Local Hero...

I have not heard of Sgt. Kristopher Kane of El Cajon before I read this story about his actions:

On the morning of Nov. 10 that year, Kane and his platoon, C Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines, were in Fallujah to retake the city from insurgents. While his platoon was resting overnight in a guarded building, the building next door was attacked.

Soon his platoon was in a fierce battle, according to military documents and an account in a Marine Corps newsletter.

Kane protected his fellow Marines from gunfire, including some already wounded. When the grenades Kane threw failed to stop the insurgents, his lieutenant, Dustin Shumney, sent in a bulldozer to take down a portion of the house.

The house fell down around Kane, the rubble crushing his right leg. He continued to fight despite the injury. He was sent to hospitals in Germany and then San Diego before spending a month recuperating at his father's house.

Kane is being honored in a way I haven't seen before:

Kane was decorated for his actions with a Silver Star, the U.S. military's third-highest honor for valor. And his picture is on a downtown El Cajon billboard – part of the year-old Hometown Marines program, which honors military heroes in the towns they are from.

The billboard, unveiled last month, is one of fewer than a dozen nationwide and the first in San Diego County. It can be seen on eastbound East Main Street near the Prescott Promenade.

I am really glad to see this sort of program in place, to give these warriors the recognition they so greatly deserve…

Kudos to Liz Neely and the San Diego Union-Tribune for such positive coverage of this story.

Hiring A Programmer...

Here's an excellent guide to hiring a programmer, full of advice that resonates strongly with my own experience. Here's #2 of 6 indicators, as a sample:

#2 : Self-teaching and love of learning

Programming is the ultimate moving target. Not a year goes by without some new technology robbing an old, established standard blind and changing half the development universe. This is not to say that all good programmers pick up these changes and ride the bleeding edge. However, there’s a class of programmers that will never, ever pick up a new technology unless forced to, because they don’t like learning new stuff. These programmers will typically have learnt programming at university, and expect to get by on whatever skills they picked up there, plus whatever courses their company is willing to send them on.

If you’re thinking of hiring someone as a programmer, and he ever utters the words “I can work with that, just send me on a training course for a week and I’ll be good at it”, don’t hire that guy. A good programmer doesn’t need a training course to learn a new technology. In fact, the great programmer will be the one talking your ear off about a new technology that you haven’t even heard of, explaining to you why you must use it in your business, even if none of your staff knows how to use it. Even if it’s a technology he doesn’t know how to use yet.

Now go read the whole thing!

Giving Thanks...

Some Jamulians found a way to thank some of the firefighters who traveled here from other states to help us this past October:

Grateful to the firefighters who helped protect their community, the couple wanted to give something back. And, as luck would have it, they planned to visit the Pacific Northwest.

They came last month, bearing gifts for the seven agencies that sent firefighters to Southern California. Each received a box of snacks and souvenirs from Jamul and the nearby border town of Tecate, Baja California.

Waller and Weber also wanted to deliver a personal touch. So they brought oversize thank-you cards signed by community members.

To get the signatures, they set up a table at a fundraiser for people who lost their homes. By day's end, 172 people had signed the cards.

"The most poignant signatures were from those who lost their homes," Waller said. "There were six families who still wanted to thank the firefighters, and they had lost everything."

Go read the whole thing. Very nice, Cris and Mike. Very nice indeed…

2007 Darwin Awards...

The Darwin Awards are given each year to

“…salute the improvement of the human genome by honoring those who accidentally remove themselves from it…”.

This year's awards were just announced. It's “don't miss” reading – but be darned sure you're sitting down and don't have any liquid in your mouth when you go there...