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jhonan
July 4th, 2011, 11:38 AM
I see loads of posts in here along the lines of 'I love linux, and I'm only 6! I started coding C when I was 3!"

So, how much of a child prodigy are/were you? I'll get you started;



Wrote first program in 1980 aged 11 in BASIC, using punched cards and a pencil (sent to lab and waited a day for the printed output to get posted back)
I joined the school's computer club in 1980. Computer club consisted of a Commdore Pet.
Things really took off in 1982 when I got my Commodore 64
Started coding 6510 assembly language at age 13. In fact, I was that much of a kiddie genius that, because I couldn't afford the 6510 Assembly cartridge, I used the C64 Advanced Instruction manual to translate all the mnemonics from hex into decimal. I then poked these directly into memory, and ran my code that way.
I wrote my first game using this method (a defender clone), and was published in Computer and Video Games magazine by the age of 14.

Legendary_Bibo
July 4th, 2011, 02:58 PM
My brain is wired to pick up and learn anything related to math, computers, and physics really quickly. Unfortunately, I'm really lazy so I can learn something, I just won't do any work on it (homework)

RiceMonster
July 4th, 2011, 02:59 PM
Programmed a true AI program in assembly before I could walk. Unfortunately the government confiscated it. I really shouldn't be talking about this because they might kill me.

Legendary_Bibo
July 4th, 2011, 03:02 PM
Programmed a true AI program in assembly before I could walk. Unfortunately the government confiscated it. I really shouldn't be talking about this because they might kill me.

Should have made it open source.

Bandit
July 4th, 2011, 03:42 PM
I see loads of posts in here along the lines of 'I love linux, and I'm only 6! I started coding C when I was 3!"

So, how much of a child prodigy are/were you? I'll get you started;

................

Well being here in Mississippi where I live, growing up here was a handicap. If it wasnt for my uncle taking computer programming in college, chances are I wouldnt be here right now. The schools had monochrome apple computers using 8" floppies if I remember correctly, which wasnt very appealing. The summer I had just finished 1st grade he wanted me to come stay with him for a while. So I did and he had just purchased a Tandy1000 HX a year or two earlier. He introduced me to GW/BASIC and the book Tandy Corp sent with it full of the commands and syntaxes. I quickly took to it and was making simple GOTO and IF statements in no time. With in a few days I was already making graphics on the screen and some minor games. By the end of the summer, I really had fell in love with that Tandy, it had everything I though I could ever want. It had music programs, drawing programs, spreadsheets, you name it. It was a geeks paradise :) I wanted on so bad I asked my Dad for one, so he called my uncle and talked to him about were he got it and more information about them. Turns out my uncle was in the market for a newer one and he knew how much I loved that computer. So he told my Dad he would sell it for just $300. Which he used to money a long with what he was saving up to get him a Tandy 1000 RSX I believe. So to make a long story short, but the end of 2nd grade few months later. I had already pretty much mastered BASIC, DOS Batch files and commands everything from Attrib to FDisk and fully adept with modem strings and removing and adding internal hardware. I was also a admin on my uncles BBS he ran for many years.

Good 'ole times. :D

BrokenKingpin
July 4th, 2011, 03:46 PM
I have always been good in math and physics, but didn't really get into computers until early high school. At this point I took my first programming course and just ran with it from there. After high school I went to college for software engineering, and then on to software development as a profession.

To be honest I am glad I didn't spend my entire youth on the computer, I would have missed out on a lot of good times otherwise.

DangerOnTheRanger
July 4th, 2011, 03:48 PM
I'm around 15 years old right now, so I still have some time to add to this list :D

Here we go:


I first used Linux at ~10 yrs old (Gentoo [!], with adult help)
Started programming at ~7 yrs old with SmallBasic. Learned C a year later
Made my own tiny OS (from scratch) at ~13 yrs old using C++ and Assembly. No GUI (not even memory allocation), but it was workable. Kinda.
I compiled (by hand) Linux From Scratch at 13 yrs old
Regular expressions at 14. [a-zA-Z_][a-zA-z0-9_]*
I remotely manage a web server via SSH
I sleep with a USB stick at my bedside (really, I do :p)

Spr0k3t
July 4th, 2011, 03:49 PM
My first hack... that was a fun one. I didn't like the light output I had on my watch, so I swapped out the light diode from another watch that was dead (after I killed it that is). I think I was either 7 or 8. I first started programming about the same time. The first programs were very simple basic stuff, but eventually I created crude monopoly clone for the C64 around the time I hit 12. In high school I got kicked out of the computer club for being too much of a nerd (I was the only one in the group who wanted to program, the others just wanted to play games).

Bandit
July 4th, 2011, 03:52 PM
.....

To be honest I am glad I didn't spend my entire youth on the computer, I would have missed out on a lot of good times otherwise.

LOL I feel lucky now that I had a bunch of hard headed friends that wouldnt take "no" or "later" of an answer when they wanted to get out of the house and come play get in trouble.. :)

mips
July 4th, 2011, 04:03 PM
Started coding 6510 assembly language at age 13. In fact, I was that much of a kiddie genius that, because I couldn't afford the 6510 Assembly cartridge, I used the C64 Advanced Instruction manual to translate all the mnemonics from hex into decimal. I then poked these directly into memory, and ran my code that way.
I wrote my first game using this method (a defender clone), and was published in Computer and Video Games magazine by the age of 14.
[/LIST]

I also started assembly at age 13 but on a 6502 as used by Apple II. I still wish I had a C64 back in the day and I still reckon assembly is great till this day even though I have not touch any form of assembly in many years.

Grenage
July 4th, 2011, 04:04 PM
I find it worrying that people still believe that a decent command of computers makes them incredibly smart; almost every child learns at least one language very early on, and a multitude of skills.

A true genius is a very rare thing, and I've never met one. ;)

Phrea
July 4th, 2011, 04:07 PM
Back in my youth, we had C64's, Sinclairs and stuff like that, and I hated everything about them, except to play games.
Child computer prodigy I aint !
Programming? I'm not even able to save my own life with a 3 line bit of code.

This is still true today, I know my way around a computer, and I know how to Google, but that's about it. I'm a true user. This also makes me a very poor excuse of a Linux person, but hey, I like it, it's free and open, and if something does not work, there's always Google and you guys. :D

DZ*
July 4th, 2011, 05:32 PM
Wrote first program in 1980 aged 11 in BASIC, using punched cards and a pencil (sent to lab and waited a day for the printed output to get posted back)
I joined the school's computer club in 1980. Computer club consisted of a Commdore Pet.
Things really took off in 1982 when I got my Commodore 64
Started coding 6510 assembly language at age 13. In fact, I was that much of a kiddie genius that, because I couldn't afford the 6510 Assembly cartridge, I used the C64 Advanced Instruction manual to translate all the mnemonics from hex into decimal. I then poked these directly into memory, and ran my code that way.
I wrote my first game using this method (a defender clone), and was published in Computer and Video Games magazine by the age of 14.


What are you up to now, as an adult?

JDShu
July 4th, 2011, 07:44 PM
Thinking back, I was a pretty stupid child. I don't think I knew what was going on around me :P

GWBouge
July 4th, 2011, 08:22 PM
My brain is wired to pick up and learn anything related to math, computers, and physics really quickly. Unfortunately, I'm really lazy so I can learn something, I just won't do any work on it (homework)

This, ha.

I dunno about genius, but I've pretty much always been the only one I knew that's not afraid to break the computer, so I never really had help with them, just a lot of curiosity. Up until high school, pretty much everything I had done was done by searching help files and trial and error. No internet, no text books, no computer classes ... just a lot of missed homework and some strained eyes.

I got a Commodore 128 and IBM PC Jr from my uncle when I was 8 or 10, spent a bunch of time with games on the IBM and BASIC (I think?) on the Commodore. Then a nice, shiny new PC with Win 3.11 at about 12, which I spent more time in DOS 6.2 playing with qBasic, making crappy little games and playing DOOM. At 14 or so (when I had finally got the internet) I started toying with HTML and JavaScript. Not long after that I found out about Python. Then, eh, stuff happens, priorities change, computers got put on the back burner for a few years.

Looking back, I wish I had stuck with it. Or, at least wish had the amount of knowledge available today back in middle school, lol. Since then I've just felt left behind, always trying to catch back up to where I 'should' be =o\

Kromgol
July 4th, 2011, 08:30 PM
I started doing programming (HTML and such) on the web at the age of 9, other than that i haven't done that much except sitting around a computer since like being 7 years old. I don't know how to program "real" languages, but i do know a lot in general about different OS, computers and such. Not an expert though, i guess i would put myself a little bit below that line.

Dustin2128
July 4th, 2011, 08:35 PM
I've used computers since I was 4 or 5, learned html around 8 or 9, css and a bit of python at 10, installed linux when I was 11 or 12 (ubuntu 7.04 or .10). I've picked up a little bit of C and C++, but I haven't actually tried to master them because I'm an incredibly lazy python coder most of the time. Once I'm done with lisp, I'll give it a shot. Learned a lot of javascript, too, at 14-15. Oh, lot of bash scripting since a few months after I installed ubuntu, too. It's also funny to look at the past since I learned a lot about hardware, and consider I was still using a pentium 3 when the i7 came out, a GeForce 4 as the 9800 GT came out, etc.

Zero2Nine
July 4th, 2011, 09:14 PM
No. I only played games. Started programming in qbasic when I was 14 but I'm not sure if my skills have really improved since then (12 years later...) :p

beew
July 4th, 2011, 09:18 PM
Kids should play childish games outside, under the sun and with real friends their age. if your 8 year old starts programming you should be worried.

Dangertux
July 4th, 2011, 09:51 PM
Kids should play childish games outside, under the sun and with real friends their age. if your 8 year old starts programming you should be worried.

Agree lol.

WinterMadness
July 4th, 2011, 10:00 PM
I got my first computer when i was 12, learned html and vb on a whim.

I used to write third party aol programs, for example: punters, account terminators, password crackers, and my phisher that actually got pretty popular.

Maybe some of those things werent so good, but thats how i got online back then. my mom didnt like paying for internet so i had to make due or use slow free isps

JDShu
July 4th, 2011, 10:10 PM
I find it worrying that people still believe that a decent command of computers makes them incredibly smart; almost every child learns at least one language very early on, and a multitude of skills.

A true genius is a very rare thing, and I've never met one. ;)

Child prodigies are not super rare actually. A family friend's son is teaching himself partial differential equations and writing university level proofs at age 8. The issue I guess is that most burn out by the time they mature.

koenn
July 4th, 2011, 10:12 PM
Kids should play childish games outside, under the sun and with real friends their age. if your 8 year old starts programming you should be worried.

for some kids, programming (or even just take stuff apart and reassemble it to see how it works) is playing. (that even goes for some adults :) )

The sun doesn't always shine. You also need indoor activities, and then programming etc is probably win-win compared to, say, "redecorating" you parent's bed room.

If your 8 years old plays educational games on a computer, out of his own free will, and does well at it, you'll be proud.
Figuring out programming is an educational game.

ninjaaron
July 4th, 2011, 10:13 PM
Eh... no, I was not and am not a computer genius.

I wrote a program in BASIC when I was 8 that was designed to tell my brother he was an idiot (it was successful). I built a couple of web-pages in HTML from scratch in junior high. Took some programming classes in High School and wrote a simple space-shooter game, and then did nothing with it for the past seven or so years since. This year, I started writing some scripts to make a better tablet experience for my Dell Duo, just some stuff that makes a few different software components work together better.

But I guess that writing a a couple of useful scripts at age 26 doesn't qualify me as a prodigy. I tend to be more a arty-farty/humanities guy, and I was a late bloomer in that too.

8_Bit
July 4th, 2011, 10:19 PM
I didn't do a lot of the great stuff you've all mentioned, so I guess I'm not a genius per se. But I was definitely a computer "wiz kid." I built my first website when I was in the 4th grade, and continued on to make my first computer program while I was in middle school. By the time I was in high school I already had several professional-quality websites on my belt and a program of mine featured in a Japanese Mac magazine.

lisati
July 4th, 2011, 10:26 PM
I hesitate to call myself a genius, I'm not a computer, and the question of whether or not I'm a child is a matter of opinion. :D

JRV
July 4th, 2011, 10:31 PM
I probably would have been, but I was born too early.
I bought my ZX-81 in 1981 when I was 32.

Rasa1111
July 4th, 2011, 10:45 PM
Nope. lol

I remember learning some BASIC when I was in 2nd-3rd grade, -1980's.
but didn't care much about it.
I enjoyed that I actually got the hang of it much more than I did; say.. math class. lol
But it still bored me mostly.

Didn't really start "liking" or caring about computers until 8-9 years ago.
Never got into Linux until a year and a half ago.
I struggle with conky scripts. :lolflag:

Dustin2128
July 4th, 2011, 10:58 PM
Oh yeah, nearly forgot, back when I used xp, I did do a bit of visual basic. Nothing major, though, which is why I nearly forgot it ;). That would have been at around 10.

Nyromith
July 4th, 2011, 11:09 PM
I was really attracted to programming since I was 10, but I didn't have Internet until I was 12, and then I was particularly interested in *censored*

Nothing special.

Dry Lips
July 4th, 2011, 11:26 PM
I was certainly no genius. At one point I managed to lock myself
out of DOS on my own computer, and for a couple of weeks I
thought that the HDD was destroyed.

I did also play around a bit in Pascal. No big deal, as I don't remember
anything of it today.

Dry Lips
July 4th, 2011, 11:43 PM
I was really attracted to programming since I was 10, but I didn't have Internet until I was 12, and then I was particularly interested in *censored*

Nothing special.

Cool!

in-dust-rial
July 4th, 2011, 11:47 PM
2 cents...
about being to old to be a computer child prodigy:
allan turing and (i think it was) von neumann played computerized check against each other without a computer. so they wrote the algorithms on paper.
therefore i think it might be possible to be a prodigy with computers without ever having to touch one.
Leibniz produced the first mechanic calculator something around 15xx. it could do the 4 basic operations.

about language and computer language:
i have seen my fair share of unbelievable solutions. bluntly said, i dont think switzer-german is really a context-free language, but i am damn sure some computational workarounds/hacks are.

i had the honor to visit robocup wolrd championships:
there is a hell lot of nerdness going on. some of the older guys reverse engineer software of a whole robots in one night.
but for the most part robocup is full of children who built robots at home. hundreds of kids around 12 or so.
those didnt strike me as very genius like. some of them certainly are.
but they just have fun and improve so fast - they all looked very intelligent to me.

amazing ppl live on this tiny planet!
:D

beetleman64
July 4th, 2011, 11:53 PM
My S1 ICT teacher picked me out at age 12 and taught me a bit of Visual BASIC. That said, while I have been at or near top of my computing classes (I won the S5 prize a couple of weeks ago), I realised my limitations when I attended a course in Robocode a year ago. I fared better than my friend, but there were some proper child computer geniuses there.

However, I still hold high hopes at taking computer science at University,

ninjaaron
July 5th, 2011, 01:39 AM
Speaking of human language and programming languages, They aren't that different from each other except that human languages are much more complex. Everything boils down to symbols in syntax.

That being the case, it actually makes sense that young children should be able to gain an intuitive grasp of programming much more easily than adults.

That is to say, when a child is good at programming, it may be more a matter of exposure and interest than "genius" per se. Something to consider before we get all excited about our bulging brains. On the other hand, I have no doubt that children who are exposed to the kind of problem solving involved with programming at an early age will preform better on intelligence tests later on.

ninjaaron
July 5th, 2011, 01:45 AM
I was really attracted to programming since I was 10, but I didn't have Internet until I was 12, and then I was particularly interested in *censored*

Bukkake? Anallingus?
:confused:

johnnybgoode83
July 5th, 2011, 01:46 AM
I was never one for programming and I'm still no good at it. I was the one taking things apart to see how they worked. I still am which is why I do every hardware/networking related course there is and why I would rather take a computer apart and rebuild it than write a piece of software.

But hey that's just me.

WinterMadness
July 5th, 2011, 01:49 AM
Speaking of human language and programming languages, They aren't that different from each other except that human languages are much more complex. Everything boils down to symbols in syntax.

That being the case, it actually makes sense that young children should be able to gain an intuitive grasp of programming much more easily than adults.

That is to say, when a child is good at programming, it may be more a matter of exposure and interest than "genius" per se. Something to consider before we get all excited about our bulging brains. On the other hand, I have no doubt that children who are exposed to the kind of problem solving involved with programming at an early age will preform better on intelligence tests later on.

I agree.

I generally think anyone can be good at anything, its just a matter of interest and motivation. most people only care about socializing, and thus, they spend more time focusing on that rather than the sciences, as opposed to most of the people here who probably put socializing aside a lot of times.

I know I do that, i have definitely told my friends i wont be coming out tonight because I was in the middle of thinking about something, or reading, or programming etc.

johnnybgoode83
July 5th, 2011, 01:50 AM
I agree.

I generally think anyone can be good at anything, its just a matter of interest and motivation. most people only care about socializing, and thus, they spend more time focusing on that rather than the sciences, as opposed to most of the people here who probably put socializing aside a lot of times.

I know I do that, i have definitely told my friends i wont be coming out tonight because I was in the middle of thinking about something, or reading, or programming etc.


I do that all the time and thought I was the only one. Thank God I'm not alone.

WinterMadness
July 5th, 2011, 01:55 AM
I do that all the time and thought I was the only one. Thank God I'm not alone.

you're definitely not alone lol.

Though I do feel a little bad about it. In some regards I feel like im missing out on a lot of things in life, but at the same time I could never live with myself if all I ever did was hang out/party etc. There are too many interesting things in the world for me to explore. I have yet to understand how to balance these two things in a constructive manner lol

cgroza
July 5th, 2011, 02:53 AM
I do that all the time and thought I was the only one. Thank God I'm not alone.
And I was thinking I am a weirdo and having some psychological problem.
I LOL now.

GWBouge
July 5th, 2011, 03:56 AM
That is to say, when a child is good at programming, it may be more a matter of exposure and interest than "genius" per se.


I generally think anyone can be good at anything, its just a matter of interest and motivation. most people only care about socializing, and thus, they spend more time focusing on that rather than the sciences, as opposed to most of the people here who probably put socializing aside a lot of times.

^ These. Some people had computers available to us young, and simply wanted to know what made'em tick. Nothing beats a desire to learn and the resources to do so.


I know I do that, i have definitely told my friends i wont be coming out tonight because I was in the middle of thinking about something, or reading, or programming etc.

I do that a lot, too, hehe. I missed a school dance or social function to pull an all-nighter pretty regularly.

beew
July 5th, 2011, 06:00 AM
Speaking of human language and programming languages, They aren't that different from each other except that human languages are much more complex. Everything boils down to symbols in syntax.

That being the case, it actually makes sense that young children should be able to gain an intuitive grasp of programming much more easily than adults.

That is to say, when a child is good at programming, it may be more a matter of exposure and interest than "genius" per se. Something to consider before we get all excited about our bulging brains. On the other hand, I have no doubt that children who are exposed to the kind of problem solving involved with programming at an early age will preform better on intelligence tests later on.

First of all, human language and programming language are very different. What you say only makes sense in a striped down model of linguistics such as Chomsky's in which you are only interested in certain aspects of language (its "core grammar" or syntax) but children don't parse and "learn" language (well if you read Chomsky maybe "learning" is the wrong word, more like turning on switches) based on the kind of abstract, linear logic required to learn programming language. It is integrated with the development of other senses (semantics).

Secondly, I am not sure what do intelligence tests really tell you if they are biased towards some modes of learning or interacting with the world. Since we don't really have very good understanding of "intelligence" I think "intelligence tests" maybe a pseudoscience only slightly more "scientific" than reading Tarot cards.

42dorian
July 5th, 2011, 07:44 AM
I never really had much of a chance to be a child prodigy at computers. I didn't own one until I was 9. Before that I had always taken apart and rebuilt electronics. My "Terrible Two's" involved an incident where I walked downstairs in the middle of the night, took apart the family stereo and rebuilt it, clearing up some nasty static we were getting on the radio. The Computer was a gift from my Grandmother, who intended me to be an Author, so I was writing things long before that. I was an intelligent child, yes. In the third grade, my Grandmother, an ornery and opinionated woman if ever there was one, made an off-hand comment to my Father about my handwriting being atrocious. A comment something spun toward "Perhaps there's something wrong in his head?"

Long story short there, they sent me for serious testing. Turns out I have a fine motor problem in my right shoulder. A very common thing and explains the handwriting. What came up in the tests is that my IQ is in the freakish high range (187), and my field of freakish-advancement is analysis. Patterns, Languages, Imagery, Music, and Problem Solving. I also have a Photographic Memory, so that gets thrown in there too. They tried to define the scope of my advancement and found out my learning curve is off the charts too. By the time I was in 9th grade, I could quote Sun Tsu, The Bible, and much of Shakespeare, had a vocabulary in the University levels, and could speak and read 35 languages, none of them computers. I started to do some programming in Basic, and it took off from there. I've since lost most of my languages I knew, in fact I now say I speak English and Bad English. I don't really code anymore, since sometime in College my brain said "Y'know what? I've done enough for you already. We're not coding anymore. Do something fun. Build stuff, you know you love that."

When I was 15, I got a job at a computer store, and I've been a computer tech ever since. I do carpentry, electronics, and various forms of design and problem solving construction work as hobbies these days. I have a general fascination with ancient history, medicine, advanced physics, and psychology. Due to some family history (My Dad is an ex cop, and I used to have a scout leader who was an ex green beret from South Carolina, Immigrating to Canada at the time) I have a lot of experience with Law and the Military.

So, it really is up to interpretation as to whether I'm a child prodigy or genius. The numbers say yes, but the practical application of it says no. I think it's true for everyone in the thread so far. It's more opportunity than it is actually being a child prodigy. For example, I'm too young to have bought or programmed a computer in 1980, since I wasn't born yet. They had done away with punch cards and the early Commodores by the time I had the chance to get into computers at all, so there's not a lot of common ground to compare to there.

OldBoy44
July 5th, 2011, 10:45 AM
I am in awe of the knowledge that you obviously hold in your brain 42dorian!

I hope and trust you count happiness high up in your priorities.

All the best to you - :)

in-dust-rial
July 5th, 2011, 11:12 AM
this statement about semantically integrated is just beautiful.

so i stop arguing that programming languages have more syntactical complex features.

...
I wanted to comment on IQ-tests last post - but i thought it would be overwhelmingly random.

in differential psychology on development they made IQ tests with groups of children in several regions of the world.
children from industrialized countries in almost all ages had higher scores.
but just for the sake of it they formulated different kinds of IQ-tests.
there are, of cause, tests which are symmetrical to the original 'western' one:
where children from industrialized countries were systematically worse than others.

so IQ-test is certainly a measurement, but of what exactly?

years ago some friend and I tried to understand what does make someone a genius.
clearly a genius is well perceived by others (at least from the person who says he is a genius). consequently i do not think that it is directly connected to intelligence at all. (there are many writers who think of themselves as very untalented. however they are perceived as geniuses since they work so hard for every page.)

the term prodigy is far more accurate when it comes to computer skills I WOULD ARGUE. but okay.

ninjaaron
July 5th, 2011, 01:37 PM
First of all, human language and programming language are very different. What you say only makes sense in a striped down model of linguistics such as Chomsky's in which you are only interested in certain aspects of language (its "core grammar" or syntax) but children don't parse and "learn" language (well if you read Chomsky maybe "learning" is the wrong word, more like turning on switches) based on the kind of abstract, linear logic required to learn programming language. It is integrated with the development of other senses (semantics).Well, I agree that that there are big differences. Maybe what I ought to have said is that Human languages contain all of the elements of in programming languages (and a lot more). I certainly agree that most children don't consciously parse, but they do it unconsciously, something that is obvious when a child inflects an irregular word according to the regular paradigm, something children do all the time. The way children use language is often much more "logical" and "linear" than the way an educated adult might.

In addition, many people learn to program by imitating and borrowing bits of code from others until they figure out exactly how each part functions. This is very similar to the way a child learns to speak.


Secondly, I am not sure what do intelligence tests really tell you if they are biased towards some modes of learning or interacting with the world. Since we don't really have very good understanding of "intelligence" I think "intelligence tests" maybe a pseudoscience only slightly more "scientific" than reading Tarot cards.

Point being?

Shpongle
July 5th, 2011, 03:09 PM
Child prodigies are not super rare actually. A family friend's son is teaching himself partial differential equations and writing university level proofs at age 8. The issue I guess is that most burn out by the time they mature.

I would put it down to failing educational systems, they force children to regurgitate mostly useless material with a one fits all approach while killing their natural curiosity.

I started programming at 18 in college , I was however involved with computers from an early age. I started on my grandfathers C64 some time later we got an old win 95 box and I started messing around on that , thought myself about formatting , partitioning , file systems and spent time learning how to use computers in general. During high school I learned how to set up networks and build computers (It was just so I could play age of empires on lan). I also learned about cracks patches etc. My first linux distro was fedora 7 (5 discs) but at that time I had no Internet connection and had no command line knowledge so I was limited in what I could do.I carried on with windows until I hit college. I have been using Linux full time going on 4 years now (was on ubuntu but recently jumped to the mother ship ).Just finished a computer science degree and doing some side projects while I decide what I wanna do. Theres always more to learn. . .

42dorian
July 5th, 2011, 09:51 PM
this statement about semantically integrated is just beautiful.

so i stop arguing that programming languages have more syntactical complex features.

...
I wanted to comment on IQ-tests last post - but i thought it would be overwhelmingly random.

in differential psychology on development they made IQ tests with groups of children in several regions of the world.
children from industrialized countries in almost all ages had higher scores.
but just for the sake of it they formulated different kinds of IQ-tests.
there are, of cause, tests which are symmetrical to the original 'western' one:
where children from industrialized countries were systematically worse than others.

so IQ-test is certainly a measurement, but of what exactly?


You're rather late to the party on this one, my friend. There are hundreds of studies that have already been done on that particular point.

To be even more explicit, I went through more than one IQ test. There are several actual tests, when done by a specific set of testers. The "Standard" IQ test is a Psychologist's test. But it is derived from several other tests that are done in full by actual Child Development Specialists and Neuroscientists.

There is the Analytical IQ, the Social IQ, the Calculation IQ, the Emotional IQ (Sometimes known as Creative IQ), and the Integrated IQ.

Analytical IQ is the measurement of an individual's ability to generate an underlying result from a set of conditions. This IQ is most often associated with problem solving and leadership skills.

Social IQ is the measurement of an individual's adeptness at understanding social/political dynamics and how the relationships between people connect. There is a form of mental dysfunction, I can't remember it's specific name, where the sufferers tend to be highly social people despite their mental deficiency. These people tend to be highly charismatic, and often have musical talents that exceed the natural bell curve of musical ability in the rest of the population. It is believed that their Social IQ is at a level of Prodigies or Savants, despite other aspects such as Calculation IQ or perhaps Integrated IQ being lower than average.

Calculation IQ is the one everyone seems to associate with high intelligence. It's somewhat false. The movie Good Will Hunting rather glorified this type of IQ, because there is an emotional terror that most average people associate with Math. Someone who can conquer this terror for the average person is held up in higher regard emotionally, but the truth behind it is that this only makes up one aspect of a person's total intelligence. I, personally, suck at Math, but my Analytical skills are through the roof. The polar opposite to this might be an example like Rain Man, where the numbers make more sense than all other forms of interaction. This is the extreme expression of Calculation IQ.

Emotional or Creative IQ is something that is expressed in those creative or artistic savants or geniuses out there. It's believed Vincent Van Gough may have been a genius in this form of IQ, and had a deficiency in his Social IQ. This IQ being high is expressed most commonly in people who are artistic in one form or another. Perhaps it is in a genius song writer, painter, or poet. The Emotional or Creative IQ is responsible in an individual who literally creates things where no one else can see it.

Integrated IQ is essentially the standard test. It's a literal Intelligence Quotient where the balance of the others is averaged out to give you an overall number to compare to the rest of the population. This is entirely false if you want to find out if there is one area or another that one person is a genius in. It isn't even all that accurate, because to qualify as a certain level of intellect, you need to score in a range of numbers, rather than having your score be the final verdict. Most people, the average human being, AKA "Everybody" scores between 90 and 120. Which means, unfortunately, that whether you're a 90 or a 120, you won't actually be all that different. This pretty much nullifies the point of an average score, since everyone between 90 and 120 is considered the same. Similarly, if you score between 121 and around 160, you're considered of "Higher Intelligence", and people will tend to shine in one aspect or another, even a few points different in IQ can result in someone being able to genuinely surpass another in this range. However, this range still doesn't get treated as different from eachother. You're still of "High Intelligence" and you can't escape it. Then there are those between 161 and 200+, who are considered "Genius Level IQ" in the world. In fact, the organisation MENSA (Who I've turned down twice) has a minimum requirement of an IQ of 180 to get in, and many "Think Tanks" around North America and Europe will target this entire group of people for their purposes. But, what difference does that make, really? You're a genius, but in what? Myself as an example, have an abnormally (Freakish) high Analytical IQ, but my Calculation IQ is actually rather low. Now, someone standing next to me, Identical IQ (187) may have a Calculation IQ that is high, but a Social IQ that is low, or any number of combinations therein. At "High IQ" levels, what does it matter? There's no baseline for the numbers to mean something. The separate IQs have some limited meaning, but the number ranges still mean the same. To have an IQ in one of these ranges is about as relevant as whether you're right handed or left handed. All it says is "They fall in this range."

It's been studied for years and years. The "Online" tests are just a lazy form of testing. They're not taken from anything real, and the IQ test given by Psychologists are designed to classify you, not to define your ability.