The answer - but its not 42, more like 9

On one hand Bill Gates is saying there is no magic answer to the tech worker shortage, and on the other CNET News is reporting that a 9 year Arfa Karim in Pakistan has just become a Microsoft Certified Professional. However she isn't even the youngest recipient of the certification, India's Mridul Seth is said to have gained it at age 8 in November 2004.

So perhaps Gates is right - there is no magic solution, just a perfectly mundane everyday solution - bring back child labor. It even makes economic good sense: if kids can qualify as MCPs by the time they are high school age they can spend the next ten years of their life working. That will bring young workers into the social security payment bucket soon, allow them to amass retirement savings sooner and hence due to cumulative interest reap much higher retirement benefits, and by the time they are 20 they will have saved enough money to go on to finishing off their education, much the wiser about the realities of working life.

Get ready for a sub 4-foot IT worker to appear at your door any day soon...