MotoringFile bandwidth

This is always bad, but strangely not-so-bad, when it happens:

It’s bad bad bad because no-one can view the site … but of course it only happens because the site is popular! Luckily, GBMINI will never suffer this fate 😉
(thanks, RB, for making sure I noticed!)

Hopefully DB, Gabe, etc will soon have MotoringFile up and running again; I wonder if it was triggered by all the MINI E coverage …

Do we need road rules?

I came across a fascinating experiment going on “back home”, today – see this Times article:
Drivers no longer have the right of way on the ring road in Ashford, Kent, and have to negotiate their way across junctions, with no signs or lines to guide them. All road users, whether travelling on foot, by bicycle, car or bus, have equal priority and must use eye contact to decide who goes first.

The theory is that lights lull people into a false sense of security, meaning that they pay less attention on a green light and fail to notice someone stepping off the pavement.

Four sets of lights have been removed from Ashford’s ring road. The road surface has been relaid with red and grey bricks in a herringbone pattern to remind drivers that they are not on a conventional street. Pedestrians can cross the road wherever and whenever they choose, without waiting for a gap in the traffic … Kent County Council has spent more than £13 million [$20+ million] turning a three-lane fast-moving one-way system into a two-way road where the pavement is twice as wide as the carriageway …

A VERY expensive experiment, if it doesn’t work!

(some of the related comments are interesting, too)

Talk to Google

It’s out … amazing what two enormous companies can do, isn’t it?!
The Google search app for iPhone has just been updated, so now you can speak your searches – I tried it with “GPMINI” and it worked perfectly first time (see below) – and it’s really neat not to have to press any “speak now” button first … Of course when I tried it a second time to get the screenshot, it took about 10 attempts before it heard me correctly again!


Right now, ignore that the App Store thinks there’s no update, and ignore that iTunes says the current version is v0.1; just click “get app” inside iTunes and you’ll get it!