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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

#251

Post by grecy »

unkown-unknowns wrote: post #127
grecy wrote: post #24

I am doing something somewhat related. I built a Jeep Wrangler into a house on wheels [1], and am driving around Africa for two years. I am freelancing for Magazines, and earning money through my website and social presence. I have not done any coding on this trip, mostly becuase I find it hard to get remote work that meets my flexibility needs - i.e. weeks off-grid and only occasional checkins/calls. Last time I dro…

Nice to see the prices of most of the things. How much has the car itself and all of the additions cost you total up until now, and how far into the two year period are you?

I'm about 18 months in, though I have not even made it half way yet (Cape Town, South Africa.)

I'm in the DRC right now, slogging through the mud!

I have no idea, though it looks like the trip will grow beyond the originally planned 2 years.

The price of the vehicle is hard to pin down, I bought a lot of parts by partnering with brands, so I got discounts.

The important part to remember is I drove AK-Argentina in a $6000 Jeep that I sold for $5000 at the end !

Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van

#253

Post by skiman10 »

ehnto wrote: post #219
lilbobbytables wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A problem with smaller screen is the additional eye strain I almost have more of an eye strain with multiple monitors because of more horizontal movement of my eyes, and often being a little bit further from the monitor. (and my bigger monitor isn't the same resolution as my laptop)

My home setup has a screen directly in front and one to the side, as if I have them both offset then I am always at lesst a little bit strained and I end up using the inner parts of the monitors anyway. I have considered one below and one directly in front as well so it's up movement instead but I have yet to come up with a good mounting solution!

How about a mount like this one? https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CUW5HDU/ref=psdc_490624011_t1_B...

Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van

#254

Post by rhn_mk1 »

e59d134d wrote: post #220
mmahemoff wrote: post #94

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…

Not really, I prefer to code on my 13" MBP. I have 24" monitor but I rarely ever use it. Ability to lay back and put legs on coffee table are more important to me.

I share that sentiment. A big screen doesn't mesh well with moving from one corner of the bed to another.

Virtual desktops mostly solved the area problem for me: switching between code/result/docs is just a chord away. The rare situations where switching is happening all the time account for less than 10% of my usage.

Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van

#255

Post by mjbrownie »

I drove around Australia whilst still maintaining several django projects for a web hosting company back in 2011. Started with an old 15 inch Dell and a Samsung Galaxy tab but got a 11 inch Mac Air later.

Great fun! You really learn to optimise your setup around current draw and avoiding overheat :) My biggest lessons were combining mosh and tmux It'd be more of a struggle as a front end developer.

Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van

#256

Post by driverdan »

cvsh wrote: post #134
lowglow wrote: post #71

I tried this around SF Bay Area. Unfortunately SF isn't as van-friendly as I would have liked, and the high crime rate and high rate of break-ins left me less than desiring to stay in SF. Had a friend successfully camp out in East Bay, but got sick of it. I moved down to Redwood City but the cops basically harassed me, and treated me like a criminal. I finally would park in my van outside of Social Capital in Palo Al…

That's the first big strike against vanlife for me. In the US there's no cheap and reliable way to park and sleep without being harassed by police. The second is illness: I ate some bad chicken earlier this year and was violently ill, projectile liquid from both ends ill, for three whole days. It was miserable but bearable because I had an apartment with a bed and a bathroom. I can't imagine what it would have been l…

> That's the first big strike against vanlife for me. In the US there's no cheap and reliable way to park and sleep without being harassed by police.

The US is large. There are tons of places you can park without issue. BLM land, for example, is explicitly available for anyone to use. Most cities don't have anti vehicle dwelling laws. All you have to do is go somewhere that doesn't care.

> The second is illness: I ate some bad chicken earlier this year and was violently ill, projectile liquid from both ends ill, for three whole days. It was miserable but bearable because I had an apartment with a bed and a bathroom. I can't imagine what it would have been like in a van.

OP has an RV with a bathroom. It'd be much like your apt but with less distance to travel between the toilet and your bed.

Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van

#257

Post by lliiffee »

mjbrownie wrote: post #255

I drove around Australia whilst still maintaining several django projects for a web hosting company back in 2011. Started with an old 15 inch Dell and a Samsung Galaxy tab but got a 11 inch Mac Air later. Great fun! You really learn to optimise your setup around current draw and avoiding overheat :) My biggest lessons were combining mosh and tmux It'd be more of a struggle as a front end developer.

Could you give more details about how you combined these? I'm aware of both of these tools, but wasn't sure how they could be used together. At the moment I heavily use mosh which is pretty much perfect aside from the fact that it kills my local scrollback history.

Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van

#258

Post by elmiko »

mmahemoff wrote: post #94

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'm curious - don't people miss big monitors when coding on a laptop?

i don't. i have a laptop and a couple 24" monitors but over the last few years i've found myself just using the laptop more and more without the externals.

Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van

#259

Post by hvs »

mmahemoff wrote: post #94

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 used to be like that, too. But I've been working primarily on my 15" MBP for the past 4 years and I love it. I still have a triple monitor 27" iMac sitting in my office upstairs, but I hardly ever use it. I find the ability to work out on my patio much more relaxing than sitting in my home office.

Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van

#260

Post by kzisme »

mjbrownie wrote: post #255

I drove around Australia whilst still maintaining several django projects for a web hosting company back in 2011. Started with an old 15 inch Dell and a Samsung Galaxy tab but got a 11 inch Mac Air later. Great fun! You really learn to optimise your setup around current draw and avoiding overheat :) My biggest lessons were combining mosh and tmux It'd be more of a struggle as a front end developer.

Did you blog or write about your experience at all?

Are these projects you were working on before the trip - or were they a full time gig already?

I'm always curious how people are able to do these sorts of things!

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