RIM and the $450 million debarcle

The lawsuit against RIM could have been settled for a couple of million. Arrogance on the part of RIM founder and a failure to take the suit seriously allowed it to escalate to 450 million.

The other factor was fabricating evidence with a deceptive demonstration during the trial...

"It took the jury barely four hours to reach a verdict. They found not only that RIM had infringed on NTP's patents, but that its conduct had been “willful.” The court assessed damages of $23-million (U.S.) and a royalty based on the number of BlackBerrys RIM sold in the United States.

NTP applied to Judge Spencer to have the damages “enhanced,” in part because of RIM's actions during the trial. He agreed, citing the botched demonstration, calling it “fraudulent” and said RIM had “consistently engaged in a variety of questionable litigation tactics throughout the course of this action.”

The judge's ruling swelled the damages to $53-million plus about $4.5-million in legal fees. He also increased the royalty to 8.55 per cent.

Through arrogance, blunder and bad advice, RIM's potential bill had shot up from a few million dollars before the trial to roughly $20-million when its case headed south at trial, to now hundreds of millions of dollars." (Link)

Peeling bananas from the other end is easier

I've been opening my bananas stem-side first all my life. Monkeys don't. They pinch them on the other end. Boy, it's a lot easier. I'll never open a banana the dumb way again. (via BoingBoing)

Rule of thumb 1#

The stupider your ringtone, the longer it will take you to answer your phone. (via 5ives)

Bolognese Sauce: The real stuff

Bolognese sauce (ragù alla bolognese in Italian) is a meat-based pasta sauce.

Ragù bolognese is sometimes mistakenly referred to as a "tomato" sauce, but authentic recipes have only a very small amount of tomato – maybe a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste.

Bolognese sauce is generally not served with spaghetti because the pieces of meat tend to fall off the pasta and stay on the plate.

Spaghetti Bolognese, or spaghetti alla bolognese, which is sometimes further shortened to spag bol, is a dish invented outside of Italy consisting of spaghetti with a meat sauce.

source: Wikipedia

Howto: Fold a shirt in 4 seconds

Watch this google video!

A Japanese lady demonstrates how easy it can be done. (Link)

Risky Business: Will the coffee be any good?

Scenario you are in a new city or even a different part of your hometown. You want a cup of coffee. Three cafe's in a row on the same street boast "Best coffee in town". What to do?

The folowing works for me:
- Stay away from Vittorio or Lavazza
- Are the portafilters (the handle that holds the coffee grinds) on the tray? They should be in the machine being heated.
- Is the barista grinding fresh for each customer? (If you can see the grinds piled up in the girnder dispenser, get out of there)
- Ask the person if they actually like coffee. It is amazing how many people work those machines and don't like nor care about how the espresso tastes.
- Any cafe or shop that can't spells espresso with an x. Attention to detail means alot.