Microsoft Word Creator in Spaaaaaaaaace

I'm finding myself oddly fascinated by the news that Charles Simonyi, the former Microsoft software architect and current billionaire, is now the fifth civilian ever to be rocketed into space. (He's on his way to the International Space Station onboard a Soyuz spacecraft that took off from Kazakhstan on Saturday.)

It should go without saying that I wish him and the two cosmonauts he's traveling with a safe, productive, and exciting flight. It should also go without saying that I'm insanely jealous. (Technology journalists rarely get the chance to go into space, which may have something to do with the fact that we rarely get the chance to be billionaires.)

But this being PC World, I'm as interested in Simonyi's lengthy software career as I am in his spacefaring ways. Herewith, a few facts about him, mostly cribbed from the indispensable 1993 book Gates, by PC World's own Stephen Manes and co-author Paul Andrews....

* Simonyi, who was born in Budapest, rose to prominence at XEROX PARC during the period in the 1970s when that remarkable organization invented a remarkably high percentage of the things which the computer industry continues to milk to this day.

* While there, he personally wrote Bravo, the first what-you-see-is-what-you-get word processor. It ran on the Alto, a machine with a bitmapped display, a mouse, Ethernet, a laser printer, and other items that were almost unimaginably advanced in the mid-70s.

* In 1980, Simonyi visited Microsoft--then primarily a developer of programming languages--and blew away Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer with PARC's cool stuff and his own ideas for how Microsoft might dive into productivity software; in 1981, he became Microsoft's director of advanced product development.

* Simonyi went on to be one of the prime movers behind Microsoft Word, the Bravo-like 1983 application for the IBM PC that was originally going to be called Multi-Tool Word.

* He also spearheaded the 1985 spreadsheet called Excel--first available for the Mac, and the successor to a famously unsuccessful Microsoft spreadsheet called Multiplan.

* In 1981, Simonyi received 1.5 percent of the stock of Microsoft, then a smallish private company. That might possibly explain how he wound up ab able to afford a trip to space in 2007.

* Simonyi left Microsoft in 2002 to found a company with the wonderful name of Intentional Software. It has an entertaining logo with a packwards E and an upside-down A.

* An amusing anecdote involves Simonyi not knowing how to turn off Clippy, the legendarily annoying Office Assistant in Microsoft Word--and wishing for a meta-Clippy to help him figure out how to do it.

* He's currently dating Martha Stewart.

* He's been admirably philanthropic, especially in regards to Seattle-area charities, giving far more back to the world than he's investing in his space trip (which reportedly cost him in the neighborhood of $25 million).

Simonyi's Charles in Space site is a flashy and ambitious guide to his big adventure. Check it out, even if, like me, you get a little more envious every time you learn more about the expedition....

Comments

;)

He is soon to be toppled as world's richest, therefore to escape from this embarrassment he is finding a place in the space.

gauravkanoongo

April 12, 2007

10:07 PM PT