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Mozilla pays 12-year-old San Jose boy for hunting bugs in system

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Re: Mozilla pays 12-year-old San Jose boy for hunting bugs in system

#51

Post by cmelbye »

sp4rki wrote: post #40
WozRocks wrote: post #9

I'm sorry, but I can't help but see this and think of all the kids around this age who are prevented from earning money by child labor laws, and the idea that this kid is a "Slave" because he's "too young to make decisions for himself. It may sound like this is a ridiculous thing to say, but just yesterday someone was making this claim in another forum. I was busy writing a game at that age with the intent to sell it…

Child labor laws are made to avoid having 6 year olds asking for money on the streets and 10 year olds swinging crates at the dock when they should be in school. If a kid want's to work, social/child services approve the motion after interviewing the parents, and does well in school for a trial period, he should be let to do so. Hell kid actors do it all the time!

Kid actors have specific exceptions to the laws in almost all cases.

Re: Mozilla pays 12-year-old San Jose boy for hunting bugs in system

#52

Post by catshirt »

jeebusroxors wrote: post #23
_delirium wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One can only hope that the next generation will find a way to blow whistles into cell phones to get free calls.

For those who don't know: early phone hackers (phreaks/phreakers) discovered that a 2600hz tone would indicate a trunk was idle, reset and listen for a new call. Since the line was not actually hung up the billing system wouldn't activate leading to free phone calls. Some people learned to whistle the tone, while others used bird calls, and even a whistle given free by Captain Crunch (the cereal). http://en.wikipedia…

I'm actually even quite positive I remember hearing Mitnick wasn't allowed to use the phone in prison for some time because they were concerned he could initiate some sort of military attack by whistling into the phone.

I heard this around the age of 14 though- so it's possible my memory is foggy.

Re: Mozilla pays 12-year-old San Jose boy for hunting bugs in system

#53

Post by mahmud »

clistctrl wrote: post #42
eogas wrote: post #27

Why oh why couldn't I have been brought up in a white, suburban, upper-middle class family with my own computer and a highspeed internet connection. Stories like this always make me bitter, but good on the kid for making the most of his upbringing.

To be fair, you can get a pretty decent computer today for < $500. That is still quite a bit of money if you're poor, but its a far reach from the $2000 you might have paid several years ago.

I bought the laptop that I am using now, the one I have used for the last three years, and earned with all my income during that time .. I bought it for $300, in 2007.

Re: Mozilla pays 12-year-old San Jose boy for hunting bugs in system

#54

Post by jleader »

patio11 wrote: post #10

Here's the advisory, with link to the bug (require login to see bug). http://www.mozilla.org/security/announce/2010/mfsa2010-65.ht...

I have a login, but still can't see the bug. I assume I don't have sufficient permissions on my account.

Re: Mozilla pays 12-year-old San Jose boy for hunting bugs in system

#55

Post by tptacek »

edanm wrote: post #41
tptacek wrote: post #2

He's 12 years old. He found a stack overflow. In document.write. In Firefox. In 2010. Clearly something has gone wrong with spacetime.

These stories always make me think of another bug that is unbelievable. The bug is in Binary Search - one of the most fundamental algorithms in programming. It's been around in a published implementation of Binary Search since 1986, and the implementation of Binary Search for the JDK was broken for 9 years. This bug was only discovered in 2006, when someone's program broke. If you haven't heard of it, read more here:…

This is an awesome, awesome post. Thanks for sharing it.

Re: Mozilla pays 12-year-old San Jose boy for hunting bugs in system

#56

Post by aaronbrethorst »

catshirt wrote: post #52
jeebusroxors wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For those who don't know: early phone hackers (phreaks/phreakers) discovered that a 2600hz tone would indicate a trunk was idle, reset and listen for a new call. Since the line was not actually hung up the billing system wouldn't activate leading to free phone calls. Some people learned to whistle the tone, while others used bird calls, and even a whistle given free by Captain Crunch (the cereal). http://en.wikipedia…

I'm actually even quite positive I remember hearing Mitnick wasn't allowed to use the phone in prison for some time because they were concerned he could initiate some sort of military attack by whistling into the phone. I heard this around the age of 14 though- so it's possible my memory is foggy.

true story: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-9995253-83.html

Re: Mozilla pays 12-year-old San Jose boy for hunting bugs in system

#57

Post by sp4rki »

cmelbye wrote: post #51
sp4rki wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Child labor laws are made to avoid having 6 year olds asking for money on the streets and 10 year olds swinging crates at the dock when they should be in school. If a kid want's to work, social/child services approve the motion after interviewing the parents, and does well in school for a trial period, he should be let to do so. Hell kid actors do it all the time!

Kid actors have specific exceptions to the laws in almost all cases.

That's exactly the point, if a kid actor can be excepted, why can't a kid programmer (or bug hunter) be allowed to do so? I placed some conditions on this because it really comes down to if the kid wants to work, if the kid's parents are encouraging and not forcing his behavior, and if it will not affect his studies and development.

Re: Mozilla pays 12-year-old San Jose boy for hunting bugs in system

#59

Post by AaronMT »

frisco wrote: post #32
AaronMT wrote: post #17

Wish they would open up the bug to take a peak at the comments and test cases

Protip: Firefox is open source.

Protip: Here's the bug I was referencing https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=583077 - it's already been patched and fixed, so why can't I take a peak for curiosity?

Re: Mozilla pays 12-year-old San Jose boy for hunting bugs in system

#60

Post by varun43in »

points wrote: post #43
varun43in wrote: post #35

wow, I guess it goes to show how much younger people these days are when getting into programming. good for him :D

I don't think that's the case. As an 80s home computing revolution kid, quite a lot of kids were into BASIC etc. To a certain extent we've lost that now. We grew up in a time where you could buy a computer and you pretty much had to learn how to program it. Now, you can get away without needing to learn.

I agree, with technology becoming so simple to use these days, it empowers people to do a lot more than they were able to do in the 80s. On the other hand, I feel that as the cost of creating a company decreases, and as more younger people learn about entrepreneurship, more of them are getting interested in creating stuff at an early age.
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