Hmm. It’s an interesting story – it doesn’t seem that it’s 100% the typical patent troll mold, though it’s obviously still a shitty tale of bullshit patent litigation tactics. It looks like Pappas had his original idea and filed for a patent in 2000, basically trying to create a way to monetize the ad hoc markets that pop up whenever people are in line or reserving places for entertainment (probably based on his own restaurant experience). He filed a single, very broad, multiregion patent on this, and launched a company and online platform around it in 2008 (OptionIt) to provide an online service for trading ticket reservations / places in line. Braxton had a similar but more clearly defined idea in 2011, and filed his own patent.

Like I said – I don’t like this idea, I wish it hadn’t been granted patent protection, and I’m happy if it never reaches the market. However, for all that, I think Pappas original idea was a bit more inventive. Back in 2000 we didn’t have an app economy, and we hadn’t gotten used to these kinds of ad hoc, internet-facilitated temporary market places. When Braxton came up with it, it was pretty dull.

Either way, once Pappas started his business, I guess he instructed his law firm to handle litigation as aggressively as possible, which is fairly standard practice, and which is the unfortunate behavior described in the video. After losing the original suit and then losing the Rule 11 motion, they argued like aggressive assholes in mediation, and got Braxton to back down. I think their threat was fairly hollow – he says that they threatened him with their ‘patent portfolio,’ but this is the only patent family I can find for OptionIt / Smart Option.

I’m not sure I would call this a textbook case of patent trolling – usually patent trolls file or acquire patents for the sole purpose of extorting legitimate businesses, but here it looks like Pappas was actually trying to make a go of this (shitty) app idea, but used intimidation to try to protect that idea. It’s one shitty business trying to intimidate another upstart shitty business, and the courts ruling against the first party. On the whole we all lose – OptionIt wins the mediation through shitty intimidation, and Braxton’s shitty patent gets added to Spangenberg’s portfolio of shitty troll assets to keep the cycle going.

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So the restaurant survived over 120 years without Oyako-Don.

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Tags for this video have been changed from 'comedian' to 'comedian, Ai Pioppi, playground, theme park, restaurant, Tom Scott' - edited by eric3579

*backup=[...snipped...]

"Wtf guys, you painted a mural of me on the front of your restaurant without my consent... I deserve payment!"

Well, you do have a point....but I think 10 billion Nepali would still overburden the biosphere. It probably would only take <2 billion Americans (or far less, I'm just blind guessing) to overburden it. Given my druthers, we would have a total population under 1 billion, and make it so those wanting >3 children have to commit suicide to let their baby be born, essentially stopping population growth permanently.

Yes, solving food waste without massive expense could go a long way....but how? Most food waste is a factor of transportation cost. If it costs more to ship the food than it's 'worth', it will be allowed to rot. Figuring out a distribution method for getting excess food products to the needy for free is going to make someone billions of dollars if it's ever done. Unfortunately, without energy free teleportation, I don't see it happening on a large scale. Small scale local solutions (such as http://videosift.com/video/Fridge-Outside-Restaurant-Turns-Leftovers-Into-Free-Meals ) can have impact, but won't solve the problem completely.

Overheard in a restaurant:

"Do you have vegan dishes?"
"Well...how vegan are you?"
"I can eat chicken."

She forgot to mention you don't tip here. Ever. If you ever want to have some fun at a restaurant, try leaving a tip on the table and then wait in the parking lot for the staff to come sprinting out to return your money.

Other things to watching out for--blowing your nose loudly. You shouldn't blow your nose at all, really, if you're trying to be Mr./Miss Manners but if you absolutely must do it, you should blow as quietly as possible. I have no idea why this is a thing, but they actually prefer you to sniffle incessantly as you try to keep the mucus from dripping out of your nose to using a goddamned tissue--despite the fact that you will be handed packs of tissues at nearly every train station by people trying to advertise their services/products.

Also, at the end of the day, pretty much none of these rules apply to foreigners visiting Japan for tourism purposes. Tourism is way up here these days and Japanese people--especially in the Tokyo area--kinda expect tourists to be clueless about everything. The stuff she's mentioning really only applies if you're thinking of a longer-term stay where you might make some connections and actually have to give a fuck what other people here think because you're seeing the same faces every day.

Then again, I break almost all of these rules. I've been here long enough to see Japanese people break these rules and understand the times when it is acceptable. Or when I can get away with it due to "gaijin privilege." Gaijin privilege = not being expected to conform to Japanese societal rules since I'm not Japanese--and would never be considered Japanese even if I were to get Japanese citizenship.

Fuck gamergate. They are not, never have and never will be about "ethics in journalism".

They are straight-up misogynistic assholes that make me ashamed to be associated with an art medium/hobby that I've been involved with for over 30 years.

Let's just put this in context. They claim they are against the collusion of game companies and journalists.

First up, the specific instance they targeted was not a conflict of interest. There are absolutely, undoubtedly, HUGE collusions between game reviewers and games, but gg ignored all those because they were for AAA mainstream games that gg likes and instead accused journalists of giving higher review scores to indie games.

Here's a fucking hint: go read some movie reviews, and tell me if you see movie critics favouring indie movies over blockbusters. Of course they do. People who are seriously into something almost always prefer a niche product. See also: craft beer vs budweiser, restaurants vs McDonalds, etc. I could go on.

But here's the cheery on the big cake of poo.

When a games journalist dared to express an opinion against an otherwise well-reviewed game*, what did gamergate do? Applaud their journalistic integrity in offering a dissenting opinion?

Nope: they started a fucking campaign to get the game company to blacklist the reviewer.

The hypocrisy is simply staggering.

And I haven't even mentioned the doxing, the rape threats and so on.

Once again, fuck gamergate. Frankly, they're on a par with the KKK as far as I'm concerned.


* polygon gave Bayonetta 2 a score of 7.5/10 because the reviewer felt it was juvenille and over sexualised. gg started a campaign to get nintendo to block polygon. Nintendo, to their credit, ignored the little fucktards.

Huh, never thought of that. So true...and I will add to this. In the past jobs in service have been able to absorb people into it to take up the loss of jobs (Say in agriculture and such.) So when Henry Ford made his assembly line, jobs were created pretty much everywhere. Restaurants are but one great example of this.

But with the techno revolution, the service sector was already pretty full. Now it is saturated. If I see one more new gas station down here in Florida, or another restaurant open, it will be too soon. I remember TWO, TWO Starbucks in the same mall. Such a false economy...

Now add automation and boom...