Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 15:33, 23 December 2014

This page is not a forum for general discussion about Larry Ellison. Any such comments may be removed or refactored. Please limit discussion to improvement of this article. You may wish to ask factual questions about Larry Ellison at the Reference desk.

Template:Vital article

This article has not yet been rated on Misplaced Pages's content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects:

Please add the quality rating to the {{WikiProject banner shell}} template instead of this project banner. See WP:PIQA for details. Biography This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Misplaced Pages's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography Please add the quality rating to the {{WikiProject banner shell}} template instead of this project banner. See WP:PIQA for details. United States High‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject United States, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of topics relating to the United States of America on Misplaced Pages. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the ongoing discussions. Template Usage Articles Requested! Become a Member Project Talk Alerts United StatesWikipedia:WikiProject United StatesTemplate:WikiProject United StatesUnited States High This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale. Please add the quality rating to the {{WikiProject banner shell}} template instead of this project banner. See WP:PIQA for details. New York City Top‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject New York City, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of New York City-related articles on Misplaced Pages. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.New York CityWikipedia:WikiProject New York CityTemplate:WikiProject New York CityNew York City Top This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale. Please add the quality rating to the {{WikiProject banner shell}} template instead of this project banner. See WP:PIQA for details. Computing High‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Computing, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of computers, computing, and information technology on Misplaced Pages. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.ComputingWikipedia:WikiProject ComputingTemplate:WikiProject ComputingComputing High This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale. Please add the quality rating to the {{WikiProject banner shell}} template instead of this project banner. See WP:PIQA for details. Business High‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Business, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of business articles on Misplaced Pages. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.BusinessWikipedia:WikiProject BusinessTemplate:WikiProject BusinessWikiProject Business High This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale. Template:WP1.0

Contradictory Birthplace

On the summary, his birthplace is listed as Manhattan, New York City, New York. In the Biography, its listed as The Bronx, New York City, New York. I Don't know which is correct, so I wont change either, but I thought I'd point it out in case someone else knows. Everingham.Curtis (talk) 04:42, 20 July 2009 (UTC)

I just did a quick check by googling each... and got the same contradictory results. Theres sites that say both. Wouldnt shock me if a lot of them were sourced from this very wiki... how reliable. BBnet3000 (talk) 00:38, 9 October 2009 (UTC)

Additional Information

I think there ar. For example there is no mention of Larry dropping out of university. In fact quite a few on the billionare list did just that. An in The pressure of the draft was enormous. Almost 3 million men, many of them draftees, served in Vietnam. A guy who dropped out of college was under added conscription pressure. So no bio of any person who came of age during the Vietnam era is complete without some explanation of how this was handled. Ignoring this issue is akin to ignoring the very biggest issue of an entire era.

The draft was only by lottery later on; atalk) 07:19, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Images

Comment to "Jawed" "added photo of Larry Ellison", not very flattering picture. - Jerryseinfeld 23:59, 11 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I can't believe that's the best picture of the guy we can find. - Matthew.Townsend 12:10, 30 Dec 2004 (EST)

It is the best picture of him in existence. Jawed 08:23, 6 Jan 2005 (UTC)

I think it's a hilarious photo and burst out laughing when I saw it, but I think leaving it in the article must be a violation of -something-. --NeuronExMachina 10:10, 11 Jan 2005 (UTC)

It's a funny picture to be sure, but it wouldn't be very flattering to use that photograph in an encyclopedia. We can use a different picture without adding any sort of bias, so I think we should. - furrykef (Talk at me) 20:53, 14 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Larry would like the baseball pic. He regularly eats competitors for lunch.

Jewish

The sentence "Larry Ellison is thought to hold Jewish religious beliefs (ie Judaism)" is awkward. I suggest removing it entirely. Penalba2000 (talk) 02:23, 11 October 2008 (UTC)

I added some commentary on his religious beliefs as follows:

• Although Ellison was raised in a Reform Jewish home by his step-parents, who attended synagogue regularly, he remained a religious sceptic. Edelson states: "While I think I am religious in one sense, the particular dogmas of Judaism are not dogmas I subscribe to. I don't believe that they are real. They're interesting stories. They're interesting mythology, and I certainly respect people who believe that believe these are literally true, but I don't...I see no evidence for this stuff." At age thirteen, Ellison refused to be bar mitzvah.

• Should not the religion part of the infobox be adjusted to say "agnostic" or "not religious"
• Also if there is an ethnic portion of the infobox, should it not say Jewish and Italian Patapsco913 (talk) 19:16, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

References

1. Matthew Symonds, Larry Ellison. Software: An Intimate Portrait of Larry Ellison and Oracle Simon and Schuster, 2004. p 19-20

Bastard

Is it really important to say "Ellison was born out of wedlock to a 19-year-old girl"? I don't think his bastard status is relevant or NPOV. In fact I know it's not neutral because it put me off wanting to read the rest of the article. I'm going to be bold and remove it; someone can put it back if it's really that important. --Vik Reykja ♬ 10:35, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I don't think that the unwed mother comment should be too off-putting. It shows how he started with some disadvantages. The article doesn't say that he grew-up poor, but I suspect he did. This might account for some of the appearences of his personality (at least sort of seems to be the case to me) - needing to have the biggest houses, needing to feel safe from earthquakes, buying -up Malibu, etc. I would be interested to find out more about his early years. 24.206.125.213 22:51, 3 July 2006 (UTC)BMIKESCI

I don't think that you will ever be able to see anything about his early years on Misplaced Pages - too many busybodies (people who's lives are consumed with Misplaced Pages) would object to it, say that it was not important, that it was biased, that you are prejudiced, etc.

I think the idea is important but the presentation put me off too. I changed the words around a bit.

Cheers, H. Hall

All I can say is, I am glad that these "Discussion" pages exist on Misplaced Pages, because without them, I wouldn't be able to find half the stuff I am interested in. Given that they know that he was born out of wedlock to a 19-year-old female/woman/girl/whatever, it must be known who his biological mother is, yes? Is she jewish??? Maybe the whole thing was done through a jewish adoption agency, but there is nothing in this Discussion page on it.

Improve

This article is quite confusing. How did Ellison become a billionaire? What does Oracle do?Anthony717 04:35, 19 April 2006 (UTC)

First Paragraph

Quoting the Article: "At South Shore High School, he was a bright but inattentive student. At 15, he began a long-term relationship that lasted for five years and ended sorely—depending on who is asked, he unsuccessfully proposed marriage either once or twice."

What? The paragraph starts with him being in school, then jumps to him "starting a long term relationship" and "proposing marriage"... where did this come from? Then nothing else is said about the relationship in the rest of the paragraph....

famous Japanese feudal style home's coordinates

As noted in Ellison's article, his Woodside, CA estate is quite famous. Needless to say, being as large as it is I was able to easily find it on Google Earth. I'm adding the coordinates next to the reference. Since there is no article on the home (which has an interesting story, as I recall), I assume it would be okay to place here. --Bobak 00:42, 16 December 2006 (UTC)

I thought the house was $40 million. I have a book that describes the house, it can probably be cited from. Tuxide 02:23, 14 February 2007 (UTC)

It's not really that "feudal". It's not like he built a replica of Osaka Castle. The grounds have some elements of Japanese design, lots of big rocks (Ellison really likes big rocks; he had a shower stall carved out of one chunk of rock) and a fog generator to produce the foggy Japanese hillside look. --John Nagle (talk) 17:25, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

Contradictory marriage dates

The 'Personal Life' section say "Since December 18, 1983, he has been married to romance novelist and Oberlin grad Melanie Craft.". However, the 'Career' section says "On 18 December 2003, Ellison married Melanie Craft, a romance novelist, at his Woodside estate. His friend, Apple CEO Steve Jobs, was the official photographer.". So was he married to Melaine Craft in 1983 or 2003? Also, the bit about the marriage/wedding shouldn't be in the career section anyway. --Darksun 20:03, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

Richest Man (Currently)

Currently Larry Ellison is the richest man in the world. Ha.. Not Bill Gates.

• Very rich but not placed in the number 1 position by any of the compilers of 'wealth league tables' Boatman 17:06, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

A perspective of the early RDBMS wars

The following is a perspective from someone that was involved with selecting and using relational database management systems (RDBMSs) in the late '80s and early 90's.

In the late 80's, DB2 ran on mainframes and PC's that ran IBM's OS2 operating system and later System 38's, etc. Unlike DB2, Oracle ran on mini computers including the most popular mini which was the VAX made by Digital Equipment Corp. Mini-computers was therefore Oracle's niche during the 80's and Oracle was viewed as a reliable product.

It should also be noted that Oracle offered their first UNIX version of Oracle in 1984. This is important, because as PCs became more powerful in the early 90's, and companies such as SCO (the original Santa Clara Organization) began providing UNIX for PC's, Oracle had a reliable Unix version of its product available. And Oracle had already made inroads into large corporations with its VAX product. Thus as client-server applications using PC database servers began to take hold in IT shops in the early 90's, Oracle had the patina that large corporations looked for. One of the most important selection considerations at the time was the fact that in the early 90's, Oracle looked like the only UNIX RDBMS that might be around for a while.

Cheers, The link to more information on Larry no longer exists (404). -- —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.83.206.89 (talk) 08:56, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

H. Hall

He was the world's richest man for one day, when his company Oracle went public the day before his competitor, Bill Gate's company, Microsoft.

Hi ,

I believe the RDBMS wars could be hived into a different article. Do we really want this to be a part of Larry's profile ?

Let me know your thoughts. W —Preceding unsigned comment added by 144.160.130.16 (talk) 21:00, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

Can we have more on the insider trading charge

If a politician skims 100k from public funds its all over the NY Times but if a gozillionaire is even questioned about a million dollar insider deal, its buried in the back pages of the financial times. I am sure we can find a couple of articles and an SEC press release somewhere. C'mon people! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.149.231.102 (talk) 20:32, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Larry Ellison net worth

His net worth is about $27 Billion in 2008. His payment is about $72 Million.

Reason for leaving Amdahl

According to one industry old-timer who worked at Amdahl at the same time as Ellison, over dinner last night, Ellison was fired by Amdahl, he didn't voluntarily leave. Interesting gossip of dubious veracity but... do we have any documented source as for why Ellison left Amdahl? Has Ellison ever stated anything about why he left Amdahl? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.202.165.35 (talk) 16:19, 1 March 2011 (UTC)

Lanai

I added information and a source about Ellison's purchase of Lana'i in the "Career" section, and later another editor made a similar addition under "Home", which is a subdivision of "Personal life". I suspect it doesn't need to be in both places, and I have doubts about its inclusion under "Personal life"/"Home": as well known as Ellison is for his luxurious living accommodations, there's no suggestion that he's buying 98% of Lana'i just so he can live there. Ellison hasn't commented on the transaction yet, but current news reports indicate this is a business move: AP reports that "the sellers said he plans substantial investments that will create jobs and stimulate tourism to the island once owned in the 1920s by the founder of Dole Foods Co.". --Arxiloxos (talk) 14:10, 21 June 2012 (UTC)

Military Service

Mr Ellison's entry needs to include his military service. Men his age were going to Vietnam everyday, and his Father, evidently, served in the USAF. What about Mr. Ellison, the younger? Perhaps that is where he learned to fly.

Iron Man 2

I notice that there's no mention of his cameo appearance in Iron Man 2, where Tony Stark calls him the "Oracle of Oracle". I don't really know where to add that, but maybe some of the elves that run around this place may know where to categorise it.124.170.117.78 (talk) 15:48, 12 February 2013 (UTC)

We need a reliable news source to confirm it. If you can provide one I can put it in the article. — Keithbob • Talk • 16:08, 12 February 2013 (UTC)

So movie credits don't count?124.170.117.78 (talk) 17:50, 12 February 2013 (UTC)

http://www.dba-oracle.com/n_ellison_appears_in_iron_man_2_movie.htm

ww.imdb.com/title/tt1228705/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast

http://www.forbes.com/sites/velocity/2010/04/29/elon-musk-larry-ellison-have-cameos-in-iron-man-2/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.170.117.78 (talk) 17:54, 12 February 2013 (UTC)

So this isn't going into the main article then?203.214.90.34 (talk) 09:37, 18 March 2013 (UTC)

I've placed it in the Personal section, cheers!  Done -- — Keithbob • Talk • 20:37, 18 March 2013 (UTC)

Pompous

From the article: " Louis Ellison was a pompous government employee who had made a small fortune in Chicago real estate, only to lose it during the Great Depression." That doesn't sound very NPOV.

I removed it. Perhaps (I get that impression) this is based on something Ellison said personally, then we can quote him (or write "Ellison describes...)if we wan´t it in. He´s not a WP:RS on whether his stepdad was pompous. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 13:26, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

34th America's Cup

I found the article had a note about today's regatta, but there were no references, it made claims that I had never seen before about questionable actions during the finals (not to be confused with the cheating scandal), and other than bias it was rather poorly written. I think I got rid of the point of view issues and made it more clear... but I definitely didn't do a top notch job of it either. Probably worth some clean-up if someone has the time; for example I didn't include and final scores or the like. The bias thing just hit me wrong and I wanted to be sure it was a fair, substantiated retelling of the day's events. 76.103.48.252 (talk) 04:07, 26 September 2013 (UTC)

The sentence: "There is also controversy concerning the Oracle boat's usage of an automated foiling system which resulted in the 8-1 comeback win.", while a more specific charge than the last one is still unreferenced and is not a charge I can find a reference for out and about in the press or from any other credible source. If there is such a source I urge the person making that edit to supply it. While the overall AC72 design and format of the race was controversial, no mention that I'm aware has surfaced that Oracle made 'controversial' or 'questionable' modifications aside from the cheating event during the America's Cup World Series; this includes the race commentary, any press that I'm aware nor am I aware of any such charges from Emirates Team New Zealand itself. I appreciate that the loss was a hard pill to swallow for many New Zealanders (the source of the edits that I believe violate the NPOV rules), however these such charges need to be substantiated with proper and credible references: Do that and I won't revert the change. 76.103.48.252 (talk) 03:34, 1 October 2013 (UTC)

Per WP:BLP any text that is not sourced may be challenged and removed. Its up to others to provide a reliable source if they want to re-add it. So your removal is valid and prudent.-- — Keithbob • Talk • 20:59, 3 October 2013 (UTC)

The gizmo referred to was extensively discussed in the NZ media at the time. The part was originally from a Boeing 747 and designed to automatically control small wing flap movement. The new part was modified in New Zealand and fitted by a team of leading kiwi boat builders who were rushed to USA by Larry Ellison. Before the fitting Team USA never won a race. Afterwards they never lost a race. Team NZ did not protest as the fitting ,though questionable (there were not supposed to be any any fully automatic fittings)and probably breached the spirit of a fair contest,it was apparently just within the wording of the rules.

Category addition - background

Larry Ellison’s mother was an unwed 19-year-old at the time of his birth. After he contracted pneumonia at the age of nine months, his Jewish mother allowed her aunt and uncle to adopt him.http://www.jspace.com/news/articles/the-jewish-billionaires-of-forbes/8044

Who is a Jew? -According to halakha, a Jew by birth must be born to a Jewish mother. Halakha states that the acceptance of the principles and practices of Judaism does not make a person a Jew. But, those born Jewish do not lose that status because they cease to be observant Jews, even if they adopt the practices of another religion. Major Torp (talk) 17:07, 7 March 2014 (UTC)

References

1. Katz, Lisa. "Am I Jewish?". About.com. Retrieved 8 November 2013.

Life extensionist

(cur - prev) 18:14, 3 May 2014‎ 213.109.230.96 (talk)‎ . . (35,074 bytes) (+32)‎ . . (→‎External links: Category:Life extensionists) (undo)

(cur - prev) 19:40, 3 May 2014‎ William Avery (talk - contribs)‎ . . (35,042 bytes) (-32)‎ . . (Reverted 1 pending edit by 213.109.230.96 to revision 605663861 by Avaya1: Unexplained; not supported by article text) (undo)

* https://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2011/sep2011_The-Ellison-Medical-Foundation-The-Ellison-Medical-Foundation_01.htm
* http://www.businessinsider.com/ellison-thiel-also-trying-to-cure-death-2013-9#!IAQKJ
* http://money.ca.msn.com/investing/odd-ways-tycoons-spend-their-money?page=2
* http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/08/20/the-immortality-financiers-the-billionaires-who-want-to-live-forever.html

Larry Ellison's support for the life extension cause of the anti-aging movement is evidenced by interviews with him and, much more importantly, by the fact that he even created his own Ellison Medical Foundation that does research on the aging process and age-related diseases. See sources above. "Death makes me very angry," he is quoted as confessing, ". . .How can a person be there and then just vanish, just not be there?" Having said what I've said, I believe it's acceptable for me to revive now my edit. 213.109.230.96 (talk) 03:11, 5 May 2014 (UTC)

Recent lead edits

Does anyone know what's going on with the IP that keeps changing the lead? This article keeps popping up on the Special:PendingChanges list with regard to how Ellison is regarded. Per WP:MOS statements such as "known for", "best known", and such are allowed to establish a person's WP:NOTABILITY. This person keeps objecting to this. Anyone else care to comment? --Scalhotrod (Talk) ☮ღ☺ 18:54, 22 December 2014 (UTC)

One editor's humble opinion follows. (Full disclosure: I saw this because the IP editor in question made a near-identical edit on an article on my watchlist. When an IP editor states Misplaced Pages policy in an edit summary, I automatically check to make sure that the summary is not an intentional misdirection. )

To both editors: argumentum ad hominem hurts your cases and diminishes your arguments. I would ask you both to remember that a dialogue is always preferable to an edit war.

To the issue, then: is "best known as the co-founder and chairman of Oracle Corporation" appropriate within an encyclopedia? To most who know of him, probably. Some might argue he's best known as one of the richest people in the world, but not specifically why. How much weight does this argument deserve? Some might argue he's best known for his participation in and support for the America's Cup. Again, how much weight? (In any event, I agree that the article's lead is woefully inadequate.)

Personally, I have no problem with the "best known" designation given how news articles tend to include this data prominently. That having been said, if we're being strictly encyclopedic, especially as regards biographies of living persons, I prefer to see potential POV cited to a reliable, secondary source. —ATinySliver/ 06:08, 23 December 2014 (UTC)

To the user who falsely accused me of vandalism: you clearly knew that it was obviously no such thing. This kind of dishonesty and immaturity is hugely damaging to the encyclopaedia. I expect an apology. And no, nothing in the MOS gives any support to your position. Whether it's dishonesty or ignorance that led you to falsely claim so, it's not an excuse. You should apologise for that too.

To everyone else: X is Y is simple, objective, verifiable. X is best known for being Y is verbose, subjective, and unverifiable. Although I've been asking for literally years, no-one has ever been able to suggest what information they think is being added by trying to guess what people might think of the facts instead of just stating the facts. 82.33.71.205 (talk) 13:21, 23 December 2014 (UTC)

Misplaced Pages is consensus based. That's where our policies arose from. In this case, Ellison is mostly notable for his role in Oracle - he is what Steve Jobs is to Apple and what Bill Gates is to Microsoft. Sometimes, "best known for" is clunky and subjective; other times it's okay (eg: this article, David Gilmour and The Who). Whoever accused the IP of vandalism, it isn't - AGF please. Ritchie333 14:26, 23 December 2014 (UTC)

There is no reasonable question as to what Ellison is best known for. Inclusion in the lead succinctly identifies why he is included in an encyclopedia. - SummerPhD (talk) 15:32, 23 December 2014 (UTC)

• Biography articles of living people
• All unassessed articles
• C-Class biography articles
• WikiProject Biography articles
• C-Class United States articles
• High-importance United States articles
• C-Class United States articles of High-importance
• WikiProject United States articles
• C-Class New York City articles
• Top-importance New York City articles
• WikiProject New York City articles
• C-Class Computing articles
• High-importance Computing articles
• All Computing articles
• C-Class WikiProject Business articles
• High-importance WikiProject Business articles
• WikiProject Business articles