That wasn't my assertion. My assertion was simply that in spite of the ability of modern planes to fly themselves we still expect and demand a human to keep an eye on things, for a variety of reasons. Malfunction response but is one of them.

Personally, I don't wish to share my roadways with completely autonomous vehicles, particularly when I'm out walking or running on said roadways, without the benefit of airbags and crumble zones. It would be awesome if technology would advance to the point that human failures (I'm looking at you, asshole who texts while driving) could be mitigated. That's the really encouraging part of these technological advances, IMHO at least.

They were never "obsolete", at least as the term is commonly used. During WW2 they were useful for all manner of things, from escort duty to shore bombardment, and the only reason you didn't see the envisioned clash of battleships in the Pacific is because Halsey blundered at Leyte Gulf and took the battleline with him in pursuit of Ozawa. If he had left Task Force 34 behind, as he should have, it would have been American battleships and cruisers clashing with the Center Force, rather than escort carriers and destroyers.

As it happened, the Allied battleships performed their envisioned missions with distinction, and even a single German battleship (Tirpitz) was taken seriously enough to tie down most of the Royal Navy's battleships until she was put out of action. It was actually pretty damned hard to sink a battleship with aircraft, even under favorable conditions, as evidenced by Tirpitz, Yamato, and Musashi. To my knowledge there was only one Allied battleship lost at sea to aircraft, HMS Prince of Wales. American battleships were damaged by aircraft at sea, but never sunk or even put out of action.

Oh Gawd, they'll be licensed like Windows:

"Car, please plot a course to Milwaukee and engage."

"I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that. Automotive Pro is limited to trips of 500 kilometers or less. Please enter your Automotive Ultimate license code."

Thus guaranteeing that it never happens, at least in the litigious society known as the United States of America.

Aerospace is held to a far higher standard than automotive ever will be, with modern planes able to fly themselves from takeoff to landing, but we still expect qualified pilots to sit in the front seat and keep an eye on things. An autonomous automobile may well have more variables to contend with than an airliners autopilot. Children don't tend to dart out in front of airliners, the physics of air travel don't change drastically with weather conditions, and airplanes are built with more redundancy than automobiles.

Even if you can account for such things, how will your autonomous vehicle handle malfunctioning sensors? Aerospace has been working at this for decades and still hasn't figured it all out.

How many parsecs does it take to travel that distance?

Biology doesn't have exclusive claim to the noun evolution:

"a process of change in a certain direction"
"a process of continuous change from a lower, simpler, or worse to a higher, more complex, or better state"

The QuNexus also has control voltage outputs for directly triggering analog/modular gear.

That is great news. I've got a room full of old modular synths, like a Serge suitcase model and an early Arp.2600. Not to mention a Steiner-Parker that looks like it should have a 1930's phone operator sitting at it.

I've built some home-brew triggering controllers, but none of them are anywhere near as good as what McMillan makes.

Tours (and for that matter, the Siege of Vienna) may have saved Western Civilization but Greece was the birthplace of it. We can never say how the Greek cities would have fared as Persian client states but it seems highly unlikely that history would have unfolded as it did if the Greeks hadn't retained their Independence. If you accept Greece as the cradle of Western Civilization then it follows that the Greco-Persian wars were decisive. In that instance it's just a matter of picking the turning point, and Salamis is the best contender. The better known battles of Marathon and Thermopylae weren't turning points, the former bought a ten year reprieve and the latter was a delaying action turned into noble and doomed last stand.

Salamis was also a naval engagement, which may lead to some bias on my part, though the West has traditionally excelled at sea, so..... :)

... year over year grew by over 21.6%.

Blackberry declined. I can read. You anti MS zealots are something

The Iconians did. ;)

I would mod you up if I could.

I am not a metro lover at all.

But Windows 10 is a big improvement. THe larger question is why should I leave 7? I hate the newer icons as they are all going 8 color is my only compliant so far. Give me a Windows 7 theme and I am happy as I spent my XP years with the Windows 2000 theme as I never could get used to that blue fisher price color set. It still took off.

Have you seen the Windows 10 beta at all?

These apps run on the desktop just like win32 ones. Metro didn't take off because no one used it as they clicked on the desktop tile and stayed there. Also 8 has a small 10% ish marketshare right now. That won't stay forever as Windows 7 in just a few years will go the way of XP with EOL. You will eventually use it at work in time and so will everyone else.

If the apps exist people will use it.

If depends on how you define "massive"; Salamis had more ships than Leyte Gulf and was significantly more important to Western history. In fact, it was arguably the most important battle in Western history, but that's a different discussion. :)

Leyte Gulf usually wins the biggest title on the basis of personnel involved and sheer geographical scope, neither of which have a historical analogue.

This is commonly repeated but it's a false assertion. The Two-Ocean Navy Act was passed in 1940 and explicitly recognized the ascendancy of the aircraft carrier.