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17 Year Old Creates Flickr Competitor

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Tue Mar 14, 2006 12:26 AM
from the any-kid-in-a-garage dept.
Software The Internet
An anonymous reader writes "Michael Arrington over at TechCrunch has an article up on a new Flickr competitor called Zooomr. The interesting thing about all of this that it was developed in only three months by a 17 year old and to top it all off, the site is currently localized in 16 languages."
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  • So? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Gunnery Sgt. Hartman (221748) on Tuesday March 14 2006, @12:29AM (#14913629)
    (http://slashdot.org/)
    When I was 17 I was...umm......creating a hotmail account. So there!

  • Competition is nice, but . . . (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Nomihn0 (739701) on Tuesday March 14 2006, @12:30AM (#14913634)
    Competition is nice, but innovation is far more impressive.

  • Awesome, but not so unique (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Kickboy12 (913888) on Tuesday March 14 2006, @12:30AM (#14913636)
    (http://www.cacrew.com/)
    Although it is nice to see someone so young get the attention they deserve, this isn't unique. I can personally vouche there are thousands of people between the ages of 15-18 that have the potential to create things like this. In terms of the technology behind this type of website, I've been working with it for almost 2 years. The problem with people in this age group getting noticed, or getting the attention they deserve, is quite simply a financial issue.

    Not to gloat, but I've created some pretty usefull projects and technologies in my time comperable to this one, just as simple side projects. However, most of them don't make it past a few months of development for one simple reason: I can't financially support it. As I just noticed when I tried to load the Zoomr website, the ammount of money needed to buy a server that can support such a community is overwhelming, especially for someone in the age group of 15-18 who's primary concern to buying lunch every day.

    I would love to see more projects of this calibur come from this same younger generation, and I would love to be part of such projects. But getting ones foot off the ground is the first, and hardest step towards this success.

    Kristopher Tate, the 17-year-old who make Zoomr, will undoubtedly become noticed by companies looking for such ambitious programmers. But he got lucky; the rest of us aren't so fortunate.
    • Indeed, many people have made similar technological things. I count myself among them. By 18, I was working at a small local phone company, running their website. A ton of money was probably made from the orders that went through the site. But, it wasn't especially glamorous. It was like any other "E-commerce" site at the time, really. And, the company wasn't about to advertise the fact that their tech staff was extremely inexperienced.

      So, I won't bow down to this kid from a technological standpoint.

      But, shit. He did his own thing, and he managed to get the word out about it. My hat is off to him as a self promoter. Nobody ever heard of me, so he pretty much has me beat from that angle... Even if his website is dead.

      Lots of guys like me and the parent poster have a reasonable amount of skill with technology, and did so at a rather young age. We all had neat ideas. He made his idea. That deserves respect. My real time strategy game, for example, still only exists as notes on scrap paper, and the start of a header file for a prototype...
      [ Parent ]

      • Re:Awesome, but not so unique (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Omaze (952134) on Tuesday March 14 2006, @10:32AM (#14915937)
        (Last Journal: Wednesday March 01 2006, @12:17PM)
        I work(ed) around many wealthy families at my previous employer. In the 40s the trend for parents to bluster about their kids was the military. In the 50s and 60s the trend was the football team. In the 70s, 80s, and early 90s it was all about which colleges they could get into and the size of the family SUV. In the last part of the 90s and into the 00s it seems that the parents are one-upping each other with what sort of business ventures their children can get into. The people I worked with had children as young as 15 who were: movie producers (with offers from major studios), MMORPG game writers (with offers from game producers), day traders (to the tune of tens of thousands in profit), and database consultants (with small company contracts). The bottom line was, though, none of those kids could have even come close to doing what they did without the several thousand dollars' investment from their parents and the parents' willingness to stand back and give the kids room to pursue the ideas rather than hounding them to get some part time job at the local restaraunt.

        I don't mean to take away from the fellow who's created Zoomr. More power to him and my hat's off to him. Let's stop short of automatically giving him an adult measure of respect, though. He wouldn't have been able to do what he did if he'd been spending his 5 evenings/week after school bagging groceries. Let's not start flogging ourselves remorsefully over wasted youth. The bottom line is opportunity--which most of us never really have.
        [ Parent ]

    • Re:Awesome, but not so unique (Score:5, Interesting)

      by woolio (927141) on Tuesday March 14 2006, @12:41AM (#14913677)
      (Last Journal: Tuesday November 01 2005, @09:41AM)
      Kristopher Tate, the 17-year-old who make Zoomr, will undoubtedly become noticed by companies looking for such ambitious programmers. But he got lucky; the rest of us aren't so fortunate.

      I'm not sure this kid getting notice is a good thing for him...

      I'm not sure how fortunate he will be. If Ebay can get sued for the "Buy It Now" feature, how long will it be until Flickr [or another compnay] sues the 17yr-old for patent infringement? [Or maybe they will wait until he turns 18]

      That is, when his thing takes off and starts to compete, I can see Flickr sueing him into smitherenes. [I didn't read the article:] And since he probably hasn't taken the necessary steps to hide behind his own cooperation, this kid will be paying for more than just college loans...
      [ Parent ]

    • You misunderstand what makes an entrepreneur... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by spagetti_code (773137) on Tuesday March 14 2006, @01:56AM (#14913931)
      Great ideas are obvious - once you are told them.
      The ability to recognise a great idea and take it
      from idea to reality is a tremendous skill. Its harder
      than you think. Or to put it another way - just
      how many million dollar concepts have you turned into
      reality recently? Hmmmm???

      You may be as good a coder as this guy - but he took
      some great ideas (that you didn't have by the way)
      and developed them to reality. Interface with OpenID -
      of course! Sound bites, google maps, etc etc.
      Obvious now we know.

      [ Parent ]
    • Just wait until the patent lawyers show up, junior by elrous0 (Score:2) Tuesday March 14 2006, @09:26AM
    • Re:Awesome, but not so unique by mdwh2 (Score:1) Tuesday March 14 2006, @10:02AM
    • Re:Awesome, but not so unique by maharvey (Score:1) Tuesday March 14 2006, @12:44PM
    • Re:Awesome, but not so unique by Kickboy12 (Score:2) Tuesday March 14 2006, @12:41AM
    • 2 replies beneath your current threshold.

  • One important difference: (Score:5, Funny)

    by merreborn (853723) * on Tuesday March 14 2006, @12:31AM (#14913638)
    Flikr can handle a slashdotting.
    • Re:One important difference: by JediLow (Score:1) Tuesday March 14 2006, @12:34AM

    • pr0n (Score:5, Funny)

      by xixax (44677) on Tuesday March 14 2006, @01:12AM (#14913773)
      And you mustn't upload NC rated pics because the SysAdmin is 17.
      [ Parent ]

      • Re:pr0n (Score:5, Interesting)

        by NoMoreNicksLeft (516230) <`ten.tsacmoc' `ta' `relyo.nhoj'> on Tuesday March 14 2006, @01:26AM (#14913822)
        (http://pdatabase.dyndns.biz/ | Last Journal: Saturday June 04 2005, @11:50AM)
        Actually, I am working on this problem. But instead of a lame tag-based system, I've opted for a strict relational model.

        Each picture consists of one or more actions.
        Each action consists of of exactly two people (both of which can point to the same person record).
        Each person record is broken up into "static" (things unchanging throughout their life, e.g. birth name), "daily" (things true for a short period of time, e.g. color her hair was dyed that week), and "instant" (things only true for that split second the photo was taken).

        The data model is much more complete than this, and more importantly, I've found a way to actually collect the metadata.

        Let people in for free. Have them go through a custom webapp, collecting the metadata (clicking on the photo with the mouse, to grab the pixel color value for skintone), maybe as few as just a few pictures a week. In exchange, they get to search for free.

        When finished, it should be possible to search only for pictures with just one girl, whose legs are spread exactly 57 degrees in a "sitting up" pose.

        Like I said, you wouldn't believe just how much metadata I figure it's possible to collect.

        Anyone want a free account?
        [ Parent ]
    • Scalability *is* really important by billstewart (Score:2) Tuesday March 14 2006, @04:20AM

  • But is it... (Score:3, Funny)

    by tajgenie (932485) on Tuesday March 14 2006, @12:32AM (#14913641)
    But is it open source? I think not! Future Bill Gates who will one day terrorize the world!!

  • Anything is possible when you turn off the TV (Score:2, Interesting)

    by humankind (704050) on Tuesday March 14 2006, @12:35AM (#14913650)
    (Last Journal: Wednesday November 05 2003, @03:12AM)
    Good for this kid. He's not necessarily a genius, but he is atypical IMO. Not because other kids his age couldn't do the same, but because most other kids his age aren't because they're being sedated by mass media.

    When I was 14 I was doing programming for a Fortune 500 company; when I was 15 I wrote and designed the accounting system for my city's municipal water company; when I was 16 I wrote my own BBS system, which got the attention of Bell Atlantic who then contracted with me to develop a prototype of one of the first online electronic yellow page systems. By the time I was 17, I had written software for Disney, the United Nations and plenty of other companies. I really don't think I was special... I just made the most out of my time and resources. If I had unlimited access to a Playstation or 500 channels of television when I was a teen, I'd probably be working for an insurance company or a restaurant instead of being self employed and successful doing something I truly enjoy.

  • Zooomr (Score:3, Insightful)

    by fanblade (863089) on Tuesday March 14 2006, @12:38AM (#14913665)
    (Last Journal: Thursday March 03 2005, @10:38AM)
    Aside from being a Flickr knockoff (and being slashdotted), zooomr sounds like it has some serious potential. If and when their servers get back online I'm definitely going to try it out. I'm salivating over GPS data within pictures, associating pictures from different users based on time and place.

    Linking users to faces in a picture sounds like the perfect blend of Facebook and Flickr, hopefully without the obsessive/compulsive behavior found on the Facebook social network. I wonder how long before Flickr turns up the heat??
    • Re:Zooomr by Echnin (Score:1) Tuesday March 14 2006, @08:13AM

  • Alternative link (Score:5, Informative)

    by Blazeix (924805) on Tuesday March 14 2006, @12:39AM (#14913670)
    (http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~fuquawa | Last Journal: Sunday January 08 2006, @01:32PM)
    At this risk of completely blowing up his server, here is a testing version of his site: http://beta.zooomr.com/ [zooomr.com]

  • Google ID? (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 14 2006, @12:40AM (#14913672)
    The article says you can log in with your account from several other services. All are covered by OpenID except one - Google! Did Google open up some kind of authentication API while I was sleeping?

  • It would be hard to truly compete against Flickr, since it offers a great deal of power that the user can find behind the simplistic interface. O'Reilly has already released Flickr Hacks [amazon.com] . I doubt that this kid's creation is half as hackable.

    The only thing that I don't like about Flickr is that it allows one to upload an enormous amount of photos each month, but limits the free account to three albums.

  • i18n is cool, but easy (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anthony Boyd (242971) on Tuesday March 14 2006, @12:55AM (#14913721)
    (http://www.outshine.com/)
    The interesting thing about all of this that it was developed in only three months by a 17 year old and to top it all off, the site is currently localized in 16 languages.

    Localization systems are really easy once you know how to do them. I used to be intimidated by such things, but then I started making phpBB mods. I saw that the phpBB localization system was basically a set of arrays of text strings that gets loaded depending upon the user settings. Then the array is used as variables to drop in the appropriate text. I've since seen some better systems, and mostly I'm impressed with how simple good developers can make it.

    I put some of that into practice for Agitar, a company whose site is available in English & Japanese. I don't speak Japanese, I just added some tweaks to a Movable Type system, and voila, two fields per entry. I do the English, and any employee who speaks Japanese will enter a translation. I suspect that I can create a basic i18n framework for PHP in an afternoon.

    What would be really cool would be if he did the translations himself. Does he speak 16 languages? Or did he sit with Babelfish or Google, and nurse some automated translations into something sensible? That's the step that takes talent or hard effort. I would be impressed if he did that completely without outside help. For that matter, if he has a system in place for people to upload translations, have them verified, and be automatically put into effect, that would be impressive too. I tried such a thing, but I just couldn't find good ways to deal with the character sets and launder data that is so open-ended, without human inspection.

    • Re:i18n is cool, but easy by Breakfast Pants (Score:2) Tuesday March 14 2006, @01:32AM

    • Re:i18n is cool, but easy (Score:5, Insightful)

      by GlassHeart (579618) on Tuesday March 14 2006, @02:46AM (#14914081)
      (Last Journal: Friday February 21 2003, @08:57PM)
      Internationalization/localization is more than just translating strings. At a minimum, you have to deal with local laws, such as the lower volume cap that the iPod had to add for France. Next you need to deal with local sensibilities, such as Taiwan not liking being listed as a part of China (and China not liking Taiwan listed separately), or Pakistan not liking Kashmir listed as a part of India (and vice versa). Finally, you deal with things like icons, because some symbols might be offensive or confusing. Right-to-left languages will also throw all sorts of code into disarray. Beyond merely understandable, you also want to distinguish between UK, US, Australian, and whatever other versions of English you have to deal with.

      Good i18n and l10n is quite difficult and expensive.

      [ Parent ]
    • Re:i18n is cool, but easy by cjh79 (Score:1) Tuesday March 14 2006, @12:34PM

  • A new kind of lock-in? (Score:2)

    by Grendel Drago (41496) on Tuesday March 14 2006, @01:04AM (#14913747)
    (http://grendel.dyndns.org/)
    Ah, but for those of us who have hundreds or even thousands of images loaded and categorized in flickr, how easy is it to move to another service? Are we seeing the dawn of a new and exciting kind of vendor lock-in?

    I know that flickr has a helpful, open API; I just wonder if it's enough.

  • Mitch (Score:3, Funny)

    by Nycto (138650) on Tuesday March 14 2006, @01:08AM (#14913764)
    (http://www.sheerdev.com/)
    At the risk of straying completely off topic, this guy looks strikingly like Mitch Hedberg.

    That is all I have to add to this conversation. Carry on.
    • Re:Mitch by ClamIAm (Score:1) Tuesday March 14 2006, @03:31AM
    • Re:Mitch by lucaslucaslucas (Score:1) Tuesday March 14 2006, @05:16AM
    • Re:Mitch by generic-man (Score:1) Tuesday March 14 2006, @10:21AM

  • It seems nice but... (Score:1)

    by drrngrvy (873112) on Tuesday March 14 2006, @01:16AM (#14913788)
    Is it not just a melding of already existing products? If it is then what matter is it that a 17 year old did it? That said though, I'm glad he's getting the attention for having the sense to do stick it all in there in the first place.

  • Imageshack is the best (Score:4, Informative)

    by zymano (581466) on Tuesday March 14 2006, @01:17AM (#14913791)
    Imageshack [imageshack.us] doesn't use the annoying sign up forms.

    If you need to show something fast and don't want the hassle then Imageshack [imageshack.us] is it.

    I use it all the time. Fast and covenient.

  • is this a PR stunt? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by moochfish (822730) on Tuesday March 14 2006, @01:20AM (#14913800)
    Not to troll, but I find this whole thing a little odd.

    In the terms of service: "By accessing the web site Zooomr (hereafter known as the "Web Site"), a service of BlueBridge Technologies Group..."

    While both the summary and TFA seem to focus on it being developed by a 17 year old in three months, the website has job postings. The article seems to gloss over the fact the entire project is sponsored (owned) by some company. Is this a case of sensationalistic journalism? This doesn't seem like a case where someone hacked it out of their basement. It seems unlikely the company picked it up AFTER development started since no mention of the company is made in any journal entry. So if the company is backing the project financially, am i the only one who finds it odd that it is not mentioned in any journal entry? It's a little weird that he's the face of the project, but it could be a PR move. It definintely doesn't add up the way the article's author seems to want to imply.

  • If it's that easy, sell your Google stock... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by finnif (945981) on Tuesday March 14 2006, @01:29AM (#14913831)
    I like how about half of the comments respond how easy it is for the kid to have created the site, or that there's not much innovation going on there.

    I often agree with both of these statements, including for Google, Y!, MSN sites mentioned in Slashdot stories. They're all a bunch of Javascript. Wowee. That's a pain in the butt, but it's not innovative. There's some server technology that's pretty cool behind Gmail and the like, but as time goes on, those bottlenecks will be solved in a more commoditized way.

    So my question to you all is, why would you own Google or Yahoo stock for more than five minutes, to ride up the next big push? It seems like there's virtually no long term value in any website's technology. Surely someone else will take the idea and improve on it at some point -- it's already happened several times over in the last 10 years. We're already seeing the fast decline in the quality of Google's results, and here come a new wave of search engine rivals knocking on the door. Impossible? Ask AltaVista.

    Or do we just live in a world where brand name is all we're investing in anymore? It's has to be branding we buy because no one actually creates products for the ages. When someone creates a "one click ordering" button, that's what they get patented. Owning the rights to a button on a computer screen like inventors once owned the phonograph, or film emulsion... that's what buying stock is about.

    I remember when a Coke used to be a nickel, dammit.

  • Yahoo paid good money for flickr (Score:1)

    by pardonne (324157) on Tuesday March 14 2006, @01:45AM (#14913898)
    Flickr has an established user base and all, but this should still be funny for Yahoo execs. You buy flickr and tell you shareholders what a great value it is, how wonderful it is, blah, blah, blah. Then some 17 year old shows up and duplicates (actually does better than) your acquisition in his spare time :)
  • It's not because the site has been slashdotted. This message was up there over the weekend. It just looks like they are taking a while to move the site to the new server. And BTW it's zooomr with 3 'o's ;)

  • 17 year old creates internet bubble 2.0 webpage! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by rm999 (775449) on Tuesday March 14 2006, @01:51AM (#14913914)
    This reminds me so much of the internet landscape from 7-8 years ago. Add a 2.0 to the end of the internet, and people forget all the hard lessons they should have learned from before.

    My main complaint, a similar complaint from the first bubble, is a huge waterfall of sites that implement only a few unique ideas. Back then it was internet stores and advertising, today it is tagging, blogs, and letting the user interact with the website.

  • Different times (Score:1)

    by KinkyClown (574788) on Tuesday March 14 2006, @02:07AM (#14913966)
    When I was eight I greated my first game. Back then it I wrote it in GWBASIC. Difficult to imagine but I think I would have been programming C# or Java if I started now and was eight all over again. Not that I would want to :D
    • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.

  • oh... so what ? (Score:2)

    by l3v1 (787564) on Tuesday March 14 2006, @02:13AM (#14913986)
    Ok, so the idea is not new, the implementation for many people here wouldn't be a problem, so the only reason for the hype must be this guy's age... which is again no reason to celebrate this one guy. Ok, credit has to be given, he managed to raise attention, but that's more about hie (or whoever raised the news) pr skills. 17 years that doesn' count that much young in the programming realm, not today, not in the past. Hell, some of my 17 years old friends - that was around '95 - created wonderful pieces of software (and even before, we started coding with one of my friends years before that on everything we could get our hands on), and today kids gather programming knowledge much earlier. Don't want to seem to talk from some high horse, but I have to tell, when you are sorrounded by talented people, such "news" don't seem news anymore. Of course, for the general audience it's a different matter.

    Again, I don't want to diminish or lessen this guy's achievements, I just feel that if we praise him, we should praise everybody else with such and similar and better achiements also. But we'd probably have to dedicate an entire site for these kids :].

    Anyway, I congratulate him for managing to get on slahdot :) (or is that too easy these days ? :P)

    • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.

  • So? (Score:2)

    by Jason1729 (561790) on Tuesday March 14 2006, @02:28AM (#14914028)
    It's not that complex a piece of code. The hard parts are coming up with an idea and getting people to use it. He copied someone else's idea and so far nobody uses his version.

  • Recipe for success (Score:5, Funny)

    by hritcu (871613) on Tuesday March 14 2006, @02:57AM (#14914107)
    (http://purl.org/hritcu/homepage)
    1. Create a lame clone of a well known web site ... let's say Flikr 2. Fill it up with Google adds 3. Anonymously submit a story on Slashdot saying that the new site is a Flikr KILLER 4. Profit

  • Age? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by resonte (900899) on Tuesday March 14 2006, @02:59AM (#14914111)
    Should we accredite people for something jsut because of thier age? Why is this story in the news? ...Well we can gain two things from this. For some people it might be a nobrainer on how to make your child have more potential to be succesfull, - you just introduce it to the right environment. But for the masses who don't know how to raise their child stories like these could be an inspiration to try harder, perhaps they should look at how his parents have brought him up and apply that same technique to their own children. Stories like these can also be used as a motivational factor for other people. It shows that anyone can get somewhere if they try hard enough. Well at least I'm impressed/motivated by this guy most people his age still have a localised view of the world.
  • was visiting the place for some free food, and next thing you know, i am being "slashdotted" on zoomer site. PS. I am the f00 in the white shirt.

  • Good (Score:1)

    by pex2097 (961017) on Tuesday March 14 2006, @03:06AM (#14914130)
    Now more people understand that age doesn't matter.
    • Re:Good by Anonymous Coward (Score:1) Tuesday March 14 2006, @10:19AM
    • Re:Good by fuzzylollipop (Score:1) Tuesday March 14 2006, @10:47AM

  • Ok... (Score:1)

    by Tomeee (876587) on Tuesday March 14 2006, @03:11AM (#14914146)
    If this trend continues, Skateboard-City.com will be mentioned on Slashdot... I've just turned 17. Now, Electronic Arts, hire me already, its my 2nd year applying!
    • Re:Ok... by Run4yourlives (Score:1) Tuesday March 14 2006, @11:57AM

  • Lets stick with tradition... (Score:1)

    by EddyPearson (901263) on Tuesday March 14 2006, @04:41AM (#14914385)
    17 year old creates Flickr killer!!! Isn't that better?

  • Three months? (Score:2)

    by ader (1402) on Tuesday March 14 2006, @05:07AM (#14914443)
    (http://www.big-bubbles.org.uk/)
    So he spent, what, a month longer developing his site than the Flickr guys did? Hmmm, could be a lot more stable then. Nice work, kid.

  • Lets do a survey (Score:2, Interesting)

    by j.a.mcguire (551738) on Tuesday March 14 2006, @05:25AM (#14914494)
    Who thinks they could do this? Woah, everyone?

    Not exactley impressive is it, if you did it for your dissertation you'd be lucky to get a 2:2.

    As the guy above said, must be nice to have financial support.

  • Gimme a minute... (Score:2)

    by haraldm (643017) on Tuesday March 14 2006, @05:32AM (#14914508)
    So this is just for sharing photos which are totally irrelevant to the public, like most blogs? Great piece of creativity but it doesn't exactly solve a single real problem of the world.

  • Won't he be sued for this? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 14 2006, @05:50AM (#14914561)
    Excuse my ignorance for US law, but he has ripped off flickr, used a similar name, and wants to profit from this.

    Won't he be sued by Yahoo?
  • I Googled around for some stuff on BlueBridge and found out that they had a couple of PDFs lying around. It looks like some stuff from earlier projects, one being a Subway sandwich shop web site to order custom made subs. Anyway, just thought you might be interested.

    http://www.google.com/search?hs=akR&hl=en&lr=&clie nt=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&q= site%3Abbridgetech.com+filetype%3Apdf&btnG=Search [google.com]

  • What Language (Score:2)

    by mslinux (570958) on Tuesday March 14 2006, @08:35AM (#14915060)
    Just curious... what did he write it in? PHP, Ruby, Python, etc.?

  • When I was 17... (Score:1)

    by dtdns (559328) on Tuesday March 14 2006, @08:48AM (#14915137)
    (http://www.sceiron.com/)
    I was running the largest BBS resource online and had been for over a year. When I was 18 I built DtDNS (a dynamic DNS service that is now celebrating seven years in service). I'm sure we all have something special we were working on when we were that age, so, why is this news again? Perhaps I'm disgruntled because when I was 17 I was getting yelled at by my parents to quit wasting my time with "that computer crap" and to get outside and cut the grass. Now I make more money than they do, hehe.

  • What impresses me... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by thesandtiger (819476) on Tuesday March 14 2006, @08:53AM (#14915165)
    ... is that he followed through on a project.

    Lots of people have ideas for things, but not many have the ability to follow through on things. Especially younger folks!

    When I was about 12, I wrote about half of a BBS on my Apple II - it'd answer the phone, let a user log in, and I made maybe 5 or 6 very primitive discussion boards and a hangman game. Not a single bit of it was "innovative" in the large sense of the word, but I made it all from scratch and learned a hell of a lot from it. I stopped working on the project when my dad, thinking it would help inspire me, got me some commercial BBS product. I wound up getting demoralized - "Someone else already did it, and better than I could." (I wound up trying to write games - there were no worries about someone else "doing it first" since I wanted to "fix" Ultima III to add features [never succeeded, but I did manage to make a tile-based display that would let me move a guy around a map, make characters for a party, and sort-of fight])

    Anyway - lots of people have ideas for really great stuff, but not a lot of them do anything about it. The fact that he made it work, did some pretty nice localization - that's good stuff even if it isn't entirely original/innovative.

  • Where to get started (Score:2)

    by Lord_Dweomer (648696) on Tuesday March 14 2006, @09:32AM (#14915422)
    (http://haltingpoint.blogspot.com/)
    So I made a similar post yesterday...but I'm basically wondering this:

    If you don't have the programming skills, but have ideas that would make good competition...where do you get started? Especially with web services development? Also, where's a good starting place to learn about the hosting you would need for something like this. I know there are cheap ways to host this much data and expensive ways, so does anybody know what kind of setup Flickr is using?

    BTW, kudos to this kid, and since I saw he posted on here, I was wondering...do you know a lot of programming languages? Or did you just learn what was required for this project?

    • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.

  • beh just a website (Score:1)

    by frietbsd (943773) on Tuesday March 14 2006, @10:11AM (#14915737)
    http://www.wcools.nl/ [wcools.nl] Look at this guy, he wrote a complete OS at an younger age.

  • I really doubt this will be scalable (Score:1)

    by fuzzylollipop (851039) on Tuesday March 14 2006, @10:41AM (#14916006)
    He might have created something that "works" like Flickr, but I really doubt it is scalable to thousands and thousands of _CONCURRENT_ users and terabytes of data!

  • Why zooomer but not 23? (Score:2, Informative)

    by adamjudson (307197) on Tuesday March 14 2006, @10:45AM (#14916044)
    23hq.com

    Supports the flickr API, which seems like much bigger news than the age of the authors.

  • This kid appears to have come upon a real Five Dollar Idea [acmelab.org].

    Anyone else want to call bubble on these web-apps? It seems like everyone and his kid brother nowadays has some kind of web-app to do something social but inane that makes a lot of ad money or gets bought by Google.

  • This is the new reality (Score:2)

    by BeerMilkshake (699747) on Tuesday March 14 2006, @01:35PM (#14917840)
    In software it is fairly expensive to develop a concept, define requirements, build the prototype or first revision and encounter/resolve the issues. It is called the 'bleeding edge' for a good reason.

    Once you have a product, the cost for someone else to build a work-alike is a fraction of what it cost you.

    With such a low barrier to competition, it can be a real problem trying to make money from a first product. Your only safety is to try and stay one step ahead of the mimickers by innovating your product and serving a niche market.

  • Great, but...not so great. (Score:2)

    by DaveJay (133437) on Tuesday March 14 2006, @03:41PM (#14918886)
    Programming is hard, there's no question. There's only one thing harder: figuring out a new and unique thing to program.

    In other words, I'm impressed by his ability to code well (presumably) in a short time, but would be a heck of a lot more impressed if he had created something unique (such as the original Flickr, or whatever it is that was the original in that field) in twice the time.

  • Needs a more . . . (Score:1)

    by Durf (866206) on Wednesday March 15 2006, @12:10AM (#14922036)
    . . . original namr.
  • 15 replies beneath your current threshold.

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