News.blog: How tech billionaires live

Ever wanted to be a fly on the uber-mansion walls of Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Steve Jobs or Michael Dell?

Forbes.com has published a little article (plus a slide show and video) on the very big homes of America's tech billionaires. You can't see inside the digs, but you do get a look at the sprawling exteriors, as well as some details on the way-above-average domestic accoutrements.

Coming in at number one with a net worth of $46.6bn is Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, whose 6,100-square-metre compound is built into a hillside on the edge of Lake Washington outside Seattle. The home has a 20m-long swimming pool with an underwater music system. There's a domed library with two 'secret' bookcase doors and a 93-square-metre dining room, according to Forbes.

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison shows up at number nine with a net worth of $18.4bn. He lives about 50km south of San Francisco in an estate styled as an imperial Japanese palace. Then there's Michael Dell at number 18. He lives in a 3,000-square-metre hilltop mansion in Austin, Texas. Jobs, ranked 194 with a net worth of $3bn, kicks back in a 1,500-square-metre mansion in Woodside, California.

Not too shabby -- and not too surprising given that Forbes' list of the richest Americans continues to be quite hospitable to the biggest names in tech.