Steve Jobs would likely approve of successor Tim Cook's ascetic condominium, designated "unit A" on a shared Palo Alto single-family home lot. He would be far less happy with the high-ranking Google executive in the "unit B" in-law dwelling right behind it.

Silicon Valley is a meritocracy. Yeah, right! Take a look at who's behind Google's new $100 million venture-capital fund, and you'll see how things really work in the cradle of technology.