Richard Allen Garriott de Cayeux (né Garriott; July 4, 1961) is an English-American video-game developer and entrepreneur. He is also known by his alter egos "Lord British" in the game series Ultima and "General British" in Tabula Rasa. Garriott, who is the son of NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, was originally a game designer and programmer, and is now involved in a number of aspects of computer-game development. On October 12, 2008, Richard flew aboard the Soyuz TMA-13 mission to the International Space Station as a private astronaut,[3][4] returning 12 days later aboard Soyuz TMA-12. He became the second astronaut, and first from the U.S., to have a parent who was also a space traveler.

Garriott founded a new video-game-development company in 2009, called Portalarium.[5] His current project is Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues where his primary role is as CEO and Creative Director. In 2011, Garriott married Laetitia de Cayeux. Both changed their last names to Garriott de Cayeux.[6]

Contents

1 Early life

2 Game design career

3 Spaceflight

4 Other accomplishments and interests

5 Awards

6 Games

7 References

8 External links

Early life

Richard Allen Garriott was born in Cambridge, England on July 4, 1961,[7][8] to Helen Mary Garriott (née Walker) and Owen Garriott, one of NASA's first scientist-astronauts (selected in NASA Astronaut Group 4), who flew on Skylab 3 and Space Shuttle mission STS-9.[9][10] Richard was raised in Nassau Bay, Texas from the age of about two months.[1][9]

What Garriott later described as "my first real exposure to computers" occurred in 1975, during his freshman year of high school at Clear Creek High School. As he wanted more experience beyond the single one-semester BASIC class the school offered, and as a fan of The Lord of the Rings and Dungeons & Dragons, Garriott convinced the school to let him create a self-directed course in programming, in which he created fantasy computer games on the school's teletype machine.[11][12] Garriott later estimated that he wrote 28 computer fantasy games during high school.[8]

In the summer of 1977, his parents sent him to the University of Oklahoma for a seven-week computer camp. Shortly after he arrived, some of the other boys attending the camp introduced themselves. When Garriott replied to their greeting of "Hi" with "Hello" they decided he sounded like he was from Britain, and gave him the nickname "British". Garriott uses the name to this day for his various gaming characters, including Ultima character Lord British and Tabula Rasa character General British;[13] however, despite his nickname and birthplace, his parents moved to Texas when he was a baby and his accent is American rather than British.[14]

Game design career

Garriott began writing computer games in 1974. His first games were created on and for teletype terminals. The code was stored on paper tape spools and the game was displayed as an ongoing print-out on the spools of printer paper produced by teletype machines. In summer 1979, Garriott worked at a ComputerLand store where he had his first encounter with Apple computers. Inspired by their video monitors with color graphics, he began to add perspective view to his own games. After he created Akalabeth for fun, the owner of the store convinced Garriott it might sell. Garriott spent US$200 printing copies of a manual and cover sheet that his mother had drawn, then he put copies of the game in Ziploc bags to sell at the store. Although Garriott sold fewer than a dozen copies of Akalabeth at the store, one copy made it to California Pacific, who signed a deal with him. The game sold over 30,000 copies, and Garriott received $5 for each copy sold.[12][15][16] Akalabeth is considered the first published Computer Role Playing Game. In the fall, Garriott entered the University of Texas at Austin, joined the school's fencing team and later joined the Society for Creative Anachronism. He created Ultima I while at the university. It was published by California Pacific Computers and sold in Ziploc plastic bags, as was common in those days.

Steve Jackson Games (SJG) maintained a friendly relationship with Garriott and, when he visited the SJG office one day, Garriott was so impressed by the artwork of Denis Loubet that he commissioned him to paint the cover of Ultima I (1980). Loubet subsequently painted many other covers for Garriott's games.[17]

In the early 1980s, Garriott continued to develop the Ultima series of computer games, eventually leaving university to author them on a full-time basis.[12] Originally programmed for the Apple II, the Ultima series later became available on several platforms. Ultima II was published by Sierra On-Line, as they were the only company that would agree to publish it in a box together with a printed cloth map. By the time he developed Ultima III, Garriott, together with his brother Robert, their father Owen and Chuck Bueche established their own video game publisher, Origin Systems, to handle publishing and distribution, in part due to controversy with Sierra over royalties for the PC port of Ultima II.[18][19][7]

Garriott, dressed as his "Lord British" persona, at the 2018 Game Developers Conference

Garriott sold Origin Systems to Electronic Arts in September 1992 for 30 million dollars.[20] In 1997, he coined the term massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), giving a new identity to the nascent genre previously known as graphical MUDs.[21] In 1999 and 2000, EA canceled all of Origin's new development projects, including Privateer Online, and Harry Potter Online.[22][23] In the midst of these events, Garriott resigned from the company and returned to the industry by forming Destination Games in April 2000 with his brother and Starr Long (the producer of Ultima Online). Once Garriott's non-compete agreement with EA expired a year later, Destination partnered with NCsoft where he acted as a producer and designer of MMORPGs. After that, he became the CEO of NCsoft Austin, also known as NC Interactive.

Tabula Rasa failed to generate a significant amount of money during its initial release, despite its seven-year development period. On November 11, 2008, in an open letter on the Tabula Rasa website, Garriott announced his plans to leave NCsoft to pursue new interests sparked by his spaceflight experiences. Later, however, Garriott claimed that the letter was forged as a means of forcing him out of his position and that he had had no intention of leaving.[24][not in citation given (See discussion.)] Garriott reviewed and signed this announcement, but did not sign a resignation letter that had been drafted for him by NCSoft.[25] On November 24, 2008 NCsoft announced that it planned to end the live service of Tabula Rasa. The servers shut down on February 28, 2009, after a period of free play from January 10 onward for existing account holders.[26]

In July 2010, an Austin District Court awarded Garriott US$28 million in his lawsuit against NCsoft, finding that the company did not appropriately handle his departure in 2008. In October 2011, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed the judgment.[27]

Garriott founded the company Portalarium in 2009. The company is developing Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues, a spiritual successor to the Ultima series, with Garriott having remarked that had they been able to secure the rights to the Ultima intellectual property from Electronic Arts, the game could have become Ultima Online 2 in name.[28][29][30][31] On March 8, 2013, Portalarium launched a Kickstarter campaign[32] for Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues.[33] An early access version of the game was released on Steam on November 24, 2014, and the game was fully released in March 2018.[34][35]

Spaceflight

In 1983 Softline reported that "Garriott wants to go into space but doesn't see it happening in the predictable future ... He has frequently joked with his father about stowing away on a spaceship, and recently his speculations have been sounding uncomfortably realistic".[7] The income from the success of Garriott's video game career allowed him to pursue his interest in spaceflight, and the sale of Origin Systems allowed him to invest in Space Adventures and purchase the ticket to become the first private citizen to fly into space. However, Garriott suffered financial setbacks in 2001 after the dot-com bubble burst, and he was forced to sell his seat to Dennis Tito.[36]

He then says he returned to making games, to make money, and once he had enough, put down a non-refundable deposit to go into space. During the mandatory medical examination, they found he had a hemangioma on his liver, which could cause potentially fatal internal bleeding if there was a rapid depressurization of a spacecraft. Told he had to either give up his large deposit, or undergo life-threatening surgery, he decided to have the operation, and now has a 16-inch scar from it. He spent a year in Russia training before he launched into space.[36]

Richard Garriott (far right) aboard the ISS on 23 October 2008 with the MIT SPHERES Satellites

On September 28, 2007, Space Adventures announced that Garriott would fly to the International Space Station in October 2008 as a self-funded private astronaut, reportedly paying $30 million USD.[3][37] On October 12, 2008, Garriott became the second second-generation space traveler (after Sergei Volkov)[38][39] and the first offspring of an American astronaut to go into space,[3][38][40] and the second person to wear the British Union flag in space.[41] The Soyuz docked with the station on October 14. His father, Owen K. Garriott, was at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for the launch of his son and was in attendance when a Soyuz capsule returned with his son twelve days later.[42]

Screen capture from Windows on Earth, used by Garriott on ISS to identify targets for Earth photography. (Coast of Peru)

During his spaceflight, Garriott took part in several education outreach efforts. As a part of that outreach program he worked with the free Metro newspaper in London, which provided him with a special edition containing details of British primary school student's space experiment concepts which Richard took to the ISS. The Metro has claimed as a result that it was the first newspaper in space.[43][44] He is an Amateur Radio Operator (callsign W5KWQ), and during his stay on the International Space Station (ISS), communicated with students and other Amateur Radio operators using Amateur Radio.[45] Garriott also transmitted photographs using the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) slow-scan television system. Garriott also placed a geocache while aboard the ISS.[46]

Garriott also worked with the Windows on Earth project, which provides an interactive, virtual view of Earth as seen from the ISS.[47] Garriott used Windows on Earth software to assist in the selection of locations on Earth to photograph, and the public were able to use the same online tool to track the ISS and see the view Richard was experiencing out an ISS window. Richard's photographs, along with images taken by his astronaut father Owen Garriott in 1973, will be available to the public through Windows on Earth, adding a personal element to studies of Earth and how Earth has changed over time.[47]

Tracy Hickman wrote a screenplay for Garriott, for the first science-fiction film shot in space, Apogee of Fear.[48]

On October 24, Russian cosmonauts of ISS Expedition 17, Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko, along with private astronaut Richard Garriott, aboard Soyuz TMA-12 capsule, landed safely (ideal) at 09:36 (03:36GMT, 07:36 Moscow time), 55 miles north of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan. They were lifted to the Kazakhstan Baikonur space center by helicopter, and then flew to Zvezdny Gorodok (Star City), Moscow Region.[49][50][51][52]

On June 3, 2009, the New York Daily News announced that Garriott would officiate at the first wedding to be held in zero gravity.[53] The wedding took place in a specially modified Boeing 727-200 aircraft, G-Force One, operated by Zero Gravity Corporation, or ZERO-G, a company offering weightless flight experiences, of which he is the co-founder.[54]

In 2010 he released a documentary, Man on a Mission: Richard Garriott's Road to the Stars.[55]

Other accomplishments and interests

In 1986, Garriott helped start the Challenger Center for Space Science Education. His high school science teacher was June Scobee-Rogers, wife of Challenger Shuttle Commander Dick Scobee, who piloted the STS-51-L mission. STS-51-L was intended to carry the first teacher in space flight, before it and its crew were tragically lost on lift off. Scobee drew on Garriott's early leadership in gaming, to help design what has become approximately 50 global interactive networked facilities, where students study about and perform simulated space missions.[56]

Garriott bought the Luna 21 lander and the Lunokhod 2 rover (both currently on lunar surface) from the Lavochkin Association for $68,500 in December 1993 at a Sotheby's auction in New York[57] (although the catalog incorrectly lists lot 68A as Luna 17/Lunokhod 1).[58] Garriott notes that while UN treaties ban governmental ownership of property off earth, corporations and private citizens retain such rights. Lunokhod 2 is still in use with mirrors aligned to bounce lasers such that precise earth moon distances can be measured. With his vehicle "still in use", Garriott claims property rights to the territory surveyed by Lunokhod 2. This may be the first valid claim for private ownership of extraterrestrial territory.[59] Lunokhod 2 held the distance record for miles traveled on another planetary body, until surpassed by the NASA Opportunity Rover in 2014.[60]

Garriott acted as corner man for professional boxer and friend Jesús Chávez in his first title defense against Erik Morales in 2004.[61]

He is also an avid magician and magic collector, and appeared on the cover of the January 2008 issue of MUM, the magazine of the Society of American Magicians.[62] The issue featured an article about an event hosted at Garriott's home involving several of the world's best magicians.[63]

While not directly related to stage magic, Garriot is a fan of the collectible card game Magic: The Gathering, and designed a card in the Magic 2015 expansion set.

Garriott built a haunted house/museum at his residence called Britannia Manor in Austin, Texas.

Garriott promotes private space flight as vice-chairman of the board of directors for Space Adventures.

Garriott is a trustee of the X PRIZE Foundation.[64]

Garriott performed the first Zero-G wedding on June 20, 2009.[65]

Garriott's collections were featured on the June 10, 2012 episode of the Oddities TV series.

In 2007, he co-founded Planetary Power, Inc. with Eric C. Anderson and Miguel Forbes.[66]

Garriott received an Honorary Doctorate of Science from Queen Mary University London in 2011.[67]

Garriott provided vocals for a track on the Shooter Jennings 2016 album Countach.[68]

Garriott is an adviser of SpaceVR, a virtual reality space exploration company.[69]

Garriott is an advocate of Personal rapid transit and the system used at London's Heathrow Airport.[70]

Richard and wife Laetitia Garriott de Cayeux had their first child, Kinga Shuilong Garriott de Cayeux, on June 30, 2012.[71] Their second child, Ronin Phi Garriott de Cayeux, was born on July 28, 2014.

Awards

Garriott was named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 1992[72]

Garriott was named one of the "15 Most Influential Players" by Computer Gaming World

Garriott was inducted into the Computer Gaming World Hall of Fame

Garriott was named "Designer of the Year" by PC Gamer

Garriott was named "Game God" by PC Gamer in 1999

Garriott became the ninth inductee into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Hall of Fame in 2006[73]

Garriott became the sixth recipient of the Game Developers Choice Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006[74]

Garriott was named an "Industry Legend" at the UK Develop Conference in 2007

Garriott received the British Interplanetary Society's Sir Arthur Clarke Award for Best Individual Achievement in 2009[75]

Garriott received the British Interplanetary Society's Astronaut Pin given to British born astronauts in 2009[75]

Garriott received the Society of NASA Flight Surgeons Lovelace Award for Contributions to Space Medicine in 2009

Garriott was inducted into the Environmental Hall of Fame in 2010.

KP819 KP-819 Auto Key Programmer (Mazda, Ford, Chrysler, Landrover, Jaguar no need password)

Cropped view of person hands typing on laptop computer

Okay, so he's debugging it, but... still makes me cringe (and smile)

Kiev 88CM + MC Biometar 120mm + Provia

Richard Allen Garriott de Cayeux (né Garriott; July 4, 1961) is an English-American video-game developer and entrepreneur. He is also known by his alter egos "Lord British" in the game series Ultima and "General British" in Tabula Rasa. Garriott, who is the son of NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, was originally a game designer and programmer, and is now involved in a number of aspects of computer-game development. On October 12, 2008, Richard flew aboard the Soyuz TMA-13 mission to the International Space Station as a private astronaut,[3][4] returning 12 days later aboard Soyuz TMA-12. He became the second astronaut, and first from the U.S., to have a parent who was also a space traveler.

Garriott founded a new video-game-development company in 2009, called Portalarium.[5] His current project is Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues where his primary role is as CEO and Creative Director. In 2011, Garriott married Laetitia de Cayeux. Both changed their last names to Garriott de Cayeux.[6]

Contents

1 Early life

2 Game design career

3 Spaceflight

4 Other accomplishments and interests

5 Awards

6 Games

7 References

8 External links

Early life

Richard Allen Garriott was born in Cambridge, England on July 4, 1961,[7][8] to Helen Mary Garriott (née Walker) and Owen Garriott, one of NASA's first scientist-astronauts (selected in NASA Astronaut Group 4), who flew on Skylab 3 and Space Shuttle mission STS-9.[9][10] Richard was raised in Nassau Bay, Texas from the age of about two months.[1][9]

What Garriott later described as "my first real exposure to computers" occurred in 1975, during his freshman year of high school at Clear Creek High School. As he wanted more experience beyond the single one-semester BASIC class the school offered, and as a fan of The Lord of the Rings and Dungeons & Dragons, Garriott convinced the school to let him create a self-directed course in programming, in which he created fantasy computer games on the school's teletype machine.[11][12] Garriott later estimated that he wrote 28 computer fantasy games during high school.[8]

In the summer of 1977, his parents sent him to the University of Oklahoma for a seven-week computer camp. Shortly after he arrived, some of the other boys attending the camp introduced themselves. When Garriott replied to their greeting of "Hi" with "Hello" they decided he sounded like he was from Britain, and gave him the nickname "British". Garriott uses the name to this day for his various gaming characters, including Ultima character Lord British and Tabula Rasa character General British;[13] however, despite his nickname and birthplace, his parents moved to Texas when he was a baby and his accent is American rather than British.[14]

Game design career

Garriott began writing computer games in 1974. His first games were created on and for teletype terminals. The code was stored on paper tape spools and the game was displayed as an ongoing print-out on the spools of printer paper produced by teletype machines. In summer 1979, Garriott worked at a ComputerLand store where he had his first encounter with Apple computers. Inspired by their video monitors with color graphics, he began to add perspective view to his own games. After he created Akalabeth for fun, the owner of the store convinced Garriott it might sell. Garriott spent US$200 printing copies of a manual and cover sheet that his mother had drawn, then he put copies of the game in Ziploc bags to sell at the store. Although Garriott sold fewer than a dozen copies of Akalabeth at the store, one copy made it to California Pacific, who signed a deal with him. The game sold over 30,000 copies, and Garriott received $5 for each copy sold.[12][15][16] Akalabeth is considered the first published Computer Role Playing Game. In the fall, Garriott entered the University of Texas at Austin, joined the school's fencing team and later joined the Society for Creative Anachronism. He created Ultima I while at the university. It was published by California Pacific Computers and sold in Ziploc plastic bags, as was common in those days.

Steve Jackson Games (SJG) maintained a friendly relationship with Garriott and, when he visited the SJG office one day, Garriott was so impressed by the artwork of Denis Loubet that he commissioned him to paint the cover of Ultima I (1980). Loubet subsequently painted many other covers for Garriott's games.[17]

In the early 1980s, Garriott continued to develop the Ultima series of computer games, eventually leaving university to author them on a full-time basis.[12] Originally programmed for the Apple II, the Ultima series later became available on several platforms. Ultima II was published by Sierra On-Line, as they were the only company that would agree to publish it in a box together with a printed cloth map. By the time he developed Ultima III, Garriott, together with his brother Robert, their father Owen and Chuck Bueche established their own video game publisher, Origin Systems, to handle publishing and distribution, in part due to controversy with Sierra over royalties for the PC port of Ultima II.[18][19][7]

Garriott, dressed as his "Lord British" persona, at the 2018 Game Developers Conference

Garriott sold Origin Systems to Electronic Arts in September 1992 for 30 million dollars.[20] In 1997, he coined the term massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), giving a new identity to the nascent genre previously known as graphical MUDs.[21] In 1999 and 2000, EA canceled all of Origin's new development projects, including Privateer Online, and Harry Potter Online.[22][23] In the midst of these events, Garriott resigned from the company and returned to the industry by forming Destination Games in April 2000 with his brother and Starr Long (the producer of Ultima Online). Once Garriott's non-compete agreement with EA expired a year later, Destination partnered with NCsoft where he acted as a producer and designer of MMORPGs. After that, he became the CEO of NCsoft Austin, also known as NC Interactive.

Tabula Rasa failed to generate a significant amount of money during its initial release, despite its seven-year development period. On November 11, 2008, in an open letter on the Tabula Rasa website, Garriott announced his plans to leave NCsoft to pursue new interests sparked by his spaceflight experiences. Later, however, Garriott claimed that the letter was forged as a means of forcing him out of his position and that he had had no intention of leaving.[24][not in citation given (See discussion.)] Garriott reviewed and signed this announcement, but did not sign a resignation letter that had been drafted for him by NCSoft.[25] On November 24, 2008 NCsoft announced that it planned to end the live service of Tabula Rasa. The servers shut down on February 28, 2009, after a period of free play from January 10 onward for existing account holders.[26]

In July 2010, an Austin District Court awarded Garriott US$28 million in his lawsuit against NCsoft, finding that the company did not appropriately handle his departure in 2008. In October 2011, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed the judgment.[27]

Garriott founded the company Portalarium in 2009. The company is developing Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues, a spiritual successor to the Ultima series, with Garriott having remarked that had they been able to secure the rights to the Ultima intellectual property from Electronic Arts, the game could have become Ultima Online 2 in name.[28][29][30][31] On March 8, 2013, Portalarium launched a Kickstarter campaign[32] for Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues.[33] An early access version of the game was released on Steam on November 24, 2014, and the game was fully released in March 2018.[34][35]

Spaceflight

In 1983 Softline reported that "Garriott wants to go into space but doesn't see it happening in the predictable future ... He has frequently joked with his father about stowing away on a spaceship, and recently his speculations have been sounding uncomfortably realistic".[7] The income from the success of Garriott's video game career allowed him to pursue his interest in spaceflight, and the sale of Origin Systems allowed him to invest in Space Adventures and purchase the ticket to become the first private citizen to fly into space. However, Garriott suffered financial setbacks in 2001 after the dot-com bubble burst, and he was forced to sell his seat to Dennis Tito.[36]

He then says he returned to making games, to make money, and once he had enough, put down a non-refundable deposit to go into space. During the mandatory medical examination, they found he had a hemangioma on his liver, which could cause potentially fatal internal bleeding if there was a rapid depressurization of a spacecraft. Told he had to either give up his large deposit, or undergo life-threatening surgery, he decided to have the operation, and now has a 16-inch scar from it. He spent a year in Russia training before he launched into space.[36]

Richard Garriott (far right) aboard the ISS on 23 October 2008 with the MIT SPHERES Satellites

On September 28, 2007, Space Adventures announced that Garriott would fly to the International Space Station in October 2008 as a self-funded private astronaut, reportedly paying $30 million USD.[3][37] On October 12, 2008, Garriott became the second second-generation space traveler (after Sergei Volkov)[38][39] and the first offspring of an American astronaut to go into space,[3][38][40] and the second person to wear the British Union flag in space.[41] The Soyuz docked with the station on October 14. His father, Owen K. Garriott, was at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for the launch of his son and was in attendance when a Soyuz capsule returned with his son twelve days later.[42]

Screen capture from Windows on Earth, used by Garriott on ISS to identify targets for Earth photography. (Coast of Peru)

During his spaceflight, Garriott took part in several education outreach efforts. As a part of that outreach program he worked with the free Metro newspaper in London, which provided him with a special edition containing details of British primary school student's space experiment concepts which Richard took to the ISS. The Metro has claimed as a result that it was the first newspaper in space.[43][44] He is an Amateur Radio Operator (callsign W5KWQ), and during his stay on the International Space Station (ISS), communicated with students and other Amateur Radio operators using Amateur Radio.[45] Garriott also transmitted photographs using the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) slow-scan television system. Garriott also placed a geocache while aboard the ISS.[46]

Garriott also worked with the Windows on Earth project, which provides an interactive, virtual view of Earth as seen from the ISS.[47] Garriott used Windows on Earth software to assist in the selection of locations on Earth to photograph, and the public were able to use the same online tool to track the ISS and see the view Richard was experiencing out an ISS window. Richard's photographs, along with images taken by his astronaut father Owen Garriott in 1973, will be available to the public through Windows on Earth, adding a personal element to studies of Earth and how Earth has changed over time.[47]

Tracy Hickman wrote a screenplay for Garriott, for the first science-fiction film shot in space, Apogee of Fear.[48]

On October 24, Russian cosmonauts of ISS Expedition 17, Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko, along with private astronaut Richard Garriott, aboard Soyuz TMA-12 capsule, landed safely (ideal) at 09:36 (03:36GMT, 07:36 Moscow time), 55 miles north of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan. They were lifted to the Kazakhstan Baikonur space center by helicopter, and then flew to Zvezdny Gorodok (Star City), Moscow Region.[49][50][51][52]

On June 3, 2009, the New York Daily News announced that Garriott would officiate at the first wedding to be held in zero gravity.[53] The wedding took place in a specially modified Boeing 727-200 aircraft, G-Force One, operated by Zero Gravity Corporation, or ZERO-G, a company offering weightless flight experiences, of which he is the co-founder.[54]

In 2010 he released a documentary, Man on a Mission: Richard Garriott's Road to the Stars.[55]

Other accomplishments and interests

In 1986, Garriott helped start the Challenger Center for Space Science Education. His high school science teacher was June Scobee-Rogers, wife of Challenger Shuttle Commander Dick Scobee, who piloted the STS-51-L mission. STS-51-L was intended to carry the first teacher in space flight, before it and its crew were tragically lost on lift off. Scobee drew on Garriott's early leadership in gaming, to help design what has become approximately 50 global interactive networked facilities, where students study about and perform simulated space missions.[56]

Garriott bought the Luna 21 lander and the Lunokhod 2 rover (both currently on lunar surface) from the Lavochkin Association for $68,500 in December 1993 at a Sotheby's auction in New York[57] (although the catalog incorrectly lists lot 68A as Luna 17/Lunokhod 1).[58] Garriott notes that while UN treaties ban governmental ownership of property off earth, corporations and private citizens retain such rights. Lunokhod 2 is still in use with mirrors aligned to bounce lasers such that precise earth moon distances can be measured. With his vehicle "still in use", Garriott claims property rights to the territory surveyed by Lunokhod 2. This may be the first valid claim for private ownership of extraterrestrial territory.[59] Lunokhod 2 held the distance record for miles traveled on another planetary body, until surpassed by the NASA Opportunity Rover in 2014.[60]

Garriott acted as corner man for professional boxer and friend Jesús Chávez in his first title defense against Erik Morales in 2004.[61]

He is also an avid magician and magic collector, and appeared on the cover of the January 2008 issue of MUM, the magazine of the Society of American Magicians.[62] The issue featured an article about an event hosted at Garriott's home involving several of the world's best magicians.[63]

While not directly related to stage magic, Garriot is a fan of the collectible card game Magic: The Gathering, and designed a card in the Magic 2015 expansion set.

Garriott built a haunted house/museum at his residence called Britannia Manor in Austin, Texas.

Garriott promotes private space flight as vice-chairman of the board of directors for Space Adventures.

Garriott is a trustee of the X PRIZE Foundation.[64]

Garriott performed the first Zero-G wedding on June 20, 2009.[65]

Garriott's collections were featured on the June 10, 2012 episode of the Oddities TV series.

In 2007, he co-founded Planetary Power, Inc. with Eric C. Anderson and Miguel Forbes.[66]

Garriott received an Honorary Doctorate of Science from Queen Mary University London in 2011.[67]

Garriott provided vocals for a track on the Shooter Jennings 2016 album Countach.[68]

Garriott is an adviser of SpaceVR, a virtual reality space exploration company.[69]

Garriott is an advocate of Personal rapid transit and the system used at London's Heathrow Airport.[70]

Richard and wife Laetitia Garriott de Cayeux had their first child, Kinga Shuilong Garriott de Cayeux, on June 30, 2012.[71] Their second child, Ronin Phi Garriott de Cayeux, was born on July 28, 2014.

Awards

Garriott was named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 1992[72]

Garriott was named one of the "15 Most Influential Players" by Computer Gaming World

Garriott was inducted into the Computer Gaming World Hall of Fame

Garriott was named "Designer of the Year" by PC Gamer

Garriott was named "Game God" by PC Gamer in 1999

Garriott became the ninth inductee into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Hall of Fame in 2006[73]

Garriott became the sixth recipient of the Game Developers Choice Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006[74]

Garriott was named an "Industry Legend" at the UK Develop Conference in 2007

Garriott received the British Interplanetary Society's Sir Arthur Clarke Award for Best Individual Achievement in 2009[75]

Garriott received the British Interplanetary Society's Astronaut Pin given to British born astronauts in 2009[75]

Garriott received the Society of NASA Flight Surgeons Lovelace Award for Contributions to Space Medicine in 2009

Garriott was inducted into the Environmental Hall of Fame in 2010.

Richard Allen Garriott de Cayeux (né Garriott; July 4, 1961) is an English-American video-game developer and entrepreneur. He is also known by his alter egos "Lord British" in the game series Ultima and "General British" in Tabula Rasa. Garriott, who is the son of NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, was originally a game designer and programmer, and is now involved in a number of aspects of computer-game development. On October 12, 2008, Richard flew aboard the Soyuz TMA-13 mission to the International Space Station as a private astronaut,[3][4] returning 12 days later aboard Soyuz TMA-12. He became the second astronaut, and first from the U.S., to have a parent who was also a space traveler.

Garriott founded a new video-game-development company in 2009, called Portalarium.[5] His current project is Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues where his primary role is as CEO and Creative Director. In 2011, Garriott married Laetitia de Cayeux. Both changed their last names to Garriott de Cayeux.[6]

Contents

1 Early life

2 Game design career

3 Spaceflight

4 Other accomplishments and interests

5 Awards

6 Games

7 References

8 External links

Early life

Richard Allen Garriott was born in Cambridge, England on July 4, 1961,[7][8] to Helen Mary Garriott (née Walker) and Owen Garriott, one of NASA's first scientist-astronauts (selected in NASA Astronaut Group 4), who flew on Skylab 3 and Space Shuttle mission STS-9.[9][10] Richard was raised in Nassau Bay, Texas from the age of about two months.[1][9]

What Garriott later described as "my first real exposure to computers" occurred in 1975, during his freshman year of high school at Clear Creek High School. As he wanted more experience beyond the single one-semester BASIC class the school offered, and as a fan of The Lord of the Rings and Dungeons & Dragons, Garriott convinced the school to let him create a self-directed course in programming, in which he created fantasy computer games on the school's teletype machine.[11][12] Garriott later estimated that he wrote 28 computer fantasy games during high school.[8]

In the summer of 1977, his parents sent him to the University of Oklahoma for a seven-week computer camp. Shortly after he arrived, some of the other boys attending the camp introduced themselves. When Garriott replied to their greeting of "Hi" with "Hello" they decided he sounded like he was from Britain, and gave him the nickname "British". Garriott uses the name to this day for his various gaming characters, including Ultima character Lord British and Tabula Rasa character General British;[13] however, despite his nickname and birthplace, his parents moved to Texas when he was a baby and his accent is American rather than British.[14]

Game design career

Garriott began writing computer games in 1974. His first games were created on and for teletype terminals. The code was stored on paper tape spools and the game was displayed as an ongoing print-out on the spools of printer paper produced by teletype machines. In summer 1979, Garriott worked at a ComputerLand store where he had his first encounter with Apple computers. Inspired by their video monitors with color graphics, he began to add perspective view to his own games. After he created Akalabeth for fun, the owner of the store convinced Garriott it might sell. Garriott spent US$200 printing copies of a manual and cover sheet that his mother had drawn, then he put copies of the game in Ziploc bags to sell at the store. Although Garriott sold fewer than a dozen copies of Akalabeth at the store, one copy made it to California Pacific, who signed a deal with him. The game sold over 30,000 copies, and Garriott received $5 for each copy sold.[12][15][16] Akalabeth is considered the first published Computer Role Playing Game. In the fall, Garriott entered the University of Texas at Austin, joined the school's fencing team and later joined the Society for Creative Anachronism. He created Ultima I while at the university. It was published by California Pacific Computers and sold in Ziploc plastic bags, as was common in those days.

Steve Jackson Games (SJG) maintained a friendly relationship with Garriott and, when he visited the SJG office one day, Garriott was so impressed by the artwork of Denis Loubet that he commissioned him to paint the cover of Ultima I (1980). Loubet subsequently painted many other covers for Garriott's games.[17]

In the early 1980s, Garriott continued to develop the Ultima series of computer games, eventually leaving university to author them on a full-time basis.[12] Originally programmed for the Apple II, the Ultima series later became available on several platforms. Ultima II was published by Sierra On-Line, as they were the only company that would agree to publish it in a box together with a printed cloth map. By the time he developed Ultima III, Garriott, together with his brother Robert, their father Owen and Chuck Bueche established their own video game publisher, Origin Systems, to handle publishing and distribution, in part due to controversy with Sierra over royalties for the PC port of Ultima II.[18][19][7]

Garriott, dressed as his "Lord British" persona, at the 2018 Game Developers Conference

Garriott sold Origin Systems to Electronic Arts in September 1992 for 30 million dollars.[20] In 1997, he coined the term massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), giving a new identity to the nascent genre previously known as graphical MUDs.[21] In 1999 and 2000, EA canceled all of Origin's new development projects, including Privateer Online, and Harry Potter Online.[22][23] In the midst of these events, Garriott resigned from the company and returned to the industry by forming Destination Games in April 2000 with his brother and Starr Long (the producer of Ultima Online). Once Garriott's non-compete agreement with EA expired a year later, Destination partnered with NCsoft where he acted as a producer and designer of MMORPGs. After that, he became the CEO of NCsoft Austin, also known as NC Interactive.

Tabula Rasa failed to generate a significant amount of money during its initial release, despite its seven-year development period. On November 11, 2008, in an open letter on the Tabula Rasa website, Garriott announced his plans to leave NCsoft to pursue new interests sparked by his spaceflight experiences. Later, however, Garriott claimed that the letter was forged as a means of forcing him out of his position and that he had had no intention of leaving.[24][not in citation given (See discussion.)] Garriott reviewed and signed this announcement, but did not sign a resignation letter that had been drafted for him by NCSoft.[25] On November 24, 2008 NCsoft announced that it planned to end the live service of Tabula Rasa. The servers shut down on February 28, 2009, after a period of free play from January 10 onward for existing account holders.[26]

In July 2010, an Austin District Court awarded Garriott US$28 million in his lawsuit against NCsoft, finding that the company did not appropriately handle his departure in 2008. In October 2011, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed the judgment.[27]

Garriott founded the company Portalarium in 2009. The company is developing Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues, a spiritual successor to the Ultima series, with Garriott having remarked that had they been able to secure the rights to the Ultima intellectual property from Electronic Arts, the game could have become Ultima Online 2 in name.[28][29][30][31] On March 8, 2013, Portalarium launched a Kickstarter campaign[32] for Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues.[33] An early access version of the game was released on Steam on November 24, 2014, and the game was fully released in March 2018.[34][35]

Spaceflight

In 1983 Softline reported that "Garriott wants to go into space but doesn't see it happening in the predictable future ... He has frequently joked with his father about stowing away on a spaceship, and recently his speculations have been sounding uncomfortably realistic".[7] The income from the success of Garriott's video game career allowed him to pursue his interest in spaceflight, and the sale of Origin Systems allowed him to invest in Space Adventures and purchase the ticket to become the first private citizen to fly into space. However, Garriott suffered financial setbacks in 2001 after the dot-com bubble burst, and he was forced to sell his seat to Dennis Tito.[36]

He then says he returned to making games, to make money, and once he had enough, put down a non-refundable deposit to go into space. During the mandatory medical examination, they found he had a hemangioma on his liver, which could cause potentially fatal internal bleeding if there was a rapid depressurization of a spacecraft. Told he had to either give up his large deposit, or undergo life-threatening surgery, he decided to have the operation, and now has a 16-inch scar from it. He spent a year in Russia training before he launched into space.[36]

Richard Garriott (far right) aboard the ISS on 23 October 2008 with the MIT SPHERES Satellites

On September 28, 2007, Space Adventures announced that Garriott would fly to the International Space Station in October 2008 as a self-funded private astronaut, reportedly paying $30 million USD.[3][37] On October 12, 2008, Garriott became the second second-generation space traveler (after Sergei Volkov)[38][39] and the first offspring of an American astronaut to go into space,[3][38][40] and the second person to wear the British Union flag in space.[41] The Soyuz docked with the station on October 14. His father, Owen K. Garriott, was at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for the launch of his son and was in attendance when a Soyuz capsule returned with his son twelve days later.[42]

Screen capture from Windows on Earth, used by Garriott on ISS to identify targets for Earth photography. (Coast of Peru)

During his spaceflight, Garriott took part in several education outreach efforts. As a part of that outreach program he worked with the free Metro newspaper in London, which provided him with a special edition containing details of British primary school student's space experiment concepts which Richard took to the ISS. The Metro has claimed as a result that it was the first newspaper in space.[43][44] He is an Amateur Radio Operator (callsign W5KWQ), and during his stay on the International Space Station (ISS), communicated with students and other Amateur Radio operators using Amateur Radio.[45] Garriott also transmitted photographs using the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) slow-scan television system. Garriott also placed a geocache while aboard the ISS.[46]

Garriott also worked with the Windows on Earth project, which provides an interactive, virtual view of Earth as seen from the ISS.[47] Garriott used Windows on Earth software to assist in the selection of locations on Earth to photograph, and the public were able to use the same online tool to track the ISS and see the view Richard was experiencing out an ISS window. Richard's photographs, along with images taken by his astronaut father Owen Garriott in 1973, will be available to the public through Windows on Earth, adding a personal element to studies of Earth and how Earth has changed over time.[47]

Tracy Hickman wrote a screenplay for Garriott, for the first science-fiction film shot in space, Apogee of Fear.[48]

On October 24, Russian cosmonauts of ISS Expedition 17, Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko, along with private astronaut Richard Garriott, aboard Soyuz TMA-12 capsule, landed safely (ideal) at 09:36 (03:36GMT, 07:36 Moscow time), 55 miles north of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan. They were lifted to the Kazakhstan Baikonur space center by helicopter, and then flew to Zvezdny Gorodok (Star City), Moscow Region.[49][50][51][52]

On June 3, 2009, the New York Daily News announced that Garriott would officiate at the first wedding to be held in zero gravity.[53] The wedding took place in a specially modified Boeing 727-200 aircraft, G-Force One, operated by Zero Gravity Corporation, or ZERO-G, a company offering weightless flight experiences, of which he is the co-founder.[54]

In 2010 he released a documentary, Man on a Mission: Richard Garriott's Road to the Stars.[55]

Other accomplishments and interests

In 1986, Garriott helped start the Challenger Center for Space Science Education. His high school science teacher was June Scobee-Rogers, wife of Challenger Shuttle Commander Dick Scobee, who piloted the STS-51-L mission. STS-51-L was intended to carry the first teacher in space flight, before it and its crew were tragically lost on lift off. Scobee drew on Garriott's early leadership in gaming, to help design what has become approximately 50 global interactive networked facilities, where students study about and perform simulated space missions.[56]

Garriott bought the Luna 21 lander and the Lunokhod 2 rover (both currently on lunar surface) from the Lavochkin Association for $68,500 in December 1993 at a Sotheby's auction in New York[57] (although the catalog incorrectly lists lot 68A as Luna 17/Lunokhod 1).[58] Garriott notes that while UN treaties ban governmental ownership of property off earth, corporations and private citizens retain such rights. Lunokhod 2 is still in use with mirrors aligned to bounce lasers such that precise earth moon distances can be measured. With his vehicle "still in use", Garriott claims property rights to the territory surveyed by Lunokhod 2. This may be the first valid claim for private ownership of extraterrestrial territory.[59] Lunokhod 2 held the distance record for miles traveled on another planetary body, until surpassed by the NASA Opportunity Rover in 2014.[60]

Garriott acted as corner man for professional boxer and friend Jesús Chávez in his first title defense against Erik Morales in 2004.[61]

He is also an avid magician and magic collector, and appeared on the cover of the January 2008 issue of MUM, the magazine of the Society of American Magicians.[62] The issue featured an article about an event hosted at Garriott's home involving several of the world's best magicians.[63]

While not directly related to stage magic, Garriot is a fan of the collectible card game Magic: The Gathering, and designed a card in the Magic 2015 expansion set.

Garriott built a haunted house/museum at his residence called Britannia Manor in Austin, Texas.

Garriott promotes private space flight as vice-chairman of the board of directors for Space Adventures.

Garriott is a trustee of the X PRIZE Foundation.[64]

Garriott performed the first Zero-G wedding on June 20, 2009.[65]

Garriott's collections were featured on the June 10, 2012 episode of the Oddities TV series.

In 2007, he co-founded Planetary Power, Inc. with Eric C. Anderson and Miguel Forbes.[66]

Garriott received an Honorary Doctorate of Science from Queen Mary University London in 2011.[67]

Garriott provided vocals for a track on the Shooter Jennings 2016 album Countach.[68]

Garriott is an adviser of SpaceVR, a virtual reality space exploration company.[69]

Garriott is an advocate of Personal rapid transit and the system used at London's Heathrow Airport.[70]

Richard and wife Laetitia Garriott de Cayeux had their first child, Kinga Shuilong Garriott de Cayeux, on June 30, 2012.[71] Their second child, Ronin Phi Garriott de Cayeux, was born on July 28, 2014.

Awards

Garriott was named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 1992[72]

Garriott was named one of the "15 Most Influential Players" by Computer Gaming World

Garriott was inducted into the Computer Gaming World Hall of Fame

Garriott was named "Designer of the Year" by PC Gamer

Garriott was named "Game God" by PC Gamer in 1999

Garriott became the ninth inductee into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Hall of Fame in 2006[73]

Garriott became the sixth recipient of the Game Developers Choice Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006[74]

Garriott was named an "Industry Legend" at the UK Develop Conference in 2007

Garriott received the British Interplanetary Society's Sir Arthur Clarke Award for Best Individual Achievement in 2009[75]

Garriott received the British Interplanetary Society's Astronaut Pin given to British born astronauts in 2009[75]

Garriott received the Society of NASA Flight Surgeons Lovelace Award for Contributions to Space Medicine in 2009

Garriott was inducted into the Environmental Hall of Fame in 2010.

Richard Allen Garriott de Cayeux (né Garriott; July 4, 1961) is an English-American video-game developer and entrepreneur. He is also known by his alter egos "Lord British" in the game series Ultima and "General British" in Tabula Rasa. Garriott, who is the son of NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, was originally a game designer and programmer, and is now involved in a number of aspects of computer-game development. On October 12, 2008, Richard flew aboard the Soyuz TMA-13 mission to the International Space Station as a private astronaut,[3][4] returning 12 days later aboard Soyuz TMA-12. He became the second astronaut, and first from the U.S., to have a parent who was also a space traveler.

Garriott founded a new video-game-development company in 2009, called Portalarium.[5] His current project is Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues where his primary role is as CEO and Creative Director. In 2011, Garriott married Laetitia de Cayeux. Both changed their last names to Garriott de Cayeux.[6]

Contents

1 Early life

2 Game design career

3 Spaceflight

4 Other accomplishments and interests

5 Awards

6 Games

7 References

8 External links

Early life

Richard Allen Garriott was born in Cambridge, England on July 4, 1961,[7][8] to Helen Mary Garriott (née Walker) and Owen Garriott, one of NASA's first scientist-astronauts (selected in NASA Astronaut Group 4), who flew on Skylab 3 and Space Shuttle mission STS-9.[9][10] Richard was raised in Nassau Bay, Texas from the age of about two months.[1][9]

What Garriott later described as "my first real exposure to computers" occurred in 1975, during his freshman year of high school at Clear Creek High School. As he wanted more experience beyond the single one-semester BASIC class the school offered, and as a fan of The Lord of the Rings and Dungeons & Dragons, Garriott convinced the school to let him create a self-directed course in programming, in which he created fantasy computer games on the school's teletype machine.[11][12] Garriott later estimated that he wrote 28 computer fantasy games during high school.[8]

In the summer of 1977, his parents sent him to the University of Oklahoma for a seven-week computer camp. Shortly after he arrived, some of the other boys attending the camp introduced themselves. When Garriott replied to their greeting of "Hi" with "Hello" they decided he sounded like he was from Britain, and gave him the nickname "British". Garriott uses the name to this day for his various gaming characters, including Ultima character Lord British and Tabula Rasa character General British;[13] however, despite his nickname and birthplace, his parents moved to Texas when he was a baby and his accent is American rather than British.[14]

Game design career

Garriott began writing computer games in 1974. His first games were created on and for teletype terminals. The code was stored on paper tape spools and the game was displayed as an ongoing print-out on the spools of printer paper produced by teletype machines. In summer 1979, Garriott worked at a ComputerLand store where he had his first encounter with Apple computers. Inspired by their video monitors with color graphics, he began to add perspective view to his own games. After he created Akalabeth for fun, the owner of the store convinced Garriott it might sell. Garriott spent US$200 printing copies of a manual and cover sheet that his mother had drawn, then he put copies of the game in Ziploc bags to sell at the store. Although Garriott sold fewer than a dozen copies of Akalabeth at the store, one copy made it to California Pacific, who signed a deal with him. The game sold over 30,000 copies, and Garriott received $5 for each copy sold.[12][15][16] Akalabeth is considered the first published Computer Role Playing Game. In the fall, Garriott entered the University of Texas at Austin, joined the school's fencing team and later joined the Society for Creative Anachronism. He created Ultima I while at the university. It was published by California Pacific Computers and sold in Ziploc plastic bags, as was common in those days.

Steve Jackson Games (SJG) maintained a friendly relationship with Garriott and, when he visited the SJG office one day, Garriott was so impressed by the artwork of Denis Loubet that he commissioned him to paint the cover of Ultima I (1980). Loubet subsequently painted many other covers for Garriott's games.[17]

In the early 1980s, Garriott continued to develop the Ultima series of computer games, eventually leaving university to author them on a full-time basis.[12] Originally programmed for the Apple II, the Ultima series later became available on several platforms. Ultima II was published by Sierra On-Line, as they were the only company that would agree to publish it in a box together with a printed cloth map. By the time he developed Ultima III, Garriott, together with his brother Robert, their father Owen and Chuck Bueche established their own video game publisher, Origin Systems, to handle publishing and distribution, in part due to controversy with Sierra over royalties for the PC port of Ultima II.[18][19][7]

Garriott, dressed as his "Lord British" persona, at the 2018 Game Developers Conference

Garriott sold Origin Systems to Electronic Arts in September 1992 for 30 million dollars.[20] In 1997, he coined the term massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), giving a new identity to the nascent genre previously known as graphical MUDs.[21] In 1999 and 2000, EA canceled all of Origin's new development projects, including Privateer Online, and Harry Potter Online.[22][23] In the midst of these events, Garriott resigned from the company and returned to the industry by forming Destination Games in April 2000 with his brother and Starr Long (the producer of Ultima Online). Once Garriott's non-compete agreement with EA expired a year later, Destination partnered with NCsoft where he acted as a producer and designer of MMORPGs. After that, he became the CEO of NCsoft Austin, also known as NC Interactive.

Tabula Rasa failed to generate a significant amount of money during its initial release, despite its seven-year development period. On November 11, 2008, in an open letter on the Tabula Rasa website, Garriott announced his plans to leave NCsoft to pursue new interests sparked by his spaceflight experiences. Later, however, Garriott claimed that the letter was forged as a means of forcing him out of his position and that he had had no intention of leaving.[24][not in citation given (See discussion.)] Garriott reviewed and signed this announcement, but did not sign a resignation letter that had been drafted for him by NCSoft.[25] On November 24, 2008 NCsoft announced that it planned to end the live service of Tabula Rasa. The servers shut down on February 28, 2009, after a period of free play from January 10 onward for existing account holders.[26]

In July 2010, an Austin District Court awarded Garriott US$28 million in his lawsuit against NCsoft, finding that the company did not appropriately handle his departure in 2008. In October 2011, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed the judgment.[27]

Garriott founded the company Portalarium in 2009. The company is developing Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues, a spiritual successor to the Ultima series, with Garriott having remarked that had they been able to secure the rights to the Ultima intellectual property from Electronic Arts, the game could have become Ultima Online 2 in name.[28][29][30][31] On March 8, 2013, Portalarium launched a Kickstarter campaign[32] for Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues.[33] An early access version of the game was released on Steam on November 24, 2014, and the game was fully released in March 2018.[34][35]

Spaceflight

In 1983 Softline reported that "Garriott wants to go into space but doesn't see it happening in the predictable future ... He has frequently joked with his father about stowing away on a spaceship, and recently his speculations have been sounding uncomfortably realistic".[7] The income from the success of Garriott's video game career allowed him to pursue his interest in spaceflight, and the sale of Origin Systems allowed him to invest in Space Adventures and purchase the ticket to become the first private citizen to fly into space. However, Garriott suffered financial setbacks in 2001 after the dot-com bubble burst, and he was forced to sell his seat to Dennis Tito.[36]

He then says he returned to making games, to make money, and once he had enough, put down a non-refundable deposit to go into space. During the mandatory medical examination, they found he had a hemangioma on his liver, which could cause potentially fatal internal bleeding if there was a rapid depressurization of a spacecraft. Told he had to either give up his large deposit, or undergo life-threatening surgery, he decided to have the operation, and now has a 16-inch scar from it. He spent a year in Russia training before he launched into space.[36]

Richard Garriott (far right) aboard the ISS on 23 October 2008 with the MIT SPHERES Satellites

On September 28, 2007, Space Adventures announced that Garriott would fly to the International Space Station in October 2008 as a self-funded private astronaut, reportedly paying $30 million USD.[3][37] On October 12, 2008, Garriott became the second second-generation space traveler (after Sergei Volkov)[38][39] and the first offspring of an American astronaut to go into space,[3][38][40] and the second person to wear the British Union flag in space.[41] The Soyuz docked with the station on October 14. His father, Owen K. Garriott, was at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for the launch of his son and was in attendance when a Soyuz capsule returned with his son twelve days later.[42]

Screen capture from Windows on Earth, used by Garriott on ISS to identify targets for Earth photography. (Coast of Peru)

During his spaceflight, Garriott took part in several education outreach efforts. As a part of that outreach program he worked with the free Metro newspaper in London, which provided him with a special edition containing details of British primary school student's space experiment concepts which Richard took to the ISS. The Metro has claimed as a result that it was the first newspaper in space.[43][44] He is an Amateur Radio Operator (callsign W5KWQ), and during his stay on the International Space Station (ISS), communicated with students and other Amateur Radio operators using Amateur Radio.[45] Garriott also transmitted photographs using the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) slow-scan television system. Garriott also placed a geocache while aboard the ISS.[46]

Garriott also worked with the Windows on Earth project, which provides an interactive, virtual view of Earth as seen from the ISS.[47] Garriott used Windows on Earth software to assist in the selection of locations on Earth to photograph, and the public were able to use the same online tool to track the ISS and see the view Richard was experiencing out an ISS window. Richard's photographs, along with images taken by his astronaut father Owen Garriott in 1973, will be available to the public through Windows on Earth, adding a personal element to studies of Earth and how Earth has changed over time.[47]

Tracy Hickman wrote a screenplay for Garriott, for the first science-fiction film shot in space, Apogee of Fear.[48]

On October 24, Russian cosmonauts of ISS Expedition 17, Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko, along with private astronaut Richard Garriott, aboard Soyuz TMA-12 capsule, landed safely (ideal) at 09:36 (03:36GMT, 07:36 Moscow time), 55 miles north of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan. They were lifted to the Kazakhstan Baikonur space center by helicopter, and then flew to Zvezdny Gorodok (Star City), Moscow Region.[49][50][51][52]

On June 3, 2009, the New York Daily News announced that Garriott would officiate at the first wedding to be held in zero gravity.[53] The wedding took place in a specially modified Boeing 727-200 aircraft, G-Force One, operated by Zero Gravity Corporation, or ZERO-G, a company offering weightless flight experiences, of which he is the co-founder.[54]

In 2010 he released a documentary, Man on a Mission: Richard Garriott's Road to the Stars.[55]

Other accomplishments and interests

In 1986, Garriott helped start the Challenger Center for Space Science Education. His high school science teacher was June Scobee-Rogers, wife of Challenger Shuttle Commander Dick Scobee, who piloted the STS-51-L mission. STS-51-L was intended to carry the first teacher in space flight, before it and its crew were tragically lost on lift off. Scobee drew on Garriott's early leadership in gaming, to help design what has become approximately 50 global interactive networked facilities, where students study about and perform simulated space missions.[56]

Garriott bought the Luna 21 lander and the Lunokhod 2 rover (both currently on lunar surface) from the Lavochkin Association for $68,500 in December 1993 at a Sotheby's auction in New York[57] (although the catalog incorrectly lists lot 68A as Luna 17/Lunokhod 1).[58] Garriott notes that while UN treaties ban governmental ownership of property off earth, corporations and private citizens retain such rights. Lunokhod 2 is still in use with mirrors aligned to bounce lasers such that precise earth moon distances can be measured. With his vehicle "still in use", Garriott claims property rights to the territory surveyed by Lunokhod 2. This may be the first valid claim for private ownership of extraterrestrial territory.[59] Lunokhod 2 held the distance record for miles traveled on another planetary body, until surpassed by the NASA Opportunity Rover in 2014.[60]

Garriott acted as corner man for professional boxer and friend Jesús Chávez in his first title defense against Erik Morales in 2004.[61]

He is also an avid magician and magic collector, and appeared on the cover of the January 2008 issue of MUM, the magazine of the Society of American Magicians.[62] The issue featured an article about an event hosted at Garriott's home involving several of the world's best magicians.[63]

While not directly related to stage magic, Garriot is a fan of the collectible card game Magic: The Gathering, and designed a card in the Magic 2015 expansion set.

Garriott built a haunted house/museum at his residence called Britannia Manor in Austin, Texas.

Garriott promotes private space flight as vice-chairman of the board of directors for Space Adventures.

Garriott is a trustee of the X PRIZE Foundation.[64]

Garriott performed the first Zero-G wedding on June 20, 2009.[65]

Garriott's collections were featured on the June 10, 2012 episode of the Oddities TV series.

In 2007, he co-founded Planetary Power, Inc. with Eric C. Anderson and Miguel Forbes.[66]

Garriott received an Honorary Doctorate of Science from Queen Mary University London in 2011.[67]

Garriott provided vocals for a track on the Shooter Jennings 2016 album Countach.[68]

Garriott is an adviser of SpaceVR, a virtual reality space exploration company.[69]

Garriott is an advocate of Personal rapid transit and the system used at London's Heathrow Airport.[70]

Richard and wife Laetitia Garriott de Cayeux had their first child, Kinga Shuilong Garriott de Cayeux, on June 30, 2012.[71] Their second child, Ronin Phi Garriott de Cayeux, was born on July 28, 2014.

Awards

Garriott was named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 1992[72]

Garriott was named one of the "15 Most Influential Players" by Computer Gaming World

Garriott was inducted into the Computer Gaming World Hall of Fame

Garriott was named "Designer of the Year" by PC Gamer

Garriott was named "Game God" by PC Gamer in 1999

Garriott became the ninth inductee into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Hall of Fame in 2006[73]

Garriott became the sixth recipient of the Game Developers Choice Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006[74]

Garriott was named an "Industry Legend" at the UK Develop Conference in 2007

Garriott received the British Interplanetary Society's Sir Arthur Clarke Award for Best Individual Achievement in 2009[75]

Garriott received the British Interplanetary Society's Astronaut Pin given to British born astronauts in 2009[75]

Garriott received the Society of NASA Flight Surgeons Lovelace Award for Contributions to Space Medicine in 2009

Garriott was inducted into the Environmental Hall of Fame in 2010.

Today's group on Flickr Group Roulette asks us to list "thirteen things about you." I made up a list of 27, intending to pick the top 13. After running the list past a few people, they urged me to reveal all 27. So be it!

Well, so the stinking bike wouldn't cold start and the battery is dead. Before I read my manual on how to jumpstart, I thought I'd unveil this second part.

This is the second list of thirteen. OK, so it's a baker's thirteen. Sue me.

1. I worked as an embedded systems programmer, creating something that looked like a cable box and read stock quotes broadcast between TV channels. I was charged with created the BIOS, which was a bit more complex than the ones you'd see in a PC-AT. I have pretty deep Geek chops.

14. Unlike the worst President since Carter, I believe that oral sex is sex. Also? I like oral sex.

Richard Allen Garriott de Cayeux (né Garriott; July 4, 1961) is an English-American video-game developer and entrepreneur. He is also known by his alter egos "Lord British" in the game series Ultima and "General British" in Tabula Rasa. Garriott, who is the son of NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, was originally a game designer and programmer, and is now involved in a number of aspects of computer-game development. On October 12, 2008, Richard flew aboard the Soyuz TMA-13 mission to the International Space Station as a private astronaut,[3][4] returning 12 days later aboard Soyuz TMA-12. He became the second astronaut, and first from the U.S., to have a parent who was also a space traveler.

Garriott founded a new video-game-development company in 2009, called Portalarium.[5] His current project is Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues where his primary role is as CEO and Creative Director. In 2011, Garriott married Laetitia de Cayeux. Both changed their last names to Garriott de Cayeux.[6]

Contents

1 Early life

2 Game design career

3 Spaceflight

4 Other accomplishments and interests

5 Awards

6 Games

7 References

8 External links

Early life

Richard Allen Garriott was born in Cambridge, England on July 4, 1961,[7][8] to Helen Mary Garriott (née Walker) and Owen Garriott, one of NASA's first scientist-astronauts (selected in NASA Astronaut Group 4), who flew on Skylab 3 and Space Shuttle mission STS-9.[9][10] Richard was raised in Nassau Bay, Texas from the age of about two months.[1][9]

What Garriott later described as "my first real exposure to computers" occurred in 1975, during his freshman year of high school at Clear Creek High School. As he wanted more experience beyond the single one-semester BASIC class the school offered, and as a fan of The Lord of the Rings and Dungeons & Dragons, Garriott convinced the school to let him create a self-directed course in programming, in which he created fantasy computer games on the school's teletype machine.[11][12] Garriott later estimated that he wrote 28 computer fantasy games during high school.[8]

In the summer of 1977, his parents sent him to the University of Oklahoma for a seven-week computer camp. Shortly after he arrived, some of the other boys attending the camp introduced themselves. When Garriott replied to their greeting of "Hi" with "Hello" they decided he sounded like he was from Britain, and gave him the nickname "British". Garriott uses the name to this day for his various gaming characters, including Ultima character Lord British and Tabula Rasa character General British;[13] however, despite his nickname and birthplace, his parents moved to Texas when he was a baby and his accent is American rather than British.[14]

Game design career

Garriott began writing computer games in 1974. His first games were created on and for teletype terminals. The code was stored on paper tape spools and the game was displayed as an ongoing print-out on the spools of printer paper produced by teletype machines. In summer 1979, Garriott worked at a ComputerLand store where he had his first encounter with Apple computers. Inspired by their video monitors with color graphics, he began to add perspective view to his own games. After he created Akalabeth for fun, the owner of the store convinced Garriott it might sell. Garriott spent US$200 printing copies of a manual and cover sheet that his mother had drawn, then he put copies of the game in Ziploc bags to sell at the store. Although Garriott sold fewer than a dozen copies of Akalabeth at the store, one copy made it to California Pacific, who signed a deal with him. The game sold over 30,000 copies, and Garriott received $5 for each copy sold.[12][15][16] Akalabeth is considered the first published Computer Role Playing Game. In the fall, Garriott entered the University of Texas at Austin, joined the school's fencing team and later joined the Society for Creative Anachronism. He created Ultima I while at the university. It was published by California Pacific Computers and sold in Ziploc plastic bags, as was common in those days.

Steve Jackson Games (SJG) maintained a friendly relationship with Garriott and, when he visited the SJG office one day, Garriott was so impressed by the artwork of Denis Loubet that he commissioned him to paint the cover of Ultima I (1980). Loubet subsequently painted many other covers for Garriott's games.[17]

In the early 1980s, Garriott continued to develop the Ultima series of computer games, eventually leaving university to author them on a full-time basis.[12] Originally programmed for the Apple II, the Ultima series later became available on several platforms. Ultima II was published by Sierra On-Line, as they were the only company that would agree to publish it in a box together with a printed cloth map. By the time he developed Ultima III, Garriott, together with his brother Robert, their father Owen and Chuck Bueche established their own video game publisher, Origin Systems, to handle publishing and distribution, in part due to controversy with Sierra over royalties for the PC port of Ultima II.[18][19][7]

Garriott, dressed as his "Lord British" persona, at the 2018 Game Developers Conference

Garriott sold Origin Systems to Electronic Arts in September 1992 for 30 million dollars.[20] In 1997, he coined the term massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), giving a new identity to the nascent genre previously known as graphical MUDs.[21] In 1999 and 2000, EA canceled all of Origin's new development projects, including Privateer Online, and Harry Potter Online.[22][23] In the midst of these events, Garriott resigned from the company and returned to the industry by forming Destination Games in April 2000 with his brother and Starr Long (the producer of Ultima Online). Once Garriott's non-compete agreement with EA expired a year later, Destination partnered with NCsoft where he acted as a producer and designer of MMORPGs. After that, he became the CEO of NCsoft Austin, also known as NC Interactive.

Tabula Rasa failed to generate a significant amount of money during its initial release, despite its seven-year development period. On November 11, 2008, in an open letter on the Tabula Rasa website, Garriott announced his plans to leave NCsoft to pursue new interests sparked by his spaceflight experiences. Later, however, Garriott claimed that the letter was forged as a means of forcing him out of his position and that he had had no intention of leaving.[24][not in citation given (See discussion.)] Garriott reviewed and signed this announcement, but did not sign a resignation letter that had been drafted for him by NCSoft.[25] On November 24, 2008 NCsoft announced that it planned to end the live service of Tabula Rasa. The servers shut down on February 28, 2009, after a period of free play from January 10 onward for existing account holders.[26]

In July 2010, an Austin District Court awarded Garriott US$28 million in his lawsuit against NCsoft, finding that the company did not appropriately handle his departure in 2008. In October 2011, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed the judgment.[27]

Garriott founded the company Portalarium in 2009. The company is developing Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues, a spiritual successor to the Ultima series, with Garriott having remarked that had they been able to secure the rights to the Ultima intellectual property from Electronic Arts, the game could have become Ultima Online 2 in name.[28][29][30][31] On March 8, 2013, Portalarium launched a Kickstarter campaign[32] for Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues.[33] An early access version of the game was released on Steam on November 24, 2014, and the game was fully released in March 2018.[34][35]

Spaceflight

In 1983 Softline reported that "Garriott wants to go into space but doesn't see it happening in the predictable future ... He has frequently joked with his father about stowing away on a spaceship, and recently his speculations have been sounding uncomfortably realistic".[7] The income from the success of Garriott's video game career allowed him to pursue his interest in spaceflight, and the sale of Origin Systems allowed him to invest in Space Adventures and purchase the ticket to become the first private citizen to fly into space. However, Garriott suffered financial setbacks in 2001 after the dot-com bubble burst, and he was forced to sell his seat to Dennis Tito.[36]

He then says he returned to making games, to make money, and once he had enough, put down a non-refundable deposit to go into space. During the mandatory medical examination, they found he had a hemangioma on his liver, which could cause potentially fatal internal bleeding if there was a rapid depressurization of a spacecraft. Told he had to either give up his large deposit, or undergo life-threatening surgery, he decided to have the operation, and now has a 16-inch scar from it. He spent a year in Russia training before he launched into space.[36]

Richard Garriott (far right) aboard the ISS on 23 October 2008 with the MIT SPHERES Satellites

On September 28, 2007, Space Adventures announced that Garriott would fly to the International Space Station in October 2008 as a self-funded private astronaut, reportedly paying $30 million USD.[3][37] On October 12, 2008, Garriott became the second second-generation space traveler (after Sergei Volkov)[38][39] and the first offspring of an American astronaut to go into space,[3][38][40] and the second person to wear the British Union flag in space.[41] The Soyuz docked with the station on October 14. His father, Owen K. Garriott, was at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for the launch of his son and was in attendance when a Soyuz capsule returned with his son twelve days later.[42]

Screen capture from Windows on Earth, used by Garriott on ISS to identify targets for Earth photography. (Coast of Peru)

During his spaceflight, Garriott took part in several education outreach efforts. As a part of that outreach program he worked with the free Metro newspaper in London, which provided him with a special edition containing details of British primary school student's space experiment concepts which Richard took to the ISS. The Metro has claimed as a result that it was the first newspaper in space.[43][44] He is an Amateur Radio Operator (callsign W5KWQ), and during his stay on the International Space Station (ISS), communicated with students and other Amateur Radio operators using Amateur Radio.[45] Garriott also transmitted photographs using the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) slow-scan television system. Garriott also placed a geocache while aboard the ISS.[46]

Garriott also worked with the Windows on Earth project, which provides an interactive, virtual view of Earth as seen from the ISS.[47] Garriott used Windows on Earth software to assist in the selection of locations on Earth to photograph, and the public were able to use the same online tool to track the ISS and see the view Richard was experiencing out an ISS window. Richard's photographs, along with images taken by his astronaut father Owen Garriott in 1973, will be available to the public through Windows on Earth, adding a personal element to studies of Earth and how Earth has changed over time.[47]

Tracy Hickman wrote a screenplay for Garriott, for the first science-fiction film shot in space, Apogee of Fear.[48]

On October 24, Russian cosmonauts of ISS Expedition 17, Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko, along with private astronaut Richard Garriott, aboard Soyuz TMA-12 capsule, landed safely (ideal) at 09:36 (03:36GMT, 07:36 Moscow time), 55 miles north of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan. They were lifted to the Kazakhstan Baikonur space center by helicopter, and then flew to Zvezdny Gorodok (Star City), Moscow Region.[49][50][51][52]

On June 3, 2009, the New York Daily News announced that Garriott would officiate at the first wedding to be held in zero gravity.[53] The wedding took place in a specially modified Boeing 727-200 aircraft, G-Force One, operated by Zero Gravity Corporation, or ZERO-G, a company offering weightless flight experiences, of which he is the co-founder.[54]

In 2010 he released a documentary, Man on a Mission: Richard Garriott's Road to the Stars.[55]

Other accomplishments and interests

In 1986, Garriott helped start the Challenger Center for Space Science Education. His high school science teacher was June Scobee-Rogers, wife of Challenger Shuttle Commander Dick Scobee, who piloted the STS-51-L mission. STS-51-L was intended to carry the first teacher in space flight, before it and its crew were tragically lost on lift off. Scobee drew on Garriott's early leadership in gaming, to help design what has become approximately 50 global interactive networked facilities, where students study about and perform simulated space missions.[56]

Garriott bought the Luna 21 lander and the Lunokhod 2 rover (both currently on lunar surface) from the Lavochkin Association for $68,500 in December 1993 at a Sotheby's auction in New York[57] (although the catalog incorrectly lists lot 68A as Luna 17/Lunokhod 1).[58] Garriott notes that while UN treaties ban governmental ownership of property off earth, corporations and private citizens retain such rights. Lunokhod 2 is still in use with mirrors aligned to bounce lasers such that precise earth moon distances can be measured. With his vehicle "still in use", Garriott claims property rights to the territory surveyed by Lunokhod 2. This may be the first valid claim for private ownership of extraterrestrial territory.[59] Lunokhod 2 held the distance record for miles traveled on another planetary body, until surpassed by the NASA Opportunity Rover in 2014.[60]

Garriott acted as corner man for professional boxer and friend Jesús Chávez in his first title defense against Erik Morales in 2004.[61]

He is also an avid magician and magic collector, and appeared on the cover of the January 2008 issue of MUM, the magazine of the Society of American Magicians.[62] The issue featured an article about an event hosted at Garriott's home involving several of the world's best magicians.[63]

While not directly related to stage magic, Garriot is a fan of the collectible card game Magic: The Gathering, and designed a card in the Magic 2015 expansion set.

Garriott built a haunted house/museum at his residence called Britannia Manor in Austin, Texas.

Garriott promotes private space flight as vice-chairman of the board of directors for Space Adventures.

Garriott is a trustee of the X PRIZE Foundation.[64]

Garriott performed the first Zero-G wedding on June 20, 2009.[65]

Garriott's collections were featured on the June 10, 2012 episode of the Oddities TV series.

In 2007, he co-founded Planetary Power, Inc. with Eric C. Anderson and Miguel Forbes.[66]

Garriott received an Honorary Doctorate of Science from Queen Mary University London in 2011.[67]

Garriott provided vocals for a track on the Shooter Jennings 2016 album Countach.[68]

Garriott is an adviser of SpaceVR, a virtual reality space exploration company.[69]

Garriott is an advocate of Personal rapid transit and the system used at London's Heathrow Airport.[70]

Richard and wife Laetitia Garriott de Cayeux had their first child, Kinga Shuilong Garriott de Cayeux, on June 30, 2012.[71] Their second child, Ronin Phi Garriott de Cayeux, was born on July 28, 2014.

Awards

Garriott was named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 1992[72]

Garriott was named one of the "15 Most Influential Players" by Computer Gaming World

Garriott was inducted into the Computer Gaming World Hall of Fame

Garriott was named "Designer of the Year" by PC Gamer

Garriott was named "Game God" by PC Gamer in 1999

Garriott became the ninth inductee into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Hall of Fame in 2006[73]

Garriott became the sixth recipient of the Game Developers Choice Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006[74]

Garriott was named an "Industry Legend" at the UK Develop Conference in 2007

Garriott received the British Interplanetary Society's Sir Arthur Clarke Award for Best Individual Achievement in 2009[75]

Garriott received the British Interplanetary Society's Astronaut Pin given to British born astronauts in 2009[75]

Garriott received the Society of NASA Flight Surgeons Lovelace Award for Contributions to Space Medicine in 2009

Garriott was inducted into the Environmental Hall of Fame in 2010.

A state-of-the-80s bootloader programmer for the Motorola 68705 microcontroller.

The uC (left) feeds itself with the content of an EPROM (right)

Fun to build this in 2010.

Programming runs with 20 Bytes per second, so it takes three minutes

to toast the wafer.

After full night in front of monitor.

Big thanks to our Schipulite programmers for keeping us running with their code slinging skills.

Strobist info:

SB800 hand held 8 inches (20cms) above subjects in DIY mini softbox and triggered via CLS.

These are my ISP programmers. The one on the right is a JeeNode V4 with the Jeelabs flash programmer installed. I thought this was a bit of a waste of a full wireless enabled JeeNode, so I bought one of the cheaper and smaller (non wireless) JeeNode SMD boards.

The plan was to build the FTDI interface for the SMD board, then slide the flashboard down on top of that sandwiching it (which is why the pins and headers on the prototype board are all trimmed/filed, it allowed everything to connect nicely).

Unfortunately the regulator on the SMD board didn't survive the construction, so I had to add a full sized one on the prototype board instead... And then I thought I might as well wire up the pins I need to make it an ISP programmer in its own right...

The more eagle eyed (and geeky) amongst you might notice the lack of a reset capacitor on the FTDI connector I made for the SMD board... This is deliberate. I don't want to accidentally reprogram this board when it's supposed to be providing the protocol conversion interface so I can program something else.

So to reprogram this you either have to go through the cunning timing acrobatics of the original arduino board, or use the other ISP programmer (which is exactly how I loaded the AVR ISP software onto it).

So now I have two!

CK-100 Key Programmer V45.06 is 2014 latest version of CK100 Auto Key programmer. V45.06 CK100 Auto Key Programmer added new modles such as ford, honda and toyota ect. CK-100 V45.06 Multi-language update to 2014.04.

The premier event for the AV industry’s premier programmers

For switching electrical devices at the hour you want. Pretty useless due to electrical safety hazard and lack of user manual... I found it for 1 euro or so onto ebay.

So this is a response to this comic, which I thought was disingenuous as hell. Because this idea, "what if other professions were paid like artists" presupposes the idea that people create art for no other reason, except to get paid. There's a very good reason why surgeons, lawyers, computer programmers, even cleaners and sandwich makers get paid, and that is because in a capitalist society, if people were not paid to do those roles, no one would do them. (This also disregards the idea that doctors and lawyers do pro bono work, and computer programmers create and distribute open source software!) Yet oddly, for some strange reason, even in a late capitalist environment where everything has been commodified, even art, people do persist in creating art, even without the incentives of payment. Why?

This line of questioning got me into an argument with a ~professional photographer~ on twitter. I am an amateur; I learned long ago that I could not support myself from art, so I went off to do something else (computer programming) instead. I do occasionally do little illustration jobs, but payment is up to me. If it's a commercial enterprise where the client will make money off my illo, I expect to get paid. If it's not - and my example was that I gifted my drawing of Streatham Library to the Library and their Friends Group, for free, to use as their logo. The Photographer was outraged, and insisted that doing art for free, even for a library was somehow doing the world of art and artists a massive disservice. I do not understand this at all. If I did not give my sketch, it's not like they could have paid another artist to do it. Libraries in this country are under a massive budget squeeze. If I'd insisted on payment, that would be money not spent on books for children. I'd rather that the kids of Lambeth read, instead of me getting a few more quid. But this man essentially started calling me the equivalent of a scab, because I'd donated a drawing to a library.

And yet he would not answer the question I posed in reply: if you were told tomorrow, that you would never make another penny from doing photography, would you continue to do it? Because for most artists I know, professional or not, the answer is an unequivocal "yes." For many people, including myself, it seems to be some kind of compulsion. There are people who do art only to get paid, and there are people who do art to stop the screaming in their heads. I am the latter.

But the thing that irritates me the most in this debate is, the idea that art is only worth *doing* if it gets you paid. Late capitalism is a bitch, huh. The debate around getting paid for art or not seems to focus on the first three panels of this comic, and then stops. Some people get paid excessively, some people don't get paid at all, and some wealthy people do it as a kind of artisanal dilettante experience.

AND YET THERE IS SO MUCH MORE TO THE MOTIVATION TO CREATE ART.

There's another piece that goes around, talking about musicians not getting paid, and how irritating it is for amateur musicians to play a gig and receive nothing in recompense except... applause. This blog goes on to suggest how absurd it would be if you went to a restaurant, ordered a sandwich, and offered to pay by applauding the cook. The irony is, most of us, at some point of our lives, have been in a family, or in a relationship, where someone *did* make sandwiches for you, every day of your life, without even receiving so much as applause. For a moment, I'm going to ignore the gendering of food preparation (because let's face it, still, it is mostly the mothers, the wives and girlfriends who do the food preparation, so much so, that it's the MRA's standard go-to insult.) But food preparation is, very much, one of those things where we seem to have an intuitive sense why, and how, and under what circumstances, people sometimes expect to be paid for it, and sometimes do it for love, for joy, for therapy, for self expression, for culture, for awareness-raising, for a million other things.

And so, as absurd as this comic is, it answers that question, what if people made sandwiches for the same reason they made art.

www.obd2express.co.uk/wholesale/bmw-e-f-scanner-obd2expre...

ShadowForge87 (or Dave to his friends and family) walked into the Internet Cafe and looked around. His laptop had run out of power and he'd forgotten to bring his power cable, so this place was his only choice if he wanted to get online.

Sitting down at the nearest desk, he entered the login details he'd been given by the pale looking assistent and waited. This could take a while, he thought, considering the computer looked like

something out of the 90s, but within a few seconds he was logged in.

Before he began visiting his usual sites, like BrickLink and Eurobricks, he'd better check to make sure there was nothing running that would track his actions. He was all too aware of the dangers of identity theft and you couldn't be too careful in a place like this.

In the basement of the Internet Cafe, another computer screen flared into life:

... Terminal 2 Activated ...

... Cloning Facility Online ...

... Cloning Process Initiated ...

====================================================================

This vignette was created for the Eurobricks Collectable LEGO Minifigs Series 7 contest as a display setting for the Computer Programmer minifig.

My geeky friends find this amusing. I suppose it says something about my level of geekiness that I find it funny too. Of course, the Windows version would just have CTRL-ALT-DEL ;-)

central heating programmer for the central heating system, open to show controls

I used an old PICkit 1 flash starter kit to program the processor. If you are using Windows, you can use the software that comes with it to program the device. Using Linux, I followed the instructions at here to get it to work. I used the gpasm tool to assemble the program before flashing.

Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android

Underneath the perf-board. Sorry, no schematic; I just did this based on the ESP pinout and what needed to be connected.

Just the resistors, ma'am.

I found this funny.

See how easily the Anonymous font allows you to disambiguate these letters?

With an ATMEGA328 as ISP programmer.

Underneath the perf-board, with some of my notes. Sorry, no schematic; I just did this based on the ESP pinout and what needed to be connected.

top yellow area is the 6 pin ftdi connector. bottom/left blue 8 pins is the ESP module.

My DIY wifi module flasher/programmer. The ftdi (red module) is the usb input. White button is for chip reset. Green jumper selects native ftdi power (if 3.3v, which this module is) or put green jumper on bottom 2 pins for lm1086-3.3 regulator (when the ftdi module is native 5v). Yellow jumper shorts to flash; open to enable user-mode. 3v zener diode on 5v ttl tx line since ESP module is not 5v-tolerant on its inputs.

Camera: Canon EOS 350D Digital

Exposure: 1.3 sec (13/10)

Aperture: f/22

Focal Length: 70 mm

ISO Speed: 100

Exposure Bias: -4/3 EV

Flash: Flash did not fire

www.obd365.com/wholesale/ak90-bmw-key-programmer-v316-for...

hitag-2-key-programmer

Strobist info:

SB800 hand held 8 inches (20cms) above subjects in DIY mini softbox and triggered via CLS.

A JeeNode SMD on the left - minus its regulator - it didn't survive the construction :-(

On the right is a JeeLabs prototype board which I had originally intended to use purely to provide the FTDI connection and have sandwiched between the JeeNode and the JeeLabs flash programmer board (which is why the male headers on the JeeNode, and the female headers on the prototype board are a bit shorter than usual (clipped and filed).

However once I'd done that I discovered the regulator on the board was dead, so was going to have to put a full size replacement on the prototype board, which I did. Whilst I was at it I decided just to wire all the ISP functionality I required onto the board too.

Picture taken during lunch time at the "Maker Faire 2008" (San Mateo, CA) - a collection of creative, weird, and sometimes useless (but always interesting) inventions, exhibits and art performances. Check out the other pictures in this set.

--

"Não alimente o programador".

Foto tirada durante o horário de almoço na "Maker Faire 2008" (em San Mateo, Califórnia) - uma feira repleta de criativas, supreendentes, e algumas vezes inúteis (mas sempre interessantes) invenções, mostras e exibições de arte. Confira as outras fotos deste álbum.