In 1983, when Microsoft was still a small (if fast-growing), privately-held software company, Allen left his company to battle Hodgkin's disease, undergoing radiation therapy and a bone marrow transplant. (He retained a substantial stake in the company, which eventually made him fabulously wealthy.) A year ago, Allen underwent an "undisclosed medical procedure" that took him away from a local awards ceremony attended by his Microsoft partner Bill Gates.

His health then seemed to improve, but now Allen's announced a diagnosis of "diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, a relatively common for of lymphoma." The good news: Allen believes he'll be able to continue his role as chairman of investment firm Vulcan, Inc. And he's been through this before. As Bill Gates told TechFlash, " I know [Allen] to be a strong and resilient individual."

(Pic: Allen, left, with his friend Gates at a 2000 Portland Trail Blazers game. Getty Images.)

First, there's the profile pic, showing a man playing a classic Fender guitar across his midsection. The face is cropped out, but it looks a lot like Allen enjoying one of his favorite pastimes. Even the ring on the right hand looks like one Allen has been known to wear. And the "interests" section lists many of Allen's favorite musicians, starting with Jimi Hendrix.

Continuing down the page, "Merman" identifies himself as as a single, straight Aquarius who wants children "someday" and attended "some college." (Allen dropped out of Washington State University before going on to found Microsoft with Bill Gates, another college dropout.) The background picture is of a man scuba diving. Even behind the mask, it's pretty clear who that is.

The state assembly refused to consider the matter by Ballmer's April 10 deadline, and now Seattle mayor Greg Nickles has turned out the city's pockets and come up with nothing but lint. Meanwhile, Ballmer's moved on, issuing ultimatums to Yahoo instead — at least he isn't asking taxpayers to help him cover that deal.(Photo by Andrew Hitchcock)

At one point, I asked Cuban about his interest in buying the Chicago Cubs. I already knew what his answer would be; I'd recently spoken to baseball sources for a story for New York magazine that made it clear Cuban, no matter how many billions he had, would never be allowed into the grey-haired old-fashioned clique of baseball owners. The guy has no chance. But, if just to promote himself as a tilter toward windmills, he stayed strong.

Don't count me out yet. Don't count me out. All [baseball owners] have to do is call other NBA owners, and there are NBA owners who are part owners of Major League Baseball teams, who see me in the meetings. They know me beyond what the media write and how websites like Deadspin characterize me. They know that I contribute as a partner. I hope, along with the money, that that's the important thing.

In our world of social networking and high-definition television, Mark Cuban is the 1,000-pound gorilla in every room. But in the boardrooms of professional sports, he's just this punk Internet new money kid who doesn't understand how proper decorum and deals get made. And Mark Cuban is almost 50 years old! He's old enough to be Mark Zuckerberg's dad!

Cuban's hardly the only one to run into an old-money, new-money fight in the sports world. Paul Allen had his own issues after buying the Portland Trail Blazers and the Seattle Seahawks, and Research In Motion CEO Jim Balsillie has run into nothing but brick walls with his attempted purchase of the Pittsburgh Penguins and continued moves to try to move the Nashville Predators to Hamilton, Canada. These are new thinkers, with new ideas and new ways of doing business. This is not how professional sports operate, so they are shunned as radicals, or rejected all together. Most often, their idealistic notions of "changing the game" are crushed under the unceasing inertia of The Norm. Owning a sports team doesn't turn out to be nearly as fun as they thought. What is new and different must be crushed. This is why Mark Cuban will never own the Cubs, no matter how much money he waves in front of the Tribune Corp.

Every sports fan has daydreamed of falling into sudden riches, buying their own sports team and running it on their own whim. Now, all three of those things are equally unlikely; money just isn't enough anymore. The engines of finance and technology are driven by innovation; sports runs away from it, terrified. Mark Cuban will never be the next Ted Turner unless he changes his last name to Selig.

Since accumulating billions at the side of college pal Bill Gates, Allen has tended to erode his wealth, not add to it, with his investments. TechTV, Oxygen, Charter Communications, and even his American pro sports teams have been money losers. Rather than making wise investments, Allen's company, Vulcan, seems more aimed at catering to the mogul's whims. Maybe the billionaire intends to create a private telephone network for himself and his alien friends.

DFJ's Melton is clearly no dummy; Stanford's not in the habit of issuing degrees to the like. But she joins an investing team filled with other back-benchers. Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen and Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz have also put money into Redfin, but Allen and Schultz tapped underlings to serve on Redfin's board. If Draper, Jurvetson, Allen, and Schultz really intend Redfin to upend the real-estate industry, why aren't they backing it personally? Clearly, Redfin isn't a star of their portfolios, or an idea that really captures these Internet dreamers' imaginations. They're aiming for a base hit at best — which is why they bunted when it came to picking their board representatives.

• Sources say venture capital firm Bridgescale is throwing a party for over 100 people at the Quadrus conference center on Sand Hill Road.
• Note to Alleywag applicants: We found writers for Friday and Sunday, thanks!
• Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen sells a chunk of his share in Dreamworks Animation, giving the New York Post a chance to drag up the worst possible photo of him (shown here), even worse than the shot of Yahoo CEO Terry Semel they rant the other day. Really, are they paying a kid with a camphone to sneak into meetings with these execs, or are they just blowing up 16x16 images? [New York Post]
• By the way, if you haven't been watching Bill Gates, the Microsoft founder is spending his days saving the world from AIDS. In other news, Mac fanboys still call him a devil because he built a crappy operating system. [Sci-Tech Today]
• Another Microsoft exec leaves to "spend more time with his family." Can we get a new alibi already, or has no one in tech actually learned to spend time with their families before they get unpopular at work and are shoved into retirement? [Register]
• No tech mogul for prez — Nextel cofounder and former Virginia governor Mark Warner announced today he won't enter the '08 race. [Washington Post]
• Dear Motley Fool: Shut up and eat your Grand Slam. [Motley Fool]

The Google jet being custom-fitted for founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin is a monumental achievement in the size wars of Silicon Valley billionaires. Larry and Sergey's Boeing 767 outclasses all other corporate jets in length. As shown above, its impressive girth also dwarfs those of lesser moguls.

Those with a penetrating gaze will notice that the cockpit has been removed from the drawing of the 767, so any missing optical inches are due to the excised tip.

Earlier: Sergey and Larry's Google jet, mapped

"All along," says Farzad, "Allen has acted in ways that make him seem either oblivious or indifferent to the plight of ordinary shareholders." Well sure — Allen's worth over $22 billion. If Charter dies, he just needs to mortgage SpaceShipOne again.

Charter: Cable's Sucker Stock [BusinessWeek]

The tech moguls gave to a wide range of recipients this year. Bill Gates is curing children in Africa, and Larry Ellison is donating to the poverty-stricken people of Harvard University. Such a noble man, Larry. Here's a breakdown of the top tech donations:

Missing: Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Steve Jobs, Jerry Yang...guess "changing the world" only goes as far as Gmail, iPods, and webcast reality shows. (Okay, Larry and Sergey have the Google foundation. Did they not bother putting their own pennies in the collection basket?)

The 2005 Slate 60 [Slate]

$97 million: Bill Gates spent seven years building his estate. The Gates Mansion has a reception hall, theater, boathouse, and underground garage. The world's richest man also bought a $14.4 million dollar buffer of land around the mansion. And, we assume, to keep Steve Ballmer far from his children.

$38 million: Every now and then, one investment has to tank. It's weird enough that John Doerr thought his Dean Kamen's Segway would make billions; what's mind-blowing is that he thought it might be "bigger than the Internet." It's unwise to make business decisions when still woozy from a Segway ride.

$25 million: Paul Allen funded SpaceShipOne, the private spacecraft that won the $10 million X-Prize. Great investment return, right? But SpaceShipOne is officially the coolest billionaire toy to date. Microsoft's co-founder also throws money at the SETI Institute (surely an extravagant use of his millions; if Vulcans haven't already landed in the Valley, what else could get them to come?)

$21 million: Jeff Bezos is building a rocket-ship launching station in hopes of sending passengers into orbit and eventually building permanent space colonies. The Amazon founder's space base should be finished any month now.

Have any favorites of your own?

Amazon founder's space venture takes shape [MSNBC]
SpaceShipOne [Scaled Composites]
Paul Allen [SETI Institute]
Tour of Bill Gates's estate [US News]
An Inventor Unveils His Mysterious Personal Transportation Device [NYT]