Peek at a Big Game IT 'war room' -- at Domino's Pizza

Ground zero for the greatest single-day migration of pizza pies in history. (Click to enlarge.)

(Credit:
Domino's Pizza)

On Big Game day today, Domino's Pizza is planning to deliver millions of pizzas (it estimates that a total of 11 million slices will be delivered) and 2.5 million chicken wings. According to Domino's execs, the national game day gorge has become more than just a manner of beefing up on drivers, dough tossers, and yes, beef -- it's also quite an undertaking in the information technology department.

According to the Michigan-based company, a third of Domino's orders come though a digital channel these days, and of course even the analog orders run through the corporate network. In 2007, for the first time, Domino's saw the need to put together a game day "defense" team on Big Game day to sit in a conference room and keep an eye on all the information systems.

That first year it was four people making sure Americans got the fuel they needed for their calorie- and beer-filled annual rite of senselessly shouting at a screen. (For the record for all future judgmental-type anthropologists, I feel no shame over the tear I shed when John Elway made that helicopter dive toward the end zone on a fateful day in January of 1998.)

Six years, millions of pizzas, and one iPhone and
Android-powered smartphone revolution later, that team in a conference room in Ann Arbor now numbers more than 50 and the operation resembles something more like a NASA launch.

"It's all hands on deck," Lance Shinabarger, Domino's vice president for IT infrastructure and security tells me. "We have network operations, server administrators, network engineers, site reliability engineers, front-end developers, back-end developers, director of infrastructure, director of development, VP of global infrastructure, VP of online ordering development, VP of store operations, VP of POS development, CIO, and guest star appearances by both our CFO and CEO (all in the room)."

Just a few of the litany of items that the pizza mission control will be focusing on:

Hardware utilization (servers, firewalls, load balancer, routers, etc.)
Bandwidth utilization
Hardware failure
Application health
User experience degradation
Site response times
Security events
Social-media monitoring

Tradition holds that some of those highest-ups aren't actually there to bark out orders as chaos descends upon Domino's servers in the lead-up to kickoff. Last year the information system vice presidents and directors worked in the Domino's test kitchen making dozens of pizzas and wings for the crew.

Domino's representatives told me that preparation for this day actually begins as early as July or August. Load testing and other practice runs are just a few of the ways the team gets ready for a 300 percent spike in inbound traffic to the Domino's system just before kickoff. By the time most of those meals have been delivered, it starts all over again with another, smaller spike in orders at halftime.

"Normally you spread that order load over a four- or five-hour window, but during Super Bowl, it's those two peaks that you spend the entire year preparing for," Shinabarger explains.

The Big Game might not be over yet (although the season was over for me when the Broncos lost in the divisional playoff round), but I'm already prepared to vote for MVP the network engineer who helps enable the delivery of millions of pizza pies in a span of just a few hours.

In preparation for the Big Game, Domino's cooked up an oven-baked stadium. (Click to enlarge.)

(Credit:
Domino's Pizza )

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Bus hits overpass in Boston, injuring more than 30

Updated February 3, 2013, 7:30 AM ET

After a visit to Harvard University, dozens in a group of high school students and their adult chaperones were injured when their charter bus hit a bridge after police say the driver failed to heed low-clearance warning signs.

One person was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries and three with serious injuries, the Boston Emergency Medical Services said. Thirty-four people were injured in all, EMS said.

The Calvary Coach bus was carrying 42 people and was heading back to the Philadelphia area when it struck an overpass on Soldier's Field Road in Boston, a major crosstown road, at around 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Massachusetts State Police said. Some passengers were trapped for more than an hour as rescue crews worked to free them.

In this photo released by the Boston Fire Department via Twitter, firemen work to remove injured passengers from a bus that hit an bridge as it traveled along Soldiers Field Road in the Allston neighborhood of Boston Saturday night, Feb. 2, 2013.

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AP Photo/Boston Fire Department

Authorities said the bus did not belong on the road, where a 10-foot height limit is in place and over-sized vehicles are not authorized. State Police said the driver, whose name was not released, "failed to heed signs" warning of the height limit and will likely be cited for an over-height violation. The investigation will determine if he faces more serious charges, state police said. The driver was not injured.

Ray Talmedge, owner of the Philadelphia-based Calvary Coach Bus company, said Saturday night that his driver was being interviewed by police. Talmedge, who said he didn't know anything about the road restrictions, said the driver also drives a school bus.

CBS Station WBZ Boston reported that the bus company has an adequate record with the Department of Transportation.

The students were part of a Destined for a Dream Foundation group, Talmedge said. Officials with the Bristol, Pa.-based group, a nonprofit that helps underprivileged youth, refused to comment on the crash when reached by phone.

The group's Facebook page said the trip to Harvard was to "visit the campus, sit with the office of cultural advancement, followed by a tour of the campus ... followed by Harvard Square (shopping, eating, site seeing...etc...) This should be a fun time for all!"

None of those injured was identified, and state police said they did not know how many of the injured were adults and how many were juveniles.

The bus suffered significant damage in the crash. The front part of the roof was pushed in while the center section bowed downward. Photos posted on the Fire Department's website showed firefighters standing on the top of the bus using boards to extract people. The last victim was freed from the bus around 9 p.m., according to the department.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority sent buses to pick up other passengers and get them out of the frigid temperatures.

Soldiers Field Road curves along the Charles River and passes by Harvard and Boston University. It is a major roadway to the Massachusetts Turnpike. Soldiers Field remained closed while crews tried to remove the bus.

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Former SEAL Killed at Gun Range; Suspect Arrested

A man is under arrest in connection with the killing of two men at an Erath County, Texas, gun range, police said.

One of the victims is former Navy SEAL and "American Sniper" author Chris Kyle.

"We have lost more than we can replace. Chris was a patriot, a great father, and a true supporter of this country and its ideals. This is a tragedy for all of us. I send my deepest prayers and thoughts to his wife and two children," "American Sniper" co-author Scott McEwen said in a statement to ABC News.

ABC affiliate WFAA-TV in Dallas reported that Kyle and a neighbor of his were shot while helping a soldier who is recovering from post traumatic stress syndrome at a gun range in Glen Rose.

The suspect, identified as Eddie Routh, 25, was arrested in Lancaster, Texas, after a brief police chase, a Lancaster Police Department dispatcher told ABC News.

Routh was driving Kyle's truck at the time of his arrest and was held awaiting transfer to Texas Rangers, according to police.

AP Photo/The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Paul Moseley

Investigators told WFAA that Routh is a former Marine said to suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome.

Kyle, 39, served four tours in Iraq and was awarded two Silver Stars, five Bronze Stars with Valor, two Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals, and one Navy and Marine Corps Commendation.

From 1999 to 2009, Kyle recorded more than 150 sniper kills, the most in U.S. military history.

Travis Cox, the director of FITCO Cares, the non-profit foundation Kyle established, said Kyle's wife Taya and their children "lost a dedicated father and husband" and the country has lost a "lifelong patriot and an American hero."

"Chris Kyle was a hero for his courageous efforts protecting our country as a U.S. Navy SEAL during four tours of combat. Moreover, he was a hero for his efforts stateside when he helped develop the FITCO Cares Foundation. What began as a plea for help from Chris looking for in-home fitness equipment for his brothers- and sisters-in-arms struggling with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) became an organization that will carry that torch proudly in his honor," Cox said in a statement.

After leaving combat duty, became chief instructor training Naval Special Warfare Sniper and Counter-Sniper teams, and he authored the Naval Special Warfare Sniper Doctrine, the first Navy SEAL sniper manual. He left the Navy in 2009.

"American Sniper," which was published last year in 2012, became a New York Times best seller.

The fatal shooting comes after week filled with gun related incidents -- a teen who participated in inaugural festivities was shot to death in Chicago, a bus driver was fatally shot and 5-year-old was taken hostage in Alabama and a Texas prosecutor was gunned outside a courthouse.

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Syrian opposition chief under fire for talks with Assad allies

MUNICH (Reuters) - Syria's opposition leader flew back to his Cairo headquarters from Germany on Sunday to explain to skeptical allies his decision to talk with President Bashar al-Assad's main backers Russia and Iran, in hope of a breakthrough in the crisis.

The Russian and Iranian foreign ministers, and U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden, portrayed Syrian National Coalition leader Moaz Alkhatib's new willingness to talk with the Assad regime as a major step towards resolving the two-year-old war.

"If we want to stop the bloodshed we cannot continue putting the blame on one side or the other," Iran's Ali Akbar Salehi said on Sunday, welcoming Alkhatib's overtures and adding that he was ready to keep talking to the opposition. Iran is Assad's main military backer together with Russia.

"This is a very important step. Especially because the coalition was created on the basis of categorical rejection of any talks with the regime," Lavrov was quoted as saying on Sunday by Russia's Itar Tass news agency.

Russia has blocked three U.N. Security Council resolutions aimed at pushing Assad out or pressuring him to end a civil war in which more than 60,000 people have died. But Moscow has also tried to distance itself from Assad by saying it is not trying to prop him up and will not offer him asylum.

Syrian state media said Assad received a senior Iranian official and told him Syria could withstand "threats ... and aggression" like an air attack on a military base last week, which Damascus has blamed on Israel.

"USELESS" TALKING TO IRAN

Politicians from the United States, Europe and the Middle East at the Munich Security Conference praised Alkhatib's "courage". But the moderate Islamist preacher was likely to face sharp criticism from the exiled leadership back in Cairo.

Alkhatib has put his leadership on the line by saying he would be willing to talk to representatives of the Assad regime on condition they release 150,000 prisoners and issue passports to the tens of thousands of displaced people who have fled to neighboring countries but do not have documents.

"He has a created a political firestorm. Meeting the Iranian foreign minister was totally unnecessary because it is useless. Iran backs Assad to the hilt and he might as well have met with the Syrian foreign minister," said one of Alkhatib's colleagues on the 12-member politburo of the Syrian National Coalition.

Alkhatib, whose family are custodians of the Umayyad Mosque in the historic centre of Damascus, is seen as a bulwark against Salafist forces who are a main player in the armed opposition.

He was chosen as the head of the Coalition in Qatar last year, with crucial backing from the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Syrian opposition member, speaking on condition of anonymity, pointed to comments by Salehi and Lavrov on Sunday, a day after their meetings with Alkhatib, as evidence that they had not changed their positions and still backed Assad.

Salehi told the Munich conference where the round of talks took place that the solution was to hold elections in Syria - making no mention of Assad having to leave the country.

FIZZLE OUT?

Firm opposition backers like Qatar's Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani and U.S. Republican Senator John McCain voiced frustration in Munich at the international community's reluctance to intervene in the Syrian conflict.

"We consider the U.N. Security Council directly responsible for the continuing tragedy of the Syrian people, the thousands of lives that were lost, the blood that was spilled and is still flowing at the hands of the regime's forces," said al-Thani.

Moscow played down the significance of the discussions in Munich, with one diplomatic source calling the talks between Lavrov and Alkhatib "simply routine meetings".

"We have presented our views when Minister Lavrov meet Alkhatib, we have noted his comments that there is still a chance for dialogue with Syrian government. That is something we have called for," said the Russian source.

"To what extent is that realistic, that's a different matter and there are doubts about that," said the source.

One source in Khatib's delegation said the offer of dialogue would find an echo among Syrians opposed to Assad who have not taken up arms "and want to get rid of him with the minimum bloodshed".

Fawaz Tello, a veteran Syrian opposition campaigner based in Berlin, said Alkhatib had made "a calculated political manoeuvre to embarrass Assad".

"But it is an incomplete initiative and it will probably fizzle out," Tello told Reuters. "The Assad regime cannot implement any item in the series of initiatives we have seen lately because it would simply fall."

Russia and Iran were already beginning to use Alkhatib's initiative negatively, he said, while "the regime and its allies will only treat Alkhatib's meetings as an additional opportunity to smash the rebellion or weaken it".

Asked about the risk of his strategy being seen as a sign of weakness in the opposition or frustration at the Free Syrian Army's gains, Alkhatib told Reuters in Munich: "The fighters have high morale and they are making daily advances."

(Additional reporting by Alexandra Hudson in Munich and Gabriela Baczynska in Moscow; Writing by Stephen Brown; Editing by Andrew Roche)

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6.9-magnitude quake hits Japan's Hokkaido

 

TOKYO - An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.9 struck off Japan's Hokkaido island late on Saturday, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported.

The quake hit at a depth of 103 kilometres (64 miles) at 23:17pm (1417 GMT), about 109 kilometres west of Kushiro, Hokkaido, the USGS said.

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Building better Super Bowl ads by watching you watch them

A side-by-side test of Apple and Samsung ads.

(Credit:
Screenshot courtesy of Affectiva)

WALTHAM, Mass.--The makers of Wheat Thins cereal may have a hit Super Bowl commercial on their hands.

I believe this because I watched the ad on my computer while another computer watched me watching it over the Internet. The ad combined a box of Wheat Thins, night vision goggles, fear of Bigfoot when there should have been fear of the Yeti, and a thieving neighbor. It seems my "emotional valence" score -- which can be roughly translated to mean my overall emotional reaction -- while watching all this was unusually high, at least once the Yeti and the the thieving neighbor made their appearance.

I had no idea a Yeti and Wheat Thins were a powerful combination, but after running the ad through a Web demonstration by the 3-year-old company Affectiva, I'm forced to conclude that's the case.>

Welcome to the future of advertising, where the wisdom of spending a reported $4 million for a 30-second spot in the Super Bowl doesn't have to be left to the imagination of an ad agency's creative team and the honesty of focus groups.

When you turn on the the Super Bowl tomorrow and watch that game within the game -- no, not Beyonce's performance, I mean the ads -- there's a good chance that at least several of those pieces have been tested using Affectiva's tools, which are being used by both Coca-Cola and Unilever, which owns brands ranging from Dove soap to Ben & Jerry's ice cream. Using a Web camera and with a user's permission (usually commissioned by an ad agency or research firm), Affectiva monitors a person's expressions while watching an ad.

Affectiva provides a topline measurement on a scale from 1 to 10 on something the company calls an Affdex score. That's a combination of involvement, a "feel good" index, and a "minus metric." Behind that, reaction over the length of the ad is monitored and charted. When did someone smile during the ad? When did they frown? When did they drift? It's all tracked and produced on tables.

There's deep science behind that report. Affectiva was founded in 2009 and is based on technology created at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab. The technology was originally intended to work with people who have autism. Because people with autism may have difficulty displaying emotional reactions, co-founders Rana el Kaliouby and Rosalind Picard created a mathematical model for monitoring hard-to-perceive changes in their expressions.

"I personally think it could be a standard for advertising," said Stephanie Tilenius, an executive-in-residence at the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins. Kleiner was part of a $12 million Series C funding round announced in August. The company was also a big attention-grabber at last month's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

If you have a Webcam on your computer, you can run through the Affectiva demonstration yourself right here. You can also test a goat-related ad from Doritos (really, it kind of works), a Hyundai ad with a "don't tell mom" theme, and an already somewhat controversial ad from Volkswagen in which lots of people whom you wouldn't expect to have Jamaican accents sound a lot like Jimmy Cliff.

The first, most viable application for the Affectiva technology was in advertising, of course. But it could one day find its way into everything from medical devices to smartphones. Imagine, for example, if your phone could sense by your expression, pulse, and tone of voice how urgently you need an app or to make a phone call?

Affectiva made a splash after last year's Super Bowl with a public analysis of many of the ads shown during the Giants-Patriots nail-biter. Perhaps their most interesting conclusion was that the follow-up ad to 2011's hit "Vader kid" ad from Volkswagen did not test well among 400 participants. The ad involved a dog trying to lose weight and finally chasing a new, red Volkswagen. But when the ad transitions to a scene from Star Wars' cantina scene (a nod to the Vader kid), interest fell off the map and didn't recover.

An explanation of Affectiva's score.

(Credit:
Affectiva)

Most likely, the ad testing technology will be used in addition to traditional ad testing, rather than replacing focus groups, said Graham Page, an executive at the market research firm Millward Brown. Last year, Millward Brown tested over 400 ads using the Affectiva technology and should use it for more than "several thousand" ads around the world this year.

A tour of Affectiva's technology is a bit of a tour of your own instincts. In seconds, you can see quantified what you already suspected about an ad. In a face-to-face test of Apple and Samsung pieces, for example, neither ad exactly floated my boat. (You can see my overly stern expression while watching them in the screenshot above this article.)

So what else did I learn about my advertising tastes? It appears I really hate commercials in which grown men act like children but I am a hopeless sucker for ads with real children. I've always sort of known this. But thanks to a demonstration of facial-tracking technology here at the offices of a young company called Affectiva I can say, with certainty, that, yes, Verizon, I was seriously annoyed by that dopey ad with the dopey guys playing basketball. But the kids in the AT&T ad? Adorable.

"Your negative reaction to that," said Avril England, vice president of product management and marketing at Affectiva, "was about as negative as it can get."

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Clinton's legacy: Smart power, celebrity status

(CBS News) After four years as secretary of state, Hillary Clinton was officially replaced by Sen. John Kerry Friday. An improbable pick after a tough primary battle with Barack Obama back in 2008, Clinton has used her celebrity status around the world to make changes both at home and abroad.

John Kerry sworn in as secretary of state

In a heartfelt goodbye to thousands of State Department employees Friday, Clinton said, "I am proud to have been secretary of state. I leave this department confident, confident about the direction we have set."

Friends and colleagues say there's a side to Clinton many people don't know. CBS News correspondent Margaret Brennan talked to those people about Clinton and the legacy she's leaving behind.

She's not a typical Secretary of State saying goodbye. Anne Marie Slaughter, a former Clinton adviser said, "The first trip I took with her was like traveling with Madonna."

At times, Clinton's celebrity has overshadowed her diplomacy. But Slaughter said it shouldn't. "She elevated the roll of development. She's elevated social media, all sorts of new ways to reach people, ways of engaging youth, women, entrepreneurs."

Those tools are what Clinton calls "smart power" - finding ways to connect with people so that they then are able to influence their governments. She's said her extensive travel to 112 countries helped to build goodwill.

Others dismiss it as a vanity project. Critics also complain that she did not craft a clear policy to stop the war in Syria and point to security failures at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

However, longtime aide Philippe Reines disagrees. "For the last four years she has been, you know, working, literally killing herself for her country," he said.

He said her outreach made it possible to levy sanctions on Iran, North Korea, and to broker the November cease fire in Gaza. Reines has been aboard Clinton's plane for nearly every one of the almost one million miles she flew as secretary of state.

He told CBS News that most people don't know that how normal Clinton is. "I mean, she likes and dislikes a lot of the same things that you and I don't like or do like," he said.

He also said that she's not caught up on her future. "She does not sit around and do that as much as people think she does. It's more sitting around thinking, I saw 'Argo' and that's a great movie, did you see 'Argo?'"

Clinton is reluctant to make any decision yet about running for president in 2016. At a global town hall for students at the Newseum in Washington, Clinton talked about a bid for the presidency.

"I am not thinking about anything like that right now. I am looking forward to finishing up my tenure as secretary of state and then catching up on about 20 years of sleep deprivation," she said.

But few believe she'll stop working, and if you want to know what she'll do, aides say, look at what she's done.

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Ala. Standoff: Students Say Suspect Threatened to Kill

A brother and sister who escaped the school bus where a 5-year-old autistic boy was taken hostage by a retired Alabama trucker are speaking out about the standoff and the man who threatened the lives of the children on board.

"I look up and he's talking about threatening to kill us all or something," 14-year-old Terrica Singletary told ABC's "Good Morning America." "He's like, 'I'll kill all y'all, I'll kill y'all, I just want two kids.'"

Singletary and her brother, Tristian, 12, said Jimmy Lee Dykes boarded the bus on Tuesday and offered the driver what appeared to be broccoli and a note, before demanding two children.

"The bus driver kept saying, 'Just please get off the bus,' and [Dykes] said, 'Ah alright, I'll get off the bus," said Terrica Singletary, "He just tried to back up and reverse and [Dykes] pulled out the gun and he just shot him, and he just took Ethan."

PHOTOS: Worst Hostage Situations

School bus driver Charles Albert Poland Jr., 66, was fatally shot several times by Dykes.

Alabama Hostage Standoff: Who Is Jimmy Lee Dykes? Watch Video

Alabama Boy Held Hostage in Underground Bunker Watch Video

Alabama Hostage Standoff: Boy, 5, Held Captive in Bunker Watch Video

The siblings and the rest of the students on board were able to get away unharmed, but were shocked by what had transpired just five days ago.

"I never thought I would have to go through a shootout," Singletary said.

They said they had seen Dykes, 65, working on his fence, and described him as a menacing figure.

"He was very protective of his stuff," Tristian Singletary said. "Whenever he stares at you, he looks kinda crazy."

Dykes has been holed up in his underground bunker with his 5-year-old hostage named Ethan near Midland City, Ala. for five days now. Neighbors told ABCNews.com that Dykes has been known to retreat underground for up to eight days.

READ: Alabama Hostage Suspect Jimmy Dykes 'Has No Regard for Human Life'

While Dykes, who was described as having "no regard for human life," has allowed negotiators to send Ethan's medicine, as well as coloring books, into the bunker for the boy through a ventilation pipe that leads into the 6 by 8 foot subterranean hideout 4 feet underground, authorities are staying quiet about their conversations with Dykes.

While negotiations continue and it was reported that Ethan is physically unharmed, an official told the Associated Press that the boy has been crying for his parents.

Meanwhile, his peers are steadfast that he will return home soon.

"Ethan will make it out there, Ethan will make it out there," said Tristian Singletary.

ABC News' Kevin Dolak and Gio Benitez contributed to this report.

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Turkish leftist group claims U.S. embassy bombing: website

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish leftist group DHKP-C claimed responsibility on Saturday for a suicide bomb attack on the U.S. embassy in Ankara, according to a statement on a website close to the group.

"Our warrior Alisan Sanli carried out an act of self-sacrifice on Feb 1, 2013, by entering the Ankara embassy of the United States, murderer of the peoples of the world," the statement on "The People's Cry" website said.

The statement was posted next to what it said was a picture of the bomber, dressed in a black beret and military-style clothes with what appeared to be an explosives belt strapped around his waist.

The attacker detonated explosives strapped to his body, as well as a hand grenade, inside an embassy gatehouse, killing himself and a Turkish security guard and critically wounding a journalist on her way to visit the ambassador.

(Reporting by Seltem Iyigun; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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Motor Racing: New car but only one driver for Force India

LONDON: Force India unveiled their new car for the forthcoming Formula One season at Silverstone on Friday, but they are still to confirm the identity of British driver Paul di Resta's teammate.

The vacancy next to Di Resta is one of only three across the grid for the 2013 season, which begins with the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on March 17.

French driver Jules Bianchi, the team's third driver in 2012, was expected to be announced as Di Resta's teammate.

However, he was present at the launch of Ferrari's new F1 car on Friday as he is a member of the Italian team's academy.

Former driver Adrian Sutil and ex-Sauber man Kamui Kobayashi have also been linked with the role.

Force India team principal Robert Fearnley refused to be drawn on the identity of the new driver at the launch, telling reporters: "We do not want to confuse the two stories."

The VJM06 is the third of four cars unveiled so far for the 2013 season that have jettisoned the stepped nose design that featured widely in last year's world championship.

The Indian team finished seventh in last season's constructor championship, but saw German driver Nico Hulkenburg leave to join rivals Sauber at the end of the year.

- AFP/de

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