

Nerd Fort - mrphoebs
http://nerdfort.com/

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jasonkester
I registered geekbeach.org (no site there) a few years back with the hope of
one day doing this same thing in some random tropical setting.

I wonder how many people (aside from me of course) would be happy to know
about a spot on Nusa Lembongan with guaranteed fast internet, reliable power,
a nice slice of white sand and a really nice reef break just outside the
lagoon.

Would anybody here take the effort to weasel a working holiday to such a
place? Any SV startups that would pick up the whole shop and set up on the
beach for a month or so?

It's been raining here in the North of England for six months straight. If I
get enough love for the idea here, I might just have to book a flight and
start scouting locations.

~~~
toumhi
Sounds awesome. I'm actually going to be in SE Asia for 5 months starting in
10 days (to start working on my own software product) so I'm already converted
and can definitely see the value in this :-) Being surrounded with like-minded
people in a coworking space on the beach in Indonesia to hack your next big
thing? What else?

Also, for the visa thing, it's not really a problem unless people want to stay
there very long. Speaking about Indonesia, they are now granting tourist visas
for 2 months. Should be plenty enough!

~~~
pault
Whoops, email bounced (update your profile), so I'll just post here for anyone
else that gives a shit:

I've spent the last 2 years doing contract work for a few different startups
while I've traveled, first in southern Brazil and now here in Thailand. I've
spent a few weeks each in Saigon, Hong Kong, Singapore, Vientiane, and Phnom
Penh, but I keep coming back to Chiang Mai as I think it has the best
combination of low cost of living (it's absurdly cheap here), access to
infrastructure, and tolerance of resident foreigners (notice I said
"tolerance" and not "acceptance"; more on that later). Singapore and Hong Kong
are far easier for a European or North American, but the cost of living is
about 2-3 times what it is in Bangkok, which itself is easily twice as much as
a smaller place like Chiang Mai.

My first few months here I kept wondering why nobody has set up startup
incubators here. The cost of living is so low it's almost a joke, and the
environment can be amazing if you know the right places to stay (and which
places to avoid). Of course it would be beneficial to be in San Francisco and
have coffee with 5 different VCs in the same day, if that's the route you are
taking, but I personally prefer the idea of the lean, bootstrapped startup. So
why would you cram 5 guys into a tiny apartment in San Francisco and eat ramen
noodles 3 meals a day while you develop your prototype, when you could be
eating in restaurants and living in a nice, furnished apartment with a view
for less than half the price? How many single engineers would jump at the
chance to spend 6 months hacking in Thailand? I know I certainly would (and I
did!).

And now the downside: Asia is VERY, VERY different to any other place in the
world. It sounds stupidly obvious, but the magnitude of the difference takes a
few months to sink in. Thailand is full of some of the friendliest, most
accommodating people in the world, but the culture just doesn't have a place
for foreigners as anything other than tourists. I lived in a small village in
the northeast for five months, and even though everyone there knew my name,
they would only refer to me as "farang", or "foreigner". Could you imagine
what kind of reaction you would get if you walked around New York saying to
all the immigrants: "Hey, foreigner!" You would be labeled a bigot and
ostracized, at best, and probably receive a well-deserved punch to the face.
And if you ever have a girlfriend here, everyone will automatically assume she
is a prostitute, which makes it really difficult to get a date with a nice
girl, as you can imagine. Singapore and Hong Kong are a different story, as
they have a much longer history of cultural and ethnic integration, but living
there is just as expensive as any big city in the U.S., if not more so. I am
making a lot of gross generalizations, and I should point out that I don't
speak the language very well, but this has been my personal experience here.
As always, YMMV.

Sorry for the rant. If anyone wants to contact me, my email is in my profile.

~~~
rdouble
How do you find contract work? I'm on vacation in Australia for 3 months but
would like to do some contract work to take care of expenses like buying a
surfboard, tent, possibly a used car, etc.

~~~
pault
All of my work has come from referrals from previous clients in the U.S., but
after 2 years it is starting to dry up a bit. I need to get my blog up to date
and start improving my network, but getting work abroad is the same as getting
work at home: get on the phone and start calling everyone that you've ever
worked with.

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JonnieCache
There's something like this in Brighton on the south coast of the UK called
The Skiff.

Membership is £165/$264 a month. However this is the top rate, you can pay £25
a month for 'mates' membership, which means you aren't guaranteed a desk, but
you can go there and find a place to sit wherever the hell you want, 2 days a
week. It's an odd pricing structure but it must work for them because from
what I've heard it's always busy.

<http://theskiff.org/pricing>

Never been there myself. We just have our own little office.

They host some sort of hacker drop-in-centre called "Build Brighton" down
there at night time apparently, which I've been meaning to check out.
Apparently they made a MIDI exercise bike once...

<http://buildbrighton.com>

~~~
JonnieCache
One random memory from Build Brighton that just came back to me; when I was at
uni we once went to a demo of live coding music[1] at a club, put on by the
aforementioned hackerspace.

One of the 'acts' involved someone waving a chair at a laptop while wearing a
gimp mask[2]. That person later turned out to be one of my lecturers who had
been teaching us to write softsynths. Good times...

[1] <https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Live_coding>

[2] <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8221235.stm>

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jollyjerry
I saw the link to Office and Company in Pasadena. The rates are a bit steep
for me at $325/month. I've also been to Blank Spaces in Santa Monica. Are
there any folks out near Caltech that be interested in sharing a space or just
working together? I usually work at home now and I wouldn't want to do co-
working everyday of the week; I find I focus better outside an office
environment. But I think spending a day or 2 every week with fellow developers
and designers sounds fun and interesting. Ping me if you like the idea of
part-time coworking.

~~~
mahipal
Yes. I'm in Old Town Pasadena but it's hard to justify that rate. There's
enough coffeeshops around here, and it's unclear whether the space has a
"community" or if it's just freelancers.

What's your email? I'm interested in setting up some sort of part-time thing,
especially if there's a few others around.

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jollyjerry
jch@whatcodecraves. I misspoke about Blank Space's location. Glad to hear that
you guys are opening up in Santa Monica though. Ideally, I'd want to do
something within walking or biking distance.

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tptacek
Price is about 20% higher than the per-person cost of our first office in
Chicago's Monadnock building, but our office didn't have the amenities. Is
this roughly what co-working spaces cost nationwide?

~~~
michaeldhopkins
The coworkspace I use in northern IL (not Chicago) costs $225/mo for full-time
access.

~~~
tptacek
Where is it?

~~~
michaeldhopkins
Rawkspace in Rockford, IL. <http://www.workrawkspace.com>

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aeden
Any photos?

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pktm
I'm not looking to appear picky, but please break out the contact info & the
address. Right now, prospects are required to thoroughly read the text, even
if they're sold and want to sign up right away.

HTH

~~~
pestaa
I didn't read through. I live in Europe. I gave up after 2 sentences. Want to
know what's in Europe? Plains and traditions.

Damn...

~~~
cpeterso
"Plains and traditions"? (I'm a USian.)

~~~
pestaa
Plains with trees and rivers. Traditions with music played with 1000-year-old
instruments and funny masks. That's what we have.

Netflix? Hulu? Tons of other interesting startups like this place? I'd pay
them twice if I could get them here.

Even BBC is not broadcasted in my country, you see. (Ok, I'm not starving at
least.)

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younata
I need more information on the zombie apocalypse survivability.

Until I know that it's safer than my bomb shelter, I am not leaving.

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travisjeffery
You need to link to some photos.

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Legion
I'm moving from California (where I work mostly in-office) to Austin (where I
will continue to work the same job, but 100% remote), and I have been looking
for things like this in the Austin area.

~~~
dustyreagan
<http://Conjunctured.com>. I'm a co-founder. 1st day is free! :)

~~~
edash
Conjunctured already filled up their main space and since expanded to another
location. The people I know there love it and many would give up their
apartment before they gave up their co-working space.

This should definitely be your first stop.

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endian
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Fernando_Valley#Economy>

~~~
jarin
That's the first thing I thought: A Nerd Fort in Porn Valley?

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rglovejoy
Photos please...

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mk
This is pretty cool as there isn't much like this in the SFV. It would be nice
if there were some photos so we could see what it looks like. I've been to co-
loft in Santa Monica a couple times and am hoping this is similar. It would be
nice if they hosted some meet-ups like co-loft does as it would be a much
closer place to nerd out for people that live closer to SFV.

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pero
Similar concept with 2 locations in Toronto:

<http://socialinnovation.ca/>

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pvilchez
There's a couple of coworking places in the Golden Triangle in Ontario that
come to mind:

\- <http://treehaus.ca> in Kitchener, I think they've been around a while;

\- <http://threefortynine.com>, a new space starting up in Guelph

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apinstein
Nice branding and story, I like it. I think from a lot of co-working sites
it's not clear what the vibe will be. Good luck!

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asmithmd1
I work out of <http://workbarboston.com> in downtown Boston right across the
street from South Station. $275 per month for a desk, more for a private
office, less for 8:30 to 5:30 access only.

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code_duck
That is so what I'm looking for.

I've been thinking of renting out an office just so I have somewhere to go to
and work in a daily routine.

Working at home all the time is not as grand as some people might think it
would be.

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nhangen
Two words: Awesome design.

~~~
techiferous
Agreed. To whomever drew the nerds in the cardboard boxes: I love that
illustration. Nice work.

~~~
billturner
The artist goes by the name Goopymart: <http://goopymart.com/>

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mrphoebs
Hi guys, Im not associated with nerd fort,so Im not able to provide any
photos. Posted the link because I thought it would be useful to other hackers
(and liked the design as well).

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MonkoftheFunk
Is this similar? <http://www.acceleratorcentre.com/about> Or is this for more
mature startups?

~~~
pvilchez
The AC is more of an incubator - that is, they provide their residents with a
lot of resources (business contacts, advisors, even training), whereas
coworking places typically don't have the same connections.

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risico
I wish there were more options like this, and not just in US. Even if you are
a freelance or a one man startup, working alone isn't always as good as it
sounds.

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whalesalad
Nice! Something finally exists for those of us in So Cal!

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swaits
The Valley is not SoCal. We have several spaces in SD.

~~~
whalesalad
Uhhh San Fernando Valley is a region of Southern California.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Fernando_Valley>

"The Valley" has different meanings to different folks.

~~~
swaits
Uhhh my point was that "The Valley" != "SoCal". Not that it isn't part of
SoCal. It's obvious if you read my post properly. Thanks for trying anyway.

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robotkad
The logo is by one of my fave internet artists - <http://goopymart.com/>

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rfugger
Nice coworking space in Vancouver:

<http://bootup.ca/garage/>

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whackedspinach
How does coworking work? Is that someplace where you could leave your desktop,
or do people just bring laptops in?

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skullsplitter
Im looking for Nerd Fort Oakland

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mkramlich
cool idea. fortunatley in some places you can get an entire private office
with door for about double that. more space & quiet, less "co-" so not sure if
clearly better or worse

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RobertKohr
Any places like this in the portland area?

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perlpimp
Anything like that around Moscow?

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jvandonsel
Love the name and logo.

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phatbyte
Photos please...

