"I find the product and the design of the product much more interesting than the programming"
Of course. Programming is hard work.
British teenage designer of Summly app hits jackpot
51–60 of 64 posts
Re: British teenage designer of Summly app hits jackpot
#52"D'Aloisio is by no means a typical teenager - he is polite, highly motivated and enthusiastic." Wow, wonder how many other groups they'd be able to get away with stereotyping like that. "D'Aloisio is by no means a typical (woman|Mexican|black person|obese person) - he is polite, highly motivated and enthusiastic." Ouch. Makes the BBC sound out of touch, considering that most teenagers are under a historically unprec…
Get off your PC horse.
Reality based generalization is not "stereotyping" (and all stereotyping is not false).
Really, we people from other parts of the world --the victims of stereotypes ourselves-- are incredibly tired of all this "guilt" and "tiptoeing around issues" mentality going on from that side of the Atlantic. As if anyone's feelings will be hurt if somebody calls the typical teenager impolite or un-motivated...
In this part of the world we see as comic how people in a well known country are oh-so-sensitive about how someone "stereotypes", say, a Mexican person or a black person, while the same country has used black people as slaves first and second rate citizens second up until the '60s (with a disproportionate amount of them vs whites in prison even now), and has stolen several states (CA, TX, NM, UT, CO etc) from Mexico.
If you want to fix something, try to fix the harsh realities instead of BS like this.
Re: British teenage designer of Summly app hits jackpot
#53Heh. They should have asked him what "ontological detection" means. https://www.google.com/search?q=%22ontological+detection%22+... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontology_(information_science) There's no way he fit a useful semantic network in an iPhone app, and I doubt he interfaces with an external one such as OpenCyc, or in fact uses any kind of automated reasoning that can sort of be classified as "ontological". I…
"There's no way he fit a useful semantic network in an iPhone app"
Define "useful".
It doesn't have to be big to be useful. A perfectly fine for summation purposes semantic network can fit in an iPhone. The bloody thing has several GBs of storage last time I checked.
Re: British teenage designer of Summly app hits jackpot
#54I understand the writer needs an introduction to the article, but F everything about starting with this: "Most teenagers will find any reason under the sun not to do their homework." No most won't and stop repeating it.
The writer was, at some point in his life, a spoiled teenager. Most of my friends and other teenage students near me, (By the way, I'm from India, 15) love to do their homework, as, it's challenging and we feel something after completing it. Same is the case for most of the teenagers in other parts of my country, nearly everyone does their homework properly.
"""The writer was, at some point in his life, a spoiled teenager. Most of my friends and other teenage students near me, (By the way, I'm from India, 15) love to do their homework, as, it's challenging and we feel something after completing it."""
Yeah, we sure buy this...
Re: British teenage designer of Summly app hits jackpot
#55I don't think a $250,000 investment is considered a "jackpot".
Well, I can live very comfortably for 10 years with that kind of money, and no work at all -- and I live in one of the most expensive European countries (save for rent, which is cheap).
I'd call it a jackpot alright.
Re: British teenage designer of Summly app hits jackpot
#56A MacBook when he was 9 ? Damn, I'm 32 and still cannot really justify one. And I'm sure his parents had nothing to do with his funding arrangements, of course. I hate to talk about privilege, and this kid is clearly smart, but the smell of upper class is hardly bearable, sorry.
"""Damn, I'm 32 and still cannot really justify one."""
In the US, about 20 million people have one. It's not that big of a deal.
"""I hate to talk about privilege, and this kid is clearly smart, but the smell of upper class is hardly bearable, sorry."""
Yeah, because it's so easy for them, that tons of other upper class kid have done something similar, right?
Actually, real "upper class" kids wouldn't bother do anything like that at all. Why spoil their perfectly good lazy existence and fun-having?
Re: British teenage designer of Summly app hits jackpot
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it does. Less than 20% of Americans make over 100k per year. Entry level in IB makes 70+ min. After a graduate degree we are talking 100 to 300k per year. By the time that person has had kids, especially a nine year old they are probably making 500k min. I don't know British IB salaries, but I imagine they are as high. Law could be anywhere from 50k to 1mm so it really depends.
You (and the grandparent) are misapplying the American conception of class (money) to a Briton. It's about birth and schooling here - money is irrelevant. The boy seems likely to be middle class. (Upper class means a member of the aristocracy in the UK, FWIW).
That's not quite accurate. There are several definitions of the upper class. No one said he was a royal or a lord.
From the financial standpoint, he is upper class alright, even if the Eton guys would snub him.
Re: British teenage designer of Summly app hits jackpot
#58"D'Aloisio is by no means a typical teenager - he is polite, highly motivated and enthusiastic." Wow, wonder how many other groups they'd be able to get away with stereotyping like that. "D'Aloisio is by no means a typical (woman|Mexican|black person|obese person) - he is polite, highly motivated and enthusiastic." Ouch. Makes the BBC sound out of touch, considering that most teenagers are under a historically unprec…
I'm cynical when I read these sorts of articles, especially when the person involved has good links through relatives: "the son of a lawyer and an investment banker". It should be praised that someone can show initiative like this, but I just can't help thinking it's happening too easily - especially getting free PR on the BBC website.
A couple days ago BBC was carrying the story of a 15-year-old who had become the youngest person to climb the Seven Summits (the tallest summit on each continent). He was, of course, the child of two wealthy mountaineers.
Re: British teenage designer of Summly app hits jackpot
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
The writer was, at some point in his life, a spoiled teenager. Most of my friends and other teenage students near me, (By the way, I'm from India, 15) love to do their homework, as, it's challenging and we feel something after completing it. Same is the case for most of the teenagers in other parts of my country, nearly everyone does their homework properly.
"""The writer was, at some point in his life, a spoiled teenager. Most of my friends and other teenage students near me, (By the way, I'm from India, 15) love to do their homework, as, it's challenging and we feel something after completing it.""" Yeah, we sure buy this...
I am from India. I find the remark quite plausible.
Re: British teenage designer of Summly app hits jackpot
#60"D'Aloisio is by no means a typical teenager - he is polite, highly motivated and enthusiastic." Wow, wonder how many other groups they'd be able to get away with stereotyping like that. "D'Aloisio is by no means a typical (woman|Mexican|black person|obese person) - he is polite, highly motivated and enthusiastic." Ouch. Makes the BBC sound out of touch, considering that most teenagers are under a historically unprec…
Get off your PC horse. Reality based generalization is not "stereotyping" (and all stereotyping is not false). Really, we people from other parts of the world --the victims of stereotypes ourselves-- are incredibly tired of all this "guilt" and "tiptoeing around issues" mentality going on from that side of the Atlantic. As if anyone's feelings will be hurt if somebody calls the typical teenager impolite or un-motivat…
It's not a reality based generalization though, it's unfounded nonsense - like the thought that black people can jump really high compared to white people, you can die if you leave a fan on while you sleep, or that you can identify criminals by measuring their skulls.
All of these beliefs have been shared by millions of people at some time, but that does not make them true and certainly does not make them suitable for reprinting as implied fact by a state-backed, high quality, supposedly objective news organization.
I suppose I am a rather stereotypical Brit in that in this part of the world we don't really care about harsh realities in other countries but we do care about the quality of journalism coming out of our beloved BBC.