9-year-old IT Wiz Says PC Games a Waste of Time

Impressive resume, makes me feel seriously unaccomplished. Even so, I will keep my video games, thank you.

I'm not making fun of the kid (well maibe a little) but my personal love for cognitive and development psychology makes me wonder how many friends he has... and if he really doesnt like video game something is actually broken lol...

gaming a waste of time. Someone get this kid a ps/2 or xbox360 stat

I love my video games

Of course hes not gaming.....hes still playin with legos

Wow. That is all.

9 years old?

If this kid can cram HDTV through DSL why all the nonsense about coax becoming a bottle neck?

"9-year-old systems engineer doesn't play PC games. In fact, the adolescent prodigy believes there isn't anything "serious" about playing computer games. Instead, gamers should go outside and mingle with friends."
LOL - 9-year-old systems engineer...
I'm sure she has lots of engineering 9 years to talk about engineering.
BTW I havent played a single player game in years, so I guess in a way I am mingling with friends... killing raid bosses... pwning face in fps games. Gaming Community...

Virgin for life.

Damn...only 9 years old?!?

I would place money on this kid revolutionizing parts of the computer world before he reaches twenty

wow... makes my efforts look so meager

Is that Marko in the picture? Cause he looks alot like a she :S

sounds like his parents are speaking for him... poor Marco "let the kid be a kid"

4 to 10 hours on the PC a day?? Has someone watched to make sure she's not just playing WoW?

So... he most likely only knows computers, to be that you that would haveto be pretty much all he was taught

"Marko claims that he spends around four hours a day on the computer--sometimes it could be ten hours or more..." Now, who needs to go outside and have fun with friends.

Wow, makes even me look bad... >_<

I didn't start working with computers until I was 12 (I'm 21 now).

42 year old UberGeek says ALL games are a waste of time. And I enjoy every minute of them! )

There's nothing "serious" about football. Instead football players should go out and mingle with friends. I just hope I have enough time for my second second biggest love, video games.

What a sad childhood..

By the way, is there any edit button on this one?
Kids should be kids and have fun, but maybe he is having fun on what he/she's been doing since birth.
But this just can't force other kids or adults to think like what he/she is.
Can't say that computer games is a waste of time, but if he/she says computer games might waste a lot of time, that makes a lot of sense.
What people need is time management, and a good one.
I have my own business, I have a mother having cancer, and a father that just got stroke and a 11 year old little brother to take care,
and YET still, I play computer games frequently.
And IMHO, i don't think that computer games is a waste of time, it might though

I think he just look feminine, though the earring is misleading as well. If he was a girl, that would explain the dislike of video games. Most of them are usually made to appeal to guys.

As much as I love PC games, I have to agree that doing nothing but playing them can be problematic.

poor kid. Looks like high dose anti depressants may be in his future if he doesn't freaking lighten up.

He should code some demos !

Hmmm.. I live in Portugal, and therefore I have a question regarding this vague, supposed challenge:

"However Marko said that it's possible to cram HDTV over a basic DSL connection without glitches (...)"

Whithout going into the details, I wonder what he means by a basic DSL line. What speed it that: 1 mbps, 2, 4 ? It's just that what is said is not a novelty.

Here in Portugal we have Triple-pay (TV, Phone, Internet) services over DSL, and that includes HD channels. The thing is, when you're watching an HD channel, you might not be able to browse the net at comfortable speeds. So, that said, it is possible to cram HDTV over DSL, but that is a given. Tell me I can cram two at the same time, or that I can browse at something like 10Mbps at the same time, and that would actually be a novelty.

The maximum theoretical 24mbps of ADSL is just that - phone lines on the street are old, prone to the weather all year, and the distances to the substations is farther away than desirable. That said, the investment needed to revamp the lines is not worth the potential, and that is why we are now transitioning to fiber optics, with basic speeds starting at 5mbps and going all the way up to 100mbps, all within affordable prices. There is also 200mbps and a 1gbps offering, but it is substantially more expensive.

The portuguese PT (Portugal Telecom) in collaboration with a university I think, actually developed a box that allowed remote interior locations on the countryside to get adsl connectivty, and that was a big achievment.

So that said, I wonder what this kid has done.. is it software or hardware? Did he manage to compress the HD signal is a new way ? Or did he manage to increase the available bandwidth of the noisy phone line through some even better filtering technology ?

wait till little Anakin gets pissed off cause he has no friends and turns his computer skills to the dark side. Hellooo Darth.

Glad the kid likes technology, but HDTV over DSL isn't a big deal at all. There's two issues at stake: HDTV-Codec and DSL-standard. HDTV programming can use H.264/MPEG4, VC1, etc., all of which have bitrates in upwords of 20Mbps (assuming 1920x1080 resolution). From a DSL perspective, there are not many flavors of DSL which can produce this level of throughput, mostly resigned to the VHDSL variety popularized by AT&T (as uVerse).

The problem in transmitting video is always resolution and bitrate. You can lower the bandwidth required by lower either or both factors, but at a performance cost. Personally, I have no problem with 480p from my DVD player and it's probable that the kid is referencing a use of H.264 at 720x480. As they say, you can't get something for nothing. Or, if something sounds to good to be true, it probably is.

Given the geniuses that work on this stuff with multiple Ph.D's and backgrounds in satellite transmissions and electrical engineering, I do not believe for one second that this kid will produce anything at Cebit that doesn't already exist in some other form.

I'm starting to think this is a hox. TimeOnline wrote about it on the 16th, and in the last 24hrs everyone is going apeshit about it.

Yea, I feel like I wasted the last 10 years of my life. This kid is going to rule the world. Trust me.

i reckon if he's gifted and he knows what he's doing...let him be a genius. all people are unique so don't try and tell him what he should or should not be.