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A very inspiring thing about this article was the bio: "Hi there! I am Daniel, a 14 year old developer whose interests include cybersecurity and hardware hackin
by draugadrotten 4y ago
A very inspiring thing about this article was the bio: "Hi there! I am Daniel, a 14 year old developer whose interests include cybersecurity and hardware hacking, low level hardware, web design, and linux."
I look forward to seeing what you do 10 years from now. Keep it up!
- toomuchtodo 4y agoThis too was my favorite part. Inspiring. Great things ahead for this young human.
- dcow 4y agoIf he can write a correct Makefile like this at 14 then a truly formidable foe is on the rise, indeed.
- lopkeny12ko 4y agoAm I missing something here? The Makefiles seem very standard for a C/C++ project, and could have been easily replicated from a tutorial or example project without much modification. Not suggesting that the work is not impressive, but the kids of today grew up in the era of computers and the Internet, and a lot of problems that were hard for you and me are no longer hard today.
- fundad 4y ago24 years in the industry and 24 years of “it’s knowable, didn’t you know it already?” arrogance.
- grepfru_it 4y ago>and a lot of problems that were hard for you and me are no longer hard today. I spent my teenage years learning and understanding sendmail milters. I got to a point where I could write them from scratch. Guess how useful this knowledge is today...
- uncanneyvalley 4y ago> Guess how useful this knowledge is today... But today, the useful bit is the process you learned to obtain that level of mastery.
- Forgeties79 4y agoIt used to be incredibly difficult for me to edit 4K footage on my computer. What’s your point? How does that undermine what young editors are doing now with 4K and beyond? All my work arounds and tricks are completely useless today. There is some broader knowledge and problem-solving I learned I’m sure, but ultimately a lot of the tools I learned over the past 15 years are completely useless now and those youngsters are now overcoming their own obstacles!
- Dragon863 4y agoHi there! I wish I could claim that I wrote the Makefiles, but my knowledge of C is very limited and all the credit for that goes to xyzz, who created the original exploit intended for Amazon kindles. I simply created a fork that would work with the echo using the same CPU, the original code is here: https://github.com/xyzz/amonet https://github.com/xyzz/amonet
- anileated 4y agoThis is why I love the old pre-LLM world. Can’t help but imagine that already now many people just get the very same code suggested by Copilot and never even learn about the existence of the original author—whom they wouldn’t be able to credit even if they wanted to.
- anileated 4y ago(The corollary being, of course, if that recognition and pride in one’s work are what drives people to do original research and share it openly in the first place, why would they do it now in this brave new world?)
- Nanana909 4y agoOn the flip side, if you know your stuff for real, interviewing is going to get about 10x less competitive!
- bigfatfrock 4y agoThank you for this. Snorted beer at my keyboard.
- chirau 4y agoDid he also write this blog post? It sounds a bit too advanced and informed for his age. This is not meant to doubt him or anything, but the legal stuff makes me wonder whether it was solely him who wrote it.
- seba_dos1 4y agoIt sounds more or less like something I could write when I was 14 years old, perhaps even including the misunderstanding of what WPA-PSK hashing does.
- copperx 4y agoI agree. There are still some posts on Usenet archives that I wrote when I was 14, and there are no telltale signs that they were written by a 14 year old, except for not understanding certain programming conventions. I wasn't particularly bright. I think we underestimate the capabilities of children. I see no reason a 14 year old shouldn't be able to program and say, do multivariate calculus. If anything, they are more intellectually capable than someone going through the pains of late adolescence. Crystallized intelligence at that age might be low, but fluid intelligence is at or near its peak.
- Dragon863 4y agoI'd have to say free time is also a huge factor! I have exams coming up, but for now in free to hack stuff in my spare time. I was also looking into newer echo models, according to hackaday they have a hidden debug port but still use mediatek processors, maybe I'll buy one on ebay in the future and have a look...
- uncanneyvalley 4y agoI was given a 3rd gen dot at a conference and haven’t even set it up. It’s yours if you want it.
- wyager 4y ago
- TheHappyOddish 4y agoThanks for adding that. I thought it was odd he was discussing `wpa_supplicant` in the context of Android, it makes a lot more sense if he's not a greybeard!
- Dragon863 4y agoHi! Thanks, when I write this I didn't realise that android used wpa_supplicant by default to manage wifi connections
- kube-system 4y agoWhat the above commenter is referring to is that wpa_supplicant was also commonly used on Linux systems years before Android ever existed.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- squirtle24 4y agoI highly doubt this was truly written by a 14 year old. Perhaps someone fudged their age to try and make the content go viral? The GitHub profile is 3 weeks old but it's clear this ain't his first GH profile, and there are commits for SEO optimization! The English skill alone seems too advanced for that age level. Maybe he really is a genius but I've become far more cynical in recent years, don't believe everything on the internet! By the way, I'm 12 years old.
- FartyMcFarter 4y ago> I've become far more cynical in recent years, don't believe everything on the internet! By the way, I'm 12 years old. Amazing level of cynicism for a 12 year old, I'm impressed.
- drzaiusx11 4y agoBack in my late teens I collaborated with a 13yo that had written an entire NES emulator himself. These people exist.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- Dragon863 4y agoSorry, but I'm definitely 14! I created a separate profile because I didn't want anybody (i.e. Amazon) to be able to trace it back to my main account and find my full name. I usually do more web development in my spare time, so this was a completely different experience for me, hence the misunderstanding with hashing passwords. Also, I didn't write this from scratch, as you'll see on the GitHub page it's a fork of a project to jailbreak kindles, but thanks for the positive feedback!
- LoganDark 4y agoYou're awesome. I did stuff like this when I was 14, but didn't have the skill to write about it (and still don't) due to autism. But on the other paw, your article seems really well-written!
- swayvil 4y agoHe lives underground and tells time with a cesium clock, as science intended.
- KennyBlanken 4y ago[flagged]
- d23 4y agoHe's 14. Cut him some slack.
- heywhatupboys 4y ago[flagged]
- phanimahesh 4y agoThe same age when one learns to comment without snark, probably.
- mustacheemperor 4y agoYou’re actually expected to act civilly and respectfully to everyone regardless of age.[0] I assume something else must be upsetting you today to have this kind of reaction to this post, hope it improves. >Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously; don't cross-examine. Edit out swipes. >Please don't fulminate. Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- heywhatupboys 4y ago> regardless of age. that is the entire point. The parent I was replying to was specifically stunting our discussion because of "age"
- xupybd 4y agoYour points are valid and you can discuss them here. However your tone is the problem.
- dang 4y agoCould you please stop posting unsubstantive comments and flamebait? You've unfortunately been doing it repeatedly. It's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for. If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful. We've had to ask you this once already.
- frozencell 4y agoSo who in his friend and family is an engineer?
- 4gotunameagain 4y agoSo, who in your friend and family was a sour treats producer ? I was also into these things at that age, without guidance from my environment. It is great to rationalise everything, isn't it ?
- frozencell 4y agoYou
- throwaway689236 4y agoIndeed, comparing 14 old myself to OP makes me feel embarrassed.