google, AccuWeather, and ChatOn logo's, sure. Without those we're left with a still diverse set, but I think reasonably varied. If I could make one change it would be to make the clock font match (style-wise) the rest of the non-logo fonts, probably at a much lighter weight (ultralight serif).
He doesn't appear to back it well in the article other than as a quality of the plastic. Reviews are subjective, and as the next Google Flagship device, the S3 will be getting lots more reviews soon enough. Personally I like the Verge's Android phone reviews.
RC Aircraft nerd here. This is very cool, but not at all uncommon (while this particular model is, making scale remote-control versions are not). Pulse-jet aircraft are some of the coolest things you can fly, but need a big field (for safety reasons).
Maybe I'm not sure about how tech-savvy most people are, but when I get a text message from an unknown number claiming to be my provider asking me to click a web link to update my phone, I know something's up.
As someone who did computational modeling of water, this strikes me as kind of odd. The "hello world" of computational molecular dynamics is simulating water in different phases, phase changes, etc. (including the different ices). I'm interested to hear more, but incredulous.
I've actually heard this question asked a lot in a bunch of different forms, and (to me) it basically comes down to:
How do I use virtualization to provide additional security to processes?
The advantage of virtualization is that it provides a very strong statement of security (if a lesser statement of performance). On the other hand Jails/Containers (see LXC) have a strong statement of performance and a lesser statment of security.
For you, I'd recommend checking out Linux Containers, because it does provide more protection than just a process, but is faster and uses less resources than a whole VM.