Programming Prodigy Arfa Karim Passes Away At 16 536
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."
What a tragic loss (Score:4, Interesting)
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. :(
Stay Classy Anonymous Cowards. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:The first four comments are disgusting. (Score:5, Interesting)
Dostoevsky understands this too, because he lost his beloved youngest son to epilepsy, and if you've read his work it's not about unicorns shitting rainbows and roses.
Finally, a joke - what do you do when an epileptic falls into your swimming pool? Throw in some detergent and your dirty laundry.
Tragic (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Reading the early comments... (Score:2, Interesting)
That's every day. And they get modded up, every time. The moderation system is broken and desperately needs to be replaced with a Reddit-like system where everyone can vote.
I never heard of her before (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:The first comments... (Score:3, Interesting)
I agree that people don't become immediately immune to criticism the minute they die. I fully intend to go to the first bar I can find and buy a round for the house the instant I hear Dick Cheney is dead.
However, the argument that she hadn't yet done much is a two-edged argument. If her actual accomplishment were small because she was young, her ability to cause offense is equally small. It's tragic because a bright young person full of potential has lost their life due to a medical problem. Bog knows we can use all the bright young people we can get. And as a parent I cannot but sympathize with her family.
And for the required ad hominem attack: if you don't understand why this is a tragedy, climb up out of the basement and ask your mom. Asshole.
Re:Certified Microsoft Professional (Score:5, Interesting)
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'.
Re:The first comments... (Score:2, Interesting)
if you don't understand why this is a tragedy
I never said that I didn't understand why some people believe this to be a tragedy. It's just that I find it amusing how it seems like people get so easily offended when it comes to dead people.
What is this I don't even (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Funny to see the divide here (Score:3, Interesting)
I've been programming since I was eight years old and I'm homeless while I attend college. If I get sick I'm likely to get told to leave the hospital before I'm even treated, because I don't have insurance. So I didn't apply for certs, there wasn't any such fuckery until I was about 14. So this girl did -- the youngest to do so, ever. Of course the major person behind the certifications is going to play her up beyond all human recognition. There are probably numerous young girls and boys just like her who don't ever receive any recognition or even, as I was, are told they're wasting their time and that they need to focus on "more important things" (in my case, my parents wanted me to become an automobile factory worker. It seems like everybody I meet actually throws that one my way, funny.)
I agree with parent, but I'm especially glad to see such a divide, because it lets me bring something up: opportunity. This particular girl was born at a particular time and took particular advantage of a niche.
Think of it like this: no other young person is going to have a chance to be of the same distinction unless they lower the bar even further and apply for (and receive) their certification at an even earlier age. Eventually you'll find the lower age limit for the cognitive abilities required, and that'll be that. Is that what you're really celebrating?
Or are you celebrating that a man like Bill Gates has the money to make a celebrity-like figure out of anyone he chooses? After all, it lent glamour and glitter to *his* company whenever he publicized this girl's abilities. It put *his* certification, which some people argue is probably worthless, in a novel (new) light that magically set aside anyone's misgivings on the subject over the awww-factor of the cause celebre. Is that worth celebrating? Is that anything that hasn't been done (to death) already?
I'm not trying to be crass. There's a place for people to mourn every death. But I'm reminded here, quite distinctly, of how many people, upon the death of Steve Jobs -- people, many of them who never, ever, thought, or spoke (or probably even registered hearing or reading) a single little word about Steve Jobs -- mourned the loss of such Immense Genius. When it comes down to it the man stole ideas and sued like hell whenever he could. In some ways he was a bitter old prick whose lasting legacy in my eyes is that I STILL don't have Macromedia Flash on my i-device.
I think anybody who fawns over this young talent or bewails the loss of such Immense Genius is not seeing the bigger picture of life. Maybe they feel like "this is what I could've lived up to", maybe the backlash against those who really don't care so much about this person's death is angst being vented because an opportunity for vicarious thrills has suddenly been lost to them.
People who don't understand should read this new book "The Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell. He wrote "The Tipping Point". Just the first few chapters will open your mind up to what "genius" is, and what sort of damage can be done to not just one human life but to life and society in general when you push children through the whole "talent" pageant or fail to recognize opportunity (versus the mythological, "inherent" genius) for what it is.
Re:Certified Microsoft Professional (Score:0, Interesting)
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?
Re:Certified Microsoft Professional (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
Re:Tragic (Score:2, Interesting)
No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each 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 if a manner of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.
"For Whom the Bell Tolls", John Donne
Sadder still when it is someone with such promise...
Re:Certified Microsoft Professional (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Re:Certified Crop of Assholes (Score:3, Interesting)
As I said in response to someone else, she was from a Third World Muslim country that constantly gets bad press for giving a safe haven to Taliban terrorists and puts women in a lower caste than men, so her achieving what she did is worthy of a mention.
And if a young life that ends so early serves as an inspiration to other teenagers on a path to drug or alcohol addiction, or to an unwanted pregnancy, then maybe it wasn't a totally pointless death.
It's very easy to be sat in a nice big warm house in front of a nice expensive computer and pour scorn down on others rather than sometimes just taking a deep breath and just not saying anything for the sake of a little compassion.
Re:Slashdotter's pathological fear of Reddit (Score:4, Interesting)
I am one of these people that would rather have the moderation system remain as it is. I honestly don't think I have a "pathological" fear as such of Reddit or any other social site out there. Honestly, I am having trouble comming up with a scenario where anyone can be afraid of some page on the Internet. You can perhaps call us "conservative" for resisting such a major site overhall, but I will argue that there is nothing wrong with having such a point of view.
I for one am against changing moderation system because this is one of the fundamentals of how Slashdot functions. This is our identity and represents us as a community. Those people that like Reddit's system have already left and now read Reddit. Those that like Digg's way of filtering have left and now part of Digg's community. All the people that remained here are those that are satisfied with the current scheme.
Yes, there are many flaws with Slashdot's moderation, but there is no such thing as perfection in the real world. All of them, including your favourite Reddit, have their own problems. Question you need to ask is not "Why don't Slashdot becomes like <website>?" but "Do I prefer <website>'s way better than Slashdot's?". If so, just go there instead of making your selfish calls to make changes that will affect great number of people that have a different opinion!
Re:Reading the early comments... (Score:2, Interesting)
you'll see someone get a plus 5 for typing "use Linux" like that is some magic answer that has fuck all to do with the topic, a post that says "Google is great" or "they do no evil" will also get modded waay up, even if it has fuck all to do with the topic.
Sounds like the FOX News of "cool to be gnu," tech heads... who says we want to hear another perspective?
Re:Reading the early comments... (Score:5, Interesting)