^ I wish, wouldn't that have been dope? "The Flux-Capaciter is connected hard drive scanner.........FAMS!"
Did anyone watch this? Not too bad. It's the most I've ever heard him say. He was jammin' on guitar for part of it. http://twitpic.com/4maae5
I watched it. It seemed like Leslie Stahl was trying make a bigger deal into PA's mention of how difficult Gates could be to deal with back in the day. It sounded like Paul simply wanted to give his account of history. And told it like it was. I really doubt Gates will have a big problem with the description of him. So he could be an ass. A lot of great businessmen are assholes at work. It's part of what drives them to be the best, and to make others work harder. 60 minutes did a good job, but you could tell they wanted a little controversy. And there wasn't any. Overall It sounds like PA was a little more than just Gates' friend and right hand man. Sounds like Paul was the idea man. While Gates knew how to drive the business to be successful.
I watched it, thought he came off pretty good. Well spoken and some humor. I thought the comparisons to Howard Hughes were off base; there is a difference between being eccentric and being totally off one's onion! Sometimes really driven people can't understand that not everyone is as single-minded as they. We've seen it in sports, for example, as well. The only thing I didn't really like was Stahl referring to "search for aliens" which makes it sound like some UFO conspiracy theory. Actually the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence is a serious scientific project that was funded by NASA until their funds were cut. Allen stepped in and covered costs, and there are people in the scientific community who are very glad of that. Overall he came off a lot better than Sarah Palin did, but that' setting the bar pretty low!
Here is some stuff that didn't make the 60mins interview. It shows lots of his toys, him jamming with Mick Jagger, Dan Akroyd, parts of his house, office and his private basketball court. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504803_162-20054444-10391709.html?tag=strip PA even has his own band of professional musicians that he brings with him everywhere including on the yacht so he can jam whenever he feels like it.
Stahl's angle really bothered me. Running a business is all consuming; conflict is inevitable. It's a legitimate way to run a business: any good idea should be strong enough to withstand the crucible of debate. PA is clearly a guy that doesn't relish conflict, so it can be uncomfortable for someone like him. Really, he's not too different personality wise from Steve Wozniak. What Gates and Ballmer did was dispicable, but logical for them as they were in the center of it. They were rightly concerned what would happen if PA died and they had 1/3 of the company out of their control. It's a big deal. Discussion how to dilute the shares is shitty, but it's a well-worn path. Gates and Allen are still friends, right? So I would guess they've had it out and Allen has forgiven Gates. Sometimes real life is more interesting than manufactured drama. Leslie Stahl would be well-served to remember it. Paul Allen is a very interesting guy; doing a feature of his life is more than sufficient to hold interest.
As a scientist, I agree 100%. One of the reasons I get so irritated by what passes for "debate", especially on TV, they get 2 individuals to shout at one another, each gets one sentence each. That's not debate.
