I have to admit, I love McDonald’s but over the years, I have seen several changes that just don’t make sense. The very business model/ concept (i.e. that it is fast food and cheap) that made them successful during the yesteryears is now thrown out the window . At present, it is far from fast and not at all cheap! One has to wonder why they are detracting from that proven business concept.

I am baffled how I can actually eat at Pizza Hut or another restaurant for a cheaper price than I can order a meal for two at McDonald’s. It cost me about $18 the last time I went to get a meal for both of us there and I wasn’t even full (compared with Pizza Hut costing about $12 for a supreme pizza, salad, 2 drinks with unlimited refills and 8 breadsticks).

Some of the changes I question:

• Gone are the premade burgers, nuggets, fries and other foods - now it is all made to order.
  Why do they even do that?… putting it under a hot/ warm light (as they did in the past) and separating each item in specific product trays would just be equally as good. It is not as if we are getting hot burgers now — I don’t see the difference from then till now… the burgers are equally as flat, fries are equally as soggy, temperature of the food is still the same. So what’s the point of the made to order concept? It just wastes serving time.
• They are cutting down on cashiers and doing the “taking 3-4 orders at the same time per cashier” concept. Not sure the reasoning behind that one. This may be one of those brilliant ideas they got from an expensive hired consultant but in reality, it doesn’t work… it takes more time for one cashier to fulfill 3-4 orders at the same time then it is to have one cashier do one at a time. Also, the amount of messed up orders & mistakes increases. I have noticed that the cashiers have trouble juggling orders and they tend to wait for one order to be fulfilled (and to do one at a time) than doing them all at the same time — which defeats the whole purpose of the new ordering process.
• They have tried (and done away with) the ordering procedure of having one person ring up the order and multiple people fulfilling it. I believe that this one worked better than the ordering procedure of “taking 3-4 orders at the same time per cashier”. It works very well at Wendy’s.
• Why bring back the boxed burger (for the quarter pounders and big macs) when wrapping it up is cheaper? Spend your costs on other things like improving productivity, the ordering system and maybe hiring more staff.
• Why reduce the size of your fruit and walnut salad and deserts while not reducing the price by substantial amounts or price it in proportion to the amount given. Are you trying to pull a fast one on us and think we won’t notice?

With McDonald’s being a franchise, I am not sure how much the head office governs its individual franchisees with its business process and operations. But they better get their act straight; you can only live on your name for so long. When people start to get sick of the increasing prices, bad service and incompetent staff… they are just going to take their money elsewhere regardless of the fancy sponsorships, happy meals or promotional offers you do.

As reported by The Register, the open source community is in a state of shock at the news that Microsoft has acquired Firefox and released a Microsoft version of the popular browser Firefox. The audacious move, which pretty well guarantees Redmond control of the entire browser market, will be received with dismay among those who previously believed that the might of Bill Gates’ checkbook could, and should, be resisted.

Click here to go to the Official Microsoft Firefox page.

(Source: The Register)

Amazon.com is doing something called “Amazon Customers Vote” — where there are “Four great products, Four ridiculous prices and Only one deal can win.”

You can help Vote and the winning deal goes on sale Thursday, November 23, at 11 a.m. PST. Voting closes Tuesday at 9 p.m. PST.

I voted for the Xbox 360, listed at $100 plus shipping and it is currently in the running to win. There are only a certain number a units of each that go for the low price. If the Xbox 360 goes for that price, I’ll buy it. (Yes, I am a cheap geek and it beats paying $9000 for a Playstation 3)

Through heavy criticism and controversy, Fox News Channel’s Shepard Smith has just said the network’s parent, News Corp., has cancelled publication of the O.J. Simpson book If I Did It and the related Fox TV special (supposedly to be aired on Nov 27 and 28). Good for them, at least they came to their senses — the sleazy low life shouldn’t be allowed to profit from this.

Mark your calendars, Spiderman 3 is out May 4th, 2007.

Here is the official two minute trailer. Enjoy!

Links:
Video Source - Ifilm
Spiderman 3 plot and character spoilers: Click here
The Official Spiderman 3 Site

I am a big fan of online polls, as you may have seen in previous posts. I believe it adds a level of interactivity to the person reading the post and allows me to find out your feelings/ opinions about something too.

I have been using pollhost.com for my poll service. It is a simple/ effective free service but what I don’t like about it is the fact that it redirects you away from my blog when you vote or want to see a result, it is ugly & can’t be customized, the poll can’t be changed once it is made and it also has a limitation of how many polls you can put online (15).

I have since found another free poll service that gives me everything Pollhost didn’t have and more — it is called Polldaddy.

Some of the excellent features and benefits:

• Once polls are made, it can be modified/ edited at anytime.
• A date can be specified to close the poll.
• You can customize the look of your poll to your hearts content (with CSS) or choose from 11 different skin styles.
• When you create a poll in your Polldaddy account, you will get some HTML code. You can paste this code into the HTML of your website or blog where you want your poll to appear. Any changes done on the poll through your Polldaddy login page will be updated automatically on your blog post.
• You can create a widget so that you only have to complete the above process once and insert polls automatically from the Polldaddy page e.g. like MisterLinky.
• It automatically generates a RSS feed for the specific poll so one can track its results.
• Once your poll is in place, every time a visitor uses your poll, the vote is processed asynchronously, so your website page does not need to reload and your user will not be redirected away from your website. It’s all javascript so those who can’t see flash or have flash blocked can still use it.
• No limitations on the number of polls you can make.
• There are no ads!

See an example of a poll I created below. I love the skin!

What a lazy Sunday it has been… watching Steelers vs. the Browns football (Browns being pathetic yet again!), tennis and Species II on TV simultaneously and dozing off in boredom in between. J’s at her parents for the weekend and I am home alone (with Miles to keep me company). I need these kind of days once in a while although I feel guilty as there is always something useful to do around the house — fix something, clean up my office etc. I did cook some nice potato harsh browns with Mexican style fried egg and spicy sausage earlier in the day which was mighty delicious.

Went for a checkup with a back specialist on Friday, my back has just been killing me the past week (more so than usual). He said that I might have to get checked for a rare form of rheumatic spinal disease called Ankylosing Spondylitis which causes inflammation of the joints in my lower spine. One of the glaring symptoms of it is fatigue and pain in the joints which I have definitely been having lately. Have to get a blood test next week to see whether I do have it. If not caught early, the inflammation can lead to complete cementing together of the vertebrae (or what is called Ankylosis) causing loss of mobility of the spine — Yikes! It is also a rheumatic disease that can affect other tissues throughout the body like the eyes, heart, lungs and kidneys. I’ll have to keep my fingers crossed so that I don’t have it. On the positive side, my back is not too bad now as I am drugged up with prescriptions.

I meant to watch the new James Bond movie this weekend but didn’t get down to it. Would be curious to hear comments on how good (or bad) it is from those who watched it.

Well, I think I’ll go back to my lazy Sunday again — not much time left in the day to be lazy but I might as well make the most of it. Have two DVDs from Blockbuster Online that I have yet to see: Accepted and Under the Tuscan Sun. May watch the comedy Accepted as it might cheer me up from being a little grumpy and moody today.

J comes back later tonight so that’s a good thing. Hope everyone’s weekend went well. Go Buckeyes!

Talk about ridiculous… a Playstation 3 was sold for $9000 yesterday! No, I am not making this up. This ebay listing had 44 bids and the winning bidder (named brainz11203) won the auction to pay $9000 plus $64.95 in shipping. All I can say is some people have to get a life — no gaming station is worth that much! For the guy selling it, good for you… you made a killing considering the game console cost you $184.78.

(Update: The receipt picture in the ebay listing says $184.78. I thought it was how much he paid for the PS3 but it is infact a presale order — sorry for that mistake. The actually game console costs $600 or so. Thanks to the watchlist for pointing this out)

A friend forwarded this to me — I just had to post it. It won’t be funny if it wasn’t so true!

Why do we press harder on a remote control when we know the batteries are getting weak?

Why do banks charge a fee on “insufficient funds” when they know there is not enough?

Why does someone believe you when you say there are four billion stars, but check when you say the paint is wet?

Why doesn’t glue stick to the bottle?

Why doesn’t Tarzan have a beard?

Why does Superman stop bullets with his chest, but ducks when you throw a revolver at him?

Why do Kamikaze pilots wear helmets?

Whose idea was it to put an “S” in the word “lisp”?

If people evolved from apes, why are there still apes?

Why is it that no matter what color bubble bath you use the bubbles are always white?

Is there ever a day that mattresses are not on sale?

Why do people constantly return to the refrigerator with hopes that something new to eat will have materialized?

Why do people keep running over a string a dozen times with their vacuum cleaner, then reach down, pick it up, examine it, then put it down to give the vacuum one more chance?

Why is it that no plastic bag will open from the end on your first try?

How do those dead bugs get into those enclosed light fixtures?

When we are in the supermarket and someone rams our ankle with a shopping cart then apologizes for doing so, why do we say, “It’s all right?” Well, it isn’t all right, so why don’t we say, “That hurt, you stupid idiot?”

Why is it that whenever you attempt to catch something that’s falling off the table you always manage to knock something else over?

In winter why do we try to keep the house as warm as it was in summer when we complained about the heat?

Sculptures out of paper … Prepare to be amazed at Peter Callesen’s one sheet paper sculpture cut outs and full scale paper mirage sculptures. His original website is located here. (Source: Thrilling wonder)

Golden Gate Bridge sponsorship … $87 million — that is how much the Golden Gate Bridge trust is in debt. The board is seriously considering corporate sponsorship of some kind to offset the debt. CNN made a good sketch of how funny it would sound and look if McDonald’s sponsored it as they could call it the real “The Golden Arches” with its yellow arch colors or if Gateway Computers sponsored it where it could be called “The Golden Gateway Bridge” with its black and white cow pattern. Sorry for the dry humor - couldn’t help it!

Michael Jackson … is he making a comeback? Well, it looks like he needs a little more practice with his singing as it was pitiful, crackly and shambolic when he tried to sing at the London’s World Music Awards on Wednesday. I saw him on the news… he looks pretty hideous! Plastic surgery gone too far… yikes!

A good reason to sleep … thanks to an article I found on Recommended, it is now scientifically proven that lack of sleep makes you fat. Perfect! I love the sound of that! Now I have a good reason to sleep more.

Gmail trick … This site allows you to do a specific trick in finding out what sites are responsible for a particular piece of email or if the spam you get is originating from the website you registered with. Unfortunately it only works with Gmail accounts. (Source: Clipmarks)

How much does our president and vice president get paid? … click here to find out. The site also shows the salaries of the federal legislative and judicial branches.

And finally, an inspirational quote to end the week … “no matter how absurd and seemingly out of reach your dreams are, what’s stopping you from achieving them”… just think of the cute Kiwi that wanted to fly! (see video below)

If you can’t see the video, click here.

(Source: Kiwi!)