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Communications Technology

A Mobile Home for the Wired Professional 182

Posted by timothy from the not-technically-a-yuppie dept.
mikael writes "The BBC is reporting that an Internet entrepeneur has given up on the high cost of housing in the city but has decided to merge his office/home lifestyles in the form of a luxury custom-built mobile home. Utilizing satellite technology, VoIP and a home cinema for video conferencing, the owner and his girlfriend are able to communicate with clients from anywhere. At the same time, the machine allows the occupants to remain self-sufficient in water, food, electricity and amenities for a whole week, allowing them to commute to the nearest national during the weekends." The price seems high even for all the amenities; a well-equipped Airstream can be had for enough less to pay for quite a few electronic upgrades.
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A Mobile Home for the Wired Professional More

A Mobile Home for the Wired Professional

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  • 250k is cheap for a vehicle like that (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    go ask a F1 team, Mclaren have units that would make this chaps RV look rather silly

    i wonder what the depreciation value is, if he bought bricks and mortar he would at least have an asset

    • Believe it or not I taught ethical hacking to the guys that maintain that kit, down near Biggin Hill. Nice bunch of lads, and very screwed on technically and from a sec poin of view.

      Cut a long story short: Kit that would make your eyes water; they specialise in gettin robust pieces of kit into a 747 with 0 air gap, and when it is all rolled off the plane *it* *just* has* *to* *work*

      Some would think it out-dated, but, hell. I taught them on a Ti Powerbook ;-)

  • RV's (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 02, 2005 @04:23PM (#12121599)
    I used to work at an RV Dealership pumping LP. These machines are insane. Some times, old folks would come in and plunk down giant multi-million dollar checks, or even cash, to walk out the door with one of them a few hours later (we hated that).

    My father, whom I worked with at the time, did all these sorts of upgrades - one time, I worked helping install a computer into one as the centre of a digital home hub. I did a lot of the work with that, and it was insane. And yes, they paid cash.

    • Re:RV's (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      "walk out the door with one of them a few hours later (we hated that)."


      I can imagine. The sight of a super-strong old guy with an RV on his back must be scary. When I'll buy a RV, I think I'll drive mine out the door.

    • Re:RV's (Score:3, Insightful)

      by nacturation ( 646836 )
      Some times, old folks would come in and plunk down giant multi-million dollar checks, or even cash, to walk out the door with one of them a few hours later (we hated that).

      Why would you hate this? The only reason I could think would be if the checks bounced or if you're concerned about the cash being laundered money from some drug runner. In any other case, I'd think cash would be much preferable.

  • Satellite Latency (Score:5, Interesting)

    by mpeg4codec ( 581587 ) on Saturday April 02, 2005 @04:26PM (#12121619) Homepage
    To me, it would seem that the latency involved with satellite communications would really inhibit the use of VoIP. Either that or make it really, really difficult to use. Are there any /.'ers who can vouch on either side of this issue?
    • Ever make a call to Japan (or the other side of the world) that bounced through satellites? The echoing and delay.

      All your calls would sound like that.. Yech.

      I'd imagine the dude having a cell for regular talkin', 802.11 hookups for when he drives into a hotspot, and satellite for a data link when nothing else is available.
    • Yes, normal Starband/DirectPC.. it's impossible to do ssh, VoIP, or VPNs. Just too high latency. 650ms if the packet goes through, 1300ms if it there is a retry. Those sort of round trips are not conducive to a lot of applications.

    • Re:Satellite Latency (Score:4, Interesting)

      by dougmc ( 70836 ) <dougmc+slashdot@frenzied.us> on Saturday April 02, 2005 @04:33PM (#12121681) Homepage
      the latency involved with satellite communications would really inhibit the use of VoIP.
      We've been making long distance phone calls via satellite for decades now. True, it's not over VoIP, but the cause of the latency (the long distance to the satellite) is still there, so the latency is there too.

      Yes, it's a bit odd to hear an echo of what you say into the phone a signifigant fraction of a second later, but you got used to it. You were just happy to speak to grandma, even though she was 6000 miles away and this call was costing you $0.40/minute!

      • Not really. Oh we have been able to make long distance calls via satellite for decades. Once in a while it happens, but not often. It didn't take the phone companies long to figure out that people hate the latency (particularly when there is also and echo) and they will complain about it. So the only send voice over satellite when the under sea cables are full. Customers like TV don't care about this and are willing to buy all their satellite bandwidth anyway.

        The only exceptions are those who must b

        • Not really.
          Not really what? What part of what I said was wrong?

          Certainly, I never said that all long distance calls went via satellite.

          The only exceptions are those who must be mobile.
          And what do you know? The article is about a mobile home that's ... mobile! (Though cell phone service would work in their case.)
      • We've been making long distance phone calls via satellite for decades now. True, it's not over VoIP, but the cause of the latency (the long distance to the satellite) is still there, so the latency is there too.

        True but the equipment used to transmit and receive phone calls via satellite by the phone companies is a little different. For one, it cant be purchased at your local Best Buy.

    • Re:Satellite Latency (Score:4, Informative)

      by dsginter ( 104154 ) on Saturday April 02, 2005 @04:54PM (#12121826)
      Geostationary satellite distance: 45,000 miles
      Speed of light: 186,000 miles per second

      To get to the satellite and back to earth:

      (45,000 x 2)/186,000 = 484ms

      This is on top of the normal internet delays. A response from the other end will take just as long to come back so your looking at one second delay. Not good for most any use.
      • You must work at NASA?

        http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/cuius/sip hon/siphon.html [compuserve.com]

        Not that I'm saying you're wrong, but are you sure you didn't mean km, and not miles?

      • Re:Satellite Latency (Score:2, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Its not 45,000 MILES.

        Its roughly 35,900 KILOMETERS above the earths surface, or 423,000 KILOMETERS from the earths core.

        For TCP/IP over satellite, it is also common to fake the acks at either end which will help with the internet induced latency at the expense of error correction for errors induced over the satellite link. The errors & error correction caused by the satelitte link can be handled better (or rather - more appropriately) by the low level radio transmission protocol than TCP/IP.

        Steve.

        • Re:Satellite Latency (Score:1, Informative)

          by Anonymous Coward
          Oh arse wipes.

          That should read 42,300km from the earths core.

          Steve.

      • Re:Satellite Latency (Score:3, Informative)

        by Lux ( 49200 )
        Not true.

        If you have enough bandwidth, you can use that to hide latency in some situations. Think of an RPC-style app: if you migrate the client to the other side of the world via a high-latency/high-bandwidth pipe, latency drops out of the time-to-completion for the rest of the computation.

        That really starts to pay off after a few hundred queries (if you're going around the world, you're saving at least a quarter of a second per query).

        My grad school research was in mobile agents. I think satellite ne

        • If you have enough bandwidth, you can use that to hide latency in some situations.

          VoIP is not one of those situations.

          Think of an RPC-style app: if you migrate the client to the other side of the world via a high-latency/high-bandwidth pipe

          Um, we're talking about phone conversations. The only way to `migrate the client' is to get grandma onto a plane. Or get onto a plane yourself and fly to grandma. Though there is always the old saying --

          "Never understimate the bandwidth of a station wagon

      • This is on top of the normal internet delays. A response from the other end will take just as long to come back so your looking at one second delay. Not good for most any use.

        Aside from web, email, irc. Even a videophone is still acceptable with a one second delay.

        • Re:Satellite Latency (Score:5, Informative)

          by dougmc ( 70836 ) <dougmc+slashdot@frenzied.us> on Saturday April 02, 2005 @07:01PM (#12122674) Homepage
          This is on top of the normal internet delays. A response from the other end will take just as long to come back so your looking at one second delay. Not good for most any use.
          Aside from web, email, irc. Even a videophone is still acceptable with a one second delay.
          _Most_ Internet application are usable with 1000 ms ping times. Web, email and IRC will barely even notice. Even interactive things like ssh will work, though you'll probably find the lag to be most annoying as you find yourself counting keystrokes to move your cursor around in your editor, for example.

          Back before the Internet, email was sent via things like UUCP. The equivilent ping times would be hours or even days. I've IRCed when the ping times were 5-10 seconds -- it's annoying if you're trying to do more than talk, but as long as your client is local, it's perfectly usable.

          Really, the main class of things that won't really work are first person shooters and similar games. Even something like Everquest ought to work, because it's not based on twitch reflexes.

    • I've used VoIP to communicate with someone stationed in Kuwait. Their end was using a satellite uplink, my end was a T1. Latency was noticable, but did not prevent a 20+ min conversation from taking place. It can be done.
      • >Latency was noticable, but did not prevent a 20+ min conversation from taking place. It can be done.

        Precisely. Had you talked over a land line instead, you could have finished the conversation in under 15 minutes instead!

        Seriously, such latency is annoying. I talked over Skype last night - WLAN at home and then Skype-out to the opposite side of the globe - we pretty much had to "sync" every minute and wait 1-2 seconds before one starts talking to make sure we don't start talking at the same time. I wo
    • Sat was the primary method of transporting voice in Alaska for many years, and in fact many cell networks had almost as much latency not so long ago. People tend to adapt in the conversation after a number of times of stepping over each other in conversation, they intuitivly learn to let a little time pass after speaking so as to work with the latency. You also begin to structure your phrases to make it clear when you are done and you expect the other one to speak. Its workable, but noticable.
    • Latency should be a non-issue. A very large percentage of international phone call are via satalite and most people can't tell. Occasionally you may get a bad connection with a little echoing.

      An example for a satalite is the Inmarsat-4 launched March 11, 2005. Put into a geostationary orbit, 36,000km above the Indian Ocean at 64 degrees east, thats is about 22370.39 miles. The sat will be providing high-bandwidth services, including Internet access, videoconferencing, LAN and other services, at speeds of

      • That orbit should put latency at about 240 ms.

        Minimum latency -- you're assuming that the two parties communicating via the satellite are both directly below it (in the same location :)

        In reality, when you use a communication satellite, the two parties are generally quite a ways away from it on the ground. This adds to the distance, though the distance added is smaller than the 22,000 miles it's above the Earth. (I'd have to do some math, but I'd estimate that the added distance would be between 0

    • It no more inhibits the use of VOIP than it does normal satellite phone calls.

      Yes, there is a delay, and it can be annoying, but voip works just fine.

      THe real enemy of voip is wildly fluctuating latency. Any latency will do, as long as it's relatively constant.

    • No problem - just say o (over) every time you finish talking and oo (over and out) before hanging up.

  • sounds.. (Score:3, Funny)

    by Turn-X Alphonse ( 789240 ) on Saturday April 02, 2005 @04:27PM (#12121627) Journal
    Sounds great untill some little bastard steals it and goes for a joyride while he tests for wifi spots.
  • You know, you still have to buy and maintain a vehicle to pull around your TRAILER.

    A trailer/camper/popup is no substitute for a jacked out RV. One is a home with wheels, the other is a tent with pressboard and vinyl walls.

    • Re:Airstream? (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      No. Airstream also makes RVs.
      http://www.airstream.com/product_line/motorhomes/s kydeck_home.html [airstream.com]
      • Well, Xerox makes pocket calculators, but that's not what you'd think of if I suggested you run out and buy a "Xerox machine" to help you with your math homework.

        My point being, "Airstream" == "Trailer" to most folk.

        Of course, the RV you linked too ain't cheap, like the submitter suggests an Airstream would be.

    • Don't get the motorhome (Score:4, Interesting)

      by bluGill ( 862 ) on Saturday April 02, 2005 @08:13PM (#12123152)

      If anyone is considering getting something like this, don't make the mistake of getting something with a built in motor. Get a trailer with a separate tow vehicle. I prefer 5Th wheels (they tow nice), but make your own choice.

      With the built in motor you have to drive the whole house to a store, and fitting an RV into a standard parking spot is an exercise in frustration. Worse if you want to park near downtown sometime. Much easier to leave the house behind and just take the tow vehicle.

      And there is the problem of what if it breaks? With the separate tow vehicle you just drop it off at the dealer and drive a loaner car. You will be hard pressed to find a town that doesn't have a dealer who can fix your truck, while someone willing to touch a RV is harder to find. Or just trade the truck in on a new one (only rich people live in an RV, it is too expensive for normal folks, so this is reasonable). Of course you could trade the RV in when it breaks, but good luck finding one you like in a random town, while truck dealers are all over.

      Oh, and if you are doing this, please don't get a gas engine! Diesel is much more efficient, meaning it won't burn what gas my generation wants to live with for the rest of our life.

      • Re:Don't get the motorhome (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward
        What your are referring to is a 'Diesel Pusher' and yes they are more powerful and efficient than a Gas engine (ten times the torque of an equivalent Gas moter at the same horse power). Most of them also have enough power to tow a small car behind so you can park the elephant in a park and drive the car for errands and such..(Mini Coopers and Ford Focus' are a fav with the RV set).
        Plus Diesel engines, with proper maintenance, can last over 1 million miles. Ask any 18wheel truck driver. The only real drawba
      • Like most things in life, there are trade-offs. With a 5th wheel you need to buy a suitable truck. To pull all but the smallest trailer, you really need a 1 ton truck. My uncle tried with a 3/4 ton, but found it under powered on hills and required sacrificing air conditioning frequently. And you can still have parking problems with a full size truck if they haven't restriped the lots to account for larger SUVs. I used to own a full size ford van, turning radius and small parking places were annoying. And th
    • I've found that the separate vehicle makes it easier to commute, and go to the grocery store.

      And the Airstream hull acts like a faraday cage. We wouldn't want anyone to van-eck phreaking...

      But it is a pain to use a cell phone. I have to open the door.
  • "An internet entrepreneur with a taste for the open road is having a brain tumour removed"

    That house must just be like a giant microwave

  • Motor Home, not Mobile Home... (Score:3, Informative)

    by Kelmenson ( 592104 ) <kelmenson@y[ ]o.com ['aho' in gap]> on Saturday April 02, 2005 @04:33PM (#12121684)
    A mobile home is typically carried around on a flatbed truck then mounted to the ground... This is a motor home, more usually called an RV.
    • You're right, this is a "motor home", not a "mobile home". But you're wrong about everything else. I've never heard of mobile homes being loaded on a flatbed -- they generally come with their own wheels. And RV (short for Recreational Vehicle) is a generic term, that includes both the trailer and self-propelled "home".
      • They *have* to come with their own wheels. They must have a single I-beam down the middle, they must have a hitch, the hitch must be included in the length measurements (just as the overhang must be counted in the width measurements), etc.

        They're titled just like a car (or, more specifically, like a car trailer...). When you buy or sell one, you transfer a title just like transfering a title to a car.

        I know all this because I now live in my second mobile home. 1800 ft^2, $40,000 in Rochester, Michiga

  • I have been reduced to saying, "And this is news?" (Score:4, Interesting)

    by kfg ( 145172 ) on Saturday April 02, 2005 @04:33PM (#12121685)
    This was done by bicycle, http://www.microship.com/ [microship.com], 20 years ago (complete with a binary "keyboard" on the handlebars so that the rider could type while riding and satellite uplink) and my aunt gave up her house 10 years ago to go RVing and says she doesn't understand anymore why anyone would want to own a house in the first place.

    Slashdot breaking news story: Sam's Club!

    KFG

  • All well and good (Score:4, Interesting)

    by YrWrstNtmr ( 564987 ) on Saturday April 02, 2005 @04:35PM (#12121696)
    ...as long as you have no kids.

    2 yuppies, cruising around in a motor home with no fixed address is fine, if a bit expensive (gas prices in UK?).

    I don't see this as a real money saver. Yes, 1/4 million pounds is less than many (by far not all) homes in SE england. But depreciation and operating expenses will eat up any potential savings, and when they decide to give up this hobby, they'll be behind the real estate/money curve.

    But, if money isn't a consideration (and it appears not to be in this case), why not do it for a couple of years? I'd get tired of it pretty quick, but he might not.

  • It's porn! (Score:5, Funny)

    by tyroneking ( 258793 ) on Saturday April 02, 2005 @04:38PM (#12121710)
    Internet entrepeneur? Video cameras? His girlfriend?
    Sounds suspiciously like a mobile porn studio.

  • Can't do VOIP over satelite... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Spoing ( 152917 ) on Saturday April 02, 2005 @04:43PM (#12121753) Homepage
    If you need any interactivity, satilite connections won't cut it. Voice and video would need other communications methods.

  • Ahh (Score:3, Interesting)

    by metlin ( 258108 ) on Saturday April 02, 2005 @04:46PM (#12121773) Journal
    "It's a beautiful part of the country. We're keen rock climbers, so we can't complain about having well-known UK crags around the place."

    Well, that's understandable.

    As a fellow climber, I can completely understand where they're coming from - it really sucks having to carry 35 pounds on your back and set camp at a base from where you can climb.

    While it is a little extreme, it does make sense.
  • mikael writes "The BBC is reporting that an Internet entrepeneur has given up on the high cost of housing in the city..."
    Jeez, learn to read. There's nothing in the article about saving money. Which is probably not a priority for somebody who can afford to spend GBP 250,000 (US$470,000) on an RV. Not to mention the cost of parking the thing, hookup fees, gas...

  • Nothing really new (Score:3, Informative)

    by 0123456 ( 636235 ) on Saturday April 02, 2005 @04:52PM (#12121812)
    Steve Roberts has been doing this kind of thing (admittedly with bikes and boats rather than RVs) for about fifteen years now...

    http://www.microship.org/ [microship.org]

  • bubble-buster (Score:5, Informative)

    by TheHawke ( 237817 ) <{rchapin} {at} {stx.rr.com}> on Saturday April 02, 2005 @04:57PM (#12121835)
    Have you guys ever checked the insurance rates on a Class-A RV? My god, they approach the levels of owning a 2 bedroom house! That and maintaining the beast, where are you going to sleep when it's in the garage with a blown motor? Or worse, the bloody thing starts leaking around the seams? The service center most likely will not allow you to stay in the vehicle while it's in their garage overnight.

    The air conditioning in the vehicles are not conducive to electronics while in a high humidity area, for they are glorified window AC units. All they do is cool the air and TRY to pull the moisture out of it, but not really succeeding.
    Sure, they may look great but to be really a place to house your systems in, you actually have to increase your housing budget by a small factor to cover the extra things. Beefier wiring, more outlets, dehumidification, a better refrigerator than the slow and ice up like a ship in the north sea ammonia units.

    By the time you get done, you'll have something like the emergency response vehicles that the larger metro poilce forces are using for mobile command posts. All electronics and few luxuries.

    • Re:bubble-buster (Score:3, Funny)

      by PCM2 ( 4486 )

      That and maintaining the beast, where are you going to sleep when it's in the garage with a blown motor? Or worse, the bloody thing starts leaking around the seams? The service center most likely will not allow you to stay in the vehicle while it's in their garage overnight.

      Fortunately, he's one of those computer geniuses. I'm [travelodge.com] sure [motel6.com] he'll [super8.com] be [econolodge.com] able [redroof.com] to [hojo.com] think [daysinn.com] of [bestwestern.com] something. [holiday-inn.com]

      • And all that time, tossing and turning in your bed, worrying full-time about all your gear that's sitting on that company's lot, surrounded only by a rusty chain-link fence with a even more rustier (or non existent) barbwire top, that only a criminal would simply lean on and it would fall over. Or worse, the mechanics that have "sticky fingers" or your equipment simply grows legs and walks off...

        It's tough on a geek to do something like that.

      • Re:bubble-buster (Score:3, Interesting)

        by timothy ( 36799 )
        "Fortunately, he's one of those computer geniuses. [hotel links]I'm sure he'll be able to think of something[/hotel links]."

        You're right that he can find a hotel (though they're scarce in some parts; I'm pretty inured to sleeping in my car when necessary, annoying as it can sometimes be -- however, I don't have an RV for which to find safe haven), but that additional cost adds up quickly, especially if the repairs are like those experienced by Phillip Greenspun [photo.net]. (The link was handy; this story had made me
    • So you stay in one of the Suite hotels catering to businesses. Around here, the nicer ones run less than $500 per week, $1500/month, and include free wireless internet and a continental breakfast.
    • The insurance on my RV is less than that of my normal car.

      Most of the RV makers have a campground next to the factory where you can stay while they work on your unit. Airstream does this and provides a waiting area with an Internet-connected computer for you during the day while they work on your RV. If they need more than one day they haul your unit back to the campground for you to stay in. Some RV dealers even do this.

      Most of the class A RVs nowadays have residential-style AC units with heat pumps that
    • Not a class A, but my class C runs about $220 a year for insurance. $50 higher than my motorcycle. Considerably less than my truck, which is less than my homeowners'.

      As for breakdowns, for the amount of money being spent you could get a new diesel pusher. If you're putting enough mileage on one of those to blow a motor, finding someplace to stay while it's in the shop will be trivial. And a motel room is cheap compared to the rebuild cost.

      From your comments, it appears you are familiar with the systems

  • Not all that new (Score:5, Interesting)

    by SJasperson ( 811166 ) on Saturday April 02, 2005 @05:02PM (#12121869)
    I was doing full-time computer consulting and living full-time in an RV back in 1997-2000 (in the US), and I was hardly the only one. Even then, it wasn't that hard to stay in touch; plenty of RV parks would let you plug in a wired modem somewhere, more and more had internet hookups right at every site, and you could have a satellite modem if you were willing to pay enough for it (around $2/minute for 9600 baud access, which was plenty good enough for email and shipping code back and forth in those less bloated days). It's fun when you get to camp in the boondocks next to a hot spring for a couple of weeks and still bill a good hourly rate for the hours you care to work on your laptop while recharging from the solar panels. It's not so fun when you're stuck in the client's parking lot in Schaumburg Illinois for a week in winter because they really need to see you on site and the propane heater barely keeps up with the chill.

    • Houseboats are good for this too (Score:4, Informative)

      by billstewart ( 78916 ) on Saturday April 02, 2005 @08:06PM (#12123101) Journal
      I've had a couple of coworkers who've lived on houseboats in the San Francicsco Bay. Normally this class of boat is an overpriced luxury, e.g. $100-200K for a toy, plus dock rental, etc., but since housing of any kind in the Bay Area is an overpriced luxury, it wasn't really that bad a deal financially, and the lifestyle was cool. Some of them were single (aka divorced - so the boat's also a great midlife-crisis getaway and a fun way to impress babes), some were married couples living on the boat. I've also had a few friends who were techie RV commuters doing what you did, but that's a much lower-cost lifestyle.

      For either of those approaches, you need to be really good at getting by without accumulating lots of stuff (so it wouldn't work well for me), and at least for the boats you need to be good at keeping your place neat as well (again, not me :-)

  • Compairing prices really does not make sense. I am sure they are putting so much extra into this vehicle, that if they did buy a stock Airstream, they would have to tear it completely appart and rebuild it. Plus, a standard camper does not make you self suffient for a week. It caries a can of propane, enough for a couple of meals, a small tank of water for 2-3 days, if you don't shower or use the onboard restroom. Electricity is supplied by the engine's generator, hence you only have electricity as long
    • An RV this size would have a 150-200 gallon fresh tank. Black/gray water tanks will be large enough to accomodate that. The real drain on water would be showers. Me, I like long showers so I'm basically screwed. Propane would be around 200 lbs. If you aren't having to run heat, it would last for months. And a rig that size would have a 7kw genset, your only limitations are fuel and noise. But again, if all you are running is a couple laptops and lights, you should have enough battery for most of the day wi
      • But a week? And remember, these people arent "roughing it", they are neveau-riche who's one home is this place. I think they plan on showering. Electricty would not be too much of an issue if they had some nice expensive high effiency solar pannels on the huge roof and some big batterys in the "basement". I still don't see how they would have enough room for huge water and propane tanks (remember, they can't go without heat, its not all that warm in England).
        • If their goal is to be completely self sufficient for a week, they can do it. The extent of roughing it would simply be water conservation on showers. Wet down, turn off water, lather up, rince, and you're done. Remember, they are used to living in a much smaller rig. My class C has a shower, but only a 30 gallon tank.

          For power, I can't see someone paying that kind of money and not having batteries and a system wide inverter. And they do have solar, which wouldn't be too useful without a battery or two.

          Fr
          • You didn't prove anything. So it would take 325 lb to run minimal electronics for 20 hours, and 20lb for 15 hours of heat. Lets work it out. One week is 168 hours, or 8.4 x 325lb of batteries, 2730 lb. If they want two laptops, a switch, a TV, a sophisticated climate control system and lots of lights, we are getting over 10,000 lb of lead acid batteries. Propane faires better at 224 lb for a week of heat, but probably more for cookin their filet mignone.
            • Minimal electronics? It covered enough for two people with everything but the satellite link. Worst case, you throw in a file server, but you would also be concerned with power consumption there, so you wouldn't be installing a 4 processor box with a 10 drive raid. Again, from the article, they have an office with a secretary. Anything required by the business would stored on a server there, or you could co-locate it with an ISP. But ok, lets assume a light server installed too. I have a little PowerEdge on
  • This is what I'm always totally clueless about...

    First, these so called internet-entrepeneurs(which, imho, means you can settle about anywhere you want) choose to sit in the most expensive places and now, this one chooses to sit in an RV? I mean, to me that is just plain stupid... I mean, why do these guys have to go places if they're *internet* entrepeneurs?
  • I wonder what his strategy for physical security is. Now that he's announced the location where the vehicle is going to be parked every weekend while he himself is strapped to the side of a mountain at some altitude, I hope he's got all this stuff well secured against theft, fire, and vandalism, or better yet, attended by a gearsitter.

    There's always insurance, but after the second hit or so the insurance companies get somewhat less enthusiastic about renewing the policy.

  • Yacht++ (Score:2, Insightful)

    by cyb0rg ( 580354 )
    Instead of a motor-home, I think I would prefer to get a Yacht and deck (no pun intended) it out with all the amenities. There's just so may more places you can go on the high-seas. /You insensitive landlubber.
    • Or better yet, a nice big sailboat (maybe even a schooner) -- sailing just seems geekier to me, since it's more efficient and requires more skill.

  • Confidence Trick ? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Jononon ( 856369 )
    They've generated international publicity, but their website [tristem.net] is barely more than a poorly designed placeholder and their businesses [vangear.co.uk] do not appear to have any products to sell.
    Company regulations and council tax issues further the implausibility of this scheme
    It's very easy to put out exciting press releases, but if this thing ever hits the road I'll be amazed.

  • Maui Van (Score:3, Interesting)

    by pensano ( 168570 ) on Saturday April 02, 2005 @07:42PM (#12122943) Homepage
    I've been doing something similar for the past six months. I purchased a fifteen passenger van in Colorado -- refurnished the interior with bed, closet, kitchen, pullout laptop desk, girlfriend, and surfboard storage racks -- and shipped it to Maui. It's been great. Net access is pretty good over cell modem, or we can wardrive when we want to download a movie torrent. :) I've been working three hours a week teaching physics for food money, and windsurfing tons. Journal and pics here:

    http://www.livejournal.com/users/mauitian/ [livejournal.com]

    • I purchased a fifteen passenger van in Colorado -- refurnished the interior with bed, closet, kitchen, pullout laptop desk, girlfriend, and surfboard storage racks -- and shipped it to Maui.

      How did your girlfriend feel about being shut up inside a van while it was shipped to Hawaii?

  • not a mobile home (Score:5, Informative)

    by JeremyALogan ( 622913 ) on Saturday April 02, 2005 @08:03PM (#12123084) Homepage
    Ok, I'm sorry to bitch about semantics, but this is one of my pet peeves. This thing is not a mobile home [wikipedia.org], but a motor home [wikipedia.org] or RV. A mobile home is what you see in "trailer parks" and a motor home is what you can drive around. There is a difference.

  • Big deal (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Fapestniegd ( 34586 ) <`james' `at' `jameswhite.org'> on Saturday April 02, 2005 @08:44PM (#12123359) Homepage
    I've been doing this for over a Year [jameswhite.org].

    And for about $14k. And $5k for the pickup truck.
    I'm posting this from the pod right now.
    Most RV parks have WiFi, well the good ones anyway, so latency isn't a problem.


  • I saw a picture of the Corrs vehicle they used on their North American tour last year.

    Sucker looked like a double decker or something, it was so huge.

    It was so wide it couldn't get through the gate at one of the Northwest venues and they had to park it in the street.

    Some of the fans thought it had to be worth at least a million bucks.

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