Jobless New Yorker turns
programmer, thanks to good Samaritan
Homeless man
releases own
app
MOBILE: Homeless programmer
Leo Grand released his carpool app after coding lessons from a
stranger.
He was jobless and living on the streets of New York. One day,
Mr Leo Grand, 37, was given a chance to learn to write computer
code.
Now he has released his own app called Trees for Cars. It is a
carpool app which hopes to save the environment by helping New York
commuters share rides, the New York Post reported.
The stranger who went up to Mr Grand gave him two
choices - two months of coding lessons or US$100 (US$125) in
cash.
"I can go through US$100 in a few days," news
portal Business Insider quoted Mr Grand as saying. "But he told me
I could have a laptop and learn how to do something and I figured
it could turn into something more."
Mr Grand, who lost his job at insurance firm
MetLife in Manhattan and was priced out of his apartment, opted for
the lessons. And 3,621 lines of code later, he released his first
mobile app. It went live on the App Store on Tuesday, around the
same time it went live for Android users, tech website Mashable
reported.
The stranger who became his teacher is Mr Patrick
McConlogue, a 23-year-old programmer.
Mr Grand charged his laptop at an apartment
building, then headed out to the street where he has been living
since 2011 to learn code from used books from Amazon and with the
help of Mr McConlogue.
The two began their lessons in August. The first
tow months consisted of outdoor lessons conducted on the city
benches near Chelsea Piers, where Mr Grand slept. When Mr
McConlogue headed off to work, Mr Grand would spend about four
hours on his own practising writing code and studying the books
provided.
Four months later, their hard work paid off. The
app, available for the iPhone, iPad and Android, is sold at 99 US
cents. The profit will go towards Mr Grand's future projects.
News, The New Paper, Friday, December 13 2013, Pg 19
