How did he do iOS development on a Chromebook?
He might have used one of those cloud services that compiles your code on a Mac mini, but I don't know about him specifically.
Leo the Homeless Coder Finished His App, and You Can Download It Right Now
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Re: Leo the Homeless Coder Finished His App, and You Can Download It Right Now
#12How did he do iOS development on a Chromebook?
Since it's available simultaneously on Android, I'm assuming it's using one of those write-once build-anywhere mobile frameworks.
Re: Leo the Homeless Coder Finished His App, and You Can Download It Right Now
#13How did he do iOS development on a Chromebook?
idk, was it an html5 mobile app?
Re: Leo the Homeless Coder Finished His App, and You Can Download It Right Now
#14I love the story here.
While the PR is strong Leo should put on his conversion hat to generate actual downloads and turn this from a story into a success.
1) On the landing page, http://www.treesforcars.com, he needs as strong of a brief headline as they have in the article eg:
"Trees for Cars is a mobile application that aims to save the environment by helping users carpool to their destination."
2) Ditto on the app store description which, instead of the description, starts with a 3-liner clarifying Leo coded this himself.
More pictures / longer description on the description will also help.
Great primer @ Copyhackers on writing effective App Store copy http://copyhackers.com/2012/06/how-to-write-an-app-store-des...
Re: Leo the Homeless Coder Finished His App, and You Can Download It Right Now
#15I have been thinking a lot about whether it would be possible to invest enough in someone that it got them off rock bottom. I guess this is proof that it is possible. It might be time to start asking the same question to some of the people around where I work.
I think Macdonough was smart to offer $100 or the opportunity to learn to code. It was a good way to screen out unmotivated people -- if someone is homeless and turns down $100, it's likely that that they're very motivated.
Re: Leo the Homeless Coder Finished His App, and You Can Download It Right Now
#16It's interesting to see how 1st world-ish are the problems that are being solved nowadays, even by a (hopefully not for long) homeless guy. Anyways, I'm really glad he managed to finish it, he's obviously a guy with lots of unused potential.
Re: Leo the Homeless Coder Finished His App, and You Can Download It Right Now
#17[deleted]
Re: Leo the Homeless Coder Finished His App, and You Can Download It Right Now
#18How did he do iOS development on a Chromebook?
Judging by that UI screenshot it's jQuery mobile so he probably used phonegap to wrap it in a native app for both iOS and Android.
Re: Leo the Homeless Coder Finished His App, and You Can Download It Right Now
#19Does this seem exploitative to other people? Although it is exciting that his app launched, the fact that this entrepreneur is being called "The Homeless Coder" seems wrong to me.
Yeah. Sort of like the Wesley Willis of the hacking culture.
Re: Leo the Homeless Coder Finished His App, and You Can Download It Right Now
#20Does this seem exploitative to other people? Although it is exciting that his app launched, the fact that this entrepreneur is being called "The Homeless Coder" seems wrong to me.
Yeah. Sort of like the Wesley Willis of the hacking culture.
Wesley Willis was schizophrenic and no amount of casual intervention was going to meaningfully improve his circumstances. And, yes, Willis was exploited terribly.
This, today, is just a guy who wants to learn how to code. Good for him; I wish him the best.