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During my 3 months in the Mozilla Mountain View office over the summer I saw a lot of interesting things and met a lot of new people. Of all those experiences, the thing I miss most is Ken Kovash, or “ko-ko” as he was known.

I had the honor of sitting next to Mr. Kovash for around 2 months. For the first week, there wasn’t even a divider between us. I watched as he dared request an IBM Thinkpad in the presence of so many Macs. But that’s just like Ken. Always the shining star; never one to conform. I watched as he removed the taped paper from under his optical mouse and asked if I placed it there. I watched as his chair would sometimes be missing when he came back to his desk. I often thought he played these pranks on himself. Because no one is deft enough to prank Ken Kovash.

Every morning when I got to my desk with cereal in hand, Ken would be there (sometimes) to say “Good morning, Justin.” It gave me the energy to get through the day, until around 5 when he would say “see you tomorrow”. I think he might have said a few other things during those months, I can’t quite remember now. I didn’t start writing them down until the last week.

I know that I am not the only one influenced by ko-ko. I can only hope that polvi, melissa, and others that sit around him have absorbed some of his knowledge while they can.