Road safety is a lofty ideal. And like any other lofty ideals, it seems quite impossible to be attained or experienced by local motorists and pedestrians, especially those who call the country's largest metropolis home.

In a way, road safety is like democracy. Everybody is talking about it. Everybody is saying he or she is for it all the way. And yet, nobody is doing anything to make it a reality.

We have plenty of rules designed to keep our streets safe. Some people say, in fact, that we have too many traffic rules. The problem is we do not follow those rules, and nobody implements them. At least, not consistently and fairly.

Along EDSA, for example, when late evening comes, there is almost always no traffic enforcers in sight. The end result? Bus drivers lose whatever tiny discipline they had during day time. Buses stop anywhere, and weave in and out of the yellow lane, posing risk to themselves, their passengers, and to other motorists.

And those heavy trucks zoom like midsize family sedans, though the road shudders from their weight so unlike when cars are passing by. Those monsters, most of them driven by maniacs, are a catastrophe waiting to happen.

Our government has been telling us that it has banned Filipinos from working in Afghanistan and Iraq, saying those places are not safe for our OFWs. That may be correct; those places may indeed be unsafe. But each night, when I commute from Makati to my home in Quezon City, I cannot help but feel that late-night EDSA is a much more dangerous place than those two unfortunate countries combined.

Bing Talking

Samsung's Intrepid mobile phone comes with a feature that allows its user to control Microsoft's Web search engine Bing by talking. The Tellme feature that comes built-in with the Samsung phone can convert spoken words into text messages.

This means that subscribers using the Intrepid phone can look for their favorite restaurant or drive-in hotel by simply telling the phone to go find it via Bing. Also, imagine sending text messages to your family and friends without the need for keying in those messages with your thumb, using your mobile phone's undersized keypad or keyboard.

OLED, Oh Wow

Japan's consumer electronics giant Sony has shown off several prototypes that come with organic light emitting diode (OLED) screens at the CEATEC Japan 2009 IT and electronics trade show in Tokyo. Only about 0.2mm thick, the bendable OLED is highlighted through a prototype Vaio notebook computer, a flexible ebook, and a Walkman bracelet.

The prototype devices are using OLED display systems that are transparent and flexible. With an almost unlimited viewing angle, OLED screens come with enhanced efficiency and faster response times. Best of all, they have very low energy requirements because they do not require backlighting.

That's all for the meantime, folks. Join me again next time as we keep on watching IT.