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Paul Allen the 'Accidental Zillionaire'

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the least-he-could-do-is-buy-us-all-lunch dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Sydney Morning Herald has an interesting story about Paul Allen, "the accidental zillionaire". Allen is the owner of the world's biggest private yacht and a huge landowner in the Seattle area in addition to his traditional accolades of helping to found Microsoft along with several other companies and foundations."

4 of 164 comments (clear)

  1. So he's single? Why is that? by putko · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    You read TFA and it turns out he's single, and he's living with his mom (well, mom lives in his giant housing compound, with him).

    It must drive his mom nuts. No grandchildren. A genetic cul-de-sac. And he's one of the richest guys in the US? If he isn't gay, he's kinda screwing up here.

    One would think that with all that money, he could just rent wombs from desperate women, impregnate them and so on. Then his mom would stop the nagging.

    --
    http://www.thebricktestament.com/the_law/when_to_s tone_your_children/dt21_18a.html
  2. Re:largest yacht by daBass · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Not sure if you can call a yacht belonging to any crown prince "privately owned", though.

    Maybe legally, but if you are heir of a dictator monarchy with a license to print money (ie: open the oil wells), it certainly isn't as impressive as it belonging to some nerd who actually founded a company...

  3. Re:Interesting by Liam+Slider · · Score: 0, Flamebait
    Everyone picks on Bill Gates for being evil, yet he makes the cover of Time for his generosity.

    Have you ever noticed, that when Gates and Microsoft are getting a beating in the media...suddenly Gates starts making huge donations? Or whenever a government is acting like it's about to curb stomp Microsoft....he has a nice huge donation ready for that country? I certainly have.

    Around the area I live, back in the 20s, there was a famous group of gangsters known as The Shelton Gang. One of the big bosses of the Shelton Gang, was a gangster by the name of Charlie Birger (along with the Shelton brothers). This man was a pimp, a smuggler, a murderer, and runner of many fine illegal gambling operations throughout this part of my home State. He was a slick one, always dressing in the finest clothes, driving a fancy car, having many homes....

    ...Charlie Birger was also a "generous" man. Very charitable, giving money to the needy, paying off people's mortages, giving money to school children, giving people money to start up their businesses...no strings attached, he gave heavily to the local church. Why, the people absolutely loved Charlie Birger. He was a very beloved man for his charitable works....which is exactly what he wanted. It didn't make him any less of a gangster.

    Same with Gates. He's no less of a gangster, because of his charitable works.

  4. Re:What is a zillionaire? by diegof79 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    >Since early 1980's? Probably they knew that. But in early 1970's, Allen and
    >Gates were just a couple of nerdy students, sharing a belief that the
    >future is in household computers.While in that age everyone else shared a
    >belief that a "computer" is meant to be maintained and operated only by
    >specially trained staff wearing laboratory overalls.

    This sounds like an history rewrite from Orwell's 1984.
    Probably in early 1970's, Allen and Gates only want to do money.
    Note that in 60's a group of people started to develop personal computers, see http://www.smalltalk.org/smalltalk/TheEarlyHistory OfSmalltalk_Abstract.html.
    (in fact they develop things that even today are advanced, ie. compare the early St with Java/C#)

    So don't believe this lie. Gates and Allen weren't "visionaries" of personal computers.