Google employee in San Francisco saves 90% of salary by living in a truck



A Google employee in San Francisco has decided to forgot the luxuries that come with renting a property -  such as heating, air conditioning and a bathroom - to live in a truck in the company’s car park, a move that saves him nearly 90 per cent of his income by not paying rent.

The employee, known only as Brandon, has been blogging about his experience, describing how he eats all of his meals at Google, showers every day at the company's gym, and charges up a battery in the office that helps to power his laptop and other items when he uses them inside the truck.

Brandon has been living in the 16ft truck for around five months and details in his blog how he came up with the idea. During an internship at Google last summer, Brandon spent nearly $100 (£65) a night in corporate housing, which he barely spent any time in.

“The summer starts, and I'm having an amazing time, but as I start to settle into a routine, I notice something fairly tragic: for all the money I'm spending on this apartment, I'm hardly ever there! I wake up, catch the first GBus to Google, work out, eat breakfast, work, eat lunch, work, eat dinner, hang out at Google, and eventually take a bus home, pack my gym bag for the next day, and go to sleep,” he writes.

After graduating with nearly $22,500 (£14,560) in student debt and knowing he would return to the company as a software engineer, he discovered the average cost of rent where he had wanted to live – the Mountain View area – was around $2,100. He instead decided to pay $10,000 for the truck instead.



Speaking to Business Insider, Brandon said he has already paid off a large chunk of his student loans with the money he saved on rent, and expects to be debt free within six months.

“I’m going for a target of saving about 90 per cent of my after-tax income, and throwing that in student loans and investments,” he said.

Brandon’s only financial responsibility is his monthly insurance payments for the truck, costing around $121 (£78), but he barely has any possessions – the sparsely decorated truck contains a bed, a dresser, and a self-fashioned clothes rack.

He has had one run in with the security outfit on the company’s property after parking up late one night on his return home from the cinema. But when the guards discovered Brandon was an employee, they let him go back to bed and complimented him on his “sweet set-up,” he said.

India-Pakistan border pictures shared by NASA



NASA on Sunday, 4th October 2015 shared some stunning pictures of the international border of India and Pakistan as seen from the outer space.

An astronaut from the International Space Station took photographs of the night time panorama of the border facing north across Pakistan's Indus River valley. The image is of one of the few international borders in the world which can be seen so clearly at night, especially due to the high security and several security lights across the border which have a distinct orange tint for it to stand out. 

The picture which was shared on NASA's Facebook page also shows the port city of Karachi which appears to be a bright cluster of lights in stark contrast with the black Arabian Sea.

There is another picture of the border zone between India and Pakistan as seen in daytime which was shared by NASA in 2011, The image shows the border zone looking south east from the Himalayas. 



Gi FlyBike: Electric bike that tries to include any feature bike commuters might want





As more people start to commute by bike, designers are trying to tackle the various pain points involved with riding in the city—whether that’s finding ways to help cyclists squeeze bikes on public transit, adding electric motors so riders sweat less, or preventing theft. A typical design might focus on a couple of features at a time, but the Gi Bike, a new design that just launched on Kickstarter, attempts to include every possible detail a commuter could want.

"There are no full-featured bikes on the market," says Agustín Augustinoy, the chief technology officer for Gi Bike. "If a bike folds, it has 20-inch, circus-like wheels. Electric kits look like DIY projects. No electric bike comes with lights, motor, and everything else integrated and working on the same battery with only one charging point."

The Gi Bike can fold up, so it easily goes on subway cars or elevators, and can be stored in a small closet. But when it’s in use, it looks like an ordinary full-size bicycle. Flip a lever, and in three seconds, it fully transforms into a compact folded shape that can be wheeled around like rolling luggage.

"The rest of the bike is basically made around the folding mechanism," Agustinoy explains. "For us it's the proper way to fold a bike. It's the only way you don't need to lift the bike from the ground."

For riders who live in hilly cities or have a long commute, the bike comes in an electric version that can carry someone 40 miles without pedaling. It’s also smartphone-integrated, so it can give directions and send alerts if there's construction or heavy traffic on your route. It hooks up with social media accounts in case you have the urge to auto-tweet your bike rides. The bike can even charge your phone.

Once you get wherever you're going, the bike can lock itself—both wheels and the folding mechanism lock automatically when you walk 10 feet away. Eventually, the designers hope to connect it with tracking technology as well.

To help keep riders safe, the designers added built-in front and back lights. Since their research showed that most cyclists are hit from the side, the designers also added LED lights to the sides of the front wheel. The lights automatically brighten at night.

It's a long list of features, but Agustinoy says the team thinks that each is necessary, despite the steep price (The electric version will eventually retail for $3,590 but is available on Kickstarter for slightly less). "We believe it's the perfect bike to commute to work," he says.

Source: giflybike.com