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Ask HN: Digital Nomads: What's Your Setup?

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Re: Ask HN: Digital Nomads: What's Your Setup?

#201

Post by yosito »

thraxil wrote: post #198
yosito wrote: post #122

Hardware is pretty minimal: MacBook, Android Phone, eReader, Roost Stand, Magic Keyboard/Trackpad. But your question is more about data. I travel internationally, and primarily use wifi at coffee shops, coworking spaces and Airbnbs. This year, that's been mostly wifi at the place I've called home all year. I've also got Google Fi which allows me to tether "unlimited" data. I think it has a cap at 22GB/mo, and maybe c…

The other thing to be aware of with Google Fi is that they will eventually cut off your data if you spend too much time outside the US.

I've heard this rumor, but I've been using Google Fi outside of the US for three years. I haven't even set foot in the US for a year and a half. No issues at all, and I use 10-20 GB a month. A few weeks ago, worried about the rumors, I went through the terms of the contract looking for anything about international usage limits or being cut off, and I talked to customer support and asked them about this, and they assured me that there are no limits on how much or how long I can use data internationally, and they will not cut me off. My guess is that these rumors come from people who are not US citizens/residents who try to hack the system and get Google Fi through a third party or with an address/bank that isn't really theirs. I know a lot of Europeans who have tried to get Google Fi by jumping on an American's family plan. I wouldn't be surprised if those people had their accounts cut off.

Re: Ask HN: Digital Nomads: What's Your Setup?

#202

Post by packetlost »

frombody wrote: post #196
packetlost wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both wireless and wired infrastructure is so much more expensive in the US than basically everywhere else because of just how freaking HUGE the US is.

Yes, which also means more customers. You need to include an argument about why you think telecom systems can't scale.

That is the argument. The US is huge and very sparsely populated for most of it. The cost and quality/reliability of a network connection scale with physical distance.

Re: Ask HN: Digital Nomads: What's Your Setup?

#203

Post by jsjohnst »

qorrect wrote: post #95
jamal-kumar wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found this really old book from 1938 for learning German which is quite the artifact, one from 1944 on how to survive an atomic bomb which is also super old and has some funny advice/a picture on wearing a fedora to protect yourself from the heat flash... some book from 1924 on mathematics which takes a historical analysis approach to teaching called mathematics for the million which is pretty cool. It has a lot of…

That's weird, I was in Puerto Viejo when I found an original hard copy of "Where Wizards stay up late", something I couldn't find for sell in the US right before I left.

I bet you could get it at Powell’s Books in Portland OR.

Re: Ask HN: Digital Nomads: What's Your Setup?

#204

Post by jsjohnst »

client4 wrote: post #15

I traveled across Asia for 3 years. I had a Mission Workshop Radian and attached Spar which I loved. As for data you should expect to do most of your work in co-working or coffee shop spaces as cellular data still doesn't cut it if you're on video calls all day. As for the rest of my tech set-up (loosely):. * Bose in ear noise cancelling headphones with microphone * 2xPhones (A pixel 2 main and Huawei P30 Light backu…

> As for data you should expect to do most of your work in co-working or coffee shop spaces as cellular data still doesn't cut it if you're on video calls all day.

Maybe in remote areas of SE Asia, but even in rural areas of middle America I can easily stream work meetings and 4K movies in my RV. My data speeds average 30Mbps down / 20Mbps up for the past 4 months. My worst so far is 5Mbps/3Mbps, but I’ve also had locations where I got 250Mbps/190Mbps. I’m also not using consumer grade hardware, so that might make a difference.

Re: Ask HN: Digital Nomads: What's Your Setup?

#205

Post by mrusme »

These are my ...

- computer: https://xn--gckvb8fzb.com/a-nomads-computer/

- command line: https://xn--gckvb8fzb.com/a-nomads-command-line/

- camera: https://xn--gckvb8fzb.com/a-nomads-camera/

- coffee: https://xn--gckvb8fzb.com/a-nomads-coffee/

- digital infrastructure: (soon)

... setups.

Re: Ask HN: Digital Nomads: What's Your Setup?

#206

Post by [deleted] »

packetlost wrote: post #171
meheleventyone wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Your lifestyle and work may just be five or ten years ahead of it being worthwhile for businesses to provide what you need. I think it’s also the whole telecoms situation in the US puts it ten years behind everywhere else. The data caps and bandwidth issues are mostly not a technical or business cost issue. Ubiquitous fast and cheap 4G is quite normal elsewhere.

Both wireless and wired infrastructure is so much more expensive in the US than basically everywhere else because of just how freaking HUGE the US is.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Digital Nomads: What's Your Setup?

#207

Post by jaxwerk »

toomanyrichies wrote: post #164
jaxwerk wrote: post #72

My partner and I have worked most of this year from a little 13 ft Scamp travel trailer all across the U.S. and we're currently building out a van to get a bit of extra mobility. I'm a staff engineer for a consultancy with lots of meetings with our enterprise clients, so solid internet is a major concern. The hotspot I use is called "Glocal Me". It's run by a company out of Hong Kong, and sells fairly expensive U.S.…

Question- how do you and your partner handle the logistics of sharing a relatively confined workspace? I value a quiet working space and this arrangement seems like something which not everyone would be able to adapt to.

Even though the overall space is small, during the workday the logistics really boil down to us just sharing a table. If you're able to work at a desk with someone directly across from you it's not that much different. We've both a got a trait where once the headphones go on we're pretty well zoned in. You're right though, sharing a table is probably not viable for folks who need a private office to focus!

Re: Ask HN: Digital Nomads: What's Your Setup?

#208

Post by qorrect »

caffeine wrote: post #116
qorrect wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a similar experience these last 3 months, I bought an RV thought I would toot around the country in, use a cell modem. But I also want to work on my AI projects , which require bunches of nasdaq data. Or I want to work on a side project, but conda wants to download every dependency for every new environment I make. I thought downloading TBs worth of media would be enough to make it work but I'm hitting my month…

For AI projects you should really consider a remote machine, like hosting Jupyter on an AWS box or something, rather than downloading everything to your RV.

You know you're right, I was trying to RDP in to my local desktop machine but it was too slow.

I found https://github.com/cdr/code-server yesterday after you said that and it works perfectly, good thought thanks!

Re: Ask HN: Digital Nomads: What's Your Setup?

#209

Post by thraxil »

yosito wrote: post #201
thraxil wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The other thing to be aware of with Google Fi is that they will eventually cut off your data if you spend too much time outside the US.

I've heard this rumor, but I've been using Google Fi outside of the US for three years. I haven't even set foot in the US for a year and a half. No issues at all, and I use 10-20 GB a month. A few weeks ago, worried about the rumors, I went through the terms of the contract looking for anything about international usage limits or being cut off, and I talked to customer support and asked them about this, and they assu…

I'm a US citizen living in the UK. They cut me off after less than two years of not being in the US. How long you had your Fi account before you are consistently outside the US might be a factor. I switched to Fi shortly before going abroad. I barely use any data (I have a UK sim that I use day to day, the Fi phone/account is just to keep my old US number active since I still have so many things connected to it).
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