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."
Reading the early comments... (Score:5, Insightful)
...it must be asshole day at /.
Re:Reading the early comments... (Score:4, Insightful)
...it must be asshole day at /.
+1
Early comments are disgusting and bring shame to /.
RIP Arfa.
Re:Reading the early comments... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
As much as we feel motivated to say something about the sort of crap people will post about stuff like this ("all it takes for evil to succeed" etc), they already know they're assholes, the rest of us already know they're assholes, and the reactions you and I are giving them are exactly what they were aiming for when they did it. And to boot, most of the posts here are now about their comments rather than about TFA.
In future, just moderate them down as appropriate and say nothing more on the matter.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
People have the choice to browse at a high threshold so they don't even see offensive comments. This may come as a surprise to you, but perhaps a large number of Slashdot readers enjoy browsing at -1. There is a reason for that, but you'd best not think about it too hard - you might have a nervous breakdown.
Re:Reading the early comments... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Reading the early comments... (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.
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
I agree on a lot of your points. I haven't really noticed the pro-fanboy modding. But I have noticed some really crazy down-modding that suggested bias, malice, or thoughtlessness on the part of the moderator. And this seems to have been on the upswing over the last 12-18 months. The current meta-modding system is apparently insufficient.
Re:Reading the early comments... (Score:5, Funny)
Google is great
Now mod me up. Use Linux.
Re:Reading the early comments... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Reading the early comments... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Reading the early comments... (Score:5, Insightful)
I've noticed your little stalker before - he's quite impressively broken (albeit often hilariously so).
You're right to point at some of the flaws in the mod system and the groupthink it promotes. I'd also agree with some of the specific examples you've picked. However, I'm going to play the optimist here; I think things are actually getting (slightly) better, rather than worse.
I've been posting on this account since the end of 2003 - mostly on the games stories, but also on some of the general business/sciency ones. I used to have a little challenge I'd set myself when making posts on relevant games threads: "say something critical of Nintendo and still end up at +5". I remember one post which fluctuated several times between +5 and -1 over the course of an afternoon (eventually ending up on +4). These days, that doesn't seem like such a problem.
Similarly with MS - five years ago, being even remotely nice about them was a 1-way ticket to modding oblivion. But then, I've had a number of posts which were fairly nice about them hit +5 uneventfully over the last few months. I've also noted a lot more modded-up posters who admit that they use Windows as their sole OS these days. Five years ago, I felt that put me in a minority on here. Not so much any more.
That said, I guess there's another explanation here. It might not be that the nature of the slashdot community has changed, but rather that companies/products themselves have evolved and the groupthink consensus has just evolved over time to follow suit. After all, over the last few years:
- Nintendo have upset a large portion of their hardcore fanbase by basically ignoring them through the product life of the Wii, focussing on 1-shot exercise and party games instead. They still have a few rabid fans left, but there's a big disillusioned crowd out there, which just wasn't the case 5 years ago.
- Apple have gone from being the charming underdog to being scarily big and powerful. The effects of their walled-garden mentality are becoming more relevant and painful.
- Microsoft haven't really done anything outright evil. They've been pretty incompetent in places (Vista, 360 RROD, anything their marketing department does), but the sense of malice you got in the 90s and early in the last decade just isn't there any more. They've also done some pretty cool things, such as Kinect.
- And at the same time, Windows has reached the point where it is, for the most part, stable, reliable and pleasant to use. This at a time when Linux on the desktop hasn't exactly been making great strides forwards.
I suppose there's an easy way to test this. Let's see if I can get a +5 modded post that says something nice about Sony (who seem to be the new favoured villain of choice).
Re:Reading the early comments... (Score:4, Insightful)
because too many discussions here become giant fanboi circle jerks with everyone that parrots groupthink going up
Every time I see the word 'fanboi' or the phrase 'circle jerk' I lose a bit of faith in the site I'm on. Stop it. Learn to use grown up words and make your point more rationally. I know you're annoyed that you have a stalker, but surely they'll get bored soon enough -- maybe now the school holidays are over. I also suspect it's a personal grudge, rather than a FOSS thing.
As for your other point, you must understand that we all miss the good old days -- but that has been the case for thousands (if not millions) of years. Not only that, but group think is something you have to learn to accept, no matter how annoyed it makes you. Maybe those mod-rules you point out exist purely because that's how the majority of people feel? That's the basis of democracy. Slashdot still, after all these years, somehow manages to see discussions with contrary views and actual debate. For that we should be thankful (though obviously not too thankful -- especially with the ever increasingly 'sensational' stories that seem to be appearing).
Re:Reading the early comments... (Score:4, Insightful)
I may have figured out the answer, if only they'd implement it:
Limit the number of times you can mod any particular user. Borrowing phrasing from another site: "You have downmodded hairyfeet too many times lately. Please moderate other users instead." Then if he keeps downmodding against meta-mod checks, he simply loses his mod points entirely.
I agree that those "crude words" you used would draw downmods, because it's like when a bully tires you out and tricks you to use coarse language out of exhaustion, then that "justifies" their downmods. I know, I wish we could get off the playground, but if them's the games, ya gotta try to sidestep them.
Tip - find a scientific phrasing. Buried beneath copyright woes, scientists *have* studied tons of stuff in those little projects that aren't sexy enough to draw page clicks. So for the words you were using, try also "Perceptual Bubble". The entire rest of your post then works, but it's got Secret Sauce that makes the mods happy.
Re:Reading the early comments... (Score:5, Insightful)
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: (Score:3)
No, this is the standard treatment for women in STEM. It's why most of us leave by the time we're 25.
Yeah men treat each other much better. If you are gender bashing, you are part of the problem!!!
The first four comments are disgusting. (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.
Re:The first four comments are disgusting. (Score:5, Informative)
I concur. While many of us may not consider being an MCP 'worth' of anything, it's still something above and beyond what those arseholes who posted above could ever achieve, even at 39 rather than 9 (yes, thats how old she was when she got MCP), she even got certified to FLY at age 10.
This is someone who was gifted at something. Yes, I'd call myself jealous of her talent, but that's no excuse to bad mouth anyone. Dead or not.
Re:The first four comments are disgusting. (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.
Re:The first four comments are disgusting. (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.
The article is a troll (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.
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.
Re:The first four comments are disgusting. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The first four comments are disgusting. (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.
Re:The first four comments are disgusting. (Score:5, Insightful)
She was girl well out of their league in both appearance and intellect who accomplished more in her short life the typical Slashdot neckbeard ever will. Add Microsoft to the mix and it's like a glowing bug zapper for these moths of insecurity.
Re:The first four comments are disgusting. (Score:5, Funny)
My mom was trying to organize all 15+ grandchildren for a photo at my Grandmother's funeral. It's probably the first time we've all been together in a long time:
Come on guys, get together, Grandma's only going to die once.
Re:The first four comments are disgusting. (Score:5, Insightful)
There's dark humor and there's intentionally tasteless trolling. Let's not confuse the two.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
The real problem is the summary. Yes, it's all very sad that a bright young girl died. But having a "Microsoft Certified Professional" certificate is not what I would call a child prodigy. Judging entirely from the summary, this seems like the usual case of people putting a dead person on a pedastal and exaggerating about how good they were. Now, maybe she did do something worthwhile, but the summary was just stupid. I can list dozens of programmers who wrote really good, meaningful software before the
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:The first four comments are disgusting. (Score:5, Insightful)
would you board a plane which was piloted by an epileptic 10-year old? how is that even legal..
Re: (Score:3)
at age ten I was electronics book reading and device building/soldering fiend, spent hours a day on my hobby and no family pressure needed....probably lots of other slashdotters nearly obsessive / compulsive about their hobbies normally associated with older people when they were young and happy as pig in shit
Re:The first four comments are disgusting. (Score:5, Insightful)
To get a cert at 9 is pretty amazing. You may not think much of it, but honestly, that's an achievement.
To get it in a nation like Pakistan, that's incredible, what with all the cultural impediments that must have stood in the way.
And if you'd read the TFA, let alone listened to the interview at all, you'd know that her attitude was one that others might consider emulating.
Regardless of this, it's still beyond belief that folks are being so incredibly mean spirited. Even jackals treat their dead better.
Lack of empathy (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.
Re: (Score:3)
Yes. Anyone different than the norm is obviously objectively broken.
Or perhaps they don't even have a lack of empathy. Perhaps they just don't feel the same way that you or others do about certain things. You know, they have different priorities than you. What they care about may be different than what you care about. And vice versa.
Subjective. Bam. I just sand-blasted your stale saltine of an argument.
The world would undoubtably be a much better place without psychopaths [wikipedia.org]. Whether these posters are actually psychopaths or not, society generally concludes that there is something "wrong" with those who gleefully mock the death of a 16 year-old who was, by accounts, a good kid. Cry me a river if you feel victimized by society's desire to consider you "abnormal".
And, by the way, I don't think it's a "priority" for folks to find this
Re:The first four comments are disgusting? (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:The first four comments are disgusting. (Score:4, Insightful)
And it's my bloody right to tell you that you're being one.
Honestly, it's like Westboro Baptist suddenly got a bunch of new members or something.
Re:The first four comments are disgusting. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The first four comments are disgusting. (Score:5, Funny)
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. :(
Re:What a tragic loss (Score:5, Informative)
Epilepsy in it self is non-fatal. There are acute secondary dangers from epileptic seizures (falls, traffic accidents) and also some medical dangers (hypoxia from suspended breathing, heart problems).
But primarily, epileptic seizures is a hint that something is _very_ wrong in the central nervous systems on a low level. There exists a large number of things known to trigger attacks, such as infections, brain injury, drugs, withdrawal from drugs and so on. What you want to do is typically to treat the underlying problem. People don't die of the epileptic attack, it's the underlying problem that kills them (or the secondary dangers).
Oh, by the way, ruptured aneurysm have a surprisingly good prognosis, as long as you get to a hospital in time. If you are a risk group for ruptured aneurysm you really should learn the symptoms and inform your relatives about them as well. This is one of those cases where 2-3 hours makes the difference between "full recovery" and "vegetable".
Re: (Score:3)
Many causes of epilepsy are not genetic or even congenital. For example, physical trauma can cause disruption to the neural tissue that allows for disorganized electrical activity. While seizures acutely associated with trauma often don't result in a diagnosis of epilepsy (e.g. severe head injury--> patient has seizures on the way to hospital), individuals with repeated or severe damage may end up epileptic (i.e. the healed tissue isn't quite right and can induce seizures).
Similarly, toxins, liver fail
Re: (Score:3)
Under prognosis, it links to this page...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Status_epilepticus [wikipedia.org]
which states that, (paraphrased), seizures that are unremitting for longer than 5 minutes are very likely to cause neuron damage, and are unlikely to self terminate.
The candle ... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:The candle ... NO (Score:5, Informative)
Stay Classy Anonymous Cowards. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Stay Classy Anonymous Cowards. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Stay Classy Anonymous Cowards. (Score:4, Insightful)
The only problem I see is some user's inability to act like grown ups and thus let petty comments rile them enough that they go off advocating ways to punish people just for acting in a way that they don't approve. Do you approve AC comments? I don't. Therefore I don't waste my time reading them and thinking of ways I could punish them for saying stuff I don't like.
And don't come here with that righteous "social pressure" bullshit, with that "teach him to be more civil" load of bullshit. To see how this is such a good idea, remember that in the 60s this very same sort of argument was used in the US to justify attacking and assassinating people for not "knowing their place" and acting "uppity", with a blatant disregard for that time's social order.
This "social pressure" bullshit is just an excuse for authoritarian folks to bully people into submission and force them to be subjugated to your own views on every given subject. It's thanks to this bullshit that, even in this day and age, we get teenagers being stalked and receiving death threats for not caving to "social pressure" and be fervently aligned with a religion. And this is supposed to be a good thing'
So, the problem isn't any AC spewing crap to a forum. The problem is you, and others like you, who are urged to inflict punishment on others as a form of revenge just because someone dares to do or say something you approve, and who doesn't cave to your "social pressure". The real problem is that you, and others like you, are intolerant bigots who believe that it's ok to use force and violence to shape society into your preconceived notion of what is supposed to be. The real problem is you, and your inability to just ignore irrelevant stuff, such as bullshit comments, and instead opt to react violently to punish those behind them. You are a worse influence in society than anyone posting distasteful comments on any message board, and your self-righteous attitude does not benefit an society in any way.
So, if you don't like distasteful comments then stop browsing at -1 and go on with your life. Don't waste your time pretending that you know what's good for society, because you don't. If you don't like it then consider this your recipe of "social pressure", and see how you like it.
Re: (Score:3)
The only way to keep people from acting like assholes online is to attach usernames to real life IDs
Michael Kristopeit would disagree with you. And probably call you a feeb and tell you to cower in his shadow.
Tragic (Score:4, Interesting)
I am astounded (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Sad :( (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Epilepsy can be fatal (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:3)
There is no crueler cut of life than having to bury a child
What surprised me, is that this is a scientifically proven fact.
In one of his books, psychology researcher Martin Seligman reported on his findings how people deal with severe depression. Almost all his patients get better completely, except those that lost a child. Apparently, it's a blow that most parents just don't seem to recover from.
What is this I don't even (Score:3, Interesting)
Funny to see the divide here (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Re: (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 d
A very sad day (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Spelled Out For The Compassionless Morons... (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Re:Spelled Out For The Compassionless Morons... (Score:4, Insightful)
Not that it's relevant to this story, but as a mainly Linux person, I wonder if her death would have attracted less negative trolling had she been a Red Hat Certified Engineer or a genius BASH shell scripter.
I don't feel proud as a member of the human race when people turn a suite of software tools into a religion - be they Linux, Microsoft or Apple zealot.
Hypocrisy... (Score:3, Insightful)
...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.
Tragic, but there are no "programming geniuses" (Score:3)
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.
prodogy (Score:3)
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?".
Re:Certified Crop of Assholes (Score:4, Insightful)
Wow, what a bunch of badasses we have here. Way to slam a dead teenager for not being as cool as you think you are. Real men, you are.
There, fixed that for you.
Re:Certified Crop of Assholes (Score:5, Insightful)
A new word for your vocabulary is here [wikipedia.org].
Re:Certified Crop of Assholes (Score:5, Insightful)
I so wish I had mod points right now to mod this one up. You hit the nail on the head.
This is a very unusual story. It's basically a rare human interest story on Slashdot.
This girl wasn't at all important in the computing industry and she didn't invent anything. It's not like Ritchie or Jobs dying last year.
But it shows how inept people here can be when they write crap going "oh she wasn't that clever"...well so what? The normal thing to do is just not to post if you can't find anything nice to say.
To post impolitely on a story like this just shows bad judgement and a lack of maturity.
Re: (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 o
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
She was a programmer. A gifted, young programmer.
Slashdot reported on the death of Denis Ritchie, why not her? Or do you feel that they don't matter?
Re:Why... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Why... (Score:5, Informative)
she was featured on slashdot years ago when she got the certification:
http://slashdot.org/story/05/07/15/0651245/microsofts-10-year-old-certified-professional [slashdot.org]
it's a sad fact so many assholes have basically the same comments that were said back then... I wonder if they just copy and paste?
Re:Certified Microsoft Professional (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.
Re:Certified Microsoft Professional (Score:5, Funny)
Microsoft certification: even a 9 year old can do it.
Re:Certified Microsoft Professional (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Certified Microsoft Professional (Score:5, Informative)
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 [devx.com]. 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.
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.
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Yes, I do. You're welcome to come out of the basement and see for yourself.
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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.
Re:Certified Microsoft Professional (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.
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I am with those who maintain that a Microsoft certification is not Computer Science, and that the wikipedia article [wikipedia.org] 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.
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'.
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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, w
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http://www.seattlepi.com/business/article/In-smarts-she-s-a-perfect-10-1178306.php#page-2 [seattlepi.com]
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Re:Certified Microsoft Professional (Score:4, Informative)
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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:Certified Microsoft Professional (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.
Re:Certified Microsoft Professional (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Certified Microsoft Professional (Score:5, Funny)
tell me about it, i was potty trained via flashcards and now i can't write an exam without pooping EVERYWHERE.
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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.
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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
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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.
Re:Certified Microsoft Professional (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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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.
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Why not?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nj2NjysOMI [youtube.com]
Re:Certified Microsoft Professional (Score:5, Informative)
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?
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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 w
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At this point in time I wish all the ACs would die from a treatable disorder.