
40 Busy Years Later, Paul Allen, a Microsoft Founder, Considers His Creation - camurban
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/05/03/40-busy-years-later-a-microsoft-founder-considers-his-creation/?_r=0
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nostromo
I liked Paul Allen more before he decided to become a patent troll.

[http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB100014240527487032949045753852...](http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703294904575385241453119382)

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jfuhrman
He also gave at least $100 million to Ebola, $500 million to charity, and
funded several health science and general science initiatives.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Allen#Paul_G._Allen_Family...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Allen#Paul_G._Allen_Family_Foundation)

>Paul Allen has given more than $1.8 billion towards the advancement of
science, technology, education, wildlife conservation, the arts and community
services in his lifetime.[28] In 2010, Allen became a signatory of The Giving
Pledge, promising to give at least half of his fortune to philanthropic
causes.[29] In December 2014, Inside Philanthropy named Allen as their
"Philanthropist of the Year;"[27] Allen's direct giving in 2013 totaled $206
million.[30]

People are not one dimensional creatures.

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simonebrunozzi
Not that I want to dismiss his contribution, but sometimes there are huge tax
implications behind these donations, and I know of at least one occurrence
where a half-billionaire SAVED money by donating some to charity.

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dpark
Can you explain the way this works? I hear stuff like this all the time, but
my (admittedly limited) tax knowledge says this is not possible. Donations to
charity allow you to reduce the gross income you are taxed on (in the US at
least). However, you are not saving any money this way. The top tax bracket is
basically 40%, so if you donate 1 million to charity, you reduce your gross
income by 1 million, saving you at most 400K in taxes, but you donated 1
million, which means you lost an extra 600K vs just paying your taxes.

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1123581321
I don't know whether that story is true, but if so, it would be done by
putting the money into a 'charitable' entity that returns the money in a less-
or non-taxable way. This is not really something that could be done in the
United States outside of fraudulent activity.

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chambo622
Odd puff-piece with little substance.

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yitchelle
I agree, and I am also amused why it got so many upvotes?

edit: grammar

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adventured
Paul Allen - correctly so in my opinion - gets a lot of respect from hackers.

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mattmanser
Not on HN. Because he's a patent troll. I am also surprised at the upvotes.

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jacquesm
[http://www.groklaw.net/articlebasic.php?story=20100829012006...](http://www.groklaw.net/articlebasic.php?story=20100829012006847)

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mercurial
403.

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sp332
I'm not getting a 403, but anyway here's an archive.
[https://web.archive.org/web/20140830224034/http://www.grokla...](https://web.archive.org/web/20140830224034/http://www.groklaw.net/articlebasic.php?story=20100829012006847)

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M8
Is it his creation still? What makes it so - several thousand lines of legacy
code or the name of the product?

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joslin01
You might be wondering why you got down-voted. I'll help you out. To create
something is to give birth to it kinda like how I imagine you have parents who
birthed you. I imagine with all your success and hard work, you don't really
feel like your parents "own" you but you wouldn't say to them, "you didn't
create me" because that would be illogical. Same thing for Paul. He created
Microsoft with Bill Gates. You can't take that from him.

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hsnewman
Anybody else have an issue with Microsoft starting out using Harvard's
computer to develop their first product (for free)? Theft of services to me...

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joslin01
Yea, seriously! Harvard should sue. If it wasn't for Harvard providing that
computer (FOR FREE!!), Microsoft wouldn't even exist. These guys man. They
just show no respect. Harvard deserves at least 10% -- maybe even 20% -- of M$
for their seed investment of a (FREE!!) computer to hack on. And if you tell
Harvard this and they go ahead and sue and get 20% I'm gonna sue the shit out
of you if you don't somehow get Harvard to give me some of that percentage
because they wouldn't have even thought to do it if it wasn't for this
(FREE!!) comment.

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bruceb
Harvard's endowment is $36billion. I think they are doing ok.

