{"id":23107,"date":"2018-10-16T11:56:26","date_gmt":"2018-10-16T15:56:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=23107"},"modified":"2025-05-05T09:33:50","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T13:33:50","slug":"paul-allen-rip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2018\/10\/16\/paul-allen-rip\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Allen, RIP"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vulcan<\/a> (MacRumors<\/a>):<\/p>\n

\n

It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of our founder Paul G. Allen, co-founder of Microsoft and noted technologist, philanthropist, community builder, conservationist, musician and supporter of the arts. Mr. Allen died on Monday afternoon, October 15, 2018, from complications of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in Seattle. Mr. Allen was 65 years old.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Harry McCracken<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Altair BASIC’s success led to the duo starting a company called “Micro-Soft” to write BASICs for other computers. Over time, the company produced additional programming languages, operating systems, word processors, spreadsheets, email apps, accounting packages, server software, CD-ROM titles, web browsers, and . . . well, you get the idea.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Allen, who became a billionaire in 1990, was certainly involved in plenty of projects that didn’t go much of anywhere—the FlipStart PC<\/a>, a tiny Windows palmtop, sticks in my mind—but that’s explained, in part, by the sheer volume of things he did. He funded companies in out-there categories such as fusion energy<\/a> as well as more straightforward areas like social media<\/a>, tried to turn a cable company<\/a> into a next-generation communications behemoth, and pioneered private space flight<\/a>. He was an exceptionally generous philanthropist<\/a> in areas from ocean health to Ebola research.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Update (2018-10-18): Bill Gates<\/a> (Hacker News<\/a>):<\/p>\n

In fact, Microsoft would never have happened without Paul. In December 1974, he and I were both living in the Boston area—he was working, and I was going to college. One day he came and got me, insisting that I rush over to a nearby newsstand with him. When we arrived, he showed me the cover of the January issue of Popular Electronics<\/em>. It featured a new computer called the Altair 8800, which ran on a powerful new chip. Paul looked at me and said: “This is happening without us!” That moment marked the end of my college career and the beginning of our new company, Microsoft.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

See also: Robert X. Cringely<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vulcan (MacRumors): It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of our founder Paul G. Allen, co-founder of Microsoft and noted technologist, philanthropist, community builder, conservationist, musician and supporter of the arts. Mr. Allen died on Monday afternoon, October 15, 2018, from complications of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in Seattle. Mr. Allen was 65 years […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"2018-10-16T15:56:29Z","apple_news_api_id":"c61198b8-b0b4-484f-9631-37ddb959e79d","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2025-05-05T13:33:52Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAQ==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AxhGYuLC0SE-WMTfduVnnnQ","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2759,295,37,208],"class_list":["post-23107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-altair","tag-history","tag-microsoft","tag-rip"],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23107"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23118,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23107\/revisions\/23118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}