asalimpo: Foreign motivational stories!
They dont apply here yet.
No apple dev conference here.
No 29hr power outage there on the back of 5 day stretch blackout-
No billonaire here who cares about dropping out- graduates ar sufferg here talkless of "dropouts"

[b] these stories dont apply here.
Besides,if not for internet we wouldnt really know how much computer sellers ar making off the average apple fan here.

Adrenaline123: Meet the 19-year-old iOS developer so successful he turned down an Apple job offer.

Last week, 19-year-old John Meyer dropped out of a prestigious university computer science programto work full-time on his tech startup, Fresco News.

His parents weren’t happy at first. He was attending NYU where his mom is a professor, he told Business Insider.

But they eventually came around to support him, because they had to admit: Meyer is already a successful independent computer programmer. He’s been writing apps since his freshman year in high school, 2008, after teaching himself the programming language Objective C.

And he’s been making money at it since his sophomore year of high school, he says.
“Money-wise, I’ve been pretty fortunate. I’ve been able to support myself since just a year after I got started,” he said.

He’s making so much money writing iPhone apps that during his first year of college he could afford to live alone, pay NYU tuition while bootstrapping Fresco, he told Business Insider.

Fresco Newsis a sort of intersection between Instagram, Twitter and Flipboard that turns photos from ordinary people on the scene of big news events into news stories.

We pressed him to reveal his income but promised not to share it. Let’s just say it’s on par with what software engineers earn at some of the best tech companies.

Despite his young age, Meyer’s app portfolio is impressive. He’s written about 40 apps, mostly through his app company TapMedia, he says.

This includes the popular iPhone 4 flashlight app Just Light(which may have been the very first flashlight app). It went nuts, downloaded about two million times, he said. Apple now includes a flashlight app with the iPhone.

He’s just had another huge hit called Perfect Shot,too, released about a year ago for iOS 7. It was downloaded 60,000 times in the first four days and is now at over one million, he says.

It uses the smile and eye detection features in the iPhone camera for taking the perfect group photo. Hold the phone up and wait. The app takes the shot in the perfect millisecond when everyone is smiling, no one is blinking. A very smart idea.

So smart that Meyer nabbed the attention of Apple. The company asked him to become an intern, he says. That’s a dream come true for most students. And it pays. Apple interns can make $5,723 a month.
But he turned Apple down.

“I get emails from recruiters all the time, and this past summer an offer to intern at Apple,” he says. But, he explains,”I am, at heart, an entrepreneur. I won’t be happy working for someone else.”

He’s not worried about missing the chance of a lifetime. “If I wanted to, I’m sure they would offer me another internship,” he says.

That’s not just the bravado of being 19. “I’ve been close with a lot of people at Apple, from going to Apple’s developer conference every year,” he says. “I’m in a field where I’ve done a lot of things already, an expansive portfolio of projects I’ve worked on.”

He’s actually been attending the developer’s conference since he was 16, sneaking in the first time with his dad’s help. His dad flew him to San Francisco, registered himself for the conference, then handed the pass to his son to attend.

“I was 16 and anyone under 18 wasn’t allowed. It was right after the successful flashlight app. My dad got the ticket from Apple, flew back home and left me in San Francisco,” he laughs.

Since then, Apple has created a teen program at the conference, he says. It’s been great for meeting other programmers his age, he says.

If all that wasn’t impressive enough, Meyer was also a finalist in the Thiel Fellowship, he says. That’s a program by billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel in which gifted young people drop out of school to start companies.

Only 40 people become finalists, flown to the Valley for mingling. Twenty are accepted, and Meyer wasn’t one of them.

That doesn’t bother him at all. He’s focused on turning Fresco into a money maker, talking to potential clients for it like New York Times and Wall Street Journal.

And he hasn’t ruled going back to college some day. But for now, he’s writing apps for fun and profit.

http://venturebeat.com/2014/09/21/this-19-year-old-developer-is-so-successful-he-turned-down-apple/

http://www.businessinsider.com/successful-19-year-old-turns-down-apple-2014-9

asalimpo: Foreign motivational stories!
They dont apply here yet.
No apple dev conference here.
No 29hr power outage there on the back of 5 day stretch blackout-
No billonaire here who cares about dropping out- graduates ar sufferg here talkless of "dropouts"

these stories dont apply here.
Besides,if not for internet we wouldnt really know how much computer sellers ar making off the average apple fan here.

Djangocode: Thats creativity @ its peak. Tho Nigeria is a country where PHCN makes u swear ery minute, Your Neighbour that uses a Gen-set tells u to stop coming to his house cuz he thinks u are wasting his fuel with yo laptop charging, your friend that owns a cafe bills u 200 per hour to plug yo laptop, your parents says u either be a Doctor or u get disowned by em..

It takes a lotta Determination, Dedication and Discipline to be a software programmer in this country.

Djangocode: Thats creativity @ its peak. Tho Nigeria is a country where PHCN makes u swear ery minute, Your Neighbour that uses a Gen-set tells u to stop coming to his house cuz he thinks u are wasting his fuel with yo laptop charging, your friend that owns a cafe bills u 200 per hour to plug yo laptop, your parents says u either be a Doctor or u get disowned by em..

It takes a lotta Determination, Dedication and Discipline to be a software programmer in this country.

asalimpo:

its like running a race with 100 hurdles to jump over vs som western kid with only 25 hurdles and you still hav to finish at the same time!
Som sane guyz just said what the heck and abandoned the programmg thingi.

It's simply easier to shine in a conducive environment.
Replicating tht environment here is gonna cost serious money, even though most programming tools are free.
Electricity - N10+ month
(N20k better cuz nepa is a b.itch)
Internet - N5+ month
(N10k better)
Books -
(those not found online)

elvis10ten: it doesn't have to be this expensive.

If you spend 10k a month for electricity, why don't you rely on nepa and others for 3 months, then set up a mini solar system. That will be capable of charging your devices and a bulb.

Use the mtn night plan 4.5gb, use it for browsing only. When you want to download use the etisalat 15naira for 5 minutes. Have kept my internet cost at 4k a month.

For Transport, buy bicycle.

Hardly any popular and good book is not online

asalimpo:

mini solar for how much?
Mtn night * 2 = 5k.
(10k internet is typical.
)
10k electricity is minimal.
(if u really on nepa , u'll take 5 months to do what cuve been done in one. Talkg from experience)

These books aint online:

java8 books
java mail api - Oreilly
jboss 7 administration (packt)
Theory of automated reasoning
Graph based knowledge representation.
Getting started on the Spring framewrk.
Oracle sql :A tutorial (brainysoft)
Spring framework:A step by step approach
Types and programming languages.
Unicode Explained
(... And many others)
At some point a serious developer will hav to build a physical library . Not ebooks only. Besides some books just aint online.

I am "At Heart" an Entrepreneur, and i wouldn't be happy working for somebody

elvis10ten:
Solar system break down:

80 watt solar panel is $100 or less. i remember seeing a watt for 190naira.
20a 12/24v solar charge controller on aliexpress is $13.
35ah deep cycle battery is about $64. you can get it locally or pay for it on ebay with transport. or get a used deep cycle battery.
inverter $28 on aliexpress.

You don't have to pay for transport for the stuffs on aliexpress, there are many there with free transport. Finding deep cycle battery in aliexpress is not as easy as on ebay, so you might have to get it locally or via ebay and pay transport. I didn't make any calculation, so some of the items might be over kill (the charge controller and panel, maybe), but we ended up in the price range 30k. Thats for the electricity. You might not have to wait for 3 months, cause you have more than 30k in your account and you can sell the gen (nah, no sell am).

The mtn night plan can last for you for a month if you browse on not too heavy sites and don't download or upload stuff with it. The etisalat sim would be used for any downloading and uploading, you know etisalat is damn fast and the 5min is unlimited. So you can use that to hold up.

I said Hardly any popular and good book. There was room for exception in that statement. Most of the books not online have many great alternative. I do have physical books, but do you buy books every day ? nah.

elvis10ten:
Solar system break down:

80 watt solar panel is $100 or less. i remember seeing a watt for 190naira.
20a 12/24v solar charge controller on aliexpress is $13.
35ah deep cycle battery is about $64. you can get it locally or pay for it on ebay with transport. or get a used deep cycle battery.
inverter $28 on aliexpress.

You don't have to pay for transport for the stuffs on aliexpress, there are many there with free transport. Finding deep cycle battery in aliexpress is not as easy as on ebay, so you might have to get it locally or via ebay and pay transport. I didn't make any calculation, so some of the items might be over kill (the charge controller and panel, maybe), but we ended up in the price range 30k. Thats for the electricity. You might not have to wait for 3 months, cause you have more than 30k in your account and you can sell the gen (nah, no sell am).

The mtn night plan can last for you for a month if you browse on not too heavy sites and don't download or upload stuff with it. The etisalat sim would be used for any downloading and uploading, you know etisalat is damn fast and the 5min is unlimited. So you can use that to hold up.

I said Hardly any popular and good book. There was room for exception in that statement. Most of the books not online have many great alternative. I do have physical books, but do you buy books every day ? nah.

asalimpo:

your economics is tight.
But som ppl will prefer convenience over money .
The 1k difference for an extra sim(etisalat) and modem mayb too much hassle.

I say 5k cuz i factor in downloads and updates.
For basic browsing its enuff N2.5k/might do.

On the electricity thing- a standby reliable solution is gonna b needed eventually.
Mayb combined with stored power (deep cycle batteries).
The outlay for solar and so on - electricity generation can easily approach/exceed N100k.
For som1 needing steady 10hrs+ electricity a day - solar N batteries maynt b enuff.
As for books, ebooks+ ereaders(tablets etc) mayb d trend
But most professional devs buy books.
It's simply more convenient to get the l8st version.
Introductory books abound online - jquery, javascript,python, css,xml,sql,php,c#,c++

Books on deeper aspects like :
introduction to data mining,
cryptography,
software architecture
,number theory etc
,theory of computation

(
you will have to buy a hard copy of one of them somday.
)

you'll also want to buy software somday!
- e.g visual studio ultimate
- original win7 os
- original antivirus
- original intelliJ (not community version)
etc

I know we're used to free. But eventually, professionalism and convenience is going to outweigh
the savings from free.
My estimate for some1 getting into software and wants to do it professionally is around $5-10k.

- machines (2 laptops) .
Or desktops.

- a good chair or 2. Padded/backrest,swivel,original.
You'll b in a chair for a long time.
Invest in a good 1.
- 2 monitors + stand.(or 1 )
- databackups /external hdds
- regular internet
- decent table/work surface
- good lighting
- good ventilation/cooling (ACs)
- wifi
- tablet/pad (for reading ebooks)
- bookshelf (for paperbacks)
- a very quiet work environment
(for thinking thru and getting work done.)

- exercise equipments to stay healthy and fit.
Treadmills,pulleys.

The cost may occur overtime,but theyres always a price tag.

*i'll checkout d link *
*dyu use solar electricity personally?
Can it power a laptop? For how long?*

asalimpo: Okay. Thnks for d javamail link.
How did you get it?
(
I only use torrents , mor reliable.
)

Many things i listed ar not recurrent expenses. Books fall into these category.

Guy, solar electricity is freakg expensive to setup. But i'll research som more.

asalimpo:
@elvis
got an etisalat line to try out their
unlimited browsing. The result is unimpressive.
Out of 6gig of downloads only 2 downloads completed N1k later.
Circa 700mb .
Not worth it. The last recharge (N400) didnt last two hours as it shud. Connection dissapeared 1hr after. Meaning d download is data capped afterall!

The download speed was pathetic, in d afternoon.


I'm stickg with trusty mtn even if its more expensive.
Not worth it,for me.

Djtm:


it depends on the signal strength in your area i guess. many of the peeps on the Naruto thread download with the same plan and they give mouth watering testimonies about it. some reach speeds up to 1.2mbps. I've not used it personally tho.

asalimpo:
@elvis
got an etisalat line to try out their
unlimited browsing. The result is unimpressive.
Out of 6gig of downloads only 2 downloads completed N1k later.
Circa 700mb .
Not worth it. The last recharge (N400) didnt last two hours as it shud. Connection dissapeared 1hr after. Meaning d download is data capped afterall!

The download speed was pathetic, in d afternoon.


I'm stickg with trusty mtn even if its more expensive.
Not worth it,for me.

elvis10ten:

Etisalat do collect my money unnecessarily when i browse stop browse stop. But if am just downloading straight i do get a 2.5gb file in an hour, that's on average. I haven't noticed any issue of data capping and i have downloaded about 10gb-25gb (don't know the actual value) without spending more than 5k (maybe 2.5k). Probably there is an issue on your side. But etisalat do give some stupid issues sometimes, but when i weigh it, the benefits outnumbers the disadvantages.