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17-Year-Old Girl Wins Boston TV API Programming Contest

Posted by Soulskill on from the strong-work dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Jenny Lamere, a graduating high school senior from Nashua NH, was the youngest of 80 participants (and one of only four women) in the Hill Holiday TVnext hackathon held in Boston this past April, a programming contest sponsored by TV API providers. Her submission of 'Twivo,' an app that allows TV viewers to block spoiler tweets while watching a show and recover them later, won the contest's 'Sync to Broadcast' category (one of five), and was also named the event's 'Best in Show' (overall winner). At least one tech company has expressed interest in her app (a short demo and interview with the judges starts at 3:30 in the embedded YouTube clip). Lamere plans to enter the Rochester Institute of Technology in the fall, and will pursue a career in software development."

11 of 117 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Censorship by EmagGeek · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Choosing not to listen to someone is not censorship.

  2. Re:Censorship by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Censorship is when I keep you from saying it. You can still say it.

    I just refuse to listen.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  3. Negative Attention by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I wish people would stop focusing on age and gender.

    1. Re:Negative Attention by femtobyte · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yaknow, centuries of deeply entrenched stereotypes don't magically vanish away overnight. Lifting up counter-examples to the stereotype that women just aren't mentally cut out for logical/intellectual work is important to eradicating such views. Other young women should get the chance to see female role models praised in the media for accomplishments besides being Miss Teen America 2013. While an ultimate goal is reaching a society where it's nothing special for a woman to be a programmer, to *get there* from our present sexist world, one needs to actively push back against entrenched misogyny.

    2. Re:Negative Attention by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      Other young women should get the chance to see female role models praised in the media for accomplishments besides being Miss Teen America 2013.

      Other young man should get the chance to see male role models praised in the media for accomplishment beside being featured in Jackass.

      You are just a bigoted feminazi cunt. Male are depicted in the media in a much worst manner then female. Male always depicted as violent looser, good for nothing and dumb like a plant while female are praised for doing any mundane things that is effortlessly done by any man.

      We are already 'there'; There is nothing special for a women to be a programmer. As long as the code is of quality nobody care except for the feminist that need to celebrate anything a women do in order to maintain their sexist world fantasy. The feminist attitude toward women accomplished is very similar to the attention a child get for shitting in the training potty for the first time. I find that degrading to women.

  4. No surprises there... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    After all, nobody would have watched if an adult male programmer won it, would they? Not that TV producers ever fake results to court an audience, of course; such a thing would be unethical. No, just like all the other instances of similar wins, it's just proving once again that all little girls are cleverer than anybody else. Yeah.

    1. Re:No surprises there... by interval1066 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      After all, nobody would have watched if an adult male programmer won it...

      A friend of mine whom I respect and admire as a programmer very much might have a lot to say about this. Men receive accolades for being great programmers all the time, the industry is completely dominated by men. Everytime my friend has gotten a new job (she's on her second one in S.V., she's from the east coast and a Carnigie-Mellon grad, very accomplished) she gets hit on by the men in the staff, and knowing she's a lesbian doesn't seem to phaze them. She's gotten held back on other jobs because the admin and IT staff were chauvinistic, gotten practically raped by cabbies, and treated like shit professionally becuase she's attractive. Its absurd and it needs to stop. When we have a truly blind-to-gender society you can call out the feminists. Until then you're full of shit. I can't have respect of my male friends when their bias shows simply becuase a fellow engineer has a vagina between her legs. Its ridiculous.

      --
      Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
  5. Re:Censorship by femtobyte · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In a sense it is: but you are applying the censorship only to what you see/hear. I think people should be permitted to self-censor. If I want to filter my view of the world to block out ********, then I should be able to do that. If I want to write a ********-filter plugin to help other people choose to avoid wasting their time on ******** too, then that's fine. The problem is when I impose censorship on others: if I'm the manager at the local telco monopoly, I shouldn't be installing network filters to keep ******** off my customers' computers (if they want to do so themselves, fine).

  6. You have no proof, but.. by OrangeTide · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It certainly wouldn't have been newsworthy if they selected a male 20s-something developer.

    --
    “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
  7. Re:Censorship by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    No it isn't. Censorship is preventing someone from speaking. Ignoring someone is not remotely close. I ignore people all of the time, but I'm not preventing them from speaking their xenophobic racist bile. It's no different from moving away from the fat sweaty pig that has questionable personal hygiene issues, or the inconsiderate smoker wafting the pollution from their nicotine fix. I don't like either, I get up and move elsewhere. They can continue stinking everyone else out without being remotely bothered by my disgust.

  8. Re:Sexism by DingerX · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Well, Ms. Lemere, congratulations on your achievement. Like every other achievement in your life where you beat a bunch of boys, you will immediately hear that you only got where you are because you're a girl. After all, the odds are only 1-in-80 that you'll get mentioned for such a competition, and when, roughly 1.25% of the time, you do it mentioned, it will be purely on the basis of discrimination that you are a girl. Heaven forfend that you get an award 1 out of every 15 times. Then, people won't point to the fact that four out of every five of your four sisters were discouraged from competing and so only the most insanely dedicated remained, but rather to your lack of award-appropriate genitalia.

    May you continue to enjoy, in every aspect of your life, such blatant and obvious discrimination in your favor.
    Wouldn't that be nice for a change?