If you watch Homeland or are familiar with CIA operation, then you probably know what happens when an agent dies in the line of service. They become a star, which is placed on the memorial wall at an emotional ceremony and words along these lines will be said -

“For the men and women of the CIA, this constellation is more than a memorial, more than a quiet tribute. Each star holds memories of a brave intelligence officer whose example we follow, a treasured colleague whose wisdom we keep, or a lost friend we will miss. They are our heroes, and that’s how we’ll remember them”

Now in my line of work, these agents take on another form. If I’m to borrow Mr. Wonderful’s analogy from Shark Tank -

“Here’s how I think of my money – as soldiers – I send them out to war everyday. I want them to take prisoners and come home, so there’s more of them”.

I share the same sentiment with him, except that in my case my devices are the soldiers. Unfortunately, some times these soldiers don’t make it back from the battle. As this year winds down, I have three stars to put up and I think they deserve honourable mention here.

1. Special Agent HP P

This guy was the true definition of “Service above self”. He was always up for the task, even when I asked for the impossible from him. He went through a number of clean installations but still emerged sentient. Dude condensed a whole flask of water but still continued diligently serving. I couldn’t have asked for more from you agent. Unfortunately, Kampala’s sharp guys managed to snack you away from me.(A story for another day). You, agent HP P saw me advance from Hello World! to real world code, and for that I’m truly grateful.

2. Agent 3GS

Another great agent. Unfortunately he entered a comma that he’ll probably never recover from. The experts call it a bricked state. My futile jailbreaking attempts to keep him up to date with Apple are responsible for his demise. But nonetheless, his was a life like no other. He introduced me to the world of smartphones.

3. Agent WD

Truly spectacular agent. You gave me oodles of space to download & collect everything I deemed interesting. Yours was perhaps the most untimely departure of all. One fall and alas, you were gone forever and so were more than 500 gigs worth of entertainment, never to be seen again. I know some people who’ll probably miss you more than I will.