When teenage boys write software, its useless to society and also a "sad activity". But look out! A 16 y/o GIRL just wrote some software and apparently it's the first time in the history of the world that anyone this age did anything useful with software! (xpost from programming)

dubloe7 · 2010-10-01T10:17:07+00:00

wait...

from the looks of the article all she did was set up an online spreadsheet...

I wish I could get recognition from the prime minister for setting up a spreadsheet.

icallmyselfmonster · 2010-10-01T11:44:47+00:00

For my CS course there was 2 terms of Women in Computing, for the term project work almost every woman wrote about the topic, how they are being marginalized, how enough is not being done for them, how there are not Mentors or Icons for them to follow and how girls are steered away from the topic.

The bitch of it was, they all got higher scholarships because they were doing computing, and there were more of them in the class, even more passed in the end because generally they wrote answers to the book. But most of them couldn't program for shit, and never really had the interest before Uni to actually use computers in daily life, much of them just thought it would be money for them after Uni, and it was.

It was also annoying how Ada was not mentioned in that class.

i-hate-digg · 2010-10-01T06:45:24+00:00

Who ever said a 16 year old writing software is a 'sad activity'?

EDIT: I see the article did. Who is this clown http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/rorycellanjones/rory_cellan-jones/ and what business does he have writing tech articles?

chakan2 · 2010-10-01T06:39:34+00:00

This gem is in the 2nd paragraph:

What's more, she could convince others that messing about with software and data is not a sad activity undertaken only by teenage boys who need to get out more, but is in fact really rather cool.

calzenn · 2010-10-01T08:28:57+00:00

Yeah, that whole coding thing is really sad. (Oh, wait I am posting this on the internet, have a word document open, getting calls on Skype, checking my email from all over the world and etc....)

Actually coding is kinda cool...

LoftyGoat · 2010-10-01T15:25:01+00:00

"Sad?" "Useless?" Not to disparage the subject of this article, but how did they latch on to the loony notion that programming is somehow socially dysfunctional? At age sixteen I was earning money writing software for a medical lab in Databus. At age sixteen my nephew was earning money writing Web back-ends in PHP. Anyone who regards that as "useless" is missing a few marbles. BTW, thirty-six years, fifty-odd languages and a dozen platforms later, I'm still writing software. It still pays quite well. Nothing sad about that.

dc512 · 2010-10-01T13:55:38+00:00

except for Bill Gates?

sempire · 2010-10-01T13:06:21+00:00

She looks like she is cool alright.. She looks like a meth'd out Jason Bieber..

jsnef6171985 · 2010-10-01T15:48:02+00:00

What's more, she could convince others that messing about with software and data is not a sad activity undertaken only by teenage boys who need to get out more, but is in fact really rather cool.

This sentence is offensive to both men & women:

It's offensive to men because it implies the general perception is that teenage boys learning a valuable skill which is necessary to modern society is a "sad activity", & they need to get out more (which is an outdated notion by about 15 years now, obviously the author needs to get out more).

It's offensive to women, because it implies that teenage girls learning those same skills are somehow revolutionaries (oh look, they're finally stepping out of the kitchen!).

ether_reddit · 2010-10-01T15:18:48+00:00

Not to undermine the point of this article, but as a teenaged girl, I was never encouraged to pursue software as an activity or a potential career path, even though I showed talent in this area. I should have taken a degree in Maths, but instead ended up in Chemistry due to the plethora of "Women in Science" programs that abounded.

I didn't discover for myself that I was good at programming until I rewrote a coworker's statistical analysis package that he was authoring while we were interned at a federal government oil research centre (he as a computer science student, I as a chemistry student).

I would rather there be no gendered "you should go into this programme, there are too few of you in this", and more exposure of all students to a variety of fields. If I had had more of a chance to play around with maths and logic problems at a younger age, I might have been a bit happier as a university student.

savaero · 2010-10-01T12:42:48+00:00

Obviously, she stole the idea from wattvision.com.

jsnef6171985 · 2010-10-01T14:00:07+00:00

[permanently deleted]

CameronPtrsn · 2010-10-02T03:36:29+00:00

Argh. Everything about this annoys me. It doesn't even question the statement, it just says, without a doubt, that programing is a sad and geeky thing to do. It's a hell of a lot better use of time than whatever this author probably did when he was young. And he doesn't even explain what makes this girl "cool"! Does the mere fact that she's a girl and did what a "sad boy who needs to get out more" would do make her cool!? TL;DR Bad journalism, mixed with bigotry pisses me off.

aetheralloy · 2010-10-01T07:43:03+00:00

Sometimes when something is held up for fanfare... it just reinforces how rare it actually is.

stophating · 2010-10-02T01:34:07+00:00

Is this MensRights or a forum to bash women? Sometimes I forget.

rdt693 · 2010-10-01T22:14:39+00:00

Don't worry, she will still be paid less than you at work, be expected to do dishes, cooking and laundry when she gets home while you sit on your ass, and she will have to prevent guys from fondeling her at work. Is it too much to ask that you encourage women in your field?

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