David Lidsky's Blog, page 343

Starbucks baristas and customers seek changes from new CEO

Niccol said he would share more details about possible changes on Starbucks’s earnings call on October 30.

Starbucks’s new CEO Brian Niccol has his work cut out for him.

SEC just hit four companies with big fines for downplaying the SolarWinds hack

Unisys, Avaya, Check Point, and Mimecast will each pay civil penalties to settle the agency’s charges that they downplayed the impacts of the hack through their respective public disclosures.

The Securities and Exchange Commission fined four companies on Tuesday with misleading investors about the impact the 2020 hack of SolarWinds had on their own systems.

Hurricane-ravaged Florida and North Carolina make changes to voting ahead of the election

In North Carolina, state officials have authorized different voting changes that will apply to the 25 counties that are under emergency orders because of the hurricane.

Polls opened in North Carolina on Oct. 17, 2024, as about 14,000 people in Asheville and surrounding areas remain without power in their homes following Hurricane Helene. In Florida, which started early voting in some counties on Oct. 21, about 400,000 residents are still without power after Hurricane Milton.

Boomerang CEOs are returning. Here’s why it’s a risky strategy

Executives who come back to the fold, known as ‘boomerang CEOs,’ may either be unable or unwilling to make necessary strategic changes when they return.

CVS Health last week named as CEO a tried-and-tested company veteran, the latest in a handful of firms this year that have turned to an experienced executive to take the helm, hoping to quell investor concerns amid economic uncertainty.

Why it’s so challenging to deploy AI on space missions

Mission Control CTO Michele Faragalli explains the difficulty of employing LLMs in space.

Everything is more difficult in space, and learning software is no exception. But the pressure to push AI into everything can’t be denied. 

Meet Capacities, the do-it-all productivity app taking on Notion

This app lets you take notes, organize info, plan out projects, and create documents—all in a way that’s winning over productivity power-users hungry for something that’s both familiar and new.

Here’s a tantalizing little paradox to chew over: One of the most interesting up-and-coming productivity apps is also one of the most immediately familiar-feeling—on the surface, at least.

McDonald’s E. Coli outbreak hits at least 10 states in ‘fast-moving’ CDC investigation: Symptoms, update, and what to know

The burger giant says it has pulled its popular Quarter Pounder from restaurants across a number of states as federal health officials move to confirm the source.

An E. coli outbreak has been linked to McDonald’s restaurants in the U.S. heartland, causing the fast-food chain to temporarily remove a classic from its menu. The company has pulled the popular Quarter Pounder from restaurants in Colorado, Kansas, Utah, and Wyoming, along with portions of eight other states.

What the heck happened at Netflix gaming?

Netflix just killed its ambitious video game studio before it even launched a single title—but it isn’t giving up on games yet.

Two years ago, Netflix turned heads in the gaming world. It hired former Overwatch leader Chacko Sonny to head a new game studio. The next year, former Halo exec Joseph Staten and God of War art director Rafael Grassetti joined Team Blue, Netflix’s top-tier video game studio, a signal that the streaming service could be preparing to go toe-to-toe with the video game industry’s biggest publishers

Denny’s will close 150 restaurants, cut hours and list of menu items as the 24/7 diner struggles

In an earnings call Tuesday, the chain’s CEO said 50 underperforming locations will shutter by the end of this year, while others will undergo a redesign program including renovations.

Denny’s, the U.S. chain known for its diner-style seating and round-the-clock hours is closing a hefty chunk of restaurants. Over the next year, 150 locations will close their doors. The restaurant chain will also reassess its uninterrupted hours.

Anthropic debuts AI agents that save coders extra keystrokes

Anthropic demonstrated a use case for the feature that entailed coding a basic website and another that used various programs, including Google Search and Apple Maps, to plan a sunrise outing.

Anthropic, a startup backed by Alphabet and Amazon.com, released a pair of updated artificial intelligence models on Tuesday, along with a new capability to autonomously perform computer tasks and save users keystrokes.