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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."

14 of 536 comments (clear)

  1. Reading the early comments... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...it must be asshole day at /.

    1. Re:Reading the early comments... by spyder-implee · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I thought so too at first, but most of the tasteless comments have been modded down pretty quickly by the rest of the community. The asshole group isn't representative of the rest of us, they just post quick.

      --
      Take what ye can. Give nothing back!
    2. Re:Reading the early comments... by Patchw0rk+F0g · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I was going to mod this thread, but I can't. I've gotta comment.

      Truth may be truth, even if it hurts someone's feelings; being an flaming, chasm-wide asshole is just that: being a flaming, chasm-wide asshole. Even if it hurts someone's feelings.

      Those top-side comments weren't intended to point out any "truths"; they were written to reflect the idiot(s)' world-view, not titillate, not provoke, not query nor question.

      Shit like that doesn't reflect on /. ... you see it everywhere. What it reflects is that there are always going to be bitter, uninformed, closed-minded tiny people in this world. I choose not to be one of them.

      Now. off to the next thread to moderate. Hopefully, all the bile and spite was delivered here, where it can collect and stew in silence.

      --
      When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. ~~ Hunter S. Thompson
  2. The first four comments are disgusting. by forkfail · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.
    1. Re:The first four comments are disgusting. by Beelzebud · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Those posts up there do not strike me as "dark humor used as a coping mechanism", from grieving people. It seems more like the work of a bunch of asshole trolls who hide behind the AC label.

    2. Re:The first four comments are disgusting. by beadfulthings · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Thank you. It took amazing intelligence and self-discipline for her to achieve the certification at so young an age. She was apparently also a promising programmer. That's especially true if you consider where she lived--surrounded by a culture where young girls are not normally valued for their intellectual gifts. Her death is doubly tragic--not only has a promising young life been extinguished, but a pattern and role model for other struggling girls has been lost. Her family deserves a lot of credit for encouraging her gifts and talents, and they also deserve our profound and deepest sympathy for their loss.

      --
      "Here's what's happening. You're starting to drive like your Dad..." - Red Green
    3. Re:The first four comments are disgusting. by klui · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Or driven by jealousy/sour grapes. I sure didn't have the discipline to do what she did when I was her age.

    4. Re:The first four comments are disgusting. by 0123456 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This is someone who was gifted at something.

      If she learned to fly at 10, she was presumably gifted a sizeable chunk of money.

      Admiral Farragut joined the Navy at nine and was given command of a prize ship at twelve. The idea that anyone under twenty can't actually do much other than play with dolls and watch cartoons is a recent invention.

    5. Re:The first four comments are disgusting. by buddyglass · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Dark humor is a coping mechanism for dealing with the nasty, brutish, and short nature of life.

      There's dark humor and there's intentionally tasteless trolling. Let's not confuse the two.

  3. Re:Certified Microsoft Professional by tyrione · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  4. Re:Certified Microsoft Professional by artor3 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  5. Lack of empathy by formfeed · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  6. Re:Certified Crop of Assholes by JohnnyMindcrime · · Score: 5, Insightful

    A new word for your vocabulary is here.

    --
    Windows 10 is great - I used it to download Linux.
  7. The article is a troll by SmallFurryCreature · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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:

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