Photograph by Sergei Remezov/Reuters

1

NEW TECH WORLD The scale of the industry has changed greatly since Simonyi worked as a researcher at Xerox PARC in the 1970s. "When we started to work on the Alto"--an experimental PC--"we had been using one of the first 1-Kbit dynamic RAM chips. It was an amazing experience."

2

EARLY MICROSOFTIE Simonyi joined Microsoft in 1981 at the urging of Bob Metcalfe, the inventor of Ethernet. "I decided to leave Xerox because I didn't believe in their commitment to bring technology to market. We put together a list of the key players, and Microsoft and Bill Gates were the first ones on the list." Simonyi held a number of titles at Microsoft, including chief architect for a dozen years.

3

BEST WORK The biggest, most important Microsoft bet, Simonyi says, was the graphical user interface. "We made that bet way before anybody else did, including Apple. We had been trying to sell mice before there were really any applications for mice." He left Microsoft to found Intentional in 2002.

4

SPACE TOURIST Simonyi bought himself a spot on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft that went to the space station in April. Before that, he'd seen both the first shuttle and Apollo 9 take off. Then he traveled to Russia to see a launch and found out flying in space was actually possible for a civilian. "That's how it started."

5

RADIO EARTH Simonyi set up ham radio contact with schools and Boy Scouts from space. "When I used the space station call sign NA1SS, there was always someone to talk to."