Rosh Hashana

The start of the year 5766 is hours away. Shana tova to my Jewish friends (and anyone else who wants to join in).

Rosh Hashana celebrates the creation of the world (and some other things). Yom Kippur is when we try to make things right with God so we can get a fresh start. God won't forgive us for sins against other people until we've made things right with them, so if I have done something to hurt you, please tell me. I can't promise that I will be able to fix it, but I do promise that I will try. Comments are screened (though feel free to use email instead).

form versus function

On my way home tonight someone backed into my cursed car. I'm fine, and damage is minor -- might be non-existent, but I'll have to scrub the area to be sure there are no scratches and I don't have time to fuss with that right now. I have the guy's information and I told him it would be a couple days before he hears from me.

The only reason I'm writing about this at all is to comment on a user-interface decision by VW.

The biggest, most visible thing on the face of my steering wheel is the VW logo. I know, without thinking about it, that that's not the horn. The second most visible thing is a raised area that, on closer inspection, says "airbag" in non-obvious lettering. Elsewhere and barely visible -- a mere blip in the molding, with no contrast at all -- is a little "horn" icon.

I knew all that in theory, but it's possible that under the gun I might have been able to get the guy's attention before he hit me -- if I hadn't been pounding on the airbag thingie.

For people who use their horns all the time, this wouldn't happen. But I'm very moderate when it come to that, and I just haven't internalized the "the thing that looks like a button isn't" rule. I wonder if the people who designed this are the sorts who use their horns liberally (and so have adapted to the interface), or if they just didn't think about it.