News for Nerds

By Scott Smith in News on Oct 25, 2006 6:19PM

For those of you who, like Chicagoist, are fans of anything that plugs into the wall (Lamps! Woo!), here are a few Chicago-related technology stories we saw this morning.

• McDonald’s CEO Jim Skinner told attendees of a technology consumer forum at the Palmer House Hilton that the company is trying to make its restaurants more interactive. We thought walking up the counter prior to ordering, receiving and consuming food was pretty interactive already. In fact, some of the proposals sound like they’d make the Mickey D’s experience less interactive with self-service kiosks and handled ordering devices. Skinner also says McDonald’s is also creating its own podcasts and is ready to launch its new ad campaign centered around consumers who sent in videos that said they were lovin’ it.
• Electronic Arts, the video game company personally responsible for 359 hours of lost productivity in the Chicagoist offices thanks to "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" for Xbox, is moving from the ‘burbs to the city with new offices at 215 W. Ohio. Maybe they can hang with the guys from Google. The Chicago office currently employs 100 people and plans to hire 150 more. Note to EA: we have updated resumes available. Just sayin’.
• Chicago has migrated several systems from Solaris-based servers to those running Red Hat, in a move that press releases say has already saved the city $250,000. Chicago’s vehicle registration system is currently running Red Hat and is able to process 300% more vehicle registrations than under the old servers. Unfortunately, you are still 100% likely to wish for the sweet release of death if you get stuck spending your lunch hour waiting in line at the DMV.