Universal Rule

Book Reviews

Tuesday, January 21, 2003

-- Comment()
t e c h n o c u l t u r e writes: "This week, I promise a more complete picture on the Xwebs browser and the student who wrote it, 16 year old Adnan Osmani. I'll be talking to Adnan, and I have been talking to some of the judges and other people who saw the browser. [...] On the other hand, for those who doubt the ability of the student, one key judge told me that the judging panel asked that the browser be judged as if it were a university-level project -- and the computer science people said if it had been submitted by an undergraduate as a final year project it would be deserving of very high, and probably the highest, marks. This perhaps gives a better context in which to consider Adnan's achievement. The judges said this setting aside totally the speed claims for the browser, which they could not assess properly. So, the browser itself was judged without consideration of the possible speed gain elements and still was seen as clearly displaying extraordinary programming ability and very original work for a university-level student, much less for a 16 year old."