Snap judgements can sometimes be wrong - but just how safe is sign language while driving...?

Sitting at a red light in my car yesterday, I noticed a car pull up next to me and stop.
Specifically, out of the corner of my eye I could see how the driver appeared to be gesticulating wildly with his hands.
In today's stressed world of Johannesburg driving, it's really easy to assume that wild driver gesticulations equate to an angry driver.

How idiotic did I feel when I took a proper second look at the guy - he was actually using sign language to communicate to a passenger in the vehicle!

Straight away it hit me, how my snap judgement had totally mis-read the situation...

The next thing that then occurred to me, was the safety factor involved here.
I have no way of knowing if the driver or passenger was hearing impaired in this situation, but it must be noted, that after the light turned green, there were several sharp steering corrections in the (straight) trajectory of the vehicle in question.

Just how does a person who is at the wheel of a car, stay in proper control of the vehicle, while communicating with someone by using both hands instead of speech?
It's a topic that I am going to touch on in one of my next blog posts soon.

Your thoughts?

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You gotta love Telkom...

Here in South Africa, we are truly blessed to have a company called Telkom controlling all things ADSL... ;)
If you want ADSL for your home / office, well you need a landline to start with, and the only guys who provide that are... yup - Telkom!

Sure you can always opt for Neotel, who at launch, were supposed to be the official competitors to Telkom, but their service is wireless and does not rely on a physical copper cable in the ground, hence it is not ADSL and does not quite match up in terms of speed and stability.

Dealing with Telkom though, as many locals will testify, can be somewhat trying at times.
Take for example, this priceless screenshot of a failed ADSL self-installation...

Success!!! You failed!!!

Nuff sed... :)

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GMail gets even clevererererer-er...

Google are always sneaking nifty new features into their products, and GMail is certainly no exception.
Just a few minutes ago, one of my colleagues made the common mistake of trying to send a message in GMail, while forgetting to attach anything to it.
When she hit "Send", this is what GMail told her...:

Sneaky sneaky Google!
Pretty amazing, but it also shows you just how GMail scans text within the body of your email, in order to determine if an attachment should possibly be present.
Big Brother is watching you...! :)

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Has the fuel workers strike in South Africa changed the way you drive...?

The past 2 weeks have been an interesting time for motorists on South African roads.
Fuel supplies at most petrol stations have been stretched to breaking point and beyond, with a kind of petrol panic setting in as cars, motorbikes and trucks all started to run dry last week. (for my readers from the USA: petrol = "gas" :)

I won't harp on about the strike though - the news is bludgeoning this topic to death as it is.
What I am on about here though, is how the shortage of fuel has affected the driving style of motorists on our roads.

I for one, have become a driving Saint overnight... if there is such a thing.
Geez... I am coasting in neutral on downhills, keeping my revs down in every gear and generally driving like a granny (no offence intended Grannies... ;)

I see though that petrol stations are slowly starting to get their supplies up again - perhaps the panic phase has now passed.
In a way it's a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy kind of thing going on - a strike happens, shortages are predicted, everyone starts going crazy which depletes the petrol stations more than normal, and voila... you have a shortage.

Do you find yourself driving differently now that the fuel strike is on the go...?

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If Apple started an Overeaters Anonymous group, what would they call it...?

Apple have a distinct fondness of the letter "i".
The letter "i" appears in most of their products, as the first letter of the product name, e.g. iPod, iPad, iMac, iCloud etc. - you know the drill by now!

So then, if Apple were to start their own Overeaters Anonymous group, surely it would require a name in keeping with Apple tradition...? Would they perhaps call it... "iBurst"? :)

...and if so, who would be suing who? ;)

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