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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

#261

Post by bitexploder »

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 researched this. With a decent battery and solar system you can power a monitor and laptop all day long.

Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van

#262

Post by logfromblammo »

coldtea wrote: post #103
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? No. Some of us work even more focused on a single smaller screen even than having 10 BS windows asking for our attention (and I include debuggers in those, the ultimate hop-around time sink for some developers). Besides, people managed to write software for several decades before larger than 14" screens became the norm. Heck, until the late seven…

And once upon a time, people built automobiles with hand tools instead of power tools, conveyors, and robots.

You can still do that, of course, but you will not be competitive with the likes of Ford and Toyota.

A higher-resolution screen, positioned closer to the eyeball, can substitute for a larger monitor. But even then, that uses only a fraction of my available visual field. VR technology could eventually solve the monitor area problem in a van-sized workspace. But for now, parent post is correct, screens with smaller pixels are the way to go. Just stick your face closer to it, and it will look bigger. This probably means you'll need an external mouse and keyboard, though.

Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van

#263

Post by bitexploder »

coldtea wrote: post #103
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? No. Some of us work even more focused on a single smaller screen even than having 10 BS windows asking for our attention (and I include debuggers in those, the ultimate hop-around time sink for some developers). Besides, people managed to write software for several decades before larger than 14" screens became the norm. Heck, until the late seven…

I agree in sentiment. This is why I love i3. Just the will down I want where I want. No OS fluff.

Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van

#264

Post by pavel_lishin »

googamooga wrote: post #170
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'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 gave the original post to my wife and her first question was “How’s the guy coping to live alone?”

My knee-jerk response is, "blissfully."

I live with my wife, a 19 month old, and two cats. I love them, but I would love, love, love to spend a week entirely by myself - going to bed and waking up on my own schedule.

Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van

#265

Post by rerx »

sammoorhouse wrote: post #143
yulapshun wrote: post #121

Wish I could live like him one day. So sad I'm living in Hong Kong which is just a big city with nowhere to go.

Hey - I lived in HK for four years until 2015 - at least go backpacking, it’s easy! You’re a 2.5 hour flight from Da Nang.

Keep in mind that more severe visa restrictions might apply to the OP than to you.

Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van

#266

Post by bitexploder »

coldtea wrote: post #183
jstewartmobile wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And that's the way it was, and we liked it , dag nabbit!

The core thing is that some people STILL like it -- including people who never lived in that era, and could trivially buy 3 30" monitors. And not because of primitivism reasons ("who needs fancy IDEs" etc), but because of a quite concrete reason: increased focus. In the era of 1000 distractions for programmers, it's perhaps more valid than it would have been in 1984. Then, if you had dual monitors, they'd still show…

Use an OS that doesn't attack you then. Ubuntu with i3 and I never see a single OS screen. On a 34" wide monitor it's editor, terminal, browser. Pixel edge to pixel edge. No fluff. No bullshit. No battling window sizing. It's like focus mode, only with more windows :)

Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van

#267

Post by pizza234 »

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 flexibily minimalist with my setup and I don't miss big screens for programming work. I did lots of development on a 12" Surface Pro (although for small setups, I like 13").

Terminal/editor/browser are areas one doesn't work on at the same time, so windows switching does the job, at the condition of having only the strictly required windows opened (I have four: browser, email client, terminal, and editor), and even the browser has generally at most 2 or 3 tabs open.

I can see the convenience of having a log open while debugging, but I can live with terminal tab switching while having a REPL session.

System administration is different. It may be almost necessary at times, to have an individual look at several systems at the same time.

Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van

#268

Post by driverdan »

Nice writeup.

I also live in a vehicle. I have a 25ft (7.6m) former airport shuttle bus I've converted to my home. It took me over six months of full time work and it's still not complete.

I've lived in it for a bit over four months. Overall it has been good but not without challenges. I'm currently busy working which has led to neglecting stuff I need to finish on the bus. I can't travel far until I finish these things.

Here are some recommendations and tips if you're considering this life:

* If you haven't spent time camping in a vehicle rent one for at least a week and try that first. It's not exactly the same but similar.

* Don't jump in blindly. Do significant research into what others have done, what works and what doesn't, etc.

* If you decide to build something yourself expect it to take at least twice as long and cost 50% more than you plan.

* Evaluate if it makes sense to do the build yourself. I wanted to build something physical instead of just writing code. Financially it would have made more sense for me to continue working full time and have a place like Sportsmobile do the build. I wouldn't have learned the skills and had the experience though.

I have a lot of build photos on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/driverdan/

I'm happy to answer questions.

Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van

#269

Post by kbutler »

endymi0n wrote: post #229
koolba wrote: 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

I can't see how the mouse would avoid sliding down, without adding unacceptable (and perhaps asymmetric) resistance to motion.

Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van

#270

Post by j45 »

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…

An external USB 3 monitor like the Asus MB168+ or MB169+ fits great in the backpack, and gives 1920x1080 resolution for a little under $200.

https://www.asus.com/ca-en/Monitors/MB169BPlus/

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