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150 days of living and coding in a van

ruby-on-wheels.github.io

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Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van

#231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm planning on doing the silk road (well, actually Bali to London) in the next year or two. Do you have a writeup, or any crucial tips that I wouldn't find elsewhere?

Nice, I'm envious! I have a writeup at [0]. A short summary of the things I wanted to remember for next time is here [1]. Be sure to cross through Mongolia, the landscape is astonishing. Save travels! [0] https://goolge.io/motorcycletours/ [1] https://goolge.io/mototours/silkroadmadness/epilogue/

Oh shit, that's some great information there!

I don't plan on doing the whole journey on bike, the main 2 parts I want to do on a bike is Vietnam (tried doing this last year, but had to give up due to the weather), and Mongolia. The rest, we'll see what happens!

Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van

#232

I'm curious - don't people miss big monitors when coding on a laptop? I've done a fair amount of coding on laptops while travelling and it's okay, but I feel like a big monitor is optimal for most work and wouldn't want a permanent situation with just laptop. I like to have logs, command line, and editor all visible, and ideally a browser too. The editor alone is much more useful in a big window where you can see a f…

I prefer to code on my laptop. You may be able to see more on a big screen, but you can't concentrate on more. I have GNU Screen set up with multiple command line tabs that I can switch between using hot keys, which is automatic enough that it happens at least as fast as I can mentally switch. I keep things in a consistent setup (bash on tab 0, editor on tab 1, etc.) so I never have to figure out what tab I need to go to.

When using a large screen, I struggle with figuring out where to look on the screen quickly. I could build habits that would remedy this by distributing things consistently on my screen, but then I'd have to build separate habits for my big screens and little screens.

Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van

#233
post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A huge desk, huge monitors, comfy executive chair, and a foot rest gives, IMHO, the best of all worlds.

This might be something for you two guys if you can afford it... http://mashable.com/2015/10/28/altwork-station-laying-down

Reminds me of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohcwksrvDOg

Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van

#234

I've met a few people living in vans/converted trucks when I've been in France. There's quite a few countries around with great regulations that let you park up in lots of places, e.g. in France there are regular places you can stay along the major roads for free, usually with decent facilities. I met a girl there this year who had converted a truck into a mobile home. It even had window boxes for her plants! Unfortu…

how's it going? I love to move around with my laptop, but nature is too damn distractive. Sun is too bright, stone under my ass is too cold, that view is too beautiful, oh, I'm already hungry, oh, it's sunset. That was a nice day, but I barely worked.

All excuses.

Nature is the best part of this world for me. Everything else is a distraction. I know this afternoon I get to go hike up a canyon and climb the rim up to see a natural arch. On a normal Tuesday. So I'm going to get my shit done when it's a perfect day out with the sun shining in my eyes. Then I get to play.

Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van

#235
post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A huge desk, huge monitors, comfy executive chair, and a foot rest gives, IMHO, the best of all worlds.

This might be something for you two guys if you can afford it... http://mashable.com/2015/10/28/altwork-station-laying-down

Haha. The look on that guys face just made my day.

I'd be paranoid that the monitor would fall on me. That may be good thing though as I'd avoid procrastination to get out of the danger zone as soon as possible.

Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van

#236

I like the ideas behind the writer of this post. However I have worked remote for over a year and I have to comment. First of all working in a van for a long haul will probably be painful for your back. No standing desk no office chair and desk set up will not be comfortable to code for more then a few hours. Most of time working remote you need power and wifi. There is an expectation that you will be online during s…

> Working remote is great but there are some drawbacks like everything in life. Those you need to be mindful of before onsetting on that path.

I totally agree. Working remotely is not just awesome. But I prefer it over a regular office job which has more downsides for me.

> First of all working in a van for a long haul will probably be painful for your back. No standing desk no office chair and desk set up will not be comfortable to code for more then a few hours.

I do a lot of sport (surfing, cycling, swimming pull-ups and other exercises for my back). I usually take regular breaks to avoid sitting in the same position for too long. My back feels great!

> Most of time working remote you need power and wifi. There is an expectation that you will be online during similar hours as your co-workers as peers. Maybe not exactly but similarly. So you gotta have a pocket wifi if doing this.

Check out my mobile office setup: https://ruby-on-wheels.github.io/blog/turning-my-van-into-a-... and https://ruby-on-wheels.github.io/blog/turning-my-van-into-a-.... I have power and internet 24h 7 days a week. My connection is more reliable than some of my co-workers who work from home.

> When you work remotely to you will know how bad things are and it will trouble you more if you try to work in a van connected to nature. It's gonna be hot.

Yes, sometimes it just to hot. I've experienced this in the inland. My solution: I drive to the mountains or the beaches where the climate is milder. Or I take a siesta and wait until the sun sets to work. I can work whenever I want. Another advantage of a remote job!

Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van

#237
post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Driving from Berlin? Most of southern Europe can be very cold (even Portugal and Spain) in winter. Maybe some parts of Turkey will stay warmer but not sure about that. Or maybe southern Greece. And the problem is that weather is not independent. If it's very cold in Portugal for a few weeks it's usually also cold in much of the rest of Southern Europe.

It's trivial to get with the van to Morocco, Turkey. And with a rather inexpensive ferry ride, you can go anywhere in Africa / Middle East. In places like Malaga, Crete, Cyprus, etc it's the average low temperature is like 10-13 degrees (52-55 f). Hardly very cold if you've ever experienced NY, Chicago, Canada, Norther Europe levels of cold. And of course it's very easy to heat a small van.

Yes but I'm not sure if that's where the author would like to go. 4G coverage will likely be weaker (making it harder to code on the go) and with fewer camper vans you'll not meet as many people. Security can also be a concern, as can be political influences (esp in Turkey at the moment).

Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van

#238

I'm curious - don't people miss big monitors when coding on a laptop? I've done a fair amount of coding on laptops while travelling and it's okay, but I feel like a big monitor is optimal for most work and wouldn't want a permanent situation with just laptop. I like to have logs, command line, and editor all visible, and ideally a browser too. The editor alone is much more useful in a big window where you can see a f…

Sometimes, like when I'm working on a UI, it's nice to have the code, the chrome debugger, and the UI view all up and running. But I'm finding it less necessary, because of the trade-off.

I really enjoy the simplicity of my 11" MBAir and the portability of working anywhere. You get really good between swiping between desktops. And having limited screen space means I quiet down all the distracting notifications, popups, email, etc...

Also, a lot of dev work I do REPL-first development, then copy the code into the actual editor (on a different virtual desktop) and this minimizes the swiping around, and increases my productivity that way.

Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van

#239
post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In Europe the 4G network coverage is amazing. Within the last five months I had less issues with my connectivity than some of my co-workers using a cable internet. Do you get enough data volume? Most sim cards for use with computer are quite restricted. Or can you live off 10GB/month?

In the UK you can get 40G for £30 a month. I imagine you can do at least as well in most EU countries.

Which network? Three has an offer like that but I found connectivity quite weak once you leave larger cities. Although that appears to be the issue with most/all networks here. I currently use vodafone and can't remember when I last had 4G outside of major cities.

Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van

#240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm curious - don't people miss big monitors when coding on a laptop? I've done a fair amount of coding on laptops while travelling and it's okay, but I feel like a big monitor is optimal for most work and wouldn't want a permanent situation with just laptop. That is why we, coders, are different from other 99,99% of population of the Earth. I gave the original post to my wife and her first question was “How’s the…

I directly skipped to finding a solution to that "problem". I literally found myself browsing amazon for monitor stands that can be folded and easily mounted in a van. What happens if I break hard? Hmm... I came up with requirements for a monitor stand suitable for use in a van. For a moment, I remember being depressed about the zero number of perfect solutions for this "basic" use-case. Now I'm convinced that I'd ne…

Surely if you're customizing a van for #vanlife you can figure out how to build your own monitor-stand.
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