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[sigma7]

Ray Arachelian died today, January 18, 2023.

Ray was the chief architect and developer of LisaEm, co-founder and main administrator of LisaList2, as well as proud father and all-round good guy.

Raise a glass to me and play this: Amon Amarth - One Thousand Burning Arrows - I know it's not going to be everyone's cup of tea. Just been listening to that song as I'm facing my mortality, and it's soothing. So kinda want that song played at my funeral.

[stepleton]

Thanks for the note. If anyone learns about any memorial details (like where to send things like messages or donations to charity or the like), I would be grateful to hear about it.

[blusnowkitty]

Rest in peace, Ray.

I bought Ray's PJ-1080 a couple weeks ago and I saved the box it came in. I was planning on sending a card to his wife when this day came; if anyone wants to add their own small message I can include it on the card.

[jamesdenton]

Thanks, James.

Ray's contributions to the Lisa community can never be forgotten. I know he inspired me to get involved, and his emulator spurred a great interest in the Lisa for many of us. I had the pleasure of meeting him and his family at his home in early fall of 2022, and despite his diagnosis he was fully committed to sharing his knowledge, expertise, and most of all - curiosity - with anyone willing to listen. What a great guy, and I'm fortunate to have known him.

[D.Finni]

Very sad news. :-(

[AlexTheCat123]

Wow, this is really sad. Ray contributed so much to the Lisa community and it's going to be really different with him gone. He was so knowlegable, helpful, and a really kind person. Rest in peace Ray, you will be missed.

[compu_85]

I'm very sorry to hear this, but glad Ray is at peace now.

I'm sure I wasn't the only one checking to see the last time he'd logged in.

-J

[andrew]

I just saw a 40th anniversary article about the Lisa on ArsTechnica which features LisaEm prominently. I was reminded to check in here again, which I had also been doing periodically since I heard Ray was sick. I'm very sorry to hear about his passing. Without dedicated developers like Ray, entire generations of software would be lost to time.

[jamesdenton]

Hi everyone.

For those interested, services for Ray will be held on Saturday, January 28, 2023 at Park Funeral Chapels in Garden City Park, NY 11040 - (516) 747-4300. The family has asked that if you wish to send flowers, please do so at that address.

In addition, friends and family are encouraged to post tributes on the "Tribute Wall" that has been setup at https://parkfuneralchapels.com/tribute/details/4062/Arsen-Arachelian/obituary.html. Flowers and trees may be ordered and planted in Ray's honor should you choose to do so.

[fri0701]

Thanks for letting us know. Ray was always such an enthusiastic and devoted member in this community, and his many contributions in the form of programming help, LisaEm development, historical resources, and overall demeanor will be really missed here. He helped me out with many things this past year even when he was getting very sick, and I'll always appreciate that.

[Lisa2]

Raise a glass to me and play this: Amon Amarth - One Thousand Burning Arrows - I know it's not going to be everyone's cup of tea. Just been listening to that song as I'm facing my mortality, and it's soothing. So kinda want that song played at my funeral.

This reminds me of another music related Ray story of mine that folks here may find interesting.  About 10 years ago I wanted to port LisaEm to the ( then new ) original Raspberry Pi.   It ended up taking days for me to compile and chase down issues with the port.  In the process I spent a lot time digging deep into Ray's source code, and he had many comment lines about music or verses from songs.   A few years later ( in 2018 ) I asked Ray about these comments and this was his reply:

"So, about the comments... most are just song lyrics from whatever I was listening to at the time that gave me that extra bit of energy to plow through and not just give up. And as I re-read the code and see those, they kind help propel me again. Unfortunately when writing an emulator you can't see output until you're more than 90% done because it won't actually run anything, and it's really difficult to keep working on it and stay the course when you have nearly zero feedback as to actual progress. 
Since you've enjoyed the comments, I'll share a bit of what's coming in 1.2.7.  Unlike the seemingly random and song lyrics comments as easter eggs, 1.2.7 adds Futurama inspired quotes. If you're a fan of that now cult show, you'll remember their title sequence captions (see: https://theinfosphere.org/List_of_title_captions ).  It's nuggets like "Not Affiliated With the Sun Remarketting Brass Knuckle Company", ">>Not Y1.995K Compliant<<",  "Featuring gratuitous rectangular pixels", or "There's No NiCAD Like Leaky NiCAD!" These replace the simple "Welcome to LisaEm" in the status bar, and you get a random one each time you launch LisaEm. There's also one that's Archer inspired:   "Unleaded solder? Do you want tin whiskers, because that's how you get tin whiskers!" an an actual quote from Frank Ludolph himself that he provided for 1.2.7.

Why Futurama? Because it was itself a spoof of how people in the 1980s (and even 1950s) thought the future would be, and because it was canceled multiple times. Which funnily enough parallels a lot of the Lisa's history. The Lisa was what Apple thought would be the Future, but instead, we got the Mac. Which wasn't bad, but it was a very different thing, if far bright than the Lisa was in 1984. And then, the Lisa was killed, but reborn as the XL, and then finally destroyed in a landfill. And now it's reborn via LisaEm, and the efforts of Sapient in ways similar to Futurama being killed off by Fox, and moving to Cartoon Network as movies and then as one final season, and then being kicked off Netflix and then being picked up by the SyiFi channel, etc. (I still have my DVR record Futurama, and watch reruns occasionally!)
And best of all, LisaEm will never make it to the Apple App Store because it's an emulator, so in a way modern Apple Inc. is killing off the Lisa's resurrection again!"

Fantastic!  Love it.  Rest in peace Ray, you will be missed!

Rick