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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."

13 of 164 comments (clear)

  1. What is a zillionaire? by ytr · · Score: 4, Funny

    millionaire - so common, the hoi polloi
    billionaire - fewer, somewhat dodgy
    trillionaire - hmmm tricky, size of the US deficit .....
    zillionaire - more money than that?

    1. Re:What is a zillionaire? by alicenextdoor · · Score: 5, Funny
      Marital status: Single
      Worth: $US21 billion, seventh richest person in the world, says Forbes Magazine, 2005

      A clear case of too many LAN parties...

      --
      of course, biting monkeys is not to everyone's taste - Konrad Lorenz
    2. Re:What is a zillionaire? by aussie_a · · Score: 2, Funny

      It depends if you're talking American zillions or real zillions. Much like with billionaires, Americans like to have a fairly low bar (comparitively speaking of course) for zillionaires.

    3. Re:What is a zillionaire? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      I'd like some of this Microsoft stock that has absolutely no value. If you have any around just taking up space, let me know and I'll get it out of your way.

  2. His hompage by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny
    http://www.paulallen.com/

    It runs on IIS. What are the odds?

  3. So... by AgentX24 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Does that make the rest of us accidental nillionaires?

    1. Re:So... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      I'm a multi-nillionaire. Now excuse me, sir, while I firmly stick my nose up in the air.

  4. Achievement list... by Chaffar · · Score: 4, Funny
    Born: January 21, 1953, Seattle, Washington 1975: Co-founds Microsoft Corporation with Bill Gates 1983: Develops Hodgkin's disease
    So this man is responsible for the development of Microsoft AND Hodgkin's disease? The man's the devil himself :0!
  5. Re:FYI by ian_mackereth · · Score: 2, Funny
    It's an Australian paper, so that's not a football franchise, it's a gridiron team.

    And we don't care.

  6. He's a Virus Developer! I knew it! by oztiks · · Score: 3, Funny

    1983: Develops Hodgkin's disease and leaves Microsoft. Makes full recovery

    Ya think that when writing an artical where a portion of the audience are going to be geeks and/or programmers they wouldnt use words like "develops" to describe what happened to him, rather "contracting" a virus would sound more appropriate. It makes him sound like he wrote the Hodgkin's virus in his multi-zillion dallor basement.

    Perhaps, Insted of "Makes full recovery" it should read "Was able to restore Paul Allen from tape backup"

  7. Allen's Helicopter by wk633 · · Score: 3, Funny

    A few years ago Paul Allen parked his ship at Santa Barbara for a week. He spent his evenings flying around over the city in his helicopter. Fucking annoying noise. If he's got that much money, why doesn't he buy Blue Thunder?

  8. Re:Allen bought Washington state referendum by sarge+apone · · Score: 1, Funny

    Wow, such objective reporting. They seemed to get all their facts straight then presented this unbiased article to a wide general-interest audience. Let's mod this "+5, Informative" for well-rounded news reporting!

    --
    Best Free Utilities for Windows
  9. Paul Allen:Seattle::Thomas/Bruce Wayne:Gotham? by Aaron+England · · Score: 2, Funny

    Is Paul Allen to Seattle as Thomas and Bruce Wayne were to Gotham City?

    Evidence?

    Has a huge house, more of a compound really.
    Isn't married.
    He has lots of fast cars.
    One of the biggest philanthropists in America.
    Funded medical research, mapping the human brain at the cellular level.
    [Funded] the Experience Music project and the Science Fiction museum.
    Art collection...rumoured to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
    Donated $20 million to develop a park which would have stretched from the downtown area to Lake Union.
    Converting a nondescript belt of warehouses and commercial buildings into a biotech hub, while redeveloping environmentally friendly housing, and a waterfront park.

    Now that we have evidence that he plays the role of philantropist-playboy by day can anyone pony-up the evidence that he lives the double life and is a crime-fighter by night?