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Thank HN: 7 months ago, I asked for help. Now I've got 5 employees.

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Re: Thank HN: 7 months ago, I asked for help. Now I've got 5 employees.

#71
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? Like where? Not being sarcastic but even in a cheap place like Bangladesh, you need atleast $700/month to have a decent hacker life (constant electricity, decent internet, own apt, a hacker-friendly environment - coffee, music, hobby, junk food, etc).

You need 700$/month to have a decent hacker life in Banagladesh? Wow. I am originally from a second tier city called Surat in India. I think I can have a very comfortable life in 400$. Here's the breakdown (all costs in Indian Rupees): Monthly Rent for 1 Bedroom: Approx 4000 Internet: 2,000 (Not the fastest but hey, we are not hosting servers from the bedroom) Food: 1,500 (50 Rupees per day (eating out) for 30 days)…

I live in Mumbai with the same overall budget. Except that rent is double but I save on petrol and internet. :)

Re: Thank HN: 7 months ago, I asked for help. Now I've got 5 employees.

#73
post #2

Awesome. What is your business?

Well, I'm afraid I'm going to disappoint you all and tell you I run a bakery. I know you guys were expecting a tech company. I wasn't actually planning on revealing this, but you guys seem to really want to know and the community has been good to me. And maybe you can give me more advice. I actually have a degree in CS and I love to code, but I tried for a while and never managed to make money on my own with my tech…

This is awesome. Our family business (before moving to the US) was a bakery (actually a chain of bakeries, but some problems occured and our aunt is in the process of doing a hostile takeover, but I digress). I still remember the smell of flour and dough while running around the production area playing with rolling pins and dough mixers when I was a kid. The bakery was also named after me (I was teased as our class' "Pillsbury Dough Boy"). Nostalgia.

Re: Thank HN: 7 months ago, I asked for help. Now I've got 5 employees.

#74
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Internet here is cheap, $19.99 for a decent 6Mbps connection. What's that like for accessing stuff outside of .th? I hear about lots of cheap Internet with high bandwidth deals around the world but I have to wonder whether for accessing the typical US sites, a 1Mbps connection in the US would always be a win over even a 100Mbps connection in, say, Korea.

Depending on remote host, but I constantly get about 3Mbps when accessing servers located in US or Japan[1][2][3]. I'm using an old 4Mbps package here (6Mbps upgrade still doesn't available where I live), I'd say pretty good for the price. [1]: http://www.speedtest.net/result/983221226.png [2]: http://www.speedtest.net/result/983225975.png [3]: http://www.speedtest.net/result/983227297.png

31ms from Thailand to SF? That's mindblowing. Speedtest gives me slightly higher to my local POP :-) I get 3.3/0.5 and 183ms to that San Fran point and I have an above average connection here in the UK. Very impressive.

Re: Thank HN: 7 months ago, I asked for help. Now I've got 5 employees.

#75
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? Like where? Not being sarcastic but even in a cheap place like Bangladesh, you need atleast $700/month to have a decent hacker life (constant electricity, decent internet, own apt, a hacker-friendly environment - coffee, music, hobby, junk food, etc).

You need 700$/month to have a decent hacker life in Banagladesh? Wow. I am originally from a second tier city called Surat in India. I think I can have a very comfortable life in 400$. Here's the breakdown (all costs in Indian Rupees): Monthly Rent for 1 Bedroom: Approx 4000 Internet: 2,000 (Not the fastest but hey, we are not hosting servers from the bedroom) Food: 1,500 (50 Rupees per day (eating out) for 30 days)…

The cost goes up because rent in Dhaka is relatively higher. The other thing that kicks up the cost is the internet and backup electricity fees ($100 - $200/month). Other parts of Bangladesh are much more affordable but then the internet is not so great there.

Re: Thank HN: 7 months ago, I asked for help. Now I've got 5 employees.

#76
post #2

Awesome. What is your business?

Well, I'm afraid I'm going to disappoint you all and tell you I run a bakery. I know you guys were expecting a tech company. I wasn't actually planning on revealing this, but you guys seem to really want to know and the community has been good to me. And maybe you can give me more advice. I actually have a degree in CS and I love to code, but I tried for a while and never managed to make money on my own with my tech…

I am refreshingly surprised! It takes guts to go outside the domain and do this. Way to go dude!

Also please start a blog!

Re: Thank HN: 7 months ago, I asked for help. Now I've got 5 employees.

#77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I'm afraid I'm going to disappoint you all and tell you I run a bakery. I know you guys were expecting a tech company. I wasn't actually planning on revealing this, but you guys seem to really want to know and the community has been good to me. And maybe you can give me more advice. I actually have a degree in CS and I love to code, but I tried for a while and never managed to make money on my own with my tech…

Not exactly what I was expecting, but interesting nonetheless. Do you feel that the hacker business approach articles featured here helped your bakery succeed, or did they just give you impetus you needed to get started launching your own business? Just wondering. Edit: Why not build a web app for your bakery? Allow customers to order via the web. If you provide some sort of customization so that customers can reques…

That's a great idea.

I just discovered an innovative little app from Domino's Pizza here in Sydney: Firstly I was able to order the entire pizza online in a very intuitive interface (with a few issues), and then pay for it online. Once paid, a ticking clock appeared that showed the exact time that they received the order, started on the pizza, baked it, and when it was complete and ready for pickup. While waiting, in the same window they did a good job of trying to offer entertainment by showing movie trailers (not my cup of tea but well implemented).

Stuff like this makes a difference.

Re: Thank HN: 7 months ago, I asked for help. Now I've got 5 employees.

#78
its stories like this which have been very encouraging in my own venture.

a comment on the cost of living in the united states, and how to do it cheaply. i live in oakland, california - in the heart of the san francisco bay area. my cost of living is incredibly low, my rent is $300, utilities are about $90 a month and that includes power and 1MB network connection. i ride a bike everywhere i go, don't own a car. i cook all my own food, i purchase organic produce for cheap at the local farmers market.

my entire monthly living expenses are less than 500 dollars, in a location where i can get to financial district of san francisco in about 14 minutes.

my business venture is based in my bedroom, my tech co-founder lives in mendocino county. we're currently in product development phase creating an analytical system for precision viticulture. we're getting ready to start our first adventures in funding.

reading stories about people buckling down, focusing on their ventures, and achieving success has (for lack of a better term) inspired me. hacker news and the whole entrepreneurial community in the bay area have been key to informing my decisions.

Re: Thank HN: 7 months ago, I asked for help. Now I've got 5 employees.

#79
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depending on remote host, but I constantly get about 3Mbps when accessing servers located in US or Japan[1][2][3]. I'm using an old 4Mbps package here (6Mbps upgrade still doesn't available where I live), I'd say pretty good for the price. [1]: http://www.speedtest.net/result/983221226.png [2]: http://www.speedtest.net/result/983225975.png [3]: http://www.speedtest.net/result/983227297.png

31ms from Thailand to SF? That's mindblowing. Speedtest gives me slightly higher to my local POP :-) I get 3.3/0.5 and 183ms to that San Fran point and I have an above average connection here in the UK. Very impressive.

I think there should be some error involved here. My calculations show that it is not physically possible:

minimum theoretical latency = d/c = 42.5 ms (EDIT: thanks for correction, ArturSoler!)

c = 300000 km/s, speed of light, http://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu&channel=fs&#3...

d = 12761 km, distance between San Francisco, CA and Bangkok, Thailand http://www.travelmath.com/flight-distance/from/San+Francisco...

By the way, speaking of locality, here in St.-Petersburg, Russia, now that I'm connected to the new Ethernet internet provider, I get 3 ms to google's servers, which means they are in the city already (they are; 8 hops). I haven't got such low latency to any Russian site yet. I actually decided to traceroute them when I read about a new Google's data center in Kotka, Finland and read suggestions that it might be used to serve Russia too. Good guess, but Google already does better than that, which shows their attention to maximizing quality of service.

Those latencies are achievable with a good Ethernet provider. DSL will add 10..20 ms, depending on modulation. Radio will add hundreds.

Re: Thank HN: 7 months ago, I asked for help. Now I've got 5 employees.

#80
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depending on remote host, but I constantly get about 3Mbps when accessing servers located in US or Japan[1][2][3]. I'm using an old 4Mbps package here (6Mbps upgrade still doesn't available where I live), I'd say pretty good for the price. [1]: http://www.speedtest.net/result/983221226.png [2]: http://www.speedtest.net/result/983225975.png [3]: http://www.speedtest.net/result/983227297.png

31ms from Thailand to SF? That's mindblowing. Speedtest gives me slightly higher to my local POP :-) I get 3.3/0.5 and 183ms to that San Fran point and I have an above average connection here in the UK. Very impressive.

if you've DSL it depends on "interleaving". It's something lik "ECC" and takes usually ~20ms. This does only affect latency not performance.

Here in Germany some providers even charge you on a monthly bassi to deactivate interlaving which they call "Fast Path" then…

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