Paul Allen talks Gates, guitars on '60 Minutes'

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen gives a wide-ranging interview to"60 Minutes"correspondent Lesley Stahl tonight on CBS TV that offers a peek into the life of the more reclusive of the software giant's co-founders.

Allen recently penned a book that focuses on Microsoft's early years, as well as Allen's efforts as a philanthropist and entrepreneur."Idea Man: A Memoir by the Cofounder of Microsoft"is also a book that has been criticized as taking cheap shots at his Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, whom he accused of trying to take ownership stakes from Allen's share of Microsoft while Allen was battling cancer.

"It's not about {revenge},"Allen told Stahl in the interview."I just felt like it's an important piece of technology history and I should tell it like it happened, and I hope people understand and respect that."

Allen also showed Stahl around his estate, including a tour of his airplane collection, which features the first private space rocket, a yacht with its own submarine, andan extensive guitar collectionwith contributions from greats such as Mick Jagger, Peter Gabriel, Bono, and the guitar on which Jimi Hendrix played"The Star-Spangled Banner"at Woodstock.

Also,"60 Minutes Overtime"featuresrare footage of a 2007 interviewwith Allen and Gates in which they take a stroll down memory lane. Despite their current contentious relationship, this glimpse catches them reminiscing on their old teenage stomping grounds, including a look at where they learned the building blocks of computer programming before they founded Microsoft.

The full"60 Minutes"segment:

"60 Minutes"also talked with John Cook and Todd Bishop of the tech blog Geekwire.com about whether Allen's book was part of a vendetta against Gates.

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