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15-Year-Old Sells Startup To ActiveState

Posted by Soulskill on from the flipping-perlburgers dept.

jcasman writes "Some entrepreneurs wait a lifetime to experience the thrill of selling their startup companies. Daniil Kulchenko, a Seattle area high school student, accomplished that milestone at the age of 15. Kulchenko today announced that he's sold his startup, a cloud-based computing company known as Phenona, to Vancouver, B.C.-based ActiveState in a deal of undisclosed size."

92 of 140 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Undisclosed size? by synthesizerpatel · · Score: 1

    Jealous much? ..

  2. ...and now ActiveState gets mass publicity by Gr33nJ3ll0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Slashdot's work is done!

    1. Re:...and now ActiveState gets mass publicity by pnewhook · · Score: 1

      Seriously, *YAWN*. I read what this shit did, amazing, 10 years ago. Maybe PERL is really lacking this, in which case, great. PERL guys, welcome to 2001.

      Typical developer jealousy and arrogance

      --
      Tesla was a genius. Edison however was a overrated hack who liked to torture puppies.
    2. Re:...and now ActiveState gets mass publicity by MadCat · · Score: 1

      Ah, I see we have a Ruby/Rails developer in the house...

      --
      There is no sig...
    3. Re:...and now ActiveState gets mass publicity by Seumas · · Score: 1

      Or a disgruntled former PERL developer, is my guess. :P

    4. Re:...and now ActiveState gets mass publicity by Kamiza+Ikioi · · Score: 1

      This is still news for nerds... remember when the 15-20 year olds ran the tech world? Unfortunately for our 15-20 year old readers, they do not remember, because it has been so long.

      --
      I8-D
    5. Re:...and now ActiveState gets mass publicity by creat3d · · Score: 1

      So... how many startups have you sold?

      --
      Grammar nazis are to this community what excrements are to gold.
  3. Re:Undisclosed size? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Nothing pisses off /.'ers more than seeing a kid [luckily] achieve what they never have.

  4. the story here.... by metalmaster · · Score: 4, Insightful

    the kid is 15. Another few years and this wouldnt have been newsworthy. It's good to see young people taking initiative though. Not only did he have the business sense to do something, but it was obviously something someone else thought could be worthwhile enough to purchase. kudos indeed. I certainly wasnt thinking like this 8 years ago.

    1. Re:the story here.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      the kid is 15. Another few years and this wouldnt have been newsworthy.

      Wrong. If it was an 18-year-old girl, we'd be proposing to her with haikus and fanfic letters,.

      (captcha: pervert)

    2. Re:the story here.... by timeOday · · Score: 2

      I'm impressed. At 15 I was mowing the neighbors' grass and haven't been truly self-employed since.

    3. Re:the story here.... by Seumas · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Don't be too hard on yourself. Was your dad a robotics and AI researcher with all sorts of resources and connections to help you do something more than mow lawns? Probably not.

    4. Re:the story here.... by cheekyjohnson · · Score: 1

      Is what he said correct? Is/was his dad a robotics and AI researcher (looking at the article, that seems to be true)? Instantly assuming that he is jealous because he mentioned that (or because he gave criticism) doesn't make sense to me. I don't know whether he is jealous or not, and that's precisely why I wouldn't reach a conclusion about whether he is jealous or not. I have seen quite a few people use the "you're just jealous" argument whenever someone mentions something that could downplay a well-off person's accomplishment(s) or merely gives them criticism. Unless they explicitly state that they are jealous (if they said the opposite, people probably wouldn't believe them), I don't see how you could be sure whether they are or not. Of course, it doesn't matter either way.

      --
      Filthy, filthy copyrapists!
    5. Re:the story here.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      No offense, but the only thing stopping you is the belief that you can accomplish your goal.

      Follow your dreams if you have them, don't wait, life it way too short.

      I didn't wait, because my family wasn't exactly rollin' in the cash and at 13 I mowed lawns, and at 14 I did the early am paper route thing and hated it, so I started 2 businesses while still in middle school (only to be shut down by my school administration through a ban on my products), and in high school I started another business that I ran for 7 years before moving on and starting another business, and another, and another.

      I never got rich, but I had a freedom that can't be had in the academic or business world, so I repeat as necessary, and life remains fresh and alive , no midlife crises necessary because I've already been living it for decades, which far more important than money.

      Of course, there is nothing wrong with starting a business and selling it for big bucks, I'd love that too, but it's a rare thing, so I don't spend my energy pursuing money, just the semi autonomy being an entrepreneur can bring one.

    6. Re:the story here.... by gregrah · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I truly do not understand where you are coming from when you feel the need to repeat this same comment in 3 different places. What is your beef with this kid? What is your point, exactly?

      As others have mentioned, you come across as being extremely jealous. And for an adult to make jealous comments about a teenager - well what can I say except that those comments reflect far worse on the adult, and are generally indicative of an adult who has had issues adapting to life as a grown-up.

      Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but that's the impression that you are giving off.

    7. Re:the story here.... by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      No offense, but the only thing stopping you is the belief that you can accomplish your goal.

      It's true. I believe I can go out for a walk this afternoon, and now I can't move my legs.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    8. Re:the story here.... by Seumas · · Score: 1, Informative

      Right, the only response acceptable is "wow, amazing". It's certainly not worth pushing the point that the kid next door to you with less accomplished and connected parents won't have any such opportunity.

      Like this kid, I found an opportunity and exploited it at a young age, which I was able to make into a great and very fulfilling career. I didn't have the parents aspect, but I did benefit from rare fortunate circumstances that do not fall most teenagers who *do* have an interest or even a passion in something like this.

      Nobody is discounting accomplishments here and it's ridiculous for you to assume so. Pointing out the obvious (which nobody needed to read the article to even conclude, based on prior history of such stories) does nothing to discount the kid. However, when do we get the stories about the other kids? Where are the stories of kids who somehow accomplish similarly cool things without the same benefits as those in every story I recall reading here and on HN over the years? Do they exist?

    9. Re:the story here.... by Seumas · · Score: 1

      Actually, selling it is probably a wise move whether arrived at on his own or by counsel of those advising him. Better to reap what benefits you can, now, rather than try and balance it and all of high school and hope that it all "just works out". Instead, he seems to have parlayed not only a short term success and reward, but an opportunity at ActiveState, which could be more valuable to him in the long run. Especially as they appear considerate of his age and obligations.

      Not to mention, this builds a track record for him to refer to in the future. After high school, he'll already have a leg-up with this on his resume.

    10. Re:the story here.... by BitZtream · · Score: 1

      The reality of it is, the kid didn't actually do all of this.

      If you go to the site for the product, its very clear that its no 15 year olds company.

      At best, he took some of daddies money and told some other people to make some shit and his parents called it a company, his idea possibly developed to what it is now by some actual developer hired to work for him.

      Whats likely is that his parents and he worked on this together, and the parents are calling it 'his company', but it would never exist without them.

      Why do I say this?

      Look at his website, in one spot it talks about how this 15 year old was trying to do a deployment for one of his clients in 2009 and realize he wanted something better ... 'clients' at 13? No. And no 13 year old writes like that, regardless of how well educated and smart.

      He started programming at a young age, with The Register noting that he began tinkering with HTML at the age of six and became a freelance Linux administrator at 11.

      Really? Someone other than dad was allowing an 11 year old to 'admin' their Linux machines? Bullshit. Running your own Linux box in your bedroom doesn't make you an admin, when will you guys get that?

      The kid could be the most intelligent, gifted person on the planet, but the story painted in the full article is clearly unbelievable if you look at the details, its just far too much.

      --
      Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
    11. Re:the story here.... by slackbheep · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I was several times more impressed with William Kamkwamba.
      http://www.ted.com/talks/william_kamkwamba_on_building_a_windmill.html

    12. Re:the story here.... by iamhassi · · Score: 2

      admin a Linux box is easy, what he has done is not.

      The website gives it away:
      "I was working on a client project back in 2009, a Craigslist aggregator which I wrote in Catalyst, and spent a large portion of my vacation in Mexico trying to get it to work on the client's IIS server. It was a nightmare. At the time, I'd already heard of Heroku, a simple deployment solution for Ruby-based web apps, and I thought: why Ruby and not us? I spent weeks researching Heroku, and the work on Phenona had begun."

      Really? When he was 13 he was working on a Craigslist aggregator that he wrote in Catalyst and he spent a large portion of his Mexico vacation working on it?

      Does that sound realistic to anyone? Not to mention the website reads like it's done by a grad student with a English minor rather than a 15 yr old right out of Freshman English. I'd almost believe it if he went to private school but according to his website he attends Inglemoor High School, a public school.

      His father found a genius way to pay for his college or at least get him a great job someday: write a neat program, then convince struggling business to "buy" it for the publicity by claim 15 yr wrote the program. Now someone will hire him because he's some sort of programming genius.

      --
      my karma will be here long after I'm gone
    13. Re:the story here.... by cheekyjohnson · · Score: 1

      Sorry, but unless you're a mind reader, I don't see how you can state such a thing as an absolute fact. Again, you're just assuming that the only reason he would post that (a fact, no less) is because he is jealous. How do you know there aren't other reasons? Because you can't think of them? That doesn't mean that they don't exist. In this instance, he may have just wanted to inform readers about the kid's father's career and does not actually care about the kid's success. Who knows?

      Not only that, but I don't see how it's relevant. Whether he is or isn't jealous does not make his arguments anymore correct or incorrect. You have to assess those individually.

      --
      Filthy, filthy copyrapists!
    14. Re:the story here.... by daniil.kulchenko · · Score: 1

      I'd prove your points wrong, but that'd take 10 mins of my time and I'd rather not dignify this with a response.

    15. Re:the story here.... by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      Actually, yes, it does sound realistic. When I was 14, I did some VB6 coding for money (well okay, not in Mexico). And while I didn't spend my entire vacation on it, I did spend most of one vacation - including my 15th birthday that happened to be at the time - writing my own BASIC compiler, for the fun of it.

      No, it doesn't make one a genius. All it really takes is some innate curiosity and ability to stick to a specific goal for long enough, some aptitude for coding, parents who encourage it or at least don't interfere, and accessibility of resources to self-study (books, hardware etc). It's not a particularly rare combination of factors, itself. And it can easily be made more common.

      To be honest, the fact that so many people - on /. of all things - find this story so hard to believe in makes me sad, and speaks volumes about where we are with respect to intellectual development as a society (or at least where US is, given where most commenters here hail from).

    16. Re:the story here.... by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      You already proved his points wrong - your apostrophes and commas are all correctly placed. For an average Slashdot commenter, that's virtually unsurmountable achievement as it is.

      Of course, judging by your name, you're Russian or Ukrainian, so you've actually had to learn English. So maybe it doesn't really count. ~

  5. Good for him! by danbuter · · Score: 1

    Nice to see a kid be successful. I hope this works out great for him and his family.

    1. Re:Good for him! by whiteboy86 · · Score: 1

      Most likely some VC has been cheated by the "cloud" related buzzwords into this fad. The problem is that anything involving words like "interner server", "cloud", "Ruby on rails" is too flashi, incomprehensible, uber-smart, and, exactly that irresistible thing, they are in the market for.. (driven by some wet dreams of bumping into Google 2.0)

    2. Re:Good for him! by matija · · Score: 1

      Activestate are not some unsophisticated VC who can be "cheated by cloud related buzzwords". They package their own distribution of Perl, and they have a very good editor/IDE for Perl/Python/Ruby.

      They know their Ruby and Perl markets quite well, and if they think something is worth investing in, it's because they think the technology is the market needs,
      and they can sell.

      --
      Duct tape + WD40 => DevOps
  6. Re:Heroku by rsborg · · Score: 4, Informative

    So its Heroku for perl devs?

    Apparently that's what it looks like... except it's a 15 year old who dun it. FTFA:

    Your app is launched into a securely partitioned environment on a cloud server. All CPAN modules required by your app are installed. MySQL and memcached are automatically set up, and connection information is exposed to you via environmental variables. In front of your app sits a Varnish caching server, quietly improving the performance of your app.

    More in the article, but that's already pretty amazing.

    --
    Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
  7. "Cloud-based" by oldhack · · Score: 1

    Basically it describes Perl web app hosting service.

    --
    Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
    1. Re:"Cloud-based" by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Sounds like a deployment service. From their page:

      So what is Phenona?

      Imagine this. You've spent hours and hours coding the perfect Catalyst (or Dancer, or Mojolicious, or, hell, CGI) application. You're using DBIx::Class with a MySQL database to store user info, and memcached in front of it for performance.

      You now want it out there, for the world to see and use. Here's a deployment scenario for a good web application:

            1. Get a server. These days you might go for some slow shared hosting, or maybe a VPS, or perhaps EC2 or Rackspace.
            2. Install Perl and spend a few hours installing all the dependencies of your project. (Ever installed Catalyst before? It's not for the faint of heart.)
            3. Install and configure MySQL, set up users, permissions, databases.
            4. Install and configure memcached.
            5. Set up a backup, redundancy, and failover solution. What would happen if your server went down, data was lost? You'd need to set up more than one server, do failover between them, and do regular backups to protect valuable user data.
            6. Set up cron jobs and background worker processes to work on long-running jobs.
            7. Set up a caching server, such as Varnish or Squid, to improve performance of your app.
            8. Secure your server, open the necessary ports for outside access.
            9. Deploy and test your code.
          10. Manage system updates, app monitoring, and downtime yourself.

      Hours, days, even weeks of time. Potentially hundreds of dollars. Or you could type this:

      cpanm Phenona
      phenona create MyApp
      git push phenona master
      phenona deploy production

      Yes. Those four commands encompass every one of the bullet points I listed above. The final command inserts your app into the grid.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    2. Re:"Cloud-based" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      When was the last time you looked at what's new in Perl or read "Modern Perl"? No, didn't think so. Throw-away attitudes are easy. Have you any idea what's in the perldeltas for the last 2 releases? No, thought not. Done anything with Moose? I rest my case.

    3. Re:"Cloud-based" by Seumas · · Score: 2

      Perl remains extremely powerful and one of the most versatile languages, even today. That said, the heavily trafficked and fairly complex 15,000 lines of code service I wrote when I was a kid (well, before drinking age) from scratch in 1998-2000 that powered everything up until 2011 is probably not the choice I would make if I were doing it all over again, today. At least, not if I were still starting out as I mostly was, back then. I made the mistake of choosing it as my first real language that I really did anything of significance with. Bad move for a language that makes it so easy to blow your own foot off with (and yet incredibly robust and flexible if you're experienced and it's just another tool you're adding to your belt). Over those many years, I considered another language a few times, but it always came down to not finding any other community that was as large and active as Perl's nor with the extensive public library of code to solve so many problems.

      What surprises me is that someone half my age would have such an interest in Perl, in 2011. It's not sexy and python and ruby and everything else is being pushed non-stop, these days. Hell, Haskell seems more popular if you just go by the number of stories about it on tech news aggregators.

      As to this kid "identifying fools and parting them from their money" . . . I don't get where you're coming from. He sold to ActiveState. It sounds more like he identified a possible demand to fulfill for people who use Perl. ActiveState is a Perl shop and their customers are primarily Perl people. It doesn't sound like he suckered anyone, but rather found a niche and filled it. In fact, it's one of the most suggested startup strategies. He didn't invent the wheel, but found a niche where he could apply a slightly modified wheel for a different audience. And it paid off.

    4. Re:"Cloud-based" by hey · · Score: 1

      Or a meta-package.

    5. Re:"Cloud-based" by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

      The most interesting part of this story is that someone under the age of 45 actually thinks using perl for new code is a good idea.

      I hope all my competitors keep using slow and/or memory-ravenous web development languages!

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  8. How about his parents by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    His parents can be worried now, becasue all of the kids with monis in my school had problems with drugs, smokes, games and alk. I hope someone will manage his monis before he can understand how success corrupts the mind.

    On the positive side. It is cool that someone takes a 15 year old boy seriously enough to buy a company from him.

    Kudos from http://epSos.de

  9. Re:Undisclosed size? by Alex+Belits · · Score: 1

    I am sure, plenty of Slashdot posters at some point promised to host someone else's perl scripts and were paid for it.

    --
    Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
  10. Re:Undisclosed size? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    people still care about Perl?

  11. Re:Undisclosed size? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Born into being fed with silverspoon, using rich engineer Daddy's academic resources, name, and business connections is not at all impressive.

    Correction: it's not as impressive as it otherwise would be. If the dad inspired his kid that much then he is impressive too.

  12. Not sure I understand... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    How can this be? Does he have a bachelor's degree? I've been told university is a noble institution, not profit-based at all, that teaches essential things that can only be taught in a a classroom with a bearded windbag sleeping at the front?

  13. Name things better by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Tools from the "What is Phenona" page: Catalyst, Heroku, Dancer, Mojolicious, DBIx::Class, Varnish, Squid, beanstalkd, TheSchwartz, Redis.

    Seriously, web developers, can the names of your shit please give some sort of superficial indication of what the hell they do?

    1. Re:Name things better by Seumas · · Score: 3, Funny

      It seems kind of obvious what DBIx::Class does.

    2. Re:Name things better by larry+bagina · · Score: 2

      What? No props to JizzMop, CumRag, and SpermBurp?!!?!?

      --
      Do you even lift?

      These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.

    3. Re:Name things better by makomk · · Score: 1

      Well, I think TheSchwartz's name was basically Brad Fitzgerald's idea of a joke back when he worked at Livejournal. (He has a blog post about it somewhere.) No idea about the rest of them though...

    4. Re:Name things better by tixxit · · Score: 1

      It is incredibly hard to give meaningful names to things. What would you have us do? "Oh, look, I've created 'PHP Web Framework #340203411: More jQuery'" That said, some of the names aren't terrible. That said, I think Varnish and Squid are both good names for what they are.

  14. Re:Undisclosed size? by deodiaus2 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Oh, come on. Many of us have probably have had the same soft of connections he does and never managed to accomplish this.

  15. Re:Undisclosed size? by Seumas · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I didn't need to read the article to assume that was the case. You hear a lot of stories every year about genius children who discover something fantastic or start a company or a major project that makes them wealthy and/or famous and their parents are almost exclusively professionals in the same field that their child is "excelling" in. The lesson being that it's not some independent kid coming up from scratch doing something amazing - it's almost always a kid (probably smart and ambitious, still) who had a parent get them into the stuff in the first place, then support them, guide them, advise them, help them make contacts, help them find resources, have their friends and colleagues chip in where needed.

    It's not to diminish the success, but to point out that the reason THIS kid did this and YOUR kid won't is that YOU probably don't have all the resources and connections to give your child from early on to guide them into this.

  16. Re:Undisclosed size? by Seumas · · Score: 2

    Who is more likely to get into a tech field early on, have the support and guidance from an adult, early on, and have the encouragement, connections, and resources so early on? The kid with the dad who is a robotics and AI scientist or the kid with the dad who works at a concessions stand at a ballpark?

  17. Re:Undisclosed size? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Oh please. Most children of scientists/etc couldn't be less interested in what their parents do (until later years). If the kid's story is diminished then it's only because his father outshines him. One of the rare examples of "proper parenting".

  18. Re:Undisclosed size? by PNutts · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Born into being fed with silverspoon, using rich engineer Daddy's academic resources, name, and business connections... is not at all impressive.

    Citation please. The fantasy you built typically condems teens to failure. They get money, cars, and cheerleader girlfriends so why do anything else? So... If any of your fantasy of why you haven't done better in life actually turns out to be true then I have even more respect for the kid. From the TFA he was a freelance Linux admin at 11 so he got hooked young, has a knack, and stuck with it.

  19. Huh by IoanaF · · Score: 1

    Lucky bastard.

    1. Re:Huh by capnkr · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Doesn't seem like 'luck' had much to do with it, unless you are referring to the definition of luck which says "Luck is what happens when Preparation meets Opportunity..."

      Would be it that *I* had been as knowledgeable and motivated at his age... :)

      --
      "...there are some things that can beat smartness and foresight. Awkwardness and stupidity can." ~ Mark Twain
    2. Re:Huh by jahudabudy · · Score: 1

      I've always found that definition to be somewhat recursive. How is Opportunity not based at least in part on Luck? Maybe there are very rare exceptions where a truly extraordinary individual 100% created his own opportunities, but I doubt it.

      --
      ...sometimes, in order to hurt someone very badly, you have to tell that person terrible lies. - PA
    3. Re:Huh by marnues · · Score: 1

      Is it luck or opportunity that picks your parents?

  20. Re:Undisclosed size? by Capt.+Skinny · · Score: 2

    AC's point is about the foolish equation of "researcher at University of Washington" with "rich engineer, silver spoon and business connections". A university researcher is not necessarily an engineer, and both research and engineering positions are well within the bounds of middle class in the western world. The kid may well have advantages in the tech field over the concession-stand dad, but a silver spoon is not one of them.

  21. Something fishy here... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    A 15 year old can't even sign binding contracts, let alone form or sell a company. This smells like a slashvertisement.

    1. Re:Something fishy here... by akeeneye · · Score: 1

      I was just going to post something about that (contracts). Did he have to get a note from his parents? It could be that someone over 18, the parents perhaps, were the C-level execs and he was just the majority shareholder.

      --
      The man who dies rich dies disgraced. -- Andrew Carnegie
    2. Re:Something fishy here... by jimmypw · · Score: 1

      I don't believe he was 15 either. FTFA:

      I was working on a client project back in 2009, a Craigslist aggregator which I wrote in Catalyst, and spent a large portion of my vacation in Mexico trying to get it to work on the client's IIS server. It was a nightmare....

      That would have made him about 13 at the time. What company employ's a 13 year old to work on expensive company servers. Regardless if he is a prodigy.

    3. Re:Something fishy here... by haxwk · · Score: 1

      I had the same feeling when I read this. I just don't understand how any kid could even find the time to become so fluent in so many technical areas. Unless of course his parents force fed him source code since he was an infant; which is probably the case if he is a real person. But this whole thing does seem like it's some sort of advertising conspiracy for ActiveState and their new program (which they probably developed). I checked out the kids twitter account and it does seem like it's written by a 35 year old senior programmer working for some large company. Perhaps this is just an internet personality created by some basement dwelling code monkey seeking attention. I wonder if any reporters have actually done an interview with him on video or at least audio.

    4. Re:Something fishy here... by InsertWittyNameHere · · Score: 1

      Meet Daniil Kulchenko. He was an HTML programmer at age six. He was a freelance Linux systems administrator at 11. And at 15, he founded his first business: Phenona, a platform-as-a-service for building and hosting Perl applications.

      There's a pic of him in there.
      http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/06/14/activestate_buys_teen_programmer/

    5. Re:Something fishy here... by haxwk · · Score: 1

      And that's the same exact pic of "Anonymous Male Teen" that's on /.'s summarized article, which is also the same as the guy's twitter account. And this is basically the same exact article, you've provided no additional information. I still think this kid doesn't exist.

    6. Re:Something fishy here... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Since when does the state of Washington put an age limit on who can incorporate, form an LLC, or just run a plain old sole proprietorship? ActiveState bears some risk that he will choose to void the sale before he turns 18. Apparently that is a risk they are willing to take.

    7. Re:Something fishy here... by troytop · · Score: 1

      What do you want? A long-form birth certificate?

    8. Re:Something fishy here... by troytop · · Score: 1

      Unless of course his parents force fed him source code since he was an infant; which is probably the case if he is a real person.

      Well, he is the son of this guy, who has been known to write some seriously gnarly code:

      The source code is notoriously complex, a mark of the seriously ingenious Paul Kulchenko who created SOAP:Lite. As a result baffles most inexperienced Perl programmers, and indeed sends many of them running in shear terror. I myself am given the highest respect in my office for signing up to maintain the module for this fact alone - I work with some of the brightest and most experienced Perl programmers in the industry and they all look at SOAP::Lite in awe. And not the "good" kind of awe, the kind of awe that gives people a healthy, but fearful respect.

    9. Re:Something fishy here... by daniil.kulchenko · · Score: 1

      Yeah, the El Reg interview was an audio interview, I was also on KOMO News Radio, local here in Seattle. What else do you need, some photos off my Facebook profile? ;)

    10. Re:Something fishy here... by haxwk · · Score: 1

      Yeah, the El Reg interview was an audio interview, I was also on KOMO News Radio, local here in Seattle. What else do you need, some photos off my Facebook profile? ;)

      Not even a facebook profile would completely convince me. But the audio file, and that you were on a radio station that I listen to often(I'm actually from Seattle too), is proof enough. Usually I'm just skeptical to be skeptical and it only allows me to be more confident about the conclusions I draw. I'm sorry I have to take such an incredulous stance, but it's in my nature.

      Congrats on achieving so much so early in life though. I'm sure we'll all hear about a lot more of your achievements down the road. That is unless you plan on retiring or something :P

  22. I suck by beckyshaw · · Score: 5, Funny

    I can't even sell a piece of junk on Ebay

    --
    Becky Shaw abstract artists
    1. Re:I suck by LoganDzwon · · Score: 1

      I got you bet on that one! I can sell stuff, but after shipping and ebay fees I lose money.

  23. Good effort no matter what age by anchovy_chekov · · Score: 2

    This is kinda neat. I know it's a copy of what Heroku and co have already done, and I've no love of PERL, but give the guy some cred. 15 year old or no, if this all works as stated it's a nice piece of hackery.

  24. Re:Heroku by Cramer · · Score: 2

    Cloning a VM is amazing? The real magic(tm) is in creating the VM the first time. (something my coworkers learned recently when I made them build the windows vms for virtual center, domain controller, etc.)

    He appears to have written some scripts / programs to automate a highly complex process. System admins have been doing that for as long as computers have existed. He's managed to get someone to buy his creation -- for an undisclosed amount that isn't likely to be the billions the /. crowd is making it out to be -- and that ain't bad. Me? I tend to get paid for the shit before I write it. (but I'm an old fart... I don't write code for fun.)

  25. Re:Heroku by codepunk · · Score: 2

    " I made them build the windows vms"

    You heartless bastard!

    --


    Got Code?
  26. Salesman by codepunk · · Score: 1

    This kid would certainly have a bright future as a salesman.

    --


    Got Code?
  27. Re:Undisclosed size? by daniil.kulchenko · · Score: 1

    Not sure what you're talking about there. My dad's off doing his thing, and I'm off doing mine; he gives advice at times, but otherwise I'm completely independent. No "connections" to speak of.

  28. Re:Undisclosed size? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    who cares, it's Perl.

    Fuck Perl in the ass hole with a big rubber dick then break it off when it's halfway inside. Enough about Perl.

    The important take-away from this story is that this businessdude is A) not female and B) not black. I don't have to RTFA to know that. Neither do you.

    Just keep tellin' yourself it's all a big coincidence you politically correct tool. Have fun with that!

    i can't tell if thats a sexist nigger joke or a lament about the way we treat women and "brown people" different in society

    they both work. it's like some kind of crazy quantum duality

  29. Re:Undisclosed size? by gregrah · · Score: 2

    Hey Daniil,

    Don't feel like you need to defend yourself against any of the trolling comments here (and in fact you're better off ignoring them). You're a talented young man - and anyone of any importance in the world is going to recognize that immediately. This guy is not important.

    Congrats on your success. If you care to share how much $$ you made on the sale, we would all be interested. :)

  30. Re:Undisclosed size? by daniil.kulchenko · · Score: 1

    Thanks, and I wish I could share, but I'm really not allowed to ;)

  31. Here we go again... by BobSutan · · Score: 1

    This is the 21st century version of the shoe-shine boy giving stock advice. It's clear now we're in for another tech bubble fiasco.

    --
    "On a scale from 1 to 10, people are stupid"
  32. Re:Undisclosed size? by antifoidulus · · Score: 1

    It's not just that, people with rich parents rarely ever have to do a large number of chores around the house and whatnot, so they have a lot more spare time. Most rich kids squander that gift, this kid didn't. Man what I wouldn't give to have all that time I spent mowing the lawn, washing dishes, cleaning, doing laundry etc. back when I was a kid.....

    --
    Monstar L
  33. Perl is still alive! by drolli · · Score: 1

    Hey, i programmed perl when this guy was born.....

  34. Re:Undisclosed size? by Inda · · Score: 1

    You know, we do have the tools of the AC here ;)

    Anyway, well done.

    --
    This post contains benzene, nitrosamines, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide.
  35. Re:Undisclosed size? by Seumas · · Score: 1

    However, without a parent in the field with the connections and resources, any interest such a child might show in a particular field would probably not be very fruitful. Take this same kid and take his dad out of the picture, make his mom a nurse or waitress, and put them in a low end two bedroom apartment and this kid's great accomplishment becomes graduating highschool and possibly attending community college against the odds.

  36. Re:Undisclosed size? by Seumas · · Score: 1

    I don't think we can make any assumptions about the wealth of the family, but you absolutely can't dismiss the fact that if his dad had a completely different career or wasn't even in the picture, he would not have gone beyond the "expressed an interested in" stage. You see, expressing an interest in something at a very early age doesn't magically provide you with a computer, educational resources for using it and programming with it, internet access, encouragement, guidance, advice, resources, connections and everything else that a parent like his was likely able to help him benefit from. Without those things, he's just another nine year old kid saying "i wanna be an astronaut when I grow up" whose parents respond to him with "that's nice" and a pat on the head.

  37. Re:Undisclosed size? by Seumas · · Score: 1

    I don't think any rational person is discounting the accomplishment and the awesomeness, but let's not dismiss the endless stories we've seen over the years about "ten year old does awesome thing in technology" and "fifteen year old makes scientific discovery" and "seventeen year old founds awesome tech darling" where their parents are always established in the same field themselves. Where are all the stories of these kids from single parent families who live in the part of town where you don't go out at night and are elementary teachers or work in retail?

    I don't think that pointing out "you almost never hear about these stories where the kid didn't have the benefit of parents in the field and with some resources" is wrong, unfair, or discounting the individual's accomplishment. You'd especially be a fool not to make the most of opportunities and circumstances, if they're beneficial to you.

  38. Re:Undisclosed size? by TheLink · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Ignore the haters. They're jealous and/or stupid.

    I'm not surprised that a smart kid can do what you do especially now given the vast resources available on the Internet. There's just so much a person can learn online nowadays, the issue is more of what you want to learn and spend your time on.

    When you get older you might find you have less energy and time to spend on your interests, and stuff might just not feel as interesting and exciting- you might get a bit jaded. The first time you eat ice cream is often much better than the 100th time, even though the ice cream has not changed.

    So before that happens, have fun, stay motivated, keep doing stuff and keep finding cool stuff to do! And you might find you never get old, just older ;).

    p.s. try not to spend too much time on Slashdot - it can be a big time-sink...

    --
  39. Re:Undisclosed size? by goarilla · · Score: 2

    Congrats on your success. If you care to share how much $$ you made on the sale, we would all be interested. :)

    No, No never do that. Some of us are still bitter (old/older) IT-janitors.
    If you think this is turning way too hateful now just wait and see then.

  40. Re:nothing new by BitZtream · · Score: 1

    Yea, its decentralized ... except the trackers and the search sites aren't, which for all practical purposes are required for bittorrent to be useful in a general purpose sense.

    Its funny when people such as yourself run on about decentralized apps without realizing there isn't a 'decentralized' app on the Internet that doesn't depend directly on indirectly on something that is centralized and authoritative in order to thwart potential Bad Guys(tm).

    I'm guessing by your post and its tone that you're what ... 18, 19?

    --
    Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
  41. Re:Undisclosed size? by tehcyder · · Score: 1

    It's not just that, people with rich parents rarely ever have to do a large number of chores around the house and whatnot, so they have a lot more spare time. Most rich kids squander that gift, this kid didn't. Man what I wouldn't give to have all that time I spent mowing the lawn, washing dishes, cleaning, doing laundry etc. back when I was a kid.....

    You'd only have spent the time enjoying yourself, which is no great life lesson to teach a child. You were better off learning that adult life is a combination of boredom and pointless hard work at a young age.

    --
    To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  42. Re:Heroku by rsborg · · Score: 1

    Cloning a VM is amazing? The real magic(tm) is in creating the VM the first time.

    You obviously don't understand PaaS. The developer who deploys *never touches* a VM. It's created on the fly, not cloned, with load-balancing, dependencies and caching all figured out for you.

    --
    Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
  43. Re:Undisclosed size? by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

    I've had a fairly solid middle-class upbringing and can't say that we could ever afford to vacation in Mexico.

    What makes you think that your family was middle class?

  44. Re:Undisclosed size? by lsatenstein · · Score: 1

    Bravo, well said.

    --
    Leslie Satenstein Montreal Quebec Canada
  45. Ignore the Curmudgeons by frost_knight · · Score: 1

    Congratulations on your achievement, and may there be more in your future.

    --
    It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law. --Hofstadter's Law
  46. Re:Undisclosed size? by ScrewMaster · · Score: 1

    It's not just that, people with rich parents rarely ever have to do a large number of chores around the house and whatnot, so they have a lot more spare time. Most rich kids squander that gift, this kid didn't. Man what I wouldn't give to have all that time I spent mowing the lawn, washing dishes, cleaning, doing laundry etc. back when I was a kid.....

    You'd only have spent the time enjoying yourself, which is no great life lesson to teach a child. You were better off learning that adult life is a combination of boredom and pointless hard work at a young age.

    I bet you're just loads of fun at parties. Not that I disagree with you, exactly

    --
    The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.