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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

#291

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 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.

I did this for one week last year. I was in the alps, doing some snowboarding, some work and some reading. It was great. Especially being alone in a country where I didn't speak the language well enough to hold casual conversation for too long.

Was still happy when my girlfriend arrived after a week though. But that one week was indeed 'bliss'.

Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van

#292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use the app "duet" to connect an iPad as a second monitor for the cases when a second display is really useful (like playing spot the difference with a site vs Sketch design). This would be wonderful I'm sure with one of the newer 12.9" iPad pros. And for 1/10 of the cost you can pick up something like a "15.6” Widescreen Flat-Panel USB 3.0-Powered Portable LED Monitor - $99"

The problem is the USB powered monitors generally all use the same driver, one that frequently crashes on macOS and Linux. The driver is literally one of the worst I’ve ever used.

If you're using the tablet for terminal stuff (log tailing etc), I've found just sshing into your laptop from the tablet using juice ssh or similar to be more stable as well as your laptop graphics card doesn't need to be rendering two screens

Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van

#293

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 have a 42" monitor and a $1000 Herman Miller chair, and for some reason I end up doing all of my work in bed on my 15" MacBook. It doesn't feel like working when I'm in bed and the dogs are there hanging out with me.

Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van

#294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Won't life eventually catch up to them? Or is that part of the adventure to see how long running away can last?

Jesus. How childish are you?

You've repeatedly posted uncivil and/or unsubstantive comments here. If you do keep doing it, we're going to ban you, so would you please read https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and comment in the spirit of this site? More at https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html if you're interested.

Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van

#295

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…

You can still have big monitors and live in a vehicle. I built my bus with a standing desk and a Dell 34" ultrawide monitor.

Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/BUhYiNhFQOA/

I've seen others with projectors and big TVs. It's doable even in a standard size van.

Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van

#297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that removing the downvote button altogether is a good idea on this site.

There's a downvote button? I've not seen it yet.

It shows below the upvote button when you get 500+ karma.

Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van

#298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is the USB powered monitors generally all use the same driver, one that frequently crashes on macOS and Linux. The driver is literally one of the worst I’ve ever used.

If you're using the tablet for terminal stuff (log tailing etc), I've found just sshing into your laptop from the tablet using juice ssh or similar to be more stable as well as your laptop graphics card doesn't need to be rendering two screens

Agree re: using a tablet, but I was talking about the USB3 monitors that use a DisplayMate (think that’s the name) driver.

Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van

#299
post #8

Nice man that looks awesome, pretty jelly. I can work remote and have been thinking about leaving for a while. How much was the initial cost of the van? How did you maintain your internet connection? What would you say is the biggest struggle?

I'm also pretty curious about the costs.

Living in a vehicle can cost as little or as much as you want. It depends on your budget and wants/needs. You can build a simple van for a few hundred dollars or a huge overlanding rig for hundreds of thousands.

An inexpensive, decent van build can be done for <$5000. My bus cost somewhere around $50k so far, including the vehicle.

Re: 150 days of living and coding in a van

#300
post #8

Nice man that looks awesome, pretty jelly. I can work remote and have been thinking about leaving for a while. How much was the initial cost of the van? How did you maintain your internet connection? What would you say is the biggest struggle?

Hey! > How much was the initial cost of the van? I bought the van for 7.000 Euro. > How did you maintain your internet connection? I'm working with 4G. Works perfect all most everywhere in Europe! I use a pre-paid Italian SIM-Card that I can use all over Europe. It costs me 9 Euros for 20 GB. I usually need around 30 to 50 GB a month. So it's roughly 20 Euros per month. You can read more about the technical setup her…

Hey, I'm bouncing between Madrid and Valencia. Would be great to meet up!

Email is in profile :)

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