Google Code-In winner whose Cameroon hometown is cut off from the internet | Hacker News Reader

Google Code-In winner whose Cameroon hometown is cut off from the internet

bbc.co.uk

248 pointsSimplyUseless49 comments

Some of you guys have no idea how lucky you are to have good, fast and reliable internet.

I've been around computers since 1998 and it's been 4 weeks since I have a good enough internet connection to watch my first 1080P internet video

Story time?

Just the same old, same old 3rd World problems

I moved in 1998 (ironically) to an isolated island my parents were from and lived there till 2008 and moved back here for college. It was like walking into and out of a time-capsule, I missed the emergence of the internet into what it is today.

I still learned to hack and everything else in Palau regardless, it was just like playing with a handicap, it's still possible to learn and all, it's just harder.

EDIT: to clarify, I didn't have it that bad, there was <20 kbps internet with a monthly total hour cap, but it was expensive and not very reliable and slow.

This place looks amazing. Like really really amazing. A bit off topic, but how much did you enjoy your time there?

    > I still learned to hack and everything else in Palau regardless,
    > it was just like playing with a handicap, it's still possible to
    > learn and all, it's just harder.

But in some ways so much easier. I remember how I treated the Internet before I had a 24/7 connection. I'd make lists of stuff I needed, use my time on the Internet effectively, learn from the material I downloaded and use that to inform my next browsing session.

Whereas now there's so many distractions, case in point me posting on this website right now.

Palau looks - from pictures and travel brochures - to be incredible. Why did you leave?

Not having Internet access, probably.

Coincidentally

I've been around computers since the early 80's, and I think about how lucky I am to have amazing internet pretty much every day. Not to mention the supercomputers we have in our pockets now. I remember watching my first "streaming video": ascii animations on a 110 baud dialup connection - that's a blazing 110 bits per second. And it was awesome! ;)

Sometimes I use my internets to virtually travel to places I've never been and read as much about life there as I can... That usually makes me feel extra lucky about the internet access I have. Same with reading about Nji!

Another great reminder that top talent could be born anywhere, and America's edge is that people want to move here to work for American companies.

And start American companies.

“I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.” - Stephen Jay Gould

Talent is evenly distributed. Opportunity is not.

Check out Andela :)

"Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere." - Anton Ego

Top talent: https://github.com/openmrs/openmrs-module-referenceapplicati...

What a great story! Cameroon is highly dysfunctional; the government is one of the most corrupt in the world. The fact that this boy can prevail regardless is impressive in a way those of us in more functional societies have trouble appreciating.

I will show this article to my sons this weekend and redouble my time with them teaching them to program. As with many things in life (healthcare, food, peace, schools), we also need to appreciate having high-speed Internet access and two parents with programming experience and the time and interest to mentor our children.

I also found the part about cutting off mobile for the English-speaking part of Cameroon to be scary.

Esp when Africa relies on mobile for financial transactions and banking and now these people are stuck.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-38895541

> Esp when Africa relies on mobile for financial transactions and banking and now these people are stuck.

"Africa" has no such mobile money reliance - you are probably thinking of Kenya. Africa is 54 countries and 1 billion people, your generalization is overbroad.

This is the firs time I've heard about this competition for high school age developers.

Glad it finally got some traction here on HN; I apparently need to find a more education-specific technology news site!

Good read to end the week

Kind of ruined by an unusual number of toxic comments. But what an inspiring kid.

And then just a day after the deadline for final submissions, the internet went dead.

I fully expect Ajit Pai to use this as proof we don't need any improvements to infrastructure in the US.

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