adamcharnock

I think it is really worth being aware of Hetzner's Dedicated server offerings. What you get isn't that dissimilar to what a cloud provider would offer, but you get about an order of magnitude more compute resources for the same price.

Plus you get better disk access speed (NVMe) than something like an AWS EBS-backed instance. You can also order new instances within a matter of minutes.

You don't have to use them, but being aware of what is available there would be a really good idea. I think some workloads could easily be deployed there at a fraction of the cost of a cloud provider.

Oh I remember the days when I was steadfastly staying on an IPX network and only temporarily changing over the TCP/IP to play specific games (Quake 1?). I didn't need this new-fangled TCP nonsense. IPX worked just fine on my 10-baseT coax network :-)

Get. A. Therapist.

More importantly, get a therapist that you get on with. Get a therapist you can laugh and cry with. Get a therapist you can tell tell to fuck off when they tell you things that are hard to hear.

Therapy can positively affect so much of your life and I wish I had done it sooner. I was a pretty successful person before therapy by most measures, but every day I would still do things that would actively make my life worse. I couldn't see it at the time, but I did.

Now, every week I look forward to getting advice from someone who's job it is to help me and give good guidance. His job isn't to be my friend, or to love me, or to make me work. His job is to apply his expertise to encourage me, ask me important questions, and tell me when I'm being an idiot.

I had a good childhood, I don't have much trauma. Yet even so, therapy has made my life much much better. Mine costs £60/session (one per week), and I do it via Zoom. I am absolutely certain it will save me more money than it costs me.

I know the above OP seems to be asking about work. But I think this still applies. A good therapist will help you think through the available choices in your work life too.

And, if you'll forgive me a more emotional plea: If you are a man, this all goes double. The male suicide rate isn't where it is because we're all doing fine. It is where it is because we're not doing well at all but haven't really noticed.

I think North Korea is a materially different situation though. They are three generations deep into dictatorial/dynastic rule.

The Kim family managed to keep one generation sufficiently oppressed that they could raise all the children to believe leader to be a god. Then they had a sufficiently clear line of succession (ie it’s a dynasty) that they could continue to build upon the foundation laid in that first generation rather than engage in power struggles.

I think the sanctions and isolation then came later.

Could Putin pull that out of the hat? It doesn’t seem likely to me in this day and age.

I think North Korea is very much an outlier and has a unique set of circumstances.

Absolutely. I know this is Putin's War, but imagine asking your staff to be professional and respond to your Russian customers when they can hear Russian fighter jets overhead.

On one hand we ask large companies to show more heart and humanity, and on the other hand we rail against them when they take a principled stand.

How anyone can expect a company to honour any corporate agreement in such an environment boggles my mind. Let alone company that sells domains and prides itself on being 'cheap'.

People and principles should come first, and money second. This is exactly the world we want to live in, right? Not some capitalist dystopia.

FWIW, I do not begrudge affected customers being angry, that seems very fair. I just also think this is a very reasonable course of action by Namecheap.

Hey! Perhaps send me an email (profile->website), happy to talk more about this.

I used Pure Portugal, but I think some more have sprung up since

Land in this area is roughly €1/m2, although it will be more if it has a house on it or existing amenities.

Regarding internet access, you can use our coverage checker :-) gardunha.net. We only cover a small area of Portugal.

There are some Facebook groups for people who have done similar things, although they do have some odd people in them. Lookup Pure Portugal.

It is a fair point on climate change. I'm not really an expert on this, but I'll make some various points...

I think winters have become drier, but April can be absolutely torrential.

The specific location can also make a difference. I'm near the base of a mountain which I believe can prop-up the underground water table nicely, and can certainly cause more rain.

I think Portugal being costal also helps with rainfall, certainly compared to the plains of Spain further East.

Try and get some data for the last decade or two. That will probably be more useful than any local anecdotes. But local terrain/micro-climates will make a difference.

I was worried. It hasn't been a problem yet. I put some CCTV cameras up though.

TBH, sustainability is a byproduct rather than the goal.

Plus, the tractor is definitely an occasional use tool. Now I think about it, I suspect a modern new tractor would take a very long time to pay off its embedded energy with the level of use it would see here.

And my old tractor cost €3k. A new one would cost €30-60k. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Hey! Well I think it took me about 3 months ish to build, but it was spread out over about a year so it is hard to say for sure. And I’m a software developer so I don’t think my day rate would be a fair way to do the calculation. But I’ll ballpark a builder at around €70/day around here, so 3 * 22 * 70, so around €5k for labour?

But this style of construction is pretty unusual for the region, so you may need someone more specialist. If you need someone let me know though, I can think of a couple of companies.

I can give you more details over email.

The things I think I really got right are: 1) build from new, don’t renovate. And 2) build the whole structure on a platform off the ground. The entire building is supported on 6 steel legs.

Also, solar power + AC is fantastic. A bit of thermal bridging doesn’t seem to matter so much in 40 degree weather when the AC is solar powered :-)

Ooh, I also spun this project out of making the coverage checker:

https://github.com/adamcharnock/python-srtm

That actually sounds pretty interesting. Maybe I'll look into that for this summer. My concern would it feel too dark in the winter.

I can walk to the nearest village in about 10 minutes, although it doesn't have much in the way of amenities.

The nearest city is about a 20 minute drive away. The region capital is about 30 minutes away. Lisbon & Porto are about 2.5 hours away each.

Anything I go to regularly is 20-40 minutes away.

The roads are of high quality and mostly empty. Petrol is about €1.80/litre, a return trip to Lisbon costs around €80 in fuel in my 2019 Suzuki with a 1 litre engine, plus around €20 in tolls assuming you take the motorway.

I would love to be able to suggest something, but I think I just made up the design from my own head. I had a rough plan, and I made the rest up as I went along.

If you send me an email (see my profile -> website) I can share with you the construction photos.

I'm in Central Portugal. It is the Gardunha region (known for its cherry growing). Between Fundao, Castelo Branco, and Penamacor.

I don't think property tax is a big deal. Bureaucracy is a PITA, but accountants, lawyers, and architects are cheap. Use them and it'll all be easier, and likely cheaper in the long run.

Construction costs are going up around here. The price I heard 4 years ago was €500-€750/m2 of house construction minimum.

Land should cost around €1/m2, although it will be more if it has a habitable house or is being sold as 'you can build a house here' plot. I got planning permission (via an architect) to build a 300m2 house on an agricultural-only plot of land, although I didn't go through with it. Rules vary by region, but around here you can fairly easily get planning permission if you own more than 2ha of land.

Get in touch if you want to talk more! Email is on my website. (asking questions here is also great)

Thank you! It took some iterations, but we got there :D

Well this is going to vary hugely by country. I think that got easier in Portugal from 2017, so I was a little lucky in that regard. I think it is also fairly straight-forward in the UK/US too. We had to pay a €700 one-off fee, and we need to fill in a report (i.e. spreadsheet) once per quarter with our total customers (and various other bits).

We also need to log netflow data due to the EU counter terrorism directive, and keep it securely. Last I heard it had been deemed unconstitutional by the EU courts, but the law had yet to be revoked.

The hardest part BY FAR, was getting the fibre connection. My advice for this is to do your research to find the available providers in you area/country. There is no fibre map for Portugal, so this was tricky. Reach out to actual people and ask for contacts at telecoms companies in your country. You are looking for Direct Internet Access (DIA). This comment of mine is a bit relevant [1]

The WISP facebook groups [2] [3] really helped me with this, and in figuring out what I need to go and learn about. Don't let those groups stress you out though. I've un-followed them now.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30128418

[2] https://www.facebook.com/groups/249134358750920

[3] https://www.facebook.com/groups/2167897793237945

It does not, but it has only been about 8 months. Break-even is in sight though. Then I can decide if I want to just let it bring in some money, of it I want to 'Bezos' it and expand coverage instead.

PS. And thank you :-)

Hehe, no. There is no-one to see in. It is because I made a miscalculation in the house design. I was hoping that the awning would prevent the worst of the summer sun from hitting the windows, but it did not. So I got some custom canvas made up which I can use to keep the sun out. [1]

[1]: https://www.dropbox.com/s/bbe9z3risocrl5e/IMG_20190909_12531...

Edit: Clarity

So the floor heat system is somewhat unusual. Details are:

- The house is 5x7m. The heated area is about 2.5x7m

- There is no concrete base. The system [1] I used was designed to receive concrete, but I decided against it.

- The floor heats up in about 30 minutes, but the water temperature is substantially higher than normal (because lack of thermal conductivity due to lack of concrete)

- The flooring is large plywood sheets[2]. Surface temperature is variable, 23-26deg.

- The heating is provided by a wood-burning 'bailarina' [3] [4] [5]

- There is no heat exchanger. The hot water that goes under the floor is the same as the hot water that comes out the tap. Not drinking the hot water is kinda normal for europeans though. The pipes may clog up with sediment in 5-10 years, but they are not concreted in so I'm not too bothered.

It may seem like there are some odd choices there. My priority was simplicity and being able to easily change things in the future.

Edit: clarity

Edit 2: If I was to do it again with more time and patience, I would pour in sand. It has about the same thermal properties of concrete, and is way less permanent.

[1]: https://www.dropbox.com/s/yisemvup42cd86l/IMG_20190917_16511...

[2]: https://www.dropbox.com/s/yjmqarrgqcnnzto/IMG_20190918_15193...

[3]: https://b-shop.pt/en/fire-wood-water-heater/1018-bailarina-i...

[4]: https://www.dropbox.com/s/nfttkuqqxzapwff/IMG_20191211_16325...

[5]: https://www.dropbox.com/s/g57ytyvi7c31w3o/IMG_20190317_16555...

Sure! I saw startyourownisp.com on HN years ago, and once I moved here I remembered that starting an ISP was actually a thing. I started a wireless ISP (WISP). The rough process is:

- Find the customers*

- Find somewhere to broadcast from*

- Find a wholesale fibre provider*

- Register with your country's regulator & read a bunch of laws

- While you are doing the above, learn about networking. Get this right before you launch, then forgot about it. Post-launch all problems will (hopefully) be non-tech related.

And also lots of good old-fashioned business cash-flow spreadsheets.

I really like enjoy it (even though it can be stressful) because:

- I like geekery

- I like business (even thought it can be stressful)

- I like being in nature, and this one of the few lines of work that combines the OSI model & chainsaws.

- I like having a reason to meet people in my area. Great way to make friends.

- This area really needs it. There is fibre in the villages, but lots of people live & work on remote patches of land. The service I provide really makes a difference to their lives.

It don't think it'll necessarily make you rich, but it may give you a meaningful livelihood if you have the market for such a service.

* You kinda need to do these three simultaneously, because they all need to be in the same location. At some point I just had to commit to one of the three and hope that everything else fell into place.

I've done this in Portugal, but on a smaller scale and pretty much with only my own labor. I purchased 6 hectares (15 acres) for mid-5-figures.

I've built an A-frame studio house for around €10k (excl tools), and installed a 5kw solar system for about another €10k. The house has air conditioning and underfloor heating (water-based, heated using wood from the land).

I've also brought a 50-year-old tractor and started a rural ISP.

AMA, I guess?

House: https://www.dropbox.com/s/sx8hj9s4u7n6ef9/My%20house.jpg?dl=...

ISP: https://gardunha.net/en/

-----

Just to add some thoughts that the questions below prompted.

I've realised that I really enjoy infrastructure projects. I get to be sat in my little house and phone up huge telecommunication companies and ask for things. Our provider lit up 250km of fibre to our local single-track train station. I get to do lots of stuff where I think, "errr.... am I allowed to do this?", and I love it.

The large providers are skeptical at first, but once they realise you are registered with the national telecoms regulator they realise that you're actually serious and get onboard. They were bemused, but they went with it. I think they actually found it nice to work with a mom-and-pop organisation for a change.

So this is typically what BGP is for, but this is definitely not something that is typically offered to residential customers, nor even most business AFAIK. This is what you would typically get with a Direct Internet Access (DIA) connection. This is an uncontended connection where to setup a BGP peering with your provider. You then give the provider some documentation proving you own a range of addresses, and they agree to accept those routes from you via the BGP connection. They then advertise that to their upstream providers, and thus the routes propagate to the entire internet.

There are a couple of gotchas though. Firstly, there is generally a minimum prefix size of routes that will be accepted into the global routing table. For IPv4 I think it is a /24, and for IPv6 I think it is a /32. You can get a /32 from regional IP registry (for free?) but you will probably need to become a member which – last time I checked - costs 3-4 figures a year. You can use a private-AS number though, as you'll only have one upstream provider.

The other gotcha is cost. Depending where you are in the world, a DIA connection will cost in the very rough region of (EUR/USD/GBP) 1/megabit/month, although it becomes much cheaper when going from 1gb to 10gb.

Now maybe there is some cool facility that some nice ISPs offer to bypass all this, if so then please let me know. I'm personally skeptical it would be worth their while for the 0.001% of residential customers that would want this service though.

Source: I run a small ISP. I have some industry knowledge, but not loads.

It’s about €30/month, but it is very much a business expense, so it comes out of my company account (I’m a freelancer)

You could probably grab a server for a bit less from their server auction.

I’ve been trying something new for the last few months. I brought a min-spec M1 Air and I’ve been using a hetzner dedicated server as my development machine.

I run all user-interfaces locally, and use unison to keep files in sync. VSCode remote dev works well, but I’m more of a PyCharm person myself and their remove dev is just picking up. Docker just runs natively on the server.

But it has been working very well with unison. I run eternal terminal with tmux, so my terminal is always available. Local bandwidth requirements are low and I get a 6-core 64GB dev machine.

It’s actually been very pleasant. I have barely any dev tools locally (not even home brew, which I do not miss at all).

I’m with you in this. I’ve talked to some of my friends about this and it sounds like 5-20% ish of people feel likewise.

To elaborate: I’ve very rarely felt endorphins from exercise. I’m in good shape, I’ve exercised a lot in the past (less so now), I even ran a marathon (not quickly).

After a short workout I do feel more awake and I like the bodily feeling of having exercised, but I’ve rarely felt any endorphin release during exercise which has pushed me forwards.

For example, the marathon I did was pure type 2 fun (fun in retrospect). However most runners I talk to say running is type 1 fun for them (fun at the time). Definitely not for me, it was miserable at the time.

After 15 years as a freelance developer I’ve started a rural wireless ISP. It hasn’t entirely displaced my freelance work, but allows me to help people in a way that being a developer didn’t (tangibly, at least).

Now I install internet access for people, on infrastructure I have built, and I see how happy they are when they go from 2 to 100mbps (this is often in a field in the middle of nowhere). This means they can talk to their families, actually do the work that pays their bills, and just generally entertain themselves.

It is very rewarding. And I know all these people as they are essentially my neighbours.

Sure! I’m about to go to bed, but I was inspired by https://startyourownisp.com/

It won’t make you rich, but it will keep you busy and get you meeting people in your area.

Our website is https://gardunha.net

Feel free to get in contact if you want to chat more.