They aren't as rare as you'd think. The fact is, the only reason female coders (or tech enthusisasts even) seem rare is because most people assume that all coders are male. The rise in idiots impersonating females over the internet hasn't helped sway popular opinion.
On the internet, theres little to no way of knowing the sex of a person, and a lot of tech-oriented females tend to not draw attention to their gender online (re: <dr. cool> OMG YOU ARE A GIRL? [private] <dr. cool> CYBER?). The last programming job i was hired to do had as many female coders and support staff as males, and a deal of them were in direction and managerial positions.
I'm not sure about everywhere else, but it looks to me that the women of technology today have a much greater chance of taking the place of a male as compared with 5, maybe even less years ago.
As for her arrest for virus making, what exactly did she make?
Quote:
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before turning 18 became only the second person to write a virus in C-sharp, the language of Microsoft's .Net platform
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People don't make viruses in .net languages because it requires the .net interpreter that more people don't have than do have. Its a moot point saying that she was the second to ever make one in c#, as in the real world the virus would be virtually useless.
I'm not defending virus writers here, but i think there are differences between each writer's intentions. Just because a virus can be malicious doesn't mean the writer intended to do damage. It sounds to me like the viruses she wrote were demonstrations rather than malicious acts. If she's convicted, it'll be a dark day.