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Woah! Step away for a few minutes and wow......... what a nice day.
This Grand Opening event should give uWink a great opportunity to show how their restaurant's wall projection images can be theme integrated with their customer, in this case the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
The uWink business model says that when food is ordered the games are free, but there is some cut off point at which time the customers get charged for the games if they do not continue to buy food / drinks. Do you know if there have been instances of this happening? If not, will this eventually be part of the beta testing? I wonder if the software is set up for this, how important this is (not important at all if everyone orders food for the duration of their stay), and if this function needs to be in place before either the grand opening or franchising. I'm thinking that maybe this function will not be needed at all!
Busted!
Yeah, working on the 1.85 wall now!
When I talked to Nolan, during my one visit, about shareholder dilution, he said something like "We want the maximum growth with the minimum diluation to sharesholders". A nice compact statement and music to my ears.
Looking around I found a bigger version of the picture: http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=292069956&size=o
Nolan in the middle.
uWink tagged pics found on Flickr. First one as of Nov 7, showing the new terminals at the bar. http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=uwink&s=rec
Do you eat with your hands? (lol). Edit, oops, yes for the big burgers!
I really think you should travel to the restaurant, you have so many questions! You do not seat yourself - the "digital map" is on two or three computer displays which face the receptionist(s) - a host will lead you to your table.
While there may be blinking lights to indicate service in the future, the system works fine without them and they were not operational when I was there - my impression is the idea is experimental and that the lights, if they do become operational, may be used for other purposes.
As for the finish of the screens, I thought the screens were nice looking. Also the "industrial look" is quite popular at Chipotles, a very successful growing burrito chain.
Just looked up Paul Dumais. I think he is an EXCELLENT person to have on board at uWink. From uWink:
Paul Dumais, CTO
Paul Dumais is a web pioneer and inventor. He was formerly Senior Software Engineer and Project Leader at Apple Computer, where, in their Interactive Marketing Group, he oversaw Apple's entire webcasting efforts and Web site development. Paul’s inventive solutions led to the first world-wide live webcast for the Grammy Awards. He has over 19 years as a Software Developer and Systems Architect, specializing in the integration of technology and entertainment. Mr. Dumais has played leadership and development roles in film distribution rights management and sales, content management systems, online communities, interactive TV, and multiplayer online gaming. As Director of Digital Operations at Intertainer, Mr. Dumais was responsible for network engineering and systems integration and designed the company’s platform for Video-on-Demand over IP networks. As the founder of Moose Factory, Paul has developed technology solutions for Comedy Central, Nike, Endeavor Agency, Filmbazaar, LegalZoom and Intermix, among others.
I mentioned that this was my first time there and asked would it be OK wander around and look at all the cool stuff for a while before being seated; so I can't give you any info on how a "regular" customer or party of people would be handled. That's how I met the programmers and other interesting people.
No I returned it.
At the reception desk you are asked for a name to be associated with card. For example when I was there I said "happy guy" (LOL), the receptionist entered the name and handed me the card, and that was it. At the reception area they have a digital map of the restaurant on the displays showing which tables are filled and which ones are free.
Try restaurant@uwink.com
Not massive barriers but considerable. Not just the terminals, but how they are placed on / in the tables. There are patents here regarding the way the terminals are recessed. The lighting. All of the projectons on the walls. These can be customized down to a table level or the whole restaurant for weddings, birthdays, corporate events. The interefaces will be published so that companies can program their own wall displays for their events. Going to do this at a taco bell?
1.30 by 1.50 funky spread.
How crowded or was it the franchising indications or both?
There was a small stage there with a green backdrop.
Media wise zip. Everything else already out there, just a matter of time..... and patience.
Well one person who told me the cam was CNBC last week also mentioned an upcoming Fortune article, I was keeping quiet on that for a credibiltiy test. Passed.
There were suggestion sheets / feedback forms at the reception / check in / check out area. Not going to type the whole sheet, but it does say:
We are very excited about our new entertainment dining concept and the uWink experience, and since we are doing something that no one else has ever done before, we are trying a lot of new things all the time.
We're working out the kinks.
We're adding features.
We're trying different things to see what people like better.
In fact, your opinion is important to us and we'd like you to tell us what you think.
- - - - -
The concept of "beta testing" is discussed: the diners being beta testers, and everyone gets a 10% discount during the beta test period. There is area to fill out comments.
Regarding having to swipe the card each time; in the upper right hand corner is the uWink logo and if you touch that an option comes up which enables you to swipe only once and then accumulate orders on your card. Hopefully that option will also appear under the "?" menu function in the left hand column of icons when the "?" become operational as touching the logo is not intuitive.
When I was there last week the multi-player gaming stations weren't operational and I was told that getting them operational was low priority, so now that they are operational is a sign of at least some progress.
I agree about the smaller tables, the screen is on one side, not head-on. Even though I was there by myself, I requested one of the larger tables so I could explore the screen extensively head on. A solution for the smaller tables may be to design them with angular edges and/or have the screen swivel or two screen at angles to one side with angular table edges.
Impressive PR from a distributor. If Staph Attack is really this effective, I would expect to see considerable demand from schools and hosipitals. I live with 20 miles of PURE Bioscience, plan to do some DD "soon".
Tulsa County Jail Reports End to Outbreaks of Resistant Staph With Adoption of New Disinfecting Product
Monday October 30, 9:24 am ET
Enviroguard Technologies Distributes Hard Surface Disinfectant That Kills MRSA
TULSA, Okla., Oct. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Enviroguard Technologies LLC, distributors of Staph Attack(TM), a new hard surface disinfectant containing PURE Bioscience's (OTC Bulletin Board: PURE - News) patented silver dihydrogen citrate, has announced the initial distribution of Staph Attack and reports from customers of substantial success with the surface disinfectant that kills resistant forms of staph. Tulsa County Jail reports that it has completely eliminated Staph infections, including MRSA, in its facilities and is seeing continued benefit from added convenience and cost savings following the adoption of Staph Attack.
Shipments of the disinfectant distributed by Enviroguard Technologies were sent to a variety of institutional customers including the Tulsa County Jail. The jail, with its 1700 cells and over 1500 inmates, has historically faced challenges with a resistant form of staph known as Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA). Prior to use of the new disinfectant, the facility experienced, on average, 12 cases of Staph infection every month.
According to Tulsa County Sheriff, Stanley Glanz, "We have been fighting Staph infections for some time now, and in our best efforts using previous products, we were unable to contain or stop the presence of MRSA. Since we started using Staph Attack two months ago, we have not had one new case of bacterial infection, including MRSA. The fact that Staph Attack is non-toxic and doesn't require the use of gloves or masks during application has been a great cost saving benefit and is far more convenient to use."
Enviroguard Technologies' CEO, D. Michael Sitton, added, "Resistant forms of Staph have become pervasive in our society and are impacting everything from prisons, to schools, to hospitals. For example, since the first reported episode of MRSA infection in the U.S. in 1968, the proportion of the bacteria causing infections in hospitalized patients has risen from 2% in 1974 to about 40% in 1997. Staph Attack is a safe and effective way for institutions to combat those kinds of growing numbers."
Staph Attack is the silver-based hard surface disinfectant created by PURE Bioscience and distributed by Enviroguard Technologies specifically for closed populations where resistant bacteria are becoming increasingly problematic, e.g. hospitals, prisons, schools, etc. Staph Attack carries EPA-registered claims against Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Vancomycin resistant Enterococcus faecium (VRE), while maintaining the Category IV lowest-toxicity EPA rating. It kills the potentially deadly bacteria in just two minutes time and does not require rinsing.
How does it work? Silver dihydrogen citrate (SDC), is an electrolytically generated source of stabilized ionic silver. In one of the mechanisms of action, the bacteria views the molecule as a food source, and once the organism consumes it, SDC destroys the bacteria by disabling proteins and halting its metabolic and reproductive functions. SDC is colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-caustic and formulates well with other compounds. As a platform technology, SDC is distinguished from competitors in the marketplace because of its superior efficacy, reduced toxicity and the inability of bacteria to form a resistance to it.
The uWink clip now comes up as a match at YouTube when searching for "uwink". The title, tags and hit count reflect the state of things as of this early this morning. Presumably within 24 hours this info will be updated in their index.
There are actual printed take out menus, I have one as a souvenir. Could scan it.... no! I must go now. BBQ Pork Sliders.... no gotta go.
Yes, that what's the programmer told me, but wasn't functioning ("coming soon" dialog box came up or something like that). There will also be a light on the top of the screen which will light up like the call button lights on airplanes.
LOL. One more thing. When I ordered desert, it was quickly brought out but then I realized I need a fork. So, no waiters.... what to do? So I went over to the programming section, and said there needs to be a "I need a fork" function on the screen (consider it done!), but in the meantime the programmer himself went to the kitchen and got me one, smiles all around. I think this place is so cool!
Patience! When you say "maybe NOLAN should get out there more and promote his latest venture and start announcing some franchises" - how much "more" can a human do when already working 24/7 on uWink! I get the impression that many things are in motion on many fronts, we just have to wait. As for franchises, one of the SEC filings said that uWink would take 3 to 6 months to hone down the operations of the first restaurant before they would start cookie cutting them. Will be offline until late today as I'm way behind some work.
(This message updated), thank you for the suggestion. I changed the keywords, added location information and changed the title to include "OTCBB UWNK" - comes up in bold letters at the top, nice! I too tried searching for the video via uWink and uwink and found no matches; now that eBay has bought YouTube perhaps the searching mechanism will be improved. Late yesterday I added to the description saying the wall projections looked much nicer than in the video, per Rawnoc's correct observation that the video does not do the place justice. The short clip's sound is pretty good though and helps convey the environment.
As for your feedback mentioning horroscopes, I think that aspect is overdone and in fact wish it was not constantly mentioned in the company's PRs; the games and other interactive functions received a lot more use; but if the company's usage logs show that they do get accessed a lot, then I stand corrected. Of one note I saw several families with very young children; some of the children were playing a game where you point to scrambled letters in the correct sequence to spell the word. I think their games will appeal to a wider range of people.
uWink YouTube. Tell me if this works.
I have posted some pictures. Going off-line for the remainder of the day.
http://www.custompuzzlecraft.com/uWink/uWink.html
There was no CNBC name personality there rather what appeared to be a very young crew, one person with a really larger shoulder mounted TV camera and other with a long mike boom, and maybe a third person. No CNBC markings. I was told by one person and confirmed by another that footage was being filmed to be used as background material for an interview segment to be shown some evening.
I remember now the name of the screen game I high scored in ... "TriElevator".
Here is a short video I shot at uWink I've uploaded to my puzzle website - I may still post some pictures but this communicates quite a bit. You may have to copy / paste the link into your brower to get a higher resolution version. http://www.custompuzzlecraft.com/uWink/uWink20061028.mov - it is a coincidence one of the staff ladies moved in synch with my camera, of course no one will believe me. If you look reallly carefully you can see one of the eye candy images begin to change via rotation just before being panned out of view.
The dark terminal in the foreground at the start of the video was not functioning. I think that was the only one except for the three so far at the bar which were still being readied.
At the time I made this short, available seating area was more like 80% full, not 50% I mentioned before, not counting an area in the back that was closed off.
Visited uWink this evening and stayed there about three hours.
I think the place is cool and I think it is going to work. Met Nolan, talked with one of the really enthusiastic programmers on site in the back area which is a programmer's den at the moment, and met their real estate guy.
I used the touch screens to order dinner (which was excellent by the way), drinks, desert. The screen ordering system really works, no hassle of trying to get someone's attention.
I played some of the games (put the high score up for one of the deck-of-cards oriented games, forget the name, elevator or something). The wall had about a dozen large projections of beautiful pictures, pulled in from the net. At the bar, they had a large ESPN projection and something else, vintage films I think. High tempo music in the background, not overly loud.
I'd say the place was about 50% occupied, quite a bit of noise and buzz. The staff is on a fast learning curve now that the restaurant is live; and certainly with the goal of developing a turnkey package for rapid expansion when the time is ready. The technology offers many possibilities. CNBC arrived and shot video and did background interviews. I took pictures and will be putting some of them on the web.
Excellent! If all goes well I'll have some pictures including the bar screens. Curious to see if the screens are touch only or if they have track balls and/or anything else for operating the games that may be on them. My guess is casino like touch screens. And, yes a drink for us UWNK investors!
Do they have terminals at the bar yet? FWIW I'm planning to pay a visit this weekend and would like to "click and drink" there, lol.
Nice find. Most interesting Bushnell answer to the interviewer was regarding one or two of his most favorite games that have been developed, but won't be released until the uWink store / franchise count is up to around 50-100 stores!
Royal Bank "Strong Buy" on UWNK - can you get a copy of the report?
As to the cocktail tables outside, any word on the ordering / re-ordering method to be set up there?