IanMikutel

I love how the review is pretty positive, but then the actual transaction on video took about 3-5x longer than if Greg had just handed the lady some cash and she gave him change.

This has definitely got a bit of a learning curve (for consumers and employees) and efficiency that must be gained before it really hits its stride.

Looking forward to seeing the technology progress though!

I bet Google knows about this and its when they do bug triage its so low priority that it just hasn't been fixed yet.

RSVP'd and really looking forward to it!

If anyone is working on interesting projects and would like to connect prior to the meetup, my email's in my profile. Let's chat!

"The touch-screen platform will be implemented in around 7,000 McDonald's restaurants in the United Kingdom, according to reports, in an effort to improve efficiency and speed up customer service times."

Here's an idea: create a Chipotle-style ordering app. You'll improve efficiency, speed up customer service times, cheaper capital investment than buying all those touchscreen kiosks, still get the benefit of looking technologically savvy, increase your brand recognition by getting your logo on millions of phones, and most of all, keep all those cashiers employed and contributing to the economic growth of Europe--a win-win for the long term health of McDonald's and their shareholders.

Love what Optimizely is doing, keep up the great works guys! I think the A/B testing market is one that'll keep growing for a long time, and tools that make it easier to do will be the catalyst.

So does Kevin Rose: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLyFUyZJ5ek&feature=youtu...

"P.V.T. is tedious but simple if you’ve been sleeping well. It measures the sustained attention that is vital for pilots, truck drivers, astronauts. Attention is also key for focusing during long meetings; for reading a paragraph just once."

I can't say how true that is when you're doing a ton of email all day or research, and its more a function of the sum total of small delays in re-reading that build up over the course of an entire day. Contrasted with a day when your mind is so clear that you require no re-reading, it feels like you are so much more productive.

Additional sleep links:

1. Sleep: How to hack your brain (http://www.dustincurtis.com/sleep.html)

2. The 4-Hour Body: Engineering better sleep (http://techcocktail.com/book-preview-the-4-hour-body-enginee...)

Link: http://siliconmilkroundabout.com/

And its in London, so unfortunately no.

I'd say you may want to look into a celebrity endorsement or partnership with the likes of someone such as Jimmy Fallon who has a strong tech following (e.g. he and his writers create fun worldwide trending Twitter topics each week) and also is a comedian who can bring the type of brand recognition to your app that might set it apart form others and introduce it to folks who may never find it otherwise. Admittedly, he already has his own "Late Night" app http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/late-night/id399052778?mt=8) but there are plenty of big name comedians who are likely looking to get into the social/mobile space and you could provide them an avenue to do so.

I think bringing this sort of transparency to a startup could be really interesting, especially to the HN community. Go for it! Even if it ends up failing miserably, it'll be a useful case study into what transparency can do/not do for a startup.

On another note, I remember Kevin Rose saying how he always wanted to put up live web cams at the Digg offices back in the day and basically let the community watch Digg being made. It would be really cool if you guys setup a calendar with your meetings, made it public, and live streamed those with a chat room where the HN community (or anyone else) could literally take part in the discussion and lend a helping hand to the startups creation.

I live across the street from a Trader Joe's and prior to that lived near the headquarters of the highly regarded Wegman's grocery store chain that has been named one of the ‘100 Best Companies to Work For’ by Fortune magazine for something insane like 14 consecutive years.

The contrast between the two is STARK. Trader Joe's wins hands down.

Both stores built up a great consumer brand, known for their service, but how they did it mattered.

I had close friends at Wegman's who literally hated going to work because customers walk all over the employees. Whereas at TJ's, you feel like the employees are actually your helpful friends--people you'd never take advantage of but can always count on. Big difference.

The real question: Bin Laden's courier...Outlook, Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail, AOL, Lotus Notes, or Thunderbird?

Techmeme - Great for the current tech news pulse and multiple sources gives balanced coverage w/ multiple viewpoints on any news topic at the moment.

Real books - a novel idea, I know.

Beautifully designed, but don't see the point.

1. Your friends have to install it too or else it spams their FB wall. 2. If your friend does have it, it appears to only send a desktop notification. At that point, why not just IM it to them, so if they have anything to say about it, they have you in a window, ready to go?

1. Digg is still a place for finding crowd sourced news. It simply is recognizing user demand seen across the web for social features and adding that into its product.

2. You say you get enough sharing on Facebook, etc. but what's funny is every time a new sharing/social site launches, over time, we've all grown to begin using it anyway. First we had Delicious (2003), then we added Facebook (2004), then we added Twitter (2006), then we added Google Buzz (2010). Clearly folks ARENT getting enough of it on any one of those sites, since each site has been able to build sufficient user bases. The Internet's a huge world, and different products will appeal to different groups; many can survive. Besides, if we only had one platform, all the privacy folks would be up in arms (as they get from time to time about Google or more recently Facebook) that X company controls too much of our information. Ultimately, competition/multiple platforms is a good thing. Digg entering this space only adds to that.

3. You can still type in Digg.com and see what the "world" finds interesting, however now you'll get to see what your friends/followers/"tastemakers" find interesting too. Think of it as a USA Today adding a "local" section.

4. At first, I agreed with your point that v4 does not appear to show a solution to Digg's lowest common denominator problem. However, upon further thought, it does. Digg has given the power to the user. During the "onboarding process" you select who you follow, friend, etc. and decide what your stream of "My News" will look like. Follow all brilliant people and you'll get interesting, valuable content. Follow idiots and you'll get great funny pictures of cats. Follow a mix and you'll get both.

5. Ultimately I can see myself using the new Digg, but it will take time to see how it fits into my arsenal of social websites. If it doesn't do enough to differentiate itself, it'll go by the wayside. However, as history has shown us, we seem to have no problem adding another site to the mix.