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Comment by raheemm | Hacker News Reader

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).

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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)

Others (Gas (Petrol)/Clothes/Entertainment/Electricity etc.): 3,500 (A rough estimate)

Total: 11,000 INR, approx 250 USD, I am still left over with 150$.

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

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.

How do you eat out and still spend only 50 rupees on food? Here in Bangalore I'd be hard pressed to keep it under 100, and it usually reaches near 150 rupees.

I am talking about Surat (my hometown) and not Bangalore. Also, I am assuming that you would not eat at a high end restaurant. Heck, I was in Mangalore for a year and I think I can eat out every day for 50 bucks a day which will include breakfast/lunch/dinner.

In many countries and cultures, "staying at home" till quite late is the norm (Italy, for example) with few or heavily shared expenses beyond personal possessions. Sometimes, the family home houses multiple generations and is merely passed down without everyone moving out.

I'm married with a kid and own a home now, but back in the days when I lived with my parents, even paying them a modest rent and share of utilities I could have "lived" on $500 a month without causing them much/any expense. Just. :)

Here in Bangkok, you can afford a pretty decent life at $400 a month given you don't live too close to a central part of the town. Internet here is cheap, $19.99 for a decent 6Mbps connection. Electricity is cheap, $65 for 24-hour air conditioning with always-on PC. Not sure about being hacker-friendly, though.

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.

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...

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.

I think your calculation is not correct.

Your calculation is (300000 km/s)/(12761 km) = (23.5 (1/s))

Note the result is s^-1, not ms.

1/23.5 is 0.0425s, or 42.5ms, so that latency is not possible.

Ping starting to get weird just recently (not sure when, but very recent), before this it was ranged between 160ms and 260ms. Download speed stay the at ~3Mbps as before, though. (Both from Speedtest.net and from SCP to my Linode.)

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…

2nd on that. By the way, I am from bkk too.

I imagine that if it is a place that is recognizable to the average American, the cost of living will be too high. I know of someone in Moldova for whom $400/mo was quite nice. I have also heard that living in parts of Costa Rica can be very low rent ($400 can last you a year if you are careful). You would have to deal with Internet access, but 3G wireless is becoming pervasive. The real factor is the quality of life that you are interested in.

I live in Oklahoma and I live the good life for less than $900/month according to Mint. Granted I have 3 roommates, but we have a huge place. I walk to work though, so that may be a factor. I'm also a stingy SOB.

It's cool to know that I could uproot to a place like Bangladesh if I so decided. That $900/month doesn't factor in the non-monetary costs of living in Oklahoma, which can build up :(

400$ a month is doable in China but forget about nightlife or cockroach-free apartments. Disclaimer: I lived a few months in Shenzhen.

You mean Disclaimer: I lived in one of the only economically liberal parts of China where most Chinese are restricted from traveling to and there is a large influx of foreign money?

Shenzen ain't China and 400$ is a lot of money in the rest of the country.

$400 is really NOT a lot in a decent city in China, e.g. Shanghai, Beijing,　Guangzhou etc. It can just barely cover your basic living expense, e.g. housing, travel, food etc ( if you are not living with your parents)

Disclaimer: I live in Hong Kong and have a number of coworkers and friends in China.

The entire world outside of the OECD and some major cities in East Europe (Moscow, Ljubljana) and emerging countries (ie. Rio).

There are probably people in parts of the USA who are surviving on $700 a month.

Much of China, I believe.

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