You might think you're pretty hot stuff because you've figured out how to change your Facebook status from your iPhone, but you've got nothing on nine-year-old Lim Ding Wen.
This young prodigy from Singapore is fluent in six programming languages, according to a BBC report this week, and his newest creation, an iPhone drawing game called Doodle Kids, has racked up over 4,000 downloads in just two weeks. He wrote it for his younger sisters, who love to draw.
Doodle Kids, which lets players sketch with their fingers on the iPhone's screen and shake it, Etch-A-Sketch-style, to clear, has already racked up a healthy three-and-a-half star rating on the App Store. One reviewer commented: "Awesome app!...Amazing that something like this was made by a 9 year old".
The title says it all. Seriously a kid at nine years old writing apps for iphone and making it a hit is aactually pretty cool. Not only that, he knows SIX programming languages >.> His father must be really smart to start teaching a kid the languages. Since you know the whole thing you learn things a lot faster at a young age.
If you want to try it out. You have to have itunes installed. It's free by the way! And it's actually really cool and fun to use. The only thing that sucks is that since you will use it on your computer you can't shake your moniter to erase it
On February 11 2009 02:05 EsX_Raptor wrote: Yeah I too remember when my dad used to do 90% of the projects for me and my teacher thought I was a prodigy...
Those were the days...
I hated when teachers came up and congratulated me on something I didn't do though... made me feel empty inside.
In a couple CS classes I took, one of the graduate student instructors was a 10-11 year old French kid. Kid certainly knew his stuff, but was in no way mature enough to teach.
//********************************************************************************************************** // program designed to make you look like a kid that is better than every other mother's sons // retarded. upon the release of this program, many children inferior to you will suffer as they // will be compared to you. program is an aunto-download thus instant profit as mothers will // be downloading it to force their children to look at it and see how successful you are and // how retarded they are. //***********************************************************************************************************
On February 11 2009 02:50 GHOSTCLAW wrote: His parents didn't think that it was that big of accomplishment as well, if I remember correctly. Super asian parents.
By saying that, I just imagined a parent beating his kid saying "THAT'S ALL YOU GOT?"
On February 11 2009 02:43 EsX_Raptor wrote: //********************************************************************************************************** // program designed to make you look like a kid that is better than every other mother's sons // retarded. upon the release of this program, many children inferior to you will suffer as they // will be compared to you. program is an aunto-download thus instant profit as mothers will // be downloading it to force their children to look at it and see how successful you are and // how retarded they are. //***********************************************************************************************************
how can you define fluent in computer languages.... even my lecturers are rewriting the programs they used for workshops that they did a couple years ago.
But 9 years old is pretty sick, I don't think I have even play around with a computer at that age, maybe just learning how to type.
On February 11 2009 02:33 fanatacist wrote: I thought he was gosu at Counter Strike, I wanted vids ):
same here ~.~
I was getting ready to flame the op for having the word "genius" in the title when obviously CS has nothing to do with intelligence.
T_T
tbh a counter strike genius would be more interesting to me than this...
i already know a cs genius anyway, he lives in my dorm right next to me. he worked for google doing programming already and is almost ready to sell his own programming language. makes me feel like a huge failure T_T
On February 11 2009 02:33 fanatacist wrote: I thought he was gosu at Counter Strike, I wanted vids ):
same here ~.~
I was getting ready to flame the op for having the word "genius" in the title when obviously CS has nothing to do with intelligence.
T_T
tbh a counter strike genius would be more interesting to me than this...
i already know a cs genius anyway, he lives in my dorm right next to me. he worked for google doing programming already and is almost ready to sell his own programming language. makes me feel like a huge failure T_T
lol these kinds of kids dont surprise me anymore. normally it's asian countries like korea china and japan that likes to encourage kids to be grossly educated in a single subject and then be totally useless in all other subjects and social life.
i remember was a chinese kid who was 11 and got into university to study physics and super string theory. after a week of not turning up at class the teachers started looking around for him. in the end they found him at home eating chips and watching cartoons on tv. when asked why he didnt go to class he said he didnt want to.
If you want to try it out. You have to have itunes installed. It's free by the way! And it's actually really cool and fun to use. The only thing that sucks is that since you will use it on your computer you can't shake your moniter to erase it
Maybe it's somewhat easier to learn a programming language as a kid. If you're somewhat intelligent, it's all logic. Plus, some kids might consider it fun. Or i could be horribly wrong, dunno.
learn the (proper) (Australian) way of abbreviation CSc or Cs
but this has nothing to do with computer science, rather programming
that being said.. that aint really impressive~ one of my russian friends was programming back in primary school too, in BASIC/C and im pretty sure he wrote more complicated stuff than this.
kids all over the world back in my day were programming basic; and learning 6,h like others have said isn't that huge. Im pretty sure his dad showed him all the roots and the shortcuts.
Once I read an article about him by someone who has some more depth in their insight than "omg hes 9 years old and he wrote a program" or he accomplishes something beyond the scope of basic instruction, maybe I'll care.
On February 11 2009 02:43 EsX_Raptor wrote: //********************************************************************************************************** // program designed to make you look like a kid that is better than every other mother's sons // retarded. upon the release of this program, many children inferior to you will suffer as they // will be compared to you. program is an aunto-download thus instant profit as mothers will // be downloading it to force their children to look at it and see how successful you are and // how retarded they are. //***********************************************************************************************************
finger.put = line; shake.erase = true; end
you haven't included or instantiated finger or shake. your program has caused and illegal operation and broke the internet.
On February 11 2009 06:56 pyrogenetix wrote: lol these kinds of kids dont surprise me anymore. normally it's asian countries like korea china and japan that likes to encourage kids to be grossly educated in a single subject and then be totally useless in all other subjects and social life.
i remember was a chinese kid who was 11 and got into university to study physics and super string theory. after a week of not turning up at class the teachers started looking around for him. in the end they found him at home eating chips and watching cartoons on tv. when asked why he didnt go to class he said he didnt want to.
A lot of prodigies turn out to be well adjusted socially. Who cares if they're only good at one thing, I'd rather win a nobel prize in one thing than be good at many things. Terence Tao comes to my mind. I think at 24 he was already a professor, and by 30 he won a fields medal. He's married, has a kid, and he's a friendly, down to earth guy.
This isn't a big deal. It's cool, but not unbelievable.
Basically, this kid likes to learn about computers, and he has a family environment that supports his learning. Whether he learns to write a simple program at 9 or 19, it doesn't make much difference. E.g. a month of programming experience is almost equally valuable at both ages.
The only thing a kid his age is physically-incapable of learning is abstract concepts: that mental ability only arises around the age of 12. But this shouldn't stop him from learning to write simple applications, even with many different languages.
If you ask me, autistic savants aside, the only thing that makes a child "prodigy" different is that the prodigy wasted less time during his or her childhood than an average child.
And since IQ is dependent on age for children, a "genius" child is simply one that wastes less of their time, say, watching TV, and instead spends that time learning.
Think about it: if, as a child, all your TV-watching hours were instead spent learning to program, or learning to write music, or learning some other skill, then you'd probably have become a child prodigy, too.
On February 11 2009 02:33 Ideas wrote: what's a 9 yr old doing with an iPhone
I really don't understand either. And he made the program for his YOUNGER sisters? wtf they all have iphones and are 9 years old or younger?
IMO if you're not out of high school there are very very very few reasons to have a cell phone period. Let alone a a bunch of kids running around with expensive iPhones...
On February 11 2009 09:46 Bill307 wrote: If you ask me, autistic savants aside, the only thing that makes a child "prodigy" different is that the prodigy wasted less time during his or her childhood than an average child.
And since IQ is dependent on age for children, a "genius" child is simply one that wastes less of their time, say, watching TV, and instead spends that time learning.
Think about it: if, as a child, all your TV-watching hours were instead spent learning to program, or learning to write music, or learning some other skill, then you'd probably have become a child prodigy, too.
I disagree. There are many factors that separates a child prodigy from the rest of us chumps. IQ is one, the rage to master is one, and deliberate practice (with a supportive environment) is the other.
I mean even if a genius is just someone who "wastes less of their time" as you put it, the fire in them to singlemindedly pursue whatever their interested in is inborn. The desire NOT to waste time is something they're born with anyway. We can't choose to be passionate about something, and certainly not to the extent that prodigies are. Yeah, Bisu's multitasking, and Jaedong's mechanics, is just the result of 10 hours of daily arduous practice. Easy. >.>
On February 11 2009 09:46 Bill307 wrote: If you ask me, autistic savants aside, the only thing that makes a child "prodigy" different is that the prodigy wasted less time during his or her childhood than an average child.
And since IQ is dependent on age for children, a "genius" child is simply one that wastes less of their time, say, watching TV, and instead spends that time learning.
Think about it: if, as a child, all your TV-watching hours were instead spent learning to program, or learning to write music, or learning some other skill, then you'd probably have become a child prodigy, too.
I disagree. There are many factors that separates a child prodigy from the rest of us chumps. IQ is one, the rage to master is one, and deliberate practice (with a supportive environment) is the other.
I mean even if a genius is just someone who "wastes less of their time" as you put it, the fire in them to singlemindedly pursue whatever their interested in is inborn. The desire NOT to waste time is something they're born with anyway. We can't choose to be passionate about something, and certainly not to the extent that prodigies are. Yeah, Bisu's multitasking, and Jaedong's mechanics, is just the result of 10 hours of daily arduous practice. Easy. >.>
These are just "facts" pulled out of your ass.
Edit: For example, "the fire in them to singlemindedly pursue whatever their interested in is inborn. The desire NOT to waste time is something they're born with anyway." I see no reason to believe this.
I see statements like that as merely an excuse for people who are either trying to justify the time they wasted as a child (which is unnecessary, 'cause we were all dumb when we were children anyway), or trying to justify their current laziness as being something they cannot change.
Edit 2: And by the way, people who believe their own poor performance is a result of uncontrollable factors such as genes are not only factually wrong, but also tend to have poor performance simply because they don't make any real, concerted effort to improve.
On February 11 2009 09:46 Bill307 wrote: If you ask me, autistic savants aside, the only thing that makes a child "prodigy" different is that the prodigy wasted less time during his or her childhood than an average child.
And since IQ is dependent on age for children, a "genius" child is simply one that wastes less of their time, say, watching TV, and instead spends that time learning.
Think about it: if, as a child, all your TV-watching hours were instead spent learning to program, or learning to write music, or learning some other skill, then you'd probably have become a child prodigy, too.
I disagree. There are many factors that separates a child prodigy from the rest of us chumps. IQ is one, the rage to master is one, and deliberate practice (with a supportive environment) is the other.
I mean even if a genius is just someone who "wastes less of their time" as you put it, the fire in them to singlemindedly pursue whatever their interested in is inborn. The desire NOT to waste time is something they're born with anyway. We can't choose to be passionate about something, and certainly not to the extent that prodigies are. Yeah, Bisu's multitasking, and Jaedong's mechanics, is just the result of 10 hours of daily arduous practice. Easy. >.>
These are just "facts" pulled out of your ass.
Edit: For example, "the fire in them to singlemindedly pursue whatever their interested in is inborn. The desire NOT to waste time is something they're born with anyway." I see no reason to believe this.
I see statements like that as merely an excuse for people who are either trying to justify the time they wasted as a child (which is unnecessary, 'cause we were all dumb when we were children anyway), or trying to justify their current laziness as being something they cannot change.
Edit 2: And by the way, people who believe their own poor performance is a result of uncontrollable factors such as genes are not only factually wrong, but also tend to have poor performance simply because they don't make any real, concerted effort to improve.
(Mentally disabled people excepted, of course.)
What's your problem? Calm down. These are facts pulled out of my ass? lol? More like facts pulled out of psychology books. What I say, for example regarding "the rage to master" is a fact well established in the psychology of expertise. I don't care how much your mom or teachers encourage you, there are only a handful of people who have the drive to put in the 10,000 hours to achieve elite performance. This drive is largely genetic.
What you say in Edit 2 is something called the locus of control.
Btw, it's ironic that you concede mentally retarded people are mentally retarded because of well... genes. But God forbid NORMAL people differed because of genes! You know, like hair colour, height, athletic prowess, intelligence, personality.
I don't see why this is a big deal... I taught myself a bit of C++ when I was 8, before promptly losing interest, and started playing cs 1.6 :D. Its been said before, but programming is NOT hard. It's just time consuming.
If he went to university, or could play mozart at this age...well thats a completetly different story.
Congrats to the kid for learning all those languages at that age BTW ^^.
Yep, I'd say if any of us had a burning interest of anything at all when we were 9 years old we'd probably be making 25 year old CS majors feel useless too.
Don't get me wrong, I liked computers when I was a kid, but between coding basic and playing Doom, I mean really? What makes a prodigy, I think, is a serious chemical imbalance in their brain that causes them to rather think than blast demons. Ew.
On February 11 2009 02:43 EsX_Raptor wrote: //********************************************************************************************************** // program designed to make you look like a kid that is better than every other mother's sons // retarded. upon the release of this program, many children inferior to you will suffer as they // will be compared to you. program is an aunto-download thus instant profit as mothers will // be downloading it to force their children to look at it and see how successful you are and // how retarded they are. //***********************************************************************************************************
On February 11 2009 02:05 EsX_Raptor wrote: Yeah I too remember when my dad used to do 90% of the projects for me and my teacher thought I was a prodigy...
Those were the days...
I hated when teachers came up and congratulated me on something I didn't do though... made me feel empty inside.
So true. 6 coding languages and 9 years, not a chance. I'd be very surprised if that kid can actually calculate 5+5 and not to mention code in 6 languages.
Even experienced programmers that have worked on a lot of projects don't know that many languages.
But it makes for a great story and maybe a small viewers boost for them.
On February 11 2009 02:05 EsX_Raptor wrote: Yeah I too remember when my dad used to do 90% of the projects for me and my teacher thought I was a prodigy...
Those were the days...
I hated when teachers came up and congratulated me on something I didn't do though... made me feel empty inside.
So true. 6 coding languages and 9 years, not a chance. I'd be very surprised if that kid can actually calculate 5+5 and not to mention code in 6 languages. .
why would it be surprising if he could calculate 5+5?
On February 11 2009 02:43 EsX_Raptor wrote: //********************************************************************************************************** // program designed to make you look like a kid that is better than every other mother's sons // retarded. upon the release of this program, many children inferior to you will suffer as they // will be compared to you. program is an aunto-download thus instant profit as mothers will // be downloading it to force their children to look at it and see how successful you are and // how retarded they are. //***********************************************************************************************************
finger.put = line; shake.erase = true; end
How incredibly ignorant and foolish. Im a 22 year old programmer, C#, VB, SQL and like 10 more but those are my best. I would struggle to imagine how a 9 year old could do that after 4 years of college learning java and cs and i wouldnt find it easy. Writing in Compact framework is harder than normal programming too.
Please refrain from such jealous posts raptor, it makes you look like the "Retard." ok? gj kid.
when i was 11 i had a basic (Cobra) computer with tape recorder to load games and apps. one of the tapes had my favorite game and from all that using the tape got destroyed and the game was not loading.That was because the header was gone so in 1 day i wrote the entire header in assembler (hardest programming language). so this kid writing an iphone app with modern programming tools is not so extraordinary...and maybe he had help from his father, i didn't only from books...
On February 11 2009 02:43 EsX_Raptor wrote: //********************************************************************************************************** // program designed to make you look like a kid that is better than every other mother's sons // retarded. upon the release of this program, many children inferior to you will suffer as they // will be compared to you. program is an aunto-download thus instant profit as mothers will // be downloading it to force their children to look at it and see how successful you are and // how retarded they are. //***********************************************************************************************************
finger.put = line; shake.erase = true; end
How incredibly ignorant and foolish. Im a 22 year old programmer, C#, VB, SQL and like 10 more but those are my best. I would struggle to imagine how a 9 year old could do that after 4 years of college learning java and cs and i wouldnt find it easy. Writing in Compact framework is harder than normal programming too.
Please refrain from such jealous posts raptor, it makes you look like the "Retard." ok? gj kid.
If you wouldn't find it easy to make a doodling program in ANY language after 4 years of college and apparent mastery of ~13 languages, you should take a step away from the computer (don't go outside though, you might be seen), and reassess your life right now.
On February 11 2009 20:00 Apollo[AoN] wrote: when i was 11 i had a basic (Cobra) computer with tape recorder to load games and apps. one of the tapes had my favorite game and from all that using the tape got destroyed and the game was not loading.That was because the header was gone so in 1 day i wrote the entire header in assembler (hardest programming language). so this kid writing an iphone app with modern programming tools is not so extraordinary...and maybe he had help from his father, i didn't only from books...
Jesus fucking shit, another e-penis-enlargement thread. I hate these.
On February 11 2009 02:43 EsX_Raptor wrote: //********************************************************************************************************** // program designed to make you look like a kid that is better than every other mother's sons // retarded. upon the release of this program, many children inferior to you will suffer as they // will be compared to you. program is an aunto-download thus instant profit as mothers will // be downloading it to force their children to look at it and see how successful you are and // how retarded they are. //***********************************************************************************************************
finger.put = line; shake.erase = true; end
How incredibly ignorant and foolish. Im a 22 year old programmer, C#, VB, SQL and like 10 more but those are my best. I would struggle to imagine how a 9 year old could do that after 4 years of college learning java and cs and i wouldnt find it easy. Writing in Compact framework is harder than normal programming too.
Please refrain from such jealous posts raptor, it makes you look like the "Retard." ok? gj kid.
If you wouldn't find it easy to make a doodling program in ANY language after 4 years of college and apparent mastery of ~13 languages, you should take a step away from the computer (don't go outside though, you might be seen), and reassess your life right now.
your kidding rite? on a handheld app? using the 3.5 framework yea? Tell me, 1 drawing line for that (in any language but seeing as this was a cs thread, use the system.drawing or system.drawing.graphics function), and il accept what youve said as a tiny bit viable. Otherwise, your a fucking idiot child who needs 2 stfu unless he knows wtf he's talking about.
and yeah, i would not find it easy to write that, ive made a signiture capture and encryptor for a handheld and it was a custom control derived from a panel and picturebox. amounted to 4 classes in total. SO GOGO show me u know wtf ur talking bout "MAN"!
On February 11 2009 02:43 EsX_Raptor wrote: //********************************************************************************************************** // program designed to make you look like a kid that is better than every other mother's sons // retarded. upon the release of this program, many children inferior to you will suffer as they // will be compared to you. program is an aunto-download thus instant profit as mothers will // be downloading it to force their children to look at it and see how successful you are and // how retarded they are. //***********************************************************************************************************
finger.put = line; shake.erase = true; end
How incredibly ignorant and foolish. Im a 22 year old programmer, C#, VB, SQL and like 10 more but those are my best. I would struggle to imagine how a 9 year old could do that after 4 years of college learning java and cs and i wouldnt find it easy. Writing in Compact framework is harder than normal programming too.
Please refrain from such jealous posts raptor, it makes you look like the "Retard." ok? gj kid.
If you wouldn't find it easy to make a doodling program in ANY language after 4 years of college and apparent mastery of ~13 languages, you should take a step away from the computer (don't go outside though, you might be seen), and reassess your life right now.
your kidding rite? on a handheld app? using the 3.5 framework yea? Tell me, 1 drawing line for that (in any language but seeing as this was a cs thread, use the system.drawing or system.drawing.graphics function), and il accept what youve said as a tiny bit viable. Otherwise, your a fucking idiot child who needs 2 stfu unless he knows wtf he's talking about.
and yeah, i would not find it easy to write that, ive made a signiture capture and encryptor for a handheld and it was a custom control derived from a panel and picturebox. amounted to 4 classes in total. SO GOGO show me u know wtf ur talking bout "MAN"!
Answer this first, is English your first language?
If it is, then I take back what I said. I applaud your remarkable progress in the world of programming despite such monumental deficiencies.
If you can learn 1 programming language (i.e., C) all the other programming are pretty similar.
Programming isn't that hard.
It's all simple mathematics and logic.
It takes forever to write code though, and debugging is a nightmare..lol
Kudos to the 9 year old who decided to learn programming while his friends are probably learning how to spell. I really think our education system needs a big revamp with things like programming included in the curriculum.
On February 11 2009 02:43 EsX_Raptor wrote: //********************************************************************************************************** // program designed to make you look like a kid that is better than every other mother's sons // retarded. upon the release of this program, many children inferior to you will suffer as they // will be compared to you. program is an aunto-download thus instant profit as mothers will // be downloading it to force their children to look at it and see how successful you are and // how retarded they are. //***********************************************************************************************************
finger.put = line; shake.erase = true; end
How incredibly ignorant and foolish. Im a 22 year old programmer, C#, VB, SQL and like 10 more but those are my best. I would struggle to imagine how a 9 year old could do that after 4 years of college learning java and cs and i wouldnt find it easy. Writing in Compact framework is harder than normal programming too.
Please refrain from such jealous posts raptor, it makes you look like the "Retard." ok? gj kid.
If you wouldn't find it easy to make a doodling program in ANY language after 4 years of college and apparent mastery of ~13 languages, you should take a step away from the computer (don't go outside though, you might be seen), and reassess your life right now.
your kidding rite? on a handheld app? using the 3.5 framework yea? Tell me, 1 drawing line for that (in any language but seeing as this was a cs thread, use the system.drawing or system.drawing.graphics function), and il accept what youve said as a tiny bit viable. Otherwise, your a fucking idiot child who needs 2 stfu unless he knows wtf he's talking about.
and yeah, i would not find it easy to write that, ive made a signiture capture and encryptor for a handheld and it was a custom control derived from a panel and picturebox. amounted to 4 classes in total. SO GOGO show me u know wtf ur talking bout "MAN"!
Answer this first, is English your first language?
If it is, then I take back what I said. I applaud your remarkable progress in the world of programming despite such monumental deficiencies.
thanks for confirming what i thought and ignoring the challenge. exactly what i expected. lol. like i said, dont post unless you have even a slight knowledge of wtf your talking about.
I'm a CS student as well in my Junior year (19 years old) and trust me, it isn't that easy to program.
But have in mind that there are a lot of iPhone code libraries that let you do those sort of things easily. You talk like you're assuming the kid made that program from scratch.
On February 11 2009 20:00 Apollo[AoN] wrote: when i was 11 i had a basic (Cobra) computer with tape recorder to load games and apps. one of the tapes had my favorite game and from all that using the tape got destroyed and the game was not loading.That was because the header was gone so in 1 day i wrote the entire header in assembler (hardest programming language). so this kid writing an iphone app with modern programming tools is not so extraordinary...and maybe he had help from his father, i didn't only from books...
Jesus fucking shit, another e-penis-enlargement thread. I hate these.
this really isn't that big of a deal i wrote a fully featured text editor with syntax highlighting when i was 10 and i knew perl and C and qbasic and nobody gave enough of a fuck to write a news article about me. really though the reality is that i'm not that smart and neither is this kid. kids are capable of a lot more than they're given credit for. it's just that the idiot media thinks that computers are a black magical art. Same reason given to 13-year-old "genius" hackers who really are just persistent morons.
you also have to keep in mind that it's a lot easier to learn programming now... i learned all that without internet access from either books my dad had laying around or just fucking around.
and @ the guy that said nobody knows 6 languages.... I KNOW 6 languages right here. and I'm not even that smart. I'm a second year software engineering student.
also, i bet the code is the ugliest worst designed shit ever because the kid might know 6 programming languages but doesn't know shit about good design. but he's probably learning from mistakes right now so it's cool.
On February 11 2009 03:17 Puosu wrote: I was getting ready to flame the op for having the word "genius" in the title when obviously CS has nothing to do with intelligence.
On February 11 2009 02:14 Elvin_vn wrote: one day, my friend, the word "nerd" would be used to address high-class people in the society
I disagree. 'nerd' is a derogatory term. Being smart =/= being a nerd. One of the things I liked to do in high school was out smart the nerds/geeks and make them feel inferior to the guy who spent his free time getting stoned. "you studied 6 hours last night and got an 80? I got stoned and pulled out a 90. LOL"
On February 11 2009 02:14 Elvin_vn wrote: one day, my friend, the word "nerd" would be used to address high-class people in the society
I disagree. 'nerd' is a derogatory term. Being smart =/= being a nerd. One of the things I liked to do in high school was out smart the nerds/geeks and make them feel inferior to the guy who spent his free time getting stoned. "you studied 6 hours last night and got an 80? I got stoned and pulled out a 90. LOL"
So basically you were the stoner douche? Congrats.
EPT
