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View Full Version : I was bested by a 9 year old girl in Linux



Legendary_Bibo
December 30th, 2010, 02:15 AM
So I was out today at our outdoors mall, and I decided to stop into Best Buy because I wanted to pick up the new Resident Evil movie, and a game for my PS3. Well I was playing with one of the iPads they had on display, and there was this little girl playing with another one, well she and I ended up walking over to some of the android tablets they had on display, and I was showing her some of the basic commands I knew, and how to do some things, then she takes it from me, and enters some commands I didn't even know about (I think she was trying to root it), and then she set it into an infinite loop of it printing "Kitty!!!" (This was on a terminal app). I was talking to her mother and apparently the girl already knew Python, and was learning C# while she was learning some Lego robotics programming (she was getting a laptop that day). Her mother is a Certified Linux Sysadmin, and has been teaching her daughter bash since she was 4. It was impressive, and depressing. :lolflag:

cgroza
December 30th, 2010, 02:17 AM
That is funny.

ctrlmd
December 30th, 2010, 02:31 AM
:-kinteresting

Quadunit404
December 30th, 2010, 02:46 AM
[...] well she and I ended up walking over to some of the android tablets they had on display, and I was showing her some of the basic commands I knew, and how to do some things, then she takes it from me, and enters some commands I didn't even know about (I think she was trying to root it), and then she set it into an infinite loop of it printing "Kitty!!!"

:lolflag:

nowin4me
December 30th, 2010, 02:52 AM
How do you teach a 4 year old bash?

Pffft kids these days.

EDIT: I sound like my gran, help me.

smellyman
December 30th, 2010, 02:54 AM
did she have a neck beard?

Windows Nerd
December 30th, 2010, 03:54 AM
I wish my parents taught me bash when I was 4. Ouch, my ego would be flattened if I got bested like that.

3Miro
December 30th, 2010, 04:02 AM
Never underestimate kids ability to adapt and learn. I definitely intend to try Math Analysis on my kids to see how early and how much they can pick up.

PS don't call CPS, I don't have kids yet

forrestcupp
December 30th, 2010, 04:16 AM
did she have a neck beard?

:lolflag:

ki4jgt
December 30th, 2010, 04:50 AM
There was a video in the Ham radio community of a 5 year old who got his license and knew almost everything about emergency comms. It's been about a year since I saw it, but he was really knowledgable. I wish my parents had taught me about electronics at 5

Legendary_Bibo
December 30th, 2010, 04:59 AM
How do you teach a 4 year old bash?

Pffft kids these days.

EDIT: I sound like my gran, help me.

Learning a programming language like bash is like learning a second language I guess, which is easier to do at a young age.

Oh I forgot to mention it, but her mother also told me that she was home schooled, and this girl seemed really intelligent when it came to technology (Best Buy was like a candy shop to her :lolflag: ). So I'm guessing her mom made bash part of her learning criteria for the past 5 years.

Needless to say, my l33t ego was crushed. :P

Khakilang
December 30th, 2010, 05:10 AM
Ouch! That's hurt. Like mother like daughter. That is the family resemblance. I bet one day she will come out with her Distros. Who knows?

sandyd
December 30th, 2010, 05:48 AM
Learning a programming language like bash is like learning a second language I guess, which is easier to do at a young age.

Oh I forgot to mention it, but her mother also told me that she was home schooled, and this girl seemed really intelligent when it came to technology (Best Buy was like a candy shop to her :lolflag: ). So I'm guessing her mom made bash part of her learning criteria for the past 5 years.

Needless to say, my l33t ego was crushed. :P
You know that were all considered l33t by normal people right? :D I swear people at my office believe I have some mad virus removal skills whenever they get infected with some random stuff even though im just reimaging their computer and dropping the data from the backups back on...... I mean, how do I remove all viruses from a computer in 5 minutes... and now, my laptop is overheating again. which proves that Im not THAT l33t ;)

Legendary_Bibo
December 30th, 2010, 05:56 AM
You know that were all considered l33t by normal people right? :D I swear people at my office believe I have some mad virus removal skills whenever they get infected with some random stuff even though im just reimaging their computer and dropping the data from the backups back on...... I mean, how do I remove all viruses from a computer in 5 minutes... and now, my laptop is overheating again. which proves that Im not THAT l33t ;)
haha, people I work with always ask me how to maintain their computers, and they always come to me for help with everything! I had one girl I work with bring me her macbook, and ask me to upgrade her RAM without giving me any RAM sticks. Also, because there's computers that the students use that's like 5 feet from where we work they always ask for computer help, and everyone directs them to me. It's freaking annoying :lolflag:

mips
December 30th, 2010, 08:45 AM
Nooblet :D

Evil-Ernie
December 30th, 2010, 09:59 AM
Are you sure her name wasnt Hit Girl? LOL

handy
December 30th, 2010, 10:10 AM
You can't pick your parents... :lolflag:

Though some cultures question that statement... ;)

Paqman
December 30th, 2010, 10:20 AM
Outliers FTW.

chriswyatt
December 30th, 2010, 10:33 AM
Best time to learn is when you're young, I pretty much absorbed an MS-DOS book that my Grandad gave me when I was younger, learnt all the commands.

ronnielsen1
December 30th, 2010, 11:38 AM
I wish my parents had taught me about electronics at 5

Oh right. I still have to setup my parents phone/tv/dvd etc

ki4jgt
December 30th, 2010, 02:37 PM
Oh right. I still have to setup my parents phone/tv/dvd etc

If that's what you still have to do, you're lucky. I still get my siblings, parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins, asking me about everything from phones to $2000 laptops. Sheesh!!! I tell them all the same thing, but they just keep coming. READ THE MANUAL.

Spice Weasel
December 30th, 2010, 03:33 PM
First thing I thought when I read this "1337 xkcd".

donkyhotay
December 30th, 2010, 03:42 PM
I remember coding very basic/primitive games on my C64 in BASIC when I was in 2nd grade. I have a friend with a 3 year old that is pretty lethal with FPS's.

dsavi
December 30th, 2010, 03:54 PM
That's pretty awesome, I met this 13-year-old once who did CAD-related stuff with Blender, that's about as close as I've gotten to meeting someone like that.

I learned just about everything I know about computers myself, my dad has always had a computer related job but he never told me, for example, that he used AutoCAD in the early '90s and studied software engineering. He hasn't taught me a whole lot however.

Legendary_Bibo
December 31st, 2010, 12:22 AM
That's pretty awesome, I met this 13-year-old once who did CAD-related stuff with Blender, that's about as close as I've gotten to meeting someone like that.

I learned just about everything I know about computers myself, my dad has always had a computer related job but he never told me, for example, that he used AutoCAD in the early '90s and studied software engineering. He hasn't taught me a whole lot however.

Yeah, the laptop was supposed to be for 2D animation as well. I always found that home schooled kids were kind of shut in, or in the case of my cousins, insane. She actually initiated the conversation by talking about Angry Birds. :lolflag:

perspectoff
December 31st, 2010, 01:25 AM
Midget Mafia -- they go around hacking display computers at Best Buy.

Probably the same dwarf who made my local Best Buy close down when the power grid in the store mysteriously went down.

madjr
December 31st, 2010, 01:27 AM
my 5 year old cant even play well super mario world, since it requires lots of precise jumping (so i just figured out this game is for 7+ year olds...)

But for some strange reason he already could beat super smash brothers (which i thought was for older kids...)

as far as for programming my 5 year old kid cant read full words yet, so how the heck did the little girl got started at 4? :confused:

TheLions
December 31st, 2010, 01:38 AM
...
as far as for programming my 6 year old kid cant read full words yet, so how the heck did the little girl got started at 4? :confused:

genetics...

Dustin2128
December 31st, 2010, 01:42 AM
as far as for programming my 6 year old kid cant read full words yet, so how the heck did the little girl got started at 4? :confused:
kids learn to read at different ages, I started to read around 3 or 4 as did my younger brother.

NightwishFan
December 31st, 2010, 01:52 AM
Children learn easier than adults. They just are not as creative (from my experience). In my humble opinion, I think the best time to teach someone programming is a young age, not only will it teach them logic, they will retain it well.

ki4jgt
December 31st, 2010, 02:05 AM
Children learn easier than adults. They just are not as creative (from my experience). In my humble opinion, I think the best time to teach someone programming is a young age, not only will it teach them logic, they will retain it well.

They have actually shown that statement to be true. (The creative part) A bunch of college proffessors designed a learning program for adults which stimulated the same feelings (Supposedly) That children have when they learn. Aparently, the results were that adults, once they reach a certain age start to think they know everything and stop linking things together.

Habeouscorpus
December 31st, 2010, 02:13 AM
Why can't the woman be my mother? My father still thinks Windows is the superior OS. ](*,)

Then again, my math teacher go me programming my TI-84 in 5th grade... She handed me the manual and told me to go for it!

Legendary_Bibo
December 31st, 2010, 04:38 AM
I find it admirable when parents get their kid into learning, or doing something productive especially in this day and age when kids are only typically about the latest gadget that will make them another soulless drone. Yeah, the girl's mother bought her a lot of tech, but as tools, not toys.

sandyd
December 31st, 2010, 06:59 AM
I find it admirable when parents get their kid into learning, or doing something productive especially in this day and age when kids are only typically about the latest gadget that will make them another soulless drone. Yeah, the girl's mother bought her a lot of tech, but as tools, not toys.

minor correction. the girls mother bought her a lot of tech as tools, so she could learn to use them to make her own toys ;)

leclerc65
December 31st, 2010, 02:27 PM
When my old friends (yes we are all seniors) have computer related problems, my advice to them is go looking for your grand kids.:p

madjr
December 31st, 2010, 04:38 PM
genetics...

nah, i think its more like: no TV

my kid thanks to some nice TV shows, has a big vocabulary already, but has little to no incentive to read.

So i guess I'll be limiting it more and get him some more books with big letters (the main focus has to be letters, not pictures, else he'll just get equally distracted).

ki4jgt
December 31st, 2010, 04:50 PM
nah, i think its more like: no TV

my kid thanks to some nice TV shows, has a big vocabulary already, but has little to no incentive to read.

So i guess I'll be limiting it more and get him some more books with big letters (the main focus has to be letters, not pictures, else he'll just get equally distracted).

I think the parent's influence is what get's them there the most. I know a kid who watched nothing but scifi. When school testing came around, he was a grade ahead of everyone else. Later they called him back in, so that he could test in the grade after his, so the school wouldn't look bad.

hotwax
December 31st, 2010, 05:02 PM
i call shens. who in the right mind would go to best buy to buy a laptop?????? get rippped off and they have a **** selection

Crazedpsyc
December 31st, 2010, 05:09 PM
I have been playing with (not exactly studying) several programming languages since I was about 14, but <i>4!!!</i> WOW! and in a radioshack! Usually people in there haven't even a clue that the "terminal" app exists or even that android has any basis on linux! Most have never even heard of linux and call it Liinux (Ly-nuhks)! And even the people that work there don't have any idea what they are selling!

btw how old do you think the little girl was at that point? It would be pretty amazing if she was only 6!

perspectoff
December 31st, 2010, 05:09 PM
i call shens. who in the right mind would go to best buy to buy a laptop?????? get rippped off and they have a **** selection

That's nonsense. Twice a year they liquidate their inventory and have great laptops for about $200. Not the incoming models but screamers nevertheless. I have gotten 2 Toshiba laptops from Best Buy during these sale periods, usually just after Christmas. My kids still use them and they are great.

Yes, you can do the same thing online, but buying a laptop is a very personal and ergonomic decision. Are the keys nice? Is there a sharp edge at the bottom? Is the touchpad too rough for little fingers?

It's hard to judge these things for online purchases. I have two daughters -- believe me, they are finicky about their computers and use them all the time.

Crazedpsyc
December 31st, 2010, 05:21 PM
Then again, my math teacher go me programming my TI-84 in 5th grade... She handed me the manual and told me to go for it!

Yes the TI Calculator was a very important thing to learn programming from back in the old days

Of course now you can get one of those amazing TI-Nspires and it's like having a whole computer with a little digital display! You can write a program to play your music or run a programmable nose-hair trimmer (not kidding, I have seen one of those!):lolflag:

Ocxic
December 31st, 2010, 09:58 PM
Awesome pure Awesome

as2000
January 1st, 2011, 02:47 PM
pwned!:shock:

_outlawed_
January 1st, 2011, 02:54 PM
AH HA HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHHAAHHAHAHAAHHA

:popcorn:

ki4jgt
January 2nd, 2011, 03:05 AM
I have been playing with (not exactly studying) several programming languages since I was about 14, but <i>4!!!</i> WOW! and in a radioshack! Usually people in there haven't even a clue that the "terminal" app exists or even that android has any basis on linux! Most have never even heard of linux and call it Liinux (Ly-nuhks)! And even the people that work there don't have any idea what they are selling!

btw how old do you think the little girl was at that point? It would be pretty amazing if she was only 6!

on this subject: I called Best Buy's Geek squad and told them I had an old laptop with a parallel port. I sat on the phone for ten minutes with the Geek Squad rep telling them that there was indeed a parallel port on my laptop. (Their response each time: Laptops have never been made with parallel ports) I finally had to hang up, b/c they still wouldn't believe me. What defines the word geek today?

Legendary_Bibo
January 2nd, 2011, 05:01 AM
on this subject: I called Best Buy's Geek squad and told them I had an old laptop with a parallel port. I sat on the phone for ten minutes with the Geek Squad rep telling them that there was indeed a parallel port on my laptop. (Their response each time: Laptops have never been made with parallel ports) I finally had to hang up, b/c they still wouldn't believe me. What defines the word geek today?

I was in an apple store with a fried one time and I was talking to one of the "geniuses" at the genius bar who claimed to know every little thing about macs so I told him that he should type sudo rm -rf / into his terminal to speed up his macbook (which he claimed he already knew that). I think I said it turned on a better RAM memory manager which a lot of people didn't know about so they would upgrade their RAM, or something like that. He was a split second from hitting 'Enter' with the command typed out before I stopped him (and it was HIS Mac). I think the "geniuses" are better suited as stock boys.

Ahava591
January 2nd, 2011, 05:05 AM
I was in an apple store with a fried one time and I was talking to one of the "geniuses" at the genius bar who claimed to know every little thing about macs so I told him that he should type sudo rm -rf / into his terminal to speed up his macbook (which he claimed he already knew that). I think I said it turned on a better RAM memory manager which a lot of people didn't know about so they would upgrade their RAM, or something like that. He was a split second from hitting 'Enter' with the command typed out before I stopped him (and it was HIS Mac). I think the "geniuses" are better suited as stock boys.
Let him do it, next time.

And that kid is my hero for the year.

NightwishFan
January 2nd, 2011, 06:05 AM
No that would be mean, I would not want someone to tell ME that. :(

Script Warlock
January 2nd, 2011, 06:36 AM
hmm according to my doctor its a genetic mutation.... hehehehe :P i wish i knew bash 37yrs ago so i can go head to head with that little girl...

Legendary_Bibo
January 2nd, 2011, 06:45 AM
hmm according to my doctor its a genetic mutation.... hehehehe :P i wish i knew bash 37yrs ago so i can go head to head with that little girl...

lol. Youngest sysadmin ever.

ninjaaron
January 2nd, 2011, 07:15 AM
I was writing simple true-basic programs at around that age, but no way in hell I could have rooted an android device or handled python and C#. I don't program anything anymore. I have to spend all my time studying real languages these days (grad student in humanities. the jokes on me).