Posted on 10/15/2018 3:55:13 PM PDT by RainMan
Allen passed away Monday afternoon in Seattle at 65 years old, Vulcan said. His sister, Jody, said he was "a remarkable individual on every level."
"While most knew Paul Allen as a technologist and philanthropist, for us he was a much-loved brother and uncle, and an exceptional friend. Paul's family and friends were blessed to experience his wit, warmth, his generosity and deep concern," she said in a statement. "For all the demands on his schedule, there was always time for family and friends. At this time of loss and grief for us and so many others we are profoundly grateful for the care and concern he demonstrated every day."
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
RIP.
Allen, Seahawks, Blazers owner, donates $100,000 to help Republicans in House
Jay Busbee Yahoo SportsSep 3, 2018, 8:39 AM
Seahawks owner Paul Allen has donated $100,000 to a fundraising committee dedicated to helping Republicans maintain control of the U.S. House of Representatives, according to a new report in the Seattle Times. Its the largest single check Allen has sent to a political action committee, according to federal election records, and its one of many donations Allen has made to a range of bipartisan causes.
Paul Allens political causes:
Allen donated $100,000 to Protect the House, a joint fundraising committee headed by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) with the goal of holding onto the Republican majority in the House in this falls competitive elections. Joint fundraising committees allow wealthy individuals Allen has a reported net worth in excess of $20 billion to donate significant sums that are later divided among a range of causes. Protect the House has raised more than $13 million nationally, with Allens gift placing him among the top 50 donors.
The donation is notable given Allens history of bipartisan, and even Democratic-leaning, giving. So far during this election cycle, Allen has given $173,500 to Republican candidates and committees as opposed to $45,900 to Democratic candidates and causes. During the 2016 election cycle, Allen gave $74,500 to Democratic candidates and $52,400 to Republican ones.
Notable among Allens other donations is a $1 million check to help the passage this November of a Washington state initiative on gun safety reform. The initiative aims to raise the minimum age to buy semiautomatic rifles to 21, as well as increase the stringency of background checks.
Paul Allen has supported both Republicans and Democrats over the years, and he will continue to support candidates on both sides of the aisle, Allens spokesman John Pinette told the Seattle Times in a statement.
NFL owners conservative leanings:
Allen is among a number of NFL owners who have given to conservative causes. Houston Texans owner Bob McNair gave $371,500 to Protect the House. And eight NFL owners donated a total of $7.25 million to President Donald Trumps inauguration in 2017, including McNair, the Patriots Robert Kraft, the Rams Stan Kroenke and the Jets Woody Johnson.
The NFL, of course, has since found itself in Trumps crosshairs over protests during the national anthem. Trump continues to criticize the NFL for allowing players to silently protest during the national anthem.
____
Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter or on Facebook.
SOURCE https://sports.yahoo.com/seahawks-blazers-owner-donates-100000-help-republicans-house-123905673.html
His work in finding sunken WWII Navy Ships was a great service to mankind.
Many a programmer my age got interested in it as teenagers from BASIC. If understand it correctly, Gates deserves the most credit for inventing BASIC, but Allen deserves a lot of credit for promoting it.
That is just terrible. May he rest in everlasting peace.
But his efforts to strangle the Second Amendment was an insult to every man and woman who fought to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
RIP. We owe much to him.
Very sad to hear. This is one fellow I really, really liked and admired.
Allen was an ASSEMBLY Language programmer who did most of the grunt work while Gates was on the phone most of the time promoting things. Both did BASIC too.
Gates didn’t invent BASIC, what he did do is recognize the value of DOS, which he also didn’t create but bought it from another (Tim Paterson?) for around $60,000 - knowing that it was exactly what IBM wanted.
Without that there would never be the Microsoft we know today.
That said, I’ve heard many times about Paul being a genius, RIP.
You cant take it with you.
RIP Paul Allen.
I was just about to post. Thanks for beating me to it.
Paul Allen, regardless of his politics, did a good job of enjoying and using the unbelievable wealth that his share of Microsoft grew into. Basketball, football, sailing, research... amazing. Many people would have vegetated in rich gathering places like Manhattan, Cannes, or Davos.
RIP.
In 1975, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Allen and Gates began marketing a BASIC programming language interpreter.[14]
Allen came up with the original name of “Micro-Soft,” according to a 1995 Fortune magazine article.[19]
In 1980, after Microsoft had committed to deliver IBM a disk operating system (DOS) for the original IBM PC, although they had not yet developed one, Allen spearheaded a deal for Microsoft to purchase QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System), written by Tim Paterson, who, at the time, was employed at Seattle Computer Products.
As a result of this transaction, Microsoft was able to secure a contract to supply the DOS that would eventually run on IBM’s PC line. This contract with IBM proved the watershed in Microsoft history that led to Allen’s and Gates’ wealth and success.[14] Allen effectively left Microsoft in 1982 due to serious illness.[14]
Allen officially resigned from his position on the Microsoft board of directors in November 2000 but was asked to consult as a senior strategy advisor to the company’s executives. Bill Gates reportedly asked Allen to give him some of his shares to compensate for the higher amount of work being performed by Gates.[20]
Allen thought this was warranted; however, when the time came [when?] for the adjustment to occur, Gates decided not to proceed.[21]
Instead, Gates tried to buy Allen out at a low price, however Allen refused and left the company with his shares intact.
This proved critical to Allen becoming a billionaire after Microsoft went public.[22]
But it must be nice to enjoy it while you're here.
IBM, whose success was built largely on government subsidized research, had belatedly decided to get into the personal computer business, that bevvy of geniuses having dismissed the trend in its planning during the 1970s. They did not even have a program to run a PC, and so approached Gates for some help. Gates didnt have one either, and referred them to Gary Kildall of Digital Research Inc. Talks did not go well between Kildall and IBM, and another IBM employee, Jack Sims, approached Gates again. He still did not have a program, but began to show his true genius. He knew someone who did.
The system Gates had in mind might well have been based on Kildalls work. Gates chose to approach a company called Seattle Computer Products (SCP). Tim Paterson, a SCP programmer, then had developed an operating system called Quick and Dirty Operating System (QDOS). Gates bought the rights for QDOS and hired Paterson to develop a modified version of QDOS to create MS-DOS and sell/license it to IBM.
The controversy over whether Gates cheated in the deal stems from the fact that Paterson had previously worked with Kindall at Digital Research Inc. (DRI). Kindall accused that both QDOS & MS-DOS had been copied from his original CP/M operating system. An accusation rejected by Microsoft. Gates asked if IBM wanted him to go get it, or if IBM would do that dirty work itself. Sams, understanding what was going on, insisted that Gates go get it, hint hint.
Ergo, the conundrum so many of us have faced over the years crappy PC technology dominates the market because IBM had market power at that time. People bought DOS because people were buying DOS. Gates and Microsoft amassed a huge war chest of money, and from there started to buy up competing companies and to reverse engineer technology, including Apples icon-orientated home screen so common now on computers.
bookmark
Wow, I had no idea he was ill. RIP.
I think he had a lot of irons in the fire that may never bare fruit now. He bought Howard Hughes’s ME 262 from a museum some years back with the intention of a total restoration including the original engines. That would have made it the only flight worthy 262 with original engines in existance.
To his credit he outright gave away billions and invested many billions in long shots some of which may pan out one day
A visionary and a quiet man
Godspeed
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