Don't know about you, but I find "Digital Drive Car of the Year" a little hard to parse, grammatically speaking. After all, have you ever owned a digital drive car? I didn't think so.

That said, it's an interesting award. The folks who created it -- the bloggers at TECHNORIDE -- start from the premise that technology, not performance or upholstery, is the key differentiator in today's auto market. No arguments there. Also, they seem to prefer models that deliver the best technology bang for the buck, as well as the best driving experience. Good, that.

Top honors this year went to the Acura TL, which uses the QNX-based HandsFreeLink system. True to its name, this system allows drivers to make handsfree calls, using Bluetooth and voice recognition technology...

- 50 things every geek should know

- 50 things everyone else should know

- 50 things you can do once you realize you'll never be the next Pete Sampras or Serena Williams

- 50 millimeters your camera should get to know better

Any nifty 50s you'd like to share?

- Who says you can't bike to work in January?

- Who says you can't use your car as a snowplow?

- And who says you need winter tires?

Hey, do you remember Open Look? It was the GUI specification used by QNX Windows, a windowing system for versions 2 to 4 of the QNX RTOS. Open Look had a clean, simple appearance based on the philosophy that the application, not the windowing system, should hold the user's attention. Gaudy, it wasn't.

QNX Windows appeared on the scene in 1990, back when most desktop PCs still used DOS. Amazingly, it could run on 16-bit 286 machines with 2MB of RAM — and, remember, we're talking about a true windowing system here, not a simple graphics library. Developers used QNX Windows for a variety of mission-critical applications, including mail-sorting machines for the US Postal Service and a statistical process control system for a Motorola semiconductor fab.

The QNX Windows file manager, circa 1990.

So why am I mentioning all this? Because, while other RTOS vendors offer programming interfaces, they provide little in the way of user interfaces -- unless you count the command-line prompt. QNX, in comparison, has been at the forefront of embedded HMIs for as long as I can remember...