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Programming Prodigy Arfa Karim Passes Away At 16
quantr writes "Arfa Karim, child prodigy, youngest certified Microsoft Professional in the world and winner of the president’s Pride of Performance, breathed her last breath on Saturday night at the Combined Military Hospital in Lahore. Arfa had an epileptic attack on December 22 and had been in a coma since."
...it must be asshole day at /.
Seriously, folks - what the hell is wrong with you?
A young woman of tremendous promise and an incredibly positive outlook on life dies far before her time, and this is what you have to say?
Some really sick folks. First time in a long time that I've actually been embarrassed of the folks here at /., despite some seriously differing opinions.
Check your premises.
Wow, what a bunch of badasses we have here. Way to slam a dead teenager for not being as cool as you are. Real men, you are.
I had no idea epilepsy could be fatal.
I know the years of blood vessel stress can lead a migraine sufferer like myself to suffer an aneurism -- a blood vessel in the brain "blowing out" and bleeding, causing stroke symptoms or even death. But the concept doesn't scare me, it's just a factual risk I live with.
My heartfelt condolences to her family. She was so young and so gifted, with such a future ahead of her. :(
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
Have gnu, will travel.
the comments on this topic are disgusting, shows something about an average person (and they are voters).
You can't handle the truth.
Why is this posted on Slashdot?
This is a sad event indeed, but the sad news here is that a young person, yet to live a good and full life died. Not that a possible future program hero died.
Its not news for slashdot. Its news that in this world, a lot of people still die because of diseases that should be able to be helped.
... are seemingly all arseholes. Sometimes you fuckers make me want to puke. Have a little respect; she's dead.
--D
Doubt it was stress alone. I bet her brain was wired so differently that something like this was bound to happen.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
I think it's about time /. gets rid of the AC policy. If you can't be bothered to make an account, why should you be able to constantly stink this place up with the sort of bile we see in the first few comments to this?
A moment of silence for a bright little star winking out, no more to lend its brilliance to our future.
If 80% of your blood is in your left hand, while it may allow you to play tennis without the need of a racket, can cause varying types of seizure. See pic in article for details.
Well at the basic level Certified just means you can pass the test.
Do you know how old she was when she passed it? She was 9.
You may not be impressed by that fact, but I am.
Seriously? Getting certified at age 9 does not qualify enough to be appreciated? You cannot even spell "were" and "a lot" at this age and you're pointing fingers at a dead legend?
People have to die. Sad fact. Don't take it so hard. I bet about a million other people died the same day. Are you mourning for them? Lighten up, Francis.
I know that, in the face of the appallingly low level of most of the comments here, it is easy to take the moral high ground. I know. But still - this is tremendously sad. We ( with "we" I mean both "humanity" and "we, the engineering community" ) lost something valuable here: a promising life.
Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
I didn't know her, had never heard of her, but to pass at 16 is just sad. So much unfulfilled.
It's sad that she passed so early. She appeared truly gifted and it's a shame that she died too soon to learn how awful Microsoft products are. She could have become quite the *nix wiz.
So in other words, no human life has value, and we should just shrug our shoulders and move on. I hope on the day someone you care about dies, no one follows it up with insults and a "lighten up, Francis!"
Microsoft certification: even a 9 year old can do it.
Perhaps, but I don't make a habit of pissing in open graves before the dirt's even shoveled in.
And I find it reprehensible when others do it out of some sort of misbegotten patriotism, envy or need to prop them selves up by being vile to others.
Especially in the case when such potential for brilliance is snuffed out so early.
Check your premises.
I blame Microsoft. She must have seen what they did to the Metro API in Windows 8, lol.
Arfa, thank you for being an inspiration during your too-short life. You'll never know the positive example you've been to tens of thousands!
Truly, it's not that impressive. I was programming at that age, and probably could have got through such a thing (pulled out of my ass - I don't know what you have to do for it, but I'm guessing it's not going to be hell). I'm not saying it'd be easy, but I don't think it makes you a prodigy - again, not saying that she wasn't, but it was poor proof of it.
Either way, it's a shame she is dead.
To think that a [presumed] Muslim female, a child at that, could accomplish what she did is amazing on so many levels. I am with others on the presumption that her ability was possibly also part of her undoing. The brain is a tricky thing. Hers was likely wired in such a way that it contributed to its burning itself out.
That said, those woman-oppressing Islamic fundamentalists out there can look upon her with all the anger they like. They can't deny what she was. She was female. She was extremely young. She was extremely accomplished and had extremely high potential. I doubt this is the type of symbol she would have wanted to be, but she is definitely a symbol of defiance against ridiculous religious ideals which seek to limit and oppress women into specific roles in life.
Yes, epilepsy can be fatal. It can shut down the central nervous system, starve the brain and other vital organs of oxygen, causing death. That just happened here to a very promising young student here in North Carolina. I convey my condolences to the family. There is no crueler cut of life than having to bury a child.
So what we have hear is a head line that makes a big deal about the cert. Now can one any point to some real work (not just passing a test) that she did??
Not saying anything bad about her but the summary makes a big deal about the cert and not much more other then a trip to the main MS office.
Microsoft Certification: Harmful for Children
Indeed. The MCE tests are pretty easy for an adult. Passing one as a teenager displays a somewhat above-average level of competence. Passing one when your age is still in single digits is very impressive.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Well at the basic level Certified just means you can pass the test.
Do you know how old she was when she passed it? She was 9.
You may not be impressed by that fact, but I am.
The tragedy is that she was a young girl in the prime of life and seeing her life taken too soon, not because she was labeled a Microsoft Certified recipient and thus labeled a child prodigy for doing so.
Get a grip, folks.
I'm not a programmer, but I am pretty good at my chosen profession. I know without a doubt that I couldn't have passed any sort of "certification" exam at that age, whether it was related to my profession or not.
I'm pretty sure I've got a grip.
Just sayin'.
Okay, so you're honestly trying to say that any 9 year old could pass that test, if their parents simply "forced" them to learn it by flash cards? Get a grip, indeed.
I am sickened by some of the posters here. I expect stupidity and ignorance from the CNN posters, here I thought there were be a higher standard because of the average intelligence and educational levels of the average reader here. I was sorely mistaken. If you're so jaded and bitter that you use the news of the death of a young girl, who seemed to be quite remarkable by the way, to post stupid shit about how you hate Microsoft, certifications, or whatever, you need to get your humanity checked. I know you can feel so smarmy posting your bullshit into the ether, but, you are genuinely fucked up for doing so. I really have to stop reading reader's comments on websites, it's actually beginning to damage my soul. Thanks assholes.
Same about the young kids with high level PHD's and degrees.
Now if some kind was high along in some kind of a IT apprenticeship then it's a big deal but the degrees over real work and tech school is wrong with IT today.
CS does not give the skills to do IT work and it's to long in a class room for IT any ways and that some leads to people rolling software / ideas / plans with the knowledge of working with at user end and up.
theory does help but CS is over loaded with with. Some cert tests are some what theory / way off base from the real work place. Other cert tests can be done by people who are good test takes.
she didn't die because she was burning twice as bright. she died from complications after they made an incision to insert a breathing tube into her trachea. that means she didn't have to die, and it was an incredible tragedy that she did. i am both sad and angry at this terrible news.
From TFA: "In recent weeks, Microsoft had stepped in to help provide expert medical care."
Look, I find it as disgusting the people straight up insulted a dead person. However, millions of people die every day. Such things happen. And if I don't feel sad for a person I've never heard before that might have or then again might have not been smarter than the average, then that's my choice.
The freakishly intelligent often die quite young. My grandmother, for example, had a cousin who was formally tested, and found to have an IQ well over 200. He did rather well for himself, up until he died at the ripe old age of 19. I've heard of other examples of this sort of thing, too. They just seem to burn out, for some reason.
Learning about brewing beer, by brewing beer.
It's pretty special that you consider the phrase "not as gifted as Mozart" to be synonymous with "not impressive". I hope your kids grow up to be Oscar-winning astronaut quarterbacks, or else you're in for quite a disappointment.
Lack of empathy is a clear social dysfunction and the only excuse is adolescence.
I would not ridicule a 16yo for not understanding how others might feel or how things are for someone else. If you are still busy finding your own identity it is difficult to feel for others. But if you're 20+ and still posting things like the above comments, you are on the way of becoming a pathetic loser.
You obviously don't get the reference, or the respect that the reference implies.
You're an asshole.
Are you so attached to the idea of performance and computer skills that you'd even consider it a relevant subject of discussion when such a young person has passed away? You're all like Scrooge, but with computers chained to your souls instead of cash.
Emotions! In your brain!
Yeah I'd hate to be the child of the guy up there saying that any 9 year old could pass this test, if the parent just forced them to learn it on flash cards. Potty training is going to be rough in that house.
It also depends on the test. MCP by itself is kind of a meaningless certification as it simply means that you have passed one of the many tests, and not all of them even have to do with programming - e.g. there are some Office certifications that'll give you that.
She, on the other hand, qualified by taking a C# WinForms exam. Also according to the same, she passed an exam for ASP.NET two years later - judging by this, she was on her track to become an MCAD (MS certified app developer), with only one exam remaining. I went through that myself, albeit at an older age (started in 14, got my MCAD by 16) - it's not exactly hard, but it does require that you know how to code, and know C# reasonably well. Doing it at 9 is certainly quite impressive - heck, back at tat age I was still trying to figure out how to write Tetris in Turbo BASIC, without much success at that.
And not to forget that she was born and raised in Pakistan, which is not exactly a first world country - so it's not like she had many opportunities and lots of free time to waste.
I studied up on her, and, one of the things I noticed is that when asked if she's a net applications developer, she resopnds that she programs in C#. And when I studied the requirements for MCP, I couldn't find an instance of the word "Java". So... at least we can say that the poor young soul never had to know the pain of Java.
"Stratigraphically the origin of agriculture and thermonuclear destruction will appear essentially simultaneous" -- Lee
On one side we have the who cares, this is not the place to post this. The on the other side we have Its such a tragedy we lost such a great young mind! Then we have the people who probably agree with the first but are to afraid to comment for the karma loss inflicted by the second side.
Lets be honest, it is a tragedy any time someone dies, even more so when that person had potential to change alot of peoples lives through their work, but let us remember we lose people everyday with more potential and intellect than this girl. She had the right combination to get to the point were she could excel, good parents that encouraged her that had money to make possible what she wanted to do. So I think on that point is a greater tragedy when we lose someone who tries to excel even though they have none of those things to help the process. Where is the press then? Where is microsoft to help them find the best medical care? Where is the overzealous out cry of mourners for those people?
I think its time the second group of people step back and re-look at all the shit they are giving the first group of people, unless you can name every bright mind the world has lost in the last year and how that young kid who was working themselfs through college because his mother was a crack head and his farther was in jail has effected you.
"I think it's about time /. gets rid of the AC policy. If you can't be bothered to make an account, why should you be able to constantly stink this place up with the sort of bile we see in the first few comments to this?" - by Beelzebud (1361137) on Sunday January 15, @04:38PM (#38708108)
What about misusing mult. registered 'luser' accts used to troll/harass/stalk others?
(Don't even *TRY* to bullshit me & say it doesn't go on either - it goes on like MAD...)
E.G. - I've got the MOST "infamous" of the lot here, literally, and with he saying this week I was "RAPED" & more, violating the rules of this site... Doesn't faze him I wrote the GeekNet legal dept. etc. (thus, he's not afraid of breaking the law (in terms of libel or defamation of character, obviously!))
* In fact, I'm an ac who posts that way consistently (as AC), & I was very happy that folks rode the morons who acted like complete assholes hopefully FEEL that way, & yes, that they voiced their opinions in that regard to the ones acting like asses!
So please - don't even *TRY* to make it out like cutting off the 'ac' posting identity more prone to being "better people", because I'm dealing with possibly the WORST OF THE LOT in "registered 'lusers'" -> The fool that keeps around 500 bogus alternate registered accounts, in "MichaelKristopeit"...
APK
P.S.=> There's also a pack of trolls here, literally ADMITTED trolls (gmhowell, tomhudson, webmistressrachel, squiggleslash, countertrolling, mcgrew, & other registered LUSER 'guises'), that cheat the moderation system, literally, in 2 ways:
1.) Modding themselves up in collusion/teams
2.) Modding down those they are stalking/harassing/trolling
Think it's bullshit? Ok, fine - here's where they LITERALLLY ADMIT TO ALL OF THE ABOVE & how they cheat the mod system here:
A.) countertrolling telling others how to moddown opponents as registered lusers 1st, then to logout to save your karma/cookie state of your reg'd luser account, & then to troll others via ac replies -> http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2245866&cid=36491652
B.) mcgrew stating how he modded up webmistressrachel 5 times, & she's his "partner in crime" around here (probably SAME person with multiple guises is my guess) -> http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2212152&cid=36361542
C.) I've literally CAUGHT a fool named clone53421 posting in the same post as clone52431 (notice the #'s appended, not the same)
& plenty more I've caught doing bogus things around here to "fool the system/game the system"... would you like more? I can list them, in seconds... apk
What's more saddening is that she died so early that she probably didn't enjoy childhood, and living, that much.
I wouldn't be sad that from X child prodigies in the world, we now have X-1; that's alright, the world will go on.
She won't.
And that's the sad part...
DEATH be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not so,
For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee, 5
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee doe goe,
Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie.
Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell, 10
And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well,
And better then thy stroake; why swell'st thou then;
One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.
Perhaps, but I don't make a habit of pissing in open graves before the dirt's even shoveled in.
And I find it reprehensible when others do it out of some sort of misbegotten patriotism, envy or need to prop them selves up by being vile to others.
Especially in the case when such potential for brilliance is snuffed out so early.
For all of you who are inexperienced socially I will make things easy and tell you that what forkfail said is a proper human response to what singingjim1 said. Seriously you guys need to know when to apply the saying "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all."
the most promising people always go first and yet assholes are still amongst us?
I'm just venting, don't take me too seriously.
My thoughts are with her family and friends.
RIP, Arfa Karim Randhawa. :'(
Okay, so you're honestly trying to say that any 9 year old could pass that test, if their parents simply "forced" them to learn it by flash cards? Get a grip, indeed.
You don't know many Asian parents do you?
A new one begins.
Got Geometrodynamics? Awe, too hard to figure out? Too bad.
This is it. You people are monsters who do nothing but make half life and portal jokes when your not whining about copyrights. Now you are attacking a child for getting a cert. Of course she had no great work, she didn't have enough time! Shill for microsoft? Ya getting a cert from a company with enormous worldwide market share is certainly a terrible idea.
Young death knows no intelligence range, it will take them all.
No man is an island entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as
well as a manor of thy friends or of thine
own were; any man's death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
Enjoy your mortality, fellow beings...
You obviously don't get the reference, or the respect that the reference implies.
and i also wouldn't have shown my respect by wishing her a speedy recovery from chemotherapy.
You're an asshole.
that is correct, coward.
i will correct the common misconception that she died from a seizure no matter how tragic it is. i want candles to burn twice as bright AND twice as long, and i'm not afraid to say it.
Being familiar with this girls story, I came here to say some kind words. I see that they have already been said.
For those of you with unkind words all I can say is I have been on Slashdot since 1997 and I have never been so embarrassed and ashamed to call myself a part of this community.
Brought to you by Carl's Junior.
I don't know any Asian parents, and I'm Asian, you insensitive clod!
By the time they get home from work either I'm asleep or studying with my private tutor. I'm lucky if I get an email every other day.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
IQ scores don't work that way. You can't be "found to have an IQ well over 200".
What is it with Slashdotters' pathological fear of sites like Reddit? It's as if Slashdotters are living in an alternative reality in which community websites never progressed past 2002, and Slashdot's broken model is the only thing out there. "Let *everyone* moderate? That's preposterous!"
I even remember when CmdrTaco publicly predicted that Wikipedia would fail. There's this strange fear of relinquishing control around here.
Hell, look at your post, which is modded up, compared to the post you're replying to, which is -1 Offtopic. Why is his off-topic but you're isn't? Because people who don't like the OP modded it down, while people who don't like Reddit modded you up. Agendas rule the day because the moderator pool is so small.
Here are the reasons why this is a news-worthy item here on Slashdot and why she should be credited for what she did:
1. The girl was from Pakistan and therefore unlikely to have been afforded similar social & educational privileges than a 16-year old girl in the USA or Europe.
2. Pakistan is a mainly Muslim country meaning that women have a lower status than men from the moment of birth. Therefore what she did was that little bit more harder for her than for a boy in Pakistan.
3. It's good to occasionally get a new story from Pakistan where everyone isn't portrayed as either a Taliban terrorist in the mountains or a member of the Pakistan government hiding them.
4. Maybe if a few more kids in our rich Western countries (I'm in the UK) took an interest in intellectual pursuits like programming, we wouldn't have so many of them dropping unwanted kids or getting addicted to drugs or alcohol. Maybe just one or two of those kids will read this story and take some inspiration from it, possibly change their own lives.
So now kindly shut the fuck up if you cannot show some compassion.
Windows 10 is great - I used it to download Linux.
Pakistan... the home of Testking and corrupt testing centers.
Obligatory Hawking reference.
Really funning considering /. generally complains when one has to sign-up to random sites in-order to read their articles. 'They're violating my priavcy! Their database could be hacked! I'm being tracked! etc...' Some people don't post enough to feel like it's worth creating an account and remembering new login details. Use something like KeePass? then you can only post from one computer. Use a cloud based service? then you've given all your passwords to a third party. Remember them yourself? that's hard to do for secure passwords for 20+ site you rarely log onto.
Anyway, you're only trying to hide the problems, not fix them (I know, extremely hard to do). Lets all push those disgruntled people over there so they become ever more disgruntled. When has that ever worked out in the long term?
Why are you people with accounts making such a big deal about us ACs? If you guys didn't make such a fuss, I would have never even known there were a few bad first posts (which there normally are anyway). Now instead of discussing the girl, half the posts are about ACs. Why can't you raise your viewing threshold one point?
It's funny to see people on /. crying think of the children when it suites them then bash everyone else doing it in many of the articles.
One last point: without bad ACs posts, you'd get a more distorted view of the world. Many people feel having distorted views of things is bad in general. Even /. tends to argue against it.
~8 year AC poster (1-3 posts a month)
I was programming at age 9. I was learning the difference between 'serial' and 'random access' mode for files on Apple II Basic. I was setting about trying to write a program to automate my elementary school's checkout system for their little library. I didn't finish it, but that's what I was doing.
Need a Python, C++, Unix, Linux develop
Congratulations! In two decades of using Linux you're the first sick fuck who has got me to question the wisdom of that decision.
Windows 10 is great - I used it to download Linux.
Why is that really all that surprising?
My son is 8. He's not a very proficient reader yet, though his math skills are very good. He's been mostly home schooled (nothing all too vigorous, which probably attributes to his lack of reading proficiency) but wanted to go to public school this past year.
However, he has a better grasp of some key IT concepts which my MCSE and college IT/CS/etc. coworkers do not, simply through osmosis. If this girl's parents were both in IT and she had an overt interest in it, I can see how it might be more the case. My son understands things like basic troubleshooting (my primary role, it seems), connectivity, hierarchy, the interaction of components inside the system, and can navigate around in a shell OK.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
...is when you troll gleefully about the death of a teenage Pakistani girl who was a genius with Microsoft stuff but attacked anyone who trolled gleefully when Steve Jobs passed away.
Windows 10 is great - I used it to download Linux.
No kidding. For those who don't care, we won't care for them when they die.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
I know some people who have personally met Arfa when she came to visit Redmond back in 2006. If she faked the exam, that would have come out pretty quickly in any prolonged conversation on programming topics.
Have you ever taken that certification exam ? Maybe then you wouldn't be so impressed.
One must also consider that not everyone is as dumb/irresponsible as the average North American kid. I grew up with other kids that would be considered "mature" by such standards, but really it was perfectly common and expected to learn things from your parents and uncles, instead of parking us in front of a TV. I had an uncle who was studing CS, so by age 2 I was writing my first Hello World program in BASIC. My neighbour was an EE, so naturally his kid was a whiz at electronics and robotics. By the time we hit 3rd grade, we would spend our evenings and weekends porting each other's computer games (he had a C64, I had an Atari).
Kids don't have any of the distractions and frustrations of us adults. If they are interested in something, they can easily invest 16 hours a day into that passion. They have no bills to pay, no spouses to patronize. Given the kind of harsh parenting seen in many 3rd world countries, I'm surprised we haven't heard of other kids getting an MS cert even earlier than 9. If a kid is bright enough, you could train them to pass the test by the time they're out of diapers - at the expense of their sanity of course.
-Billco, Fnarg.com
He/she could be dyslexic, you presumptive clod!
28% of all geniuses make perfect guesses at statistics on Slashdot. FWIW, Mozart was a prodigy and died at 35. We need to define "prodigy" and compare it to contemporary mortality figures to get a real answer though.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
tell me about it, i was potty trained via flashcards and now i can't write an exam without pooping EVERYWHERE.
That same "tragedy" happens to thousands and thousands of 16 year olds all over the world, every day, and has happened for hundreds of thousands of years.
What makes her more interesting than most of those is the fact that she was a certified geek (albeit one working for the Dark Side).
To be honest, I don't find the ability to code at 9 particularly impressive; I started playing around with computers at 4 and by 9 I'd actually written a couple of (very simple) games for my ZX Spectrum, with no help from anyone, and before there was any such thing as the internet (just reading code snippets from magazines and trying out stuff). From what I read, her "achievement" was to pass some Microsoft test, which should be trivial if her parents worked in IT and pushed her a bit. Did she ever develop an actual application / game / new algorithm?
I'm sure she was a lot better at programming than the average 9 year old, but that's only because the average 9 year old's parents steer them in other directions.
I am with those who maintain that a Microsoft certification is not Computer Science, and that the wikipedia article is erroneous, misleading and should be corrected. Perhaps by changing the heading from "Computer Science" to "Systems Administration". An impressive achievement for a nine year old to be sure, but not to be ranked with science. Attempting to mischaracterize her achievement that way only sullies it.
Have you got your LWN subscription yet?
I don't want to degrade this girls achievements by any means, but I'm not particularly impressed by the Microsoft Certification part. By the time I was her age I was not passing Microsoft exams, I was programing in multiple languages including assembly and machine code. This was quite some time ago, before MS had a certification program (may have even been before they existed, but I don't know the dates off hand).
Again, i'm not at all saying that this girl was any less than impressive, but it has nothing to do with the microsoft certification.
I had an uncle who was studing CS, so by age 2 I was writing my first Hello World program in BASIC.
Sorry, I don't believe you.
At two years old, you didn't have the motor skill to control a keyboard or a mouse, much less read or write.
She looked more like an Indian to me.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Knowing a few people who have gotten that certification (after several tries) - I am fairly comfortable in saying that the test for that, and many similar MS certifications, are on par with some of the harder actuarial examinations. Even a particularly intelligent person will be challanged.
That being said, it is a lot of memorization, not necessarily analysis. But when you have quick recall to that many situations, if your logical abilities are fairly good, then you will be able to troubleshoot A LOT.
Self proclaimed typo king, and inventor of the bear destroying coffee table (patent not pending).
I wish I had points to mod parent up. I just about cried laughing.
So Microsoft and Saint "I'm an honest rich man! And a hero!" Gates reap free publicity from this kid even in death.
you had me at #!
And if i go, ...I will be there.
while you're still here...
Know that I live on,
vibrating to a different measure
-behind a thin veil you cannot see through.
You will not see me,
so you must have faith.
I wait for the time when we can soar together again,
-both aware of each other.
Until then, live your life to its fullest.
And when you need me,
Just whisper my name in your heart,
By Colleen C. Hitchcock
Sigs suck!
You're absolutely correct, it was an amazing accomplishment.
The reason there's backlash is that certification in computing fields tends to be rather worthless. They're indications of a base level of skill that's much lower than the level needed to actually get programming work done, so they have a bad reputation in the field. In addition, there's often a requirement for a certification that keeps qualified applicants from getting jobs, which is a source of frustration for everyone outside of HR.
So, while you're correct that it's an accomplishment on her part, the GP is also correct in that what she learned wasn't necessarily skills that are useful in the real world. Without more supporting evidence, calling her a programming prodigy is certainly a stretch.
Hmm. I can see the trolls are multiplying on /. again. Is it because it's an election year, or did a bunch of 14 year-olds guess the password to their parent's AOL account?
I am John Hurt.
The death is tragic, but there are no "programming geniuses", it does not work that way. You simply cannot even have the amount of experience to be very, very good at that age. The potential can be there, but not the actual skill. My deduction is that she had very good memory and was drilled to get through that test. Afterwards, my guess would be that she was used basically as a PR asset. Makes sense when you think about it. And in basically all cases like this, when you dig a bit, you find over-ambitious parents.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Tens of thousands of young people in the prime of their life die every day even though they shouldn't have to. Where have your tears been for them?
Hmm. I can see the trolls are multiplying on /. again. Is it because it's an election year, or did a bunch of 14 year-olds guess the password to their parent's AOL account?
That insults both the 14 year old and AOL ---
which as I remember it from the dial-up days tended to keep things civil.
I'm just saying a bunch of people die every single day. You cared about this woman? You knew her? I'm sorry for your loss if so, but in reality you life has not changed and by tomorrow you will have forgotten this person existed and that this exchange even took place.
Fine. I'll get off your lawn.
I dunno, it was pretty funny. That doesn't (or shouldn't, anyway, certainly didn't for me) detract from the casual viciousness of life and the pain it can cause.
Perhaps, but I don't make a habit of pissing in open graves before the dirt's even shoveled in.
How convenient from the standpoint of a consequentialist censor: hold off on saying anything until nobody is listening anymore. Well, I salute all the trolls, because I know that there's no time like the present, the immediate, to say what we want to -- while we too are still alive.
Same about the young kids with high level PHD's and degrees.
Now if some kind was high along in some kind of a IT apprenticeship then it's a big deal but the degrees over real work and tech school is wrong with IT today.
CS does not give the skills to do IT work and it's to long in a class room for IT any ways and that some leads to people rolling software / ideas / plans with the knowledge of working with at user end and up.
theory does help but CS is over loaded with with. Some cert tests are some what theory / way off base from the real work place. Other cert tests can be done by people who are good test takes.
Your post might carry a bit more weight if you would slow down, check your spelling, and do a bit of proof reading. As it is you appear to be semi-literate at best. No one will take you seriously if they can't even understand what it is that you have written.
'The tyrant will always find pretext for his tyranny.' - Aesop's Fables
She got Microsoft Professional Developer certification. But what has she actually developed? A calculator app and a sorting app. That's not so impressive even for a 9 year old.
The story here is that Microsoft Professional Developer certification is worth next to nothing.
You are absolutely correct. Looking at the article from 2005, when she'd got the certification - the only apps she'd programmed were a calculator app and an app that sorted numbers.
The certification is worthless, and doesn't indicate any sort of prodigy.
There aren't nearly enough cute geek girls in the world that ANYONE here ought to be gleeful about any geek girl dying!
Tell that to my 2 year old. He works a mouse just fine, can read a decent amount of words, and can use the remote on the appletv to play Cars or Thomas the Train. Still poops himself though.
mod me funny
Why not?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nj2NjysOMI
"Today is the black day of my life and same for Pakistan because I lost my princess colleague and Pakistan lost her Pakistani." -Gates
Bill Gates, the chairman of Microsoft, has reportedly approached parents of Arfa Karim, world’s youngest Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP, to offer her treatment in United States at billionaire’s expense.
It is obvious why he would invest into saving her. I do not fault it. But, I have to point out to anyone looking for some low-hanging fruit to invest into from a utilitarian perspective, there are lives to be saved in Africa for a much lower cost; money is fungible. Just something to consider before that next purchase of an Apple product.
What's funny is that at that age, when it was far more rare (and there wasn't even a microsoft, gasp) I was programming a PDP-8 and designing and building my own peripherals for it. Truth. Yeah, I did ok in life, even had something to do with VoIP later on - you're probably using my code. But you don't even know my name. Why is it death makes you famous when it can't matter to you anymore. All that skill made me moderately well off (no debt) but... nothing like this, and yes, I'm really that good and have been since the '60s or so. I've certainly seen plenty with one of these certs who I'd prefer the *average* 9 year old to. That's not that special people. Oh, bring on the flames. Some of you who think you're hot shit probably only have that to their names, and no, I'm not gonna hire you unless you can actually do good things. Screw the paper. And get off my lawn.
Why guess when you can know? Measure!
Man, take a deep breath, relax... This is the web, you get all sorts of people here. Yes I've seen some pretty horrible comments on this one, but it seems you're taking everything that's going on here too seriously.
At this point in time I wish all the ACs would die from a treatable disorder.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
Just out of curiosity (and failed googling):
What is the source for: "the only apps she'd programmed were a calculator app and an app that sorted numbers."?
No kitty, this is my pot pie!
This has been going on for ME, personally, for over a year here now (mainly from trolltalk.com people - not only harassing me/stalking me via their registered 'luser' accounts here, but also via ac stalking posts)
They are:
gmhowell
tomhudson
webmistressrachel
squiggleslash
countertrolling
mcgrew
(& other registered LUSER 'guises' they have).
* I am NOT sure if they are just a single user with multiple guises (though I was told that tomhudson = webmistressrachel by others here), OR, if they are a collective of idiots with like mind, that have LITERALLY SAID they enjoy trolling others!
E.G.->
"I've been trolling people for 36 years. Why would I stop now? I've also never denied trolling you. Why would I?" - by gmhowell (26755) on Sunday April 17, @05:03AM (#35846218) Homepage
QUOTED VERBATIM DIRECTLY FROM -> http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2087330&cid=35846218
"I never denied trolling you" - by gmhowell (26755) on Tuesday December 14 2010, @01:55AM (#34543612) Homepage Journal
QUOTED VERBATIM DIRECTLY FROM -> http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1907528&cid=34543612
gmhowell posts journal on trolling myself, years ago now -> http://slashdot.org/journal/266768/the-best-thing-about-trolling-apk
PERTINENT QUOTE/EXCERPT:
"The best thing about trolling APK?" - http://slashdot.org/journal/266768/the-best-thing-about-trolling-apk
QUOTED VERBATIM FROM -> http://slashdot.org/journal/266768/the-best-thing-about-trolling-apk
---
gmhowell says he will stop next below (after I got on his case) too:
"But seriously, I may stop" - by gmhowell on Thursday June 16, @09:38PM (#36470452) Attached to: The best thing about trolling APK?
and
"Hmm... Maybe oughta lay off for a while." - by gmhowell (26755) on Thursday June 16, @09:38PM (#36470452) Homepage
I took him @ his word, & then laid off on retrolling he, but?
gmhowell starts up YET again (now by AC posts only)!
Proof? Ok, this week -> http://slashdot.org/journal/276148/now-this-is-entertaining
APK
P.S.=> You'd start taking it seriously too, were YOU targetted this way in being constantly harassed/stalked/trolled - In fact, that LAST link shows that gmhowell's been doing that to myself. I know 1 thing:
Eventually though, & I've done it before?
I've always gotten the better of dorks like them, only a matter of time, & just like novocaine, it's guaranteed to work, only takes time...
Kristopeit I'm working on right now as I speak (going to his ISP/BSP, hosting providers, the legal team for this website & more)... I'm going to finish that screwball, whatever it takes... apk
http://www.seattlepi.com/business/article/In-smarts-she-s-a-perfect-10-1178306.php#page-2
I was able to read and write at the age of two. I could also play piano, if "Twinkle Little Star" counts.
Not everyone is the same.
Here are the requirements for the exam she passed according to this guy. Suffice it to say you need to know a little more then that. If you aren't impressed by that I would hate to be your kid. Clearly setting records just isn't good enough for you.
-1 overrated isn't the same thing as "I disagree".
Screwed up the second link.
-1 overrated isn't the same thing as "I disagree".
who. cares. ?
You mean, the majority of "programmers" at Microsoft are not total frauds themselves?
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
Yes, I do. You're welcome to come out of the basement and see for yourself.
Yes, it does not qualify enough to be appreciated.
At that age, with the right guidance, it is not that difficult to get a focused kid to learn answers to a certificate test like those microsoft certificate programs. What programs did she actually write? Now _THAT_ would tell us if she was a programming prodigy.
I have zero respect for the certification. It will not buy me in a job interview. I have the slashdot'ers natural inclination to treat MS certification for what it is: someone I don't trust vouching for someone I don't know.
If you are in an interview with me:
o Prove you can code
o Prove you didn't lie on your resume
o Prove you can communicate with other engineers
Given all that, she seems like a smart little shit. I would have given her a chance.
Judging her life after the fact without extra information is not useful, and doing so makes you a dick.
--Terry
Never heard of her until she died. Sad. Perhaps her case will help promote health care generally in India. Would be nice if losing a clearly large potential helps put the focus on curing disease (especially the more exotic ones that the west doesn't focus much on).
That said though I've heard that prodigies often fail to reach their potential. Ie do amazingly well and get into Harvard Law at 15 and than ... nothing. Their career is just like the rest of the Joe Smoes that got their degree when they were 25. I guess as two examples of ones that succeeded: Beethoven and Bobby Fischer. Any others? I guess what I'm saying is they have the intelligence of an adult extremely early but often they don't continue to develop. That is the nature of human development in general from what I understand. 0-4 or so really rapid development. Than more from 14-30 or so. In between and afterwards nothing that special. You learn but your reasoning doesn't improve at a great rate (might even decrease later on even not counting senility. So sad, but one good thing is she'll be remembered for what she was excellent at not as a 70 year old that had a hoo hum career and "oh yeah was the first MS MCP, you know that company from back in the 2010's?".
lol ... looks like microsoft rejected you pretty hard.. haha :D
1. She belongs to the Microsoft camp which tried to, - and still trying to, - harm the FOSS movement
2. She belongs to a sect that worships the Satan
You're not alone, lot's of kids were writing code at the age of 9 -- I'd bet half of all the over-30 slashdotters learned to program between the ages of 8 and 11.
Of course, it was much easier to get started back then. There were tons of BASIC programming books targeting that age range in the 80's, and just flipping on the family micro was all it took to get started.
This is to say nothing of the zillions of type-in programs you'd find in magazines and books like the Magic Micro and Micro Adventure series (the former targeting 1st & 2nd graders!)
That said, without same the wealth of resources that we had it's a much more impressive feat for a 21st century 9-year-old that it was for a child of the 80's. They're at a significant disadvantage.
My son is 8. He's not a very proficient reader yet
Something must be wrong...
He's been mostly home schooled
Ah, there it is!
My friends first child was reading chapter books before she started kindergarten. She's not exceptional, her parents just cared enough to spend an hour or two a day reading to her and teaching her to read. She enjoyed the time she spent snuggled up with her father as he read to her, and the attention she got from playing fun reading games with him.
Your kid is 8. You home school your child. He can't read.
You have either failed to grasp the 'school' part of 'home school', you're remarkably lazy, or you just suck at teaching. (I'm not willing to discount a combination of the three.)
Fuck, pay attention to your kid! Stop reading Slashdot and go teach your child basic skills!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arfa_Karim
Slashdot = Sarcasm
I would have been programming at nine, but first I had to locate a teletype connected by modem to Dartmouth Time-Sharing System. Oh, and I had to wait for them to get BASIC reasonably stable.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Who is there to be angry at? Doctors who were trying to save her life? You know, not all tragedies have people you can blame.
I really dont get why people need a reason to be sad about her death (she had an MCP!) and someone to be mad at (those incompetent doctors). Is this what we have come to? Someone's death is only of note if they were of a particular skill set, and if we can blame someone for it?
this is too bad.
she wouldve greatly advanced technology
in a world full of stupid, it's sad to see a genius come and go so quickly
lol ... looks like microsoft rejected you pretty hard.. haha :D
Actually Google did, but I am not dissing them.
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
OMG I love the Interwebs, they make me LOL!
For in politics, as in religion, it is equally absurd to aim at making proselytes by fire and sword. - Publius
Yes, I do. You're welcome to come out of the basement and see for yourself.
I have seen their products. It's their greatest strength -- it's impossible to emulate incompetence. As far as I know, everyone who is not a fraud at Microsoft, is placed into their expensive zoo Microsoft Research and is paid to not work for Microsoft competitors.
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
I'm currently raising a 19 month old, and a 25 month old. They pick out their own programs from the TV guide online, and nuke their own food. Pushing buttons, and pairing numbers isn't that hard. I don't find them oddly proficient.
Computer or health/life. Choice is yours.
Recipes for USA bankrupt - http://tinypaste.com/0d66f dd = dollar deluge (printed in the infinity)
"Two weeks ago her outlook appeared to improve. In recent weeks, Microsoft had stepped in to help provide expert medical care."
Well, isn't that awkward.
"if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all."
All right. No more criticism, jokes, or insults. Some people don't like it. Therefore, it should never be done.
Let's just ban all words. Someone could take offense to one of them. That would bring about the apocalypse. Anyone who disagrees isn't a 'proper' human!
Filthy, filthy copyrapists!
We are waiting for you to pass ... eagerly.
Actually Google did, but I am not dissing them.
Failing to meet Google standards instead of failing to meet Microsoft standards isn't really something to be proud of.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
She is called a programming prodigy but no evidence is given, the only "evidence" is a MS certification on a site where MS certification is a gigantic red flag. Certification in general tends not to be popular and the ones from MS are often considered to have less value then the paper they were written upon if the paper was made of shit.
The article writer probably knows this and also knows that controversy sells ad impressions.
The simple fact is that a young person died who had some minor accomplishments that most on /, simply do not value since they know adults with the same who are the waste of IT. Maybe if the article poster had given some examples of actual code she had written? Something that would actually impress other developers? But the only links I seen so far are to software that is frankly not that impressive to people from a generation that had to create their own computer from scratch. Don't forget, there are REAL rocket scientists on Slashdot. People that built their own home computer before there were home computers are supposed to be all impressed with a kid that made a calculator in a modern development environment? Not even a very good calculator.
It might be hard for a 9 year old to do that particular exam but so what? Coders judge other coders on code, not certificates.
All this is to me is a young person who died who seems to have gotten some minor press attention for an achievement I do not value. Show me her 3D engine, new sorting algorithm, something that makes her a true child prodigy and not just a very boring kid who read a training manual cover to cover.
Sad she died, but millions die each day. What makes her worthy of special attention? I just don't like fake emotion from people who shed tears over this but never made a donation to stop people from dying or to cure a disease. Slashdot doesn't need human interest stories.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
I had an uncle who was studing CS, so by age 2 I was writing my first Hello World program in BASIC.
Sorry, I don't believe you.
At two years old, you didn't have the motor skill to control a keyboard or a mouse, much less read or write.
He obviously just made a typo there.
I had an uncle who was studing CS, so by age 2I was writing my first Hello World program in BASIC.
That sounds a lot more plausible, especially considering his lacking grammar.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
He was formally tested.
How else would you determine an IQ score?
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
Actually Google did, but I am not dissing them.
Failing to meet Google standards instead of failing to meet Microsoft standards isn't really something to be proud of.
I think, they just were acting like a bunch of dicks, considering that my current job involves everything an order of magnitude more complex than Google does.
At least they were not giving me idiotic puzzles to test if my mind works exactly the same way as theirs.
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
Yeah, I did ok in life, even had something to do with VoIP later on - you're probably using my code. But you don't even know my name.
Umm, I think we do, Doug
I'm just saying a bunch of people die every single day. You cared about this woman? You knew her? I'm sorry for your loss if so, but in reality you life has not changed and by tomorrow you will have forgotten this person existed and that this exchange even took place.
The point is that when we hear of someone young and promising dying, we have this feeling called "empathy". I realise that your Asperger's makes it a difficult thing to comprehend. We think of children we know, we think of others we have lost at a young age, we think of what her parents must be feeling. It's part of being human.
I'm sorry if it's not logical, Spock.
You are 100% correct, however the latter is the only reason you read about it.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
Who is there to be angry at? Doctors who were trying to save her life? You know, not all tragedies have people you can blame.
not who; what. i get pissed when bad things happen to nice people. i may even turn my anger to constructive use, but this should not be construed as finger-pointing.
I really dont get why people need a reason to be sad about her death (she had an MCP!) and someone to be mad at (those incompetent doctors). Is this what we have come to? Someone's death is only of note if they were of a particular skill set, and if we can blame someone for it?
are you asking why i had an emotional reaction to this news, or do you really not know that in many cultures solemnity is the appropriate reaction to news of someone's death?
Quoting from the news paper her uncle said just a nice words "Speaking to The Express Tribune, Major Ahsan Randhawa, Arfa’s uncle, articulated the family’s grief as best as he could. “We are grieving her loss but she was a strong child”, he said – adding “she was God’s gift to us and now she has returned to Him”. May Allah peace on her and family
http://askaralikhan.blogspot.com/
"[...] became the world’s youngest Microsoft Certified Professional at 9 years old [...] Two weeks ago her outlook appeared to improve. In recent weeks, Microsoft had stepped in to help provide expert medical care."
I'm probably just reading too much into things, but...
Ballmer: "Hey, this 10-year old is great! Awesome! And best of all she gives loads of PR to our company!"
MS lackey: "... She's 16. And she recently switched over to Linux and is telling everyone how hopelessly dated our dev tools are!"
Ballmer: "... WTF??? *throws chair* I'm fucking going to kill her!!!"
Mozart schmozart. If he'd waited till he was older he might not have put too many notes in.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
New slogans?
"We can certify you before everyone else but then we'll have to kill you"
"Microsoft Certification: Killing child prodigies since 2012"
"You can never be too young for Microsoft Certification - or death"
"Microsoft Certification: Children are dying to get it"
While being true, none of these are likely be chosen.
That's the problem, right there.
They probably tried to switch her off and on again.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
It's sad that she wasted so much time of her short life on this stuff...
Let's get this right - you base your choice of OS on whether other users of it affect a sufficient display of emotional platitudes over someone they didn't know? I can almost imagine Tony Blair calling her "The People's Programmer" when I read your bleatings.
P.S. I hope you're not using ReiserFS.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Flash cards? Shouldn't that have been Silverlight? We're talking Microsoft here, aren't we?
I think, they just were acting like a bunch of dicks, considering that my current job involves everything an order of magnitude more complex than Google does.
Maybe they were looking for somebody that doesn't overcomplicate simple problems.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
My heartfelt condolences to her family. She was so young and so gifted, with such a future ahead of her. :(
Not trying to be cold here, but death is part of life. There is no future really, there is only this moment. Why grief for something that is not ?
Accept the fact that you and me are going to die and live life to the fullest. She sounds like she did just that. We all make choices in our lives, even the moment when we die. We are all one and playing a game where death may not seem like it is our choice, but ultimately everything we do and everything we are born with we have chosen. Death is natural.
GeoKone.NET
Yes.
Take that any way you like.
The complications were not necessarily avoidable. Medical science, unlike mathematics, is not exact - there are few perfect answers to a given situation.
It is very sad that her life had to end this way, however there is nobody to blame here. They would have had to have a constantly monitored camera in her trachea to catch the bleeding as soon as it happened. Even then, the chances of correcting the complication in time to save her would have been unlikely.
Is it the long list or the long words that are impressing you most? Perhaps you'll be less impressed when you find out that all these "evaluate", "recommend", and "demonstrate"s all come down to answering a multiple choice question.
TFA article says she had photographic memory, Good memory != creativity/productivity. It is a huge accomplishment when I compare myself with her..At that age I had no single certificate on my ass let alone any computer knowledge- learned how to use a computer when I was 18.
I hope her family can stand the pain. May her rest in piece.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8goV81mY7cs
RIP young girl. Fuck people who treat the late girl as if she was MICROSOFT itself. She just happened to have taken one of their exams...may be her parents recommended her to take MCSE.
DavidSell, ByOhTek, antitithenai, Bonch, Dtech and others are psuedonyms/sockpuppets used by the Waggener Edstrom rapid response team employed by MS to astroturf discussions in favour of MS and to attack any point of view which isn't favourable to MS and supportive of their interests.
http://waggeneredstrom.com/about/approach
Mod accordingly
That was an epic quote at the end about shyness.
Lame.
>> Two weeks ago her outlook appeared to improve. In recent weeks, Microsoft had stepped in to help provide expert medical care.
Logged in just to say that before calling people liars, check your facts.
I was reading a bunch of words before being 2 years old. I was 4 when I got my first computer (a MSX) and learned to create simple programs reading only the BASIC manual... so not impossible at all I'm afraid.
Rio de Janeiro's dwellers are stupid. No, really.
If you aren't impressed by that I would hate to be your kid. Clearly setting records just isn't good enough for you.
-1 overrated isn't the same thing as "I disagree".
LOL Well played, sir!
At two years old, you didn't have the motor skill to control a keyboard or a mouse, much less read or write.
I am not entirely certain that is true about the motor skills. I was riding a bicycle without training wheels at two (but still in diapers. Heh). I was also able to diagnose a friends pedal car (camaro?) at two years of age. I reasoned out how the device was provided motive power, flipped it over, and put the chain back on its tracks.
The reading and writing would be very amazing. I am certain I was not even close to writing (but possibly close to reading) at that age.
strike
"Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
How does one verify such a claim? I don't even know what evidence to look for.
Gennady korotkevich, have you?
http://petr-mitrichev.blogspot.com/2009/10/gennady-korotkevich.html
He's only 16, yet he is the ranked second in the world in topcoder.
http://community.topcoder.com/tc?module=MemberProfile&cr=22263204
Logged in just to say that before calling people liars, check your facts.
I was reading a bunch of words before being 2 years old. I was 4 when I got my first computer (a MSX) and learned to create simple programs reading only the BASIC manual... so not impossible at all I'm afraid.
You do realize there's a HUGE difference developmentally between a two year old and a four year old, right? Linguistically, physically, emotionally... HUGE difference.
<quote><p>At this point in time I wish all the ACs would die from a treatable disorder.</p></quote>
?
Indeed. How does AC know this? DavidSell's and antitithenai's comment histories fit with AC's assertion, but ByOhTek and Bonch's comment histories suggest that they are not at all fixated on MS-related stories.
...the future crusty old bastards are already drinking the Kool-Aid.
It's so sad to see someone pass away who very well would have contributed something great to the profession. Something needs to be done to remember this young girl. Anyone want to name a useful application after her?
To answer your question, why so emotional, I turn to the words of John Donne:
A loss of a child is a loss of all she might have accomplished, both directly and as a result of her interaction with others. Try and take a moment and reflect on the pain her family feels; The sense of loss her friends and neighbors feel. Sure I may not have known her, but she was someone I gave my respect to years ago when I learned that she had passed the MCP exam at age 9.
As a father, I can't help but empathize with her parents who must be devastated to have her light snuffed out so early on. They will never be able to see all that she could become. They will never see her smile or laugh again. They unique way she might have frowned when concentrating or any other mannerism that screams out individuality. All gone and only memories are left. All her promise is lost. Only emptiness remains.
who prays for Satan? Who in 18 centuries has had the humanity to pray for the 1 sinner that needed it most? ~Mark Twain
A community that regularly toutes the importance of education (especially in math and sciences) and rants about how stupid and immature the younger generation is nowadays yet...
When a story is posted about the passing of an individual who very obviously valued their education and gained recognition at such a young age by siezing oppourtunities given to her...
Part of the same community responds with: "So what?".
Part of the same community responds with: "Psh it was only a MS Cert, she doesn't deserve any respect from me".
I sense bitterness and a lack of empathy.
Sorry Dad...
does Microsoft encourages child labour now?
we have this feeling called "empathy".
What makes you think the one who you replied to doesn't? What makes you think that they don't feel empathy for people that they actually know? Personally, I find it difficult to believe that many people really are saddened by her death. I don't know how they're feeling, but I suspect they're nothing more than pretty words.
Asperger's
The number of pretend psychologists here who try to insult others by (likely incorrectly) diagnosing mental disorders seems to be staggering.
The fact that someone seems to be more in control of their emotions than you are doesn't make them a sociopath, emotionless, or anything of the sort.
It's part of being human.
They're aliens!
Filthy, filthy copyrapists!
Why the heck did you mod my comment troll??
He's dyslexic. I suppose that might have something to do with it, yes? We read every night and several times a day. We've been encouraging his reading and actively instructing him since he was 5.
He's able to do long division without a problem. Did I mention he's able to understand and use 'advanced' concepts like UNIX pipes?
(You do realize that girls typically mature quicker intellectually than boys, right?)
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
my name is ali raza for fifteen years i lived in pakistan and now i am 15 and living in england 2 days ago when i heard about arfas death i became very sad and when i read about her information i cried lods i dont know why but i still consider her as my older sister if anyone from her family finds this post please contact me on aliraz1 at hotmail.co.uk because iwant to know more about my sister please ... i pray to god that she gets peace in her grave and a nice and massive house in jannat pleasse contact me
It's been a very long time since I've had the story related to me. I don't recall the actual number, only that it was above 200; in the 220s, possibly. In any case, his parents had taken him to a psychologist, who had him take an IQ test.
Learning about brewing beer, by brewing beer.
Correction: at two years old, *YOU* didn't have the motor skills to operate a computer.
I am not you. Some might say I was a gifted child, others would say I'm just an encyclopedic asshole. I say it's all about perspective.
-Billco, Fnarg.com
Oh, I could type but I wasn't handwriting. I could manage block letters by age 3, which I remember quite well because I labeled my copy of the Michael Jackson VHS. It probably took me 10 minutes though, and lacked vowels: "MKL JKSN". I bet my mother still has that tape somewhere.
I could read the BASIC book, not with a scholarly command of the English language, but enough to understand most concepts. For any parts I didn't understand, I could simply type out the code samples and figure things out by intuition. Keep in mind, this was BASIC, a procedural language. Each line of code has a direct and immediate result, a pattern any sane child can understand. I didn't figure out OOP until my early teens...
Handwriting (cursive) didn't happen until much, much later. Heck, I still can't write anything legible in cursive. It was never a priority for me as I was typing 40 wpm by the time I hit grade 2 - much to the dismay of the computer tutor, as I spent most of my time pounding out elaborate sketches for that poor turtle. How many kids do you know who asked for a LOGO cartridge for their 6th birthday ? And an Assembler cartridge for their 8th ? :)
And yet, for all my computer wizardry, I was most envious of the neighbour's electronic skills. I could create my own crude versions of arcade games, but he was building freakin' robots with remotes and lights and buzzers! Robots >> sprites.
-Billco, Fnarg.com