danielle17

I am pretty sure they stopped doing that when trans-fat became really unpopular, and it also might have to do with making their fries edible to people who keep kosher, vegetarians, etc. -- that's the tough thing about literally serving billions of people

I worked at McDonalds long ago, and I am a huge fan. If you are interested in understanding why they are so incredible, make sure to read "Grinding It Out" which is the story of McDonalds told by Ray Croc, who turned a small local store into one of the greatest franchises the world has ever known. He was in his mid-50s when he stated, and the whole thing is just inspiring for entrepreneurs no matter how many time you might have failed before. But I digress...

The thing about working at McDonalds is that you learn exactly what everything tastes like - and you notice all the little changes. For example, the difference in quality between a quarter pound patty used in the quarter pounder and double quarter pounder, and a "10" (1/10 pound) patty used in the regular cheeseburger and double-cheeseburger. I have eaten everything on the McDonalds menu, and can tell you what the most disgustingly unhealthy thing by caloric density is (not the fries!).

So, the most important factor we noticed about the french fries was how old the fry grease was. Each night 1 of three things happen to the fry grease:'

1) it is skimmed for any remnants of fries and left to simmer at a low warm temperature for the next day

2) it is run through a cleaning machine (2-3 times per week)

3) it is completely replaced by a technician (every 1 or 2 weeks depending on time of year)

New grease is very clear, like fresh motor oil you put into your car. As the grease gets older turns more and more golden brown as it gets more carbon in it from little bits of fries that break off and burn in the hot oil and disintegrate. Eventually, right before it is replaced, the grease is very brown and the fries will actually come out with tiny brownish bits on them. Some people really liked the "dirty grease fries" but the majority of staff knew when the best french fries were made - when the grease was about 4 days old, right after the first cleaning. I can't tell you exactly why, but these fries were the yummiest to the point where I would only eat them at this point (gotta stay thin somehow working there!) and crew members would bring in their kids on that day to eat.

Its also important to know that fries are never ever cooked in the same grease used for chicken nuggets, fish filets, etc. I'd be curious to know what that tastes like if anyone has every broken the rules and tried it, but that was a religious issue at the McDonalds locations I worked at so we never did.

Anyway, if you're curious and have a regular McDonalds you can always ask them when the last time the grease was cleaned or changed.

I am so excited to try out f.lux, I have been working towards a wake up time of 5am PST (that way I am awake as business gets started on the East Coast) but have hit a roadblock at getting up before 7am.

I currently get a ton of natural light in the morning, plus I have a light box I turn on for 30 minutes while I drink my coffee and do my first work of the day. By 9amm, I'm usually out he door for my walk to work in the sunshine - which is when I think my body really wakes up. I bet if I went for a walk to get a cup of coffee at 7am instead I'd get the benefit and reset my circadian rhythm earlier.

But falling asleep is the main problem for me actually, I try to go to bed by 11:30pm but I find I am still not able to dose off until around 1am (which used to be my normal bed time), so what ends up happening is that over the course of the week I become mildly sleep deprived. I notice this less of an issue on the weekends, and after reading this post I think this is probably because I don't end my day with my laptop/iPad in bed.

Anyone know if there is something like f.lux for the iPad? Guessing not, since it would need to run in the background...

Thanks for the useful post

a publicity stunt isn't a bad thing, TechCrunch gives a lot of smart people building cool stuff exposure and this is free marketing for them. What's wrong with that?

We've been liveblogging the hacks that use Twilio, and there are videos of each of them here: http://blog.twilio.com/2010/05/live-from-the-techcrunch-disr...

haha if you had read our dry bios before you would have been bored out of your mind (or just stopped reading probably) - hopefully a bit of our personalities come out

re: telecommuting from S. America.. the only role open to telecommuting is the Developer Evangelist and it is 50% travel to developer communities in the U.S. -- for now. But when we're ready to address the Brazilian dev community (and others) I could see that working. I'm the hiring manager for that position, so if you're really interested you can email me at danielle@twilio.com

Yeah I agree, case in point is that I never find myself watching stupid reality TV shows anymore.

I was a long time Windows Media Center user while my husband was at Microsoft, and it was great - we used our Xbox to run it. That was even before things like Netflix on demand (and before I discovered Apple products). I think the idea is that you stil want to get the viewing experience of a big beautiful TV screen with surround sound for watching movies - and since more and more of the good content I want to watch is on the web, I need to find a way to get it to my TV.

I think people are still discovering how much good "TV" isn't actually on TV anymore.

I wonder if he collected enough money to offset the cost of the hand sanitizer and go ramen profitable on that sign

Bring on the computer science barbie (barf)

I'd be more interested to see how cultural encouragement of women to be anti-intellectual is tied to their disinterest in computer science. Not to mention that this stereotypical work environment description is NOT what I've encountered (for the most part) as a woman who is surrounded by "nerds" all the time (married to one, startup employee)

Twilio, the cloud communications company, is hiring!

We're a venture-backed startup located in downtown San Francisco, and all roles are for in our SF office, except for our developer evangelist. This is great timing, because we just launched our jobs page: http://www.twilio.com/company/jobs

We're a quirky group, but if working on mission critical communications technology delivered in self-service pay-as-you-go style sounds good to you, please drop us a note or just drop by the office to say hi.

maybe I can show it off for you? There are going to be more of these events soon too

woot, I'll be there - so happy this came together!

still down at 2:57pm PST

Don't they already have a huge app store for Windows Mobile that no one uses? http://marketplace.windowsphone.com/Default.aspx

Eek yes, 1 msg per second per number... I think it's time for me to go to bed.

danielle (@twilio)

To be clear, the throttle is 1 message per minute per phone number (which is $1/month), not per account.

-danielle (@twilio)

haha I think someone posted a clever comment like this the last time this story surfaced on HN, too. Mabye whoever is downmodding this wrote the first one? ;)

thank you, will definitely use next time

Some other features I think would be good to add: * a pin code, so that no just anyone who calls into the number can use it * a way to add new people to the calling list from the IVR menu * a way to check rates and spending from the IVR menu * a way to gift other people with custom calling cards (a viral feature) * a web based dashboard of minutes/spend

and how do make a bullet list on HN?

As head of their marketing department, thanks for all the positive comments. I was pleasantly surprised to find this on Hacker News tonight, I hope it helps some folks set up inexpensive international calling

Danielle @ Twilio

I'm the 1st non founding employee at Twilio, Kevin (my husband) and I have turned our lives upside down so I can work on this startup, and it's really all I think about. I read Hacker News every day and post about the best of what can I bring to the table - which is the Twilio service and the apps our developer community creates.

The community here at Hacker News is VERY efficient at voting down crappy submissions, so I trust that if I am a spammer posting useless content it will be relegated to the trash heap right away.

I've updated my profile as you suggested, and I'm working on recovering the password for "dmor". Seeing as you needed to create a new account to make your point (aka "trolling") you might consider taking your own advice.