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An Army Medal For Coding In Perl
shocking writes: Arizona National Guard member Vivin Paliath was surprised to be commended for writing Perl scripts and Excel macros while his unit was deployed in Iraq. His work automated a number of previously manual processes that were part of the logistics processes of his unit. He wrote, '[A]s a programmer, I'm constantly looking for ways to make my job easy. I didn't want to sit and add qualifications, and print licenses one by one. I was too lazy for that, and worse, the whole thing was horribly inefficient. So I decided to figure out how to automate the process. ... I started writing Perl scripts to query the data. By the time we had reached Iraq, I had a working script that generated licenses as text files for all the soldiers. The script only took a second or two to run, and the longest part of the process was simply printing out the licenses. But I wasn't done yet. I was still annoyed that I would have to add driver qualifications manually. So I wrote another script that would go and add qualifications to drivers en masse. The script even had a configuration file where you could specify what qualifications you wanted to add and to whom."
I'm sure there's a CPAN module for that.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
...for coding in Perl.
That sounds like hacking to me.
There's a metal for those wounded in combat, and Perl cuts psyches deeply indeed.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
Anything that improves the efficiency and effectiveness of our forces deserves recognition. If writing code and automating or stream-lining a process is successful, write the person who did it up for a citation or medal. I did it in the navy 20 years ago and received a NAM (Navy Achievement Award) for my efforts. Not all medals given in the military are for combat duties.
All I did was float around the Big Pond (East coast) in Uncle Sam's Yacht Club DURING the Vietnam era. I also got a medal for behaving 4 years in a row. This guy actually did something. I enjoyed the article.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
Well, at least the Army has 'L' keys that work properly.
I wrote a nice database system to track inventory cards and print out cards that were pretty much identical to the forms our S-4 used back in the late 80s in the Marine Corps. It was much better than the system they had used - which relied on removing old cards, and filling out, by hand, all new cards every time a piece of equipment was checked out or checked in. It helped alot with leakage... and worse, with equipment that was supposedly checked out, but had actually been checked in (and the Marine would then have to incur replacement cost).
There were other things I worked on, but this one had a significant impact on our effectiveness as a logistics unit.
One of the criteria is "meritorious service."
Writing - on his own - a set of scripts that save that much time for his unit? Should certainly qualify.
Sounds like someone who embodies the Three Virtues of a programmer: Laziness, Impatience, and Hubris. Well done!
I'm always amazed at what non-programmers are impressed by. Code up some major application, and... Why doesn't it have this feature? Why does it have that workflow? What kind of colorblind dyslexic idiot designed this UI? But whip up a simple script to automate some repetitive, routine task and you're a genius!
Chelloveck
I give up on debugging. From now on, SIGSEGV is a feature.
More useful things have been invented out of an express desire to be lazy than I can even count.
The realization of "WTF am I doing this by hand when I can write a script" sparks so many cool things.
If he streamlined his job and got better results I don't see why he shouldn't get recognition.
I'm sure the military hasn't introduced the Perl Star or anything, so I'm sure they've worked within existing stuff to say "damn, son, that's some fine work".
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
I find it doubly ironic that the tough guys out there decry our culture of "every child gets an award" but gets choked up every time they see a soldier get a bullshit medal pinned to their chest.
"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right" - Salvor Hardin
Get this man to the VA stat!
The next time someone asks "What good is Perl anymore?" or "Who actually uses Perl?" or "Why use Perl?" you can point them to this article. Perl is perfect for this type of quick development. Sometimes the older languages still have a lot of value.
We used to call guys like that pogues, and we didn't give them medals. On the other hand, if you could introduce efficiency in military bureaucracy, or any bureaucracy really, good on you!
Careful where you draw the line between "fighting men" and "office workers". I knew someone who was a Yeoman, does the ship's paperwork, on a destroyer during WW2. He only did paperwork between the fighting. When the ship went to general quarters he put down the pencil and became part of the crew of a 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft gun. For those unfamiliar, this was not a gun where the crew had some protection inside a turret. Bofors' crew were on deck and exposed to enemy fire, debris/fuel from aircraft destroyed and friendly fire.
President Kennedy, in a memorandum to the Secretary of Defense, dated 1 June 1962, authorized the award of the Army Commendation Medal to members of the Armed Forces of friendly foreign nations who, after 1 June 1962, distinguished themselves by an act of heroic, extraordinary achievement, or meritorious service.
He used VBA and Perl in order to successfully speed up military bureaucracy - don't you think that qualifies as both heroic and extraordinary achievement, respectively?
Ezekiel 23:20
The government develops tons of its own software.
What law says that everything has to be contracted out?
Getting a medal for it? That's new.
No it isn't. Although some medals are hard to earn, others are handed out like halloween candy. The National Defense Service Medal is automatically handed out to everyone that enlists. I got a Sea Service Ribbon just for SHOWING UP when my unit deployed (the alternative was to go to the brig). Achievement Medals are routinely awarded to people that go a little beyond the ordinary in solving problems or innovating. I was awarded two Navy Achievement Medals during my six years of service in the Marines. What is described in TFA is routine. It happens all the time.
Remember before criticizing the US Army, it's considered the best in the world, largely because of quartermaster capabilities.
"Who are you?" "No one of consequence." "I must know." "Get used to disappointment."
I have an equivalent script in VB.Net. Without doubt, it's the finest 1,702 lines of code I've ever seen.
Getting a medal for it? That's new.
No it isn't. Although some medals are hard to earn, others are handed out like halloween candy. The National Defense Service Medal is automatically handed out to everyone that enlists. I got a Sea Service Ribbon just for SHOWING UP when my unit deployed (the alternative was to go to the brig). Achievement Medals are routinely awarded to people that go a little beyond the ordinary in solving problems or innovating. I was awarded two Navy Achievement Medals during my six years of service in the Marines. What is described in TFA is routine. It happens all the time.
You seem to deride the practice, but handing out halloween candy has a purpose- its a gift to make people want to keep doing what they just did (ie. show up). Small incentives and gifts can be very valuable tools for building relationships. I used to be a field engineer working at power stations. The big thing there was stickers. Millwrights and pipefitters have a tradition (going back probably until the invention of stickers) of collecting stickers and placing them on their hard hats. Stickers are "earned" by attending mandatory safety presentations ("Power Plant XYZ Safety Training 2014"), by belonging to various industry clubs, or just handed out by people (engineers/sales reps) looking to get a favor in the future. A hard hat full of stickers shows that you're an experienced guy who has been around a while. It is a mark of respect and experience. If you work in those professions and don't have a hard hat full of stickers, you're a greenhorn or otherwise somebody who doesn't know what they're doing.
I've shown up to a power station many times with a roll of stickers, and these guys instantly became my best friend and helped me out greatly in achieving the thing I was there to do. Don't underestimate the value of token gifts.
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
All the perl haters missed the whole point of the story. Someone in IT got appreciated who wasn't on the windows help desk! +1 for skilled employees! We used to have a sign posted at work stating, "Doing a good job here is like wetting yourself in a dark suit. No one notices but you get a warm feeling"