Here are my questions:
Can .htaccess configure any server settings, such as allowing subdomains (*.site.com)?
How can I use .htaccess to remove the / after directories in the address bar? For instance, if I have a file called index.php in the directory /dir, and I want to use variables set in the query string (like /dir?page=...), how would I get it to stop changing the url to /dir/?page=...? If I am not being clear, please explain what you don't understand. To put it a different way, how do I get it to NOT add a / after directories when I am using a variable definition in the URL, where the variable would be defining something in index.php and I want to leave /index.php out of the URL? I need to do this with .htaccess if possible.
No on both questions.
If you don't want visible arguments passed to scripts, use cookies, sessions or POST.