Oh jeez... seeing Rich's name made my heart jump. I worked with him in the late 90's. He's a great guy, smart dude, and he wrote some hilarious poetry about Microsoft in his code comments during his late night coding sessions. I hate to hear about what he's going through.

During the year we worked together, Rich was probably the #1 driving force in PHP support worldwide. This was a time when PHP was still gaining traction and it really needed champions like Rich. He answered thousands of questions, posted sample code, responded to emails from strangers, and basically wouldn't leave his desk night day until he'd helped everyone that came to him (often wrapping up at 2 or 3 am).

Rich is also a huge supporter of local music and when I knew him, he was as much a driving force in the Chicago music scene as he was in the PHP scene. He happily fronted the $$$ to bands to cover the costs of recording and touring with zero expectation of getting paid back and even bought a van to loan out to bands that wanted to go on tour.

Needless to say I kicked in some cash. I'm glad to see he's getting some support here. He truly deserves it.