Debit/Credit Card Machines

We've all gone through the process of swiping our card and entering our pin and saying "No" to cash back..

But I have never had a machine make a noise when is shows a new screen or change the UI in some way to grab my attention to act. So after I click continue and it starts to process some stuff and I lose attention, I waste a few seconds before noticing I have to click another button.

I little "beep" sound or at least a screen flash or something would save 1-3 seconds of my day..

Restaurants HCI

You know how restaurants ask you for your name, enter your name, and then swipe your credit/debit card?

Why don't they swipe your card first and the the IT system can take your first name from the card? Then the server can ask for your name and if it sounds similar to the name the system pulled from the card, all the server has to do is click "Yes" or "No, enter name"

I would think most of the time the name would be the same. You could even display all the names (2-3: first middle last) and have the server click the name that the customer says or "Enter Other"

Easy modification might help...