S02.E03: Bad Money

[ElectricBoogaloo]

As he thinks about Gavin's proposal, a billionaire approaches Richard.

 

Promo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkafocUu-ko

[kieyra]

I feel like I saw the actor playing that douchebag guy playing the same role on Episodes.

I have an uncontrolled nerdgirl crush on Guilfoyle. He can refactor my code anytime.

[Accidental Martyr]

I'm glad Josh Brener is coming back.

[chocolatine]

Oh Richard! You should have known to stay away from the Hanneman guy when he drove up to you with Limp Bizkit playing on his stereo. If not then, you should have definitely known when you figured out he made less money in the last 20 years than a CD would have. And the contract that Richard signed with him should have specified how the $5M are going to be paid out. If Richard didn't understand that part, Jared and/or Ron LaFlamme would have. That douchebag is going to screw Pied Piper more than the Hooli lawsuit.

 

I'm glad Josh Brener is coming back.

 

 

So am I, but I wish the show didn't made Big Head into a complete idiot. I found the montage of him at the end kind of offensive.

[lucindabelle]

It is the lunatic from Episoes! Tycasting?

I do love how he just ignores Ehrlich.

The billionaires are like Jews thing was hilarious.

[opus]

I feel like I saw the actor playing that douchebag guy playing the same role on Episodes.

At first I thought it was Nick Kroll.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I only wish that Russ had also somehow installed cameras so that Richard could have seen Gavin's reaction to seeing the Pied Piper billboard outside his office window.

[kieyra]

So am I, but I wish the show didn't made Big Head into a complete idiot. I found the montage of him at the end kind of offensive.

 

 

Offensive in what sense?

 

I think Big Head has always fulfilled a very specific function on the show. SV has been very good about showing all different kinds of 'geeks' on the geek spectrum, even the ones who really do exist but don't come first to people's minds with the typical geek stereotype: e.g. egotistical extroverts like Ehrlich who are still, when it comes down to it, technically clued. (I've met plenty of Ehrlichs.)

 

Big Head, IMHO, has always been there to show that just because you're a geek in Silicon Valley, it doesn't mean you're some kind of brilliant savant. Someone has to land near the edges of the bell curve. The elevator scene may have been played a bit broad, but it was the first time we've seen him this season, so they had to remind us about him and his 'rest and vest' tribe.

 

ETA: I also loved how Guilfoyle was completely the anti-Russ, to the point where he was so deeply offended by the guy's existence that he didn't even have any snarky commentary to make. He was just speechless with distaste. 

Edited April 27, 2015 by kieyra

[APSimpson]

Oh man, I was laughing so hard last night I got an ab workout. Just the total absurdity of the social interaction between the group and the young billionaire. He reminded me of some guys I've known in my life, not that they were billionaires, but good-looking hotshots who always seem to be positive and in control of any social situation; and also seemingly oblivious to the effect it has on others. The whole overconfident thing, too, like the scene where he wants Richard to say the address into his phone, not once but twice. Total power tripping. And how dismissive he was of the guys, well, mainly to Erlich who was trying to bond with him and poor Gilfoyle who was taken aback at first but nicely adjusted.

 

I'll have to watch it again to see which lines really stood out, but this show is so funny. I just love Mike Judge's humor style (Office Space is one of my all time favorites) and the show always seems to end too soon leaving me wanting more.

[Should Be Working]

Perhaps Silicon Valley set the bar so high in Season 1 for brilliantly nailing outrageous and eccentric tech characters, worker drones and billionaires alike, that the run simply cannot be sustained. I didn't find Ep. 3 all that funny. Although it is still the best tech industry comedy around by far (Amazon's Betas was a terribly-executed waste of time), Mike Judge is still not hitting his targets or successfully building on the existing storyline in Season 2.

 

Yeah, we get it, Hanneman is a crazy wild-man investor, we've all seen his type before, but they take him from crazy to just plain annoying in the span of 30 minutes. And we know Gavin is a power-hungry narcissist who wants to rule the world, but his Season 1 character would never have publicly uttered those comments comparing the plight of billionaires to the persecution of European Jews under the Nazis. He's utterly self-absorbed and malignant, but not stupid.

Edited April 27, 2015 by Should Be Working

[hincandenza]

The Belson billionaire/Jew thing was actually said by some actual tech billionaire or financier a year or two ago at some conference. Don't have a source handy, but it turns out that's not even far-fetched.

Mark Cuban or whatever he was called was pretty good, a broadly comic caricature... provided he doesn't stick around too long. Way over the top, but not far in spirit from the hyperconfident tech elite I've seen. There has always been something distastefully barbaric about those kind of men, with their barely sublimated simian aggression and unchecked self-adulation. Whatever his faults, we know that Gavin was a decent person once. His little moments of self-doubt, how he often thinks/speaks in questions and needs the guru around to stay positive, that chance encounter in the restaurant in season 1 with Peter... he is just as introverted and awkward as the day he met Peter Gregory as kids. But it seems that unlike Peter, who became more eccentric, Gavin had decided to "reinvent" himself as what he thought rich people were, and then they had whatever falling out. With Hanneman, that asshole facade is all there is, and it'll get tiring.

What was the Hooli offer, I wonder? I guess they couldn't tell us because the audience wouldn't be sympathetic if Hooli offered a few hundred million or more (in reality, Hooli would unquestioningly pay 9+ figures right now for that tech). Of course, any offer made would seem to further undermine their already weak lawsuit.

Why hasn't PP tried to patent, again? Among the many other reasons PP would win this case (plenty of on-screen proof that PP was first, that Hooli reverse engineered it, and the public showing of the better PP algorithm at techCrunch), Hooli doesn't actually have an algorithm to file, so filing for a contested patent would at least document the PP solution formally. At worst, surely there is a provision in patent law that making a significant improvement to a pending or contested patent is itself separately patentable. I'm curious how that would play out: would PP have to pay a negotiated fee for using the tech Richard invented but which Hooli managed to win in the lawsuit, and then Hooli would turn around and negotiate a much larger license to use the improved tech in their own systems? Hm,that's probably why an asinine patent law case isn't making for great comedy.

So, not only did they apparently not even try to leverage the Hanneman offer to either chnage Riviga's mind, or make Hooli offer a fuckton more... they up and signed a contract that didn't a) pay them the $5M up front, nor b) guarantee no day-to-day involvement or unauthorized spending? At minimum, Jared is competent enough to recognize and insist on that. I guess off-screen, these idiots literally never have a lawyer present when negotiating or signing any contract?!? It boggles the mind. It's like this show is written by people who've never seen a business contract in their lives.

Riviga has no leg to stand on being angry; they pulled their own funding- and apparently also told everyone in SV so fast that PP couldn't switch VCs before the word spread- so what did they expect? PP would just fold, without funding and without a fighr? And as awful as he is meant to be... Hanneman might have actually made an unintentionally smart move taunting Belson with that billboard.

They should have just taken the deal from Gavin. Obviously Bighead will be played up by Hooli, probably to be the lynch pin of their case until a dramatic last minute bout of honesty. At the end of the day I think he'll admit the truth- possibly joining Pied Piper, or even in a cozy and lucrative Tech Fellow contract- or be shown to not even grasp the concepts of "middle-out" while under oath.

Sigh.

[Traveller519]

So, end of last week, Richard is ready to stand up to Gavin, but then obviously hears him out, and listens to Monica's rationale and tries to go to the team with the proper talking points. When they push back he's easily swayed by Henneman's pitch to do his own thing, and again can't properly convey the talking points. 

 

Does Richard know what he wants? He seems to have talked himself into thinking he wants to build his own thing, but the stress is eating him alive.

[chocolatine]

Offensive in what sense?

 

Offensive in the sense that it made Big Head look like an intellectually challenged person. We know he's not a brilliant software developer, but he's not an imbecile.

[kieyra]

Offensive in the sense that it made Big Head look like an intellectually challenged person. We know he's not a brilliant software developer, but he's not an imbecile.

Sorry, still not seeing the need for outrage on behalf of a fictional character. It's a comedy and they've shown him doing all kinds of dorky and uncoordinated stuff before, like when he tried to throw the hakky sak up to the roof of the building. Basic slapstick stuff.

(I am, admittedly, becoming somewhat oversensitized to people finding minor things on television to be offensive, so it's equally possible I just need to take a forum break.)

[chocolatine]

Sorry, still not seeing the need for outrage on behalf of a fictional character. It's a comedy and they've shown him doing all kinds of dorky and uncoordinated stuff before, like when he tried to throw the hakky sak up to the roof of the building. Basic slapstick stuff.

(I am, admittedly, becoming somewhat oversensitized to people finding minor things on television to be offensive, so it's equally possible I just need to take a forum break.)

 

I'm just expressing my own opinion, not telling anybody else what theirs should be.

[lucindabelle]

I didn't think bi head was presented as actually mentally challenged, just kind of geeky and clumsy and boyish. Which is how he's been presented all along.

[JTMacc99]

Poor Monica:

 

"I feel very strongly that this is something you should have prevented. Conversation over."

 

 

I love the room full of lawyers. Reminds me very strongly of:

 

Burns: Now before we begin, let me make one thing clear for you. I want your legal advice. I even pay for it. But to me you're all vipers! You live on personal injuries, you live on divorces, you live on pain and misery! I--

[getting ahold of himself]

Oh, but I'm rambling. Would anyone like some coffee?
Lawyer: Yes, I would like some coffee.
Burns: Want it black, don't you? Black like your heart? It's so hard for me to listen to you, I hate you all so much!
[pause]
I'm sorry, it's my problem, I'll deal with it. Please continue.
Lawyer: If you offer Homer Simpson a token cash settlement, say a couple of thou, he'll be so dazzled, he'll sign anything you shove under his nose.
Burns: [sarcastic] Oh, brilliant, a cash settlement. I could have figured that out, you buttoned-down maggot!
Lawyer: Got any cream?
Burns: Oh yes, of course, where are my manners?

[kieyra]

Poor Monica:

 

"I feel very strongly that this is something you should have prevented. Conversation over."

 

 

I NEED an animated gif of Laurie Bream saying "This exchange is over", so I can use it on my coworkers. 

[hoodooznoodooz]

Loved Jared comparing the situation to Julia Roberts movies.

Also, Jared thinking fondly of how he had celebrated earlier in the morning.

And whatever Ehrlich proudly said to Russ about "fucking myself."

[Should Be Working]

I usually just take a few gulps of coffee from my large two-handled coffee mug and gaze back at them with glassy, indifferent eyes and spout some meaningless economics theory mumbo-jumbo. That always ends the conversation.

[ahpny]

At worst, surely there is a provision in patent law that making a significant improvement to a pending or contested patent is itself separately patentable. I'm curious how that would play out: would PP have to pay a negotiated fee for using the tech Richard invented but which Hooli managed to win in the lawsuit, and then Hooli would turn around and negotiate a much larger license to use the improved tech in their own systems? Hm,that's probably why an asinine patent law case isn't making for great comedy.

 

Sadly patent law is rarely a good source for either drama or comedy. The last television effort I recall based on patent law was a ridiculous episode of LA Law decades ago. But this detour here is confused and frustrating. The nature of the litigation hasn’t been explained beyond a contest between who “invented” the improved compression algorithm first. Here are some episode-related thoughts from the real world of patent litigation:

 

1. An algorithm, standing alone, is not patentable. Einstein did not get to patent E = MC.2 However, a machine (like an A-bomb relying on this algorithm) or method (like the generation of electrical power at a nuclear plant) using of an algorithm in particular ways might be patentable. It depends and it is complicated. Google away at your pleasure.

 

2. Generally, to sue someone for ownership of an invention, someone has to have a patent or at least applied for a patent. Nothing we’ve seen so far suggests that either Piped Piper or Hooli has such a patent or patent application. Since no one has sold anything yet that embodies this algorithm, if no one has even attempted to get a patent on it, what exactly is the nature of the alleged “theft” here? Allegedly stolen intellectual property needs to fit into some legally protectable category (patent, copyright, trade mark, trade secret) to be actionable. If your idea doesn’t fit into one of these categories, it's hard to imagine how you could sue someone for stealing it.

 

3. In some sense, all patents are “improvement patents.” Other than patents related to certain IEEE standards, there are generally no forced license agreements in US patent law. It is certainly possible for an accused device to infringe multiple patents, such as an original patent and an “improvement patent,” and that these two patents could be owned by different parties. The owner of the improvement patent might be unable to sell an embodiment of his own improvement patent without permission of the owner of the original patent. This is called “patent domination” and is a frequent motivation for all sorts of licensing arrangements.

Edited April 28, 2015 by ahpny

[Should Be Working]

But it's not just an algorithm, akin to some formula merely writtten in a notebook or scrawled on a whiteboard in some fancy SF hotel. Richard installed the much-improved compression product on a MacBook and used it in front of hundreds at Tech Crunch to compress that large 3D file to one about one quarter its size. That's concrete, real-world use of the compression engine components on real-world hardware and software to achieve amazing file compression. I'm still left wondering why no one in Pied Piper took some time out from their daily bitch sessons to file a patent on it to protect it and establish first-use primacy over Gavin. Or at the very least consult a good patent atttorney to find out what other steps they needed to take to obtain a sound patent.

 

Then again, doing so would have eliminated the lame Season 2 plot line of the frivolous Hooli lawsuit, their rejection by all the VCs, and the need to either accept Gavin's offer or secure the services of a psychotic lone wolf investor. 

[ahpny]

Implementing an algorithm on a MacBook even to achieve amazing real world compression might still be unpatentable. Nevertheless a clever patent attorney would be expected to come up something. There are legion of ridiculous "business method" patents out there now and this is far more inventive than that.

[hincandenza]

1. An algorithm, standing alone, is not patentable. Einstein did not get to patent E = MC.2 However, a machine (like an A-bomb relying on this algorithm) or method (like the generation of electrical power at a nuclear plant) using of an algorithm in particular ways might be patentable. It depends and it is complicated. Google away at your pleasure.

 

Thanks for the write up; you make an excellent point that Hooli can't sue for anything until they have a specific tech- and revenue/potential revenue- to be made.

 

However I don't think you are correct that a software algorithm isn't patentable- as Should Be Working points out, this isn't just a napkin sketch, it's a functioning piece of compression software, demonstrated in public.  Such things get patented quite successfully- take the mp3/mp4 codecs (compression/decompression) which make up so much of our music and video today, or various general data compression methods that are still a part of our computing lives (such as the ubiquitous GIF, source of so many memes!). 

 

To me, the case for granting them the patent is so open and shut, it's function this season is as much a failure of a plot device as smoke monsters and magical numbers.  Belson is not a stupid man; he'd just offer them bags of cash to get a multi-year exclusive license and not hold up Nucleus (since unlike PP, Hooli is poised and ready to take advantage of a user base that can benefit from this compression). 

 

 

But it's not just an algorithm, akin to some formula merely writtten in a notebook or scrawled on a whiteboard in some fancy SF hotel. Richard installed the much-improved compression product on a MacBook and used it in front of hundreds at Tech Crunch to compress that large 3D file to one about one quarter its size. That's concrete, real-world use of the compression engine components on real-world hardware and software to achieve amazing file compression. I'm still left wondering why no one in Pied Piper took some time out from their daily bitch sessons to file a patent on it to protect it and establish first-use primacy over Gavin. Or at the very least consult a good patent atttorney to find out what other steps they needed to take to obtain a sound patent.

 

Then again, doing so would have eliminated the lame Season 2 plot line of the frivolous Hooli lawsuit, their rejection by all the VCs, and the need to either accept Gavin's offer or secure the services of a psychotic lone wolf investor. 

 

Exactly, hence the frustration of this season: there are some funny bits sure, but overall it's not funny, because we've been there/done that.  There was so much comedy to be mined from new circumstances: being funded and setting up shop, the day-to-day complexities of office politics and the onslaught of greedy opportunists trying to get some pre-IPO stock, and all the SV cliches that go with that change in lifestyle.

 

It's so odd that Mike Judge in season 1 went to the effort to get smart people to invent a fake but plausible set of compression ideas, but apparently wrote/created season 2 in a broom closet.  My pet theory is that he did seek out "expert advice"... from companies that would have stories about the harsh world of VCs and Series A funding, etc, that might match what we've see on screen.  But PP isn't those, it's not a Snapchat or a Yo: they've invented something truly amazing, which if it existed in the real world would already have huge amounts of money thrown at them to solve the problem of storing and transmitting data.

 

However, because that would not let them wallow in this played-out underdog story, they had to make the main cast extremely dumb to keep them preserved in this amber of incompetence.  It's a textbook example of letting plot dictate character.  I guess the season 2 finale will be Richard unveiling PP version 3, which compresses all data files losslessly down to a single byte.  Not sure if they'll finally get funding with that, though, because we all know from the news that it's so hard to get money from those stingy VCs!

[ALenore]

The Belson billionaire/Jew thing was actually said by some actual tech billionaire or financier a year or two ago at some conference. Don't have a source handy, but it turns out that's not even far-fetched.

 

The person who said it was a billionaire named Tom Perkins: http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/01/26/266685819/billionaire-compares-outrage-over-rich-in-s-f-to-kristallnacht

 

In a letter to the Wall Street Journal he said: 

Regarding your editorial "Censors on Campus" (Jan. 18): Writing from the epicenter of progressive thought, San Francisco, I would call attention to the parallels of fascist Nazi Germany to its war on its "one percent," namely its Jews, to the progressive war on the American one percent, namely the "rich."

 

[hincandenza]

Ah, that's the one! Christ, what an asshole that guy is...

... and you know, that was a funny scene: the repeated gasps after each further mistake;the slight but noticeable emphasis Belson put on "they did nothing wrong" when referring to billionaires- as opposed to Jews, one presumes; the ham-fisted and wholly insincere attempt to make amends, everything.

It's the kind of social satire of the often tone deaf and hyperentitled "We're world-builders" SV mindset this show is so good at skewering, and I still laugh a fair amount at some of the comic set pieces. It's just that the whole has become far less than the sum of the parts this season, for reasons I've thoroughly beaten into the ground. :)

[Should Be Working]

Ah yes, Tom Perkins, who also recently asserted that only taxpayers should have the right to vote and that the votes of the uber-wealthy (like himself) should carry far more weight than those of the working poor and middle class. At 83, this guy's internal editor has shut down completely and he finally feels free to say what he probably was always thinking but had the discretion to stifle. Kind of like a senile Erlich.

[wendyg]

The other problem with pursuing a patent is that it takes so long, and must be done separately in each country (the EU has a Europe-wide patent system now). Software patents are actually very controversial in the industry (because they block progress; it's very hard to describe software clearly so people can know where they might and might not conflict with them), and there have been a number of highly contentious cases where overbroad patents awarded have been eventually overturned (see for example Comptons multimedia). Filing is also expensive and processing applications is quite slow. To me it's not at all unrealistic that neither Houli nor PP has gone this route, and even if they did it wouldn't provide them with immediate protection. Houli can get faster results by throwing in-house lawyers and buyout offers at PP. PP is trying to decide whether it can pay its engineers.

 

I wonder if Mike Judge would have proceeded with the setting up and politics stuff as suggested upthread if Christopher Evan Welch hadn't died. But since he *did*, it makes sense to go through a different round of seeking funding (I guess the alternative was to send Peter Gregory to an island somewhere for a year... and let Monica be the only go-between). At least this way has given them a way to bring another woman into the show, which I at least appreciate. (Plus she's so deliciously dysfunctional in her own way.)