Bit Hotel is a Social-first Play 2 Earn NFT Gaming Metaverse, in which users can compete to earn Bit Hotel tokens and acquire native NFTs. These NFTs have in-game usability and consist of characters, hotel rooms, furniture and other artifacts that have their own perks. 

Let’s talk about my first time at AWS re:Invent in Las Vegas, my mistakes, and the horrendous lack of diversity and inclusion at this conference. I went to AWS re:Invent in Las Vegas this year. As I went about my daily routine, I figured it would be a good idea to write a review of the tech conference from my perspective. Here are some of the mistakes I made that you can avoid the next time you’re headed to one of these events. For a thorough survival guide view the . The Ultimate Guide to AWS re:Invent 2018 For some reason I dropped the ball on this one. I did not download the app until Sunday night. The app is where the session catalog is located, as well as the WiFi password! Always read your emails for important information. Download the AWS re:Invent app. I found some of the best talks in rooms that held a couple hundred people. Those sessions were the best for drop-in sessions after the smaller room sessions were filled to capacity. Go to talks in the larger rooms. Sometimes I did not get into a session and had no alternative sessions to jump into at that time slot. After this happened, I spent each night, on the app, adding a bunch of sessions to my schedule to make sure I had options for the day. Sign up for everything that is remotely interesting. The events are hosted in a number of hotels on the Las Vegas strip. The hotels with the most events are the Venetian, Aria, Bellagio, and MGM. I stood at Park MGM which is connected to the Aria, so I minimized some of my walking distances. However most of the talks I was interested in were at the Venetian which meant I would be using the shuttle system a bit. Book a hotel near the events. Although the strip is highly connected, on the first day I did not know of this fact so it took me 1 hour to get to a session. After this I learned the AWS shuttles are the best way to get to and from events in different hotels. Always use AWS shuttles between venues. I learned this one by reading the signs which read “queuing starts 1 hr prior to session start time.” At that moment I learned why I arrived 15 mins early there was a line that curved around the bend for the session. Get to the sessions interesting sessions 1 hour early. I was hungry fairly often, especially because I was dashing between sessions. There are ton of snacks around the venues, primarily around the breakfast and lunch times. Stack up on snacks. I ducked out of the second keynote 10 minutes before it ended and they announced managed Kafka. Always stay to the end or you might miss something. Watch the Keynotes in full. I noticed that after the product announcements there were new sessions in the catalog labeled [NEW-LAUNCH]. I got into a few, but to be honest, it was a shitty experience to have to ditch my whole schedule and scramble to a new session. After product reveals signup for sessions. Whenever you get your badge scanned a B2B company jumps for joy because they got your email for a lifetime. Be smart and use your work email unlike me who used their personal email. Use your company email. I did not spend enough time at the expo because it was massively overwhelming. But I managed to go for a few hours and get free swag. Here I learned about chaos engineering which is freaking awesome! Go to the Expo. I found this was a cool way to meet other people at the events. You can also increase your follower count as #awsreinvent will be trending. Tweet about it. Thank you for reading! Just kidding. You honestly thought I was going write a tech article on one of the largest tech events of the year, for one of the richest companies in the world, without sharing a few cold, hard truths on diversity and inclusion 🙃? Diversity in tech What I love about these large tech conferences is that they exacerbate every stereotype, every privilege, and every shortcoming that exists in the technology industry. Every aspect in which the tech industry could do better is highlighted, clear as day, at these events. Diversity sucks. In 2017 there were approximately 43,000 people at re:Invent and this year they expected an even larger crowd according to the . Guess how many people of color I saw at this event. I found maybe one for every finger on my left hand. Maybe AWS had a secret events list just for minorities and I did not get the invitation. Conference wide that number could be 2% but even at that rate those numbers are abysmal. (I don’t have any data to support this claim.) Amazon new blog Ok but let’s be optimistic. Well Amazon is not the only company responsible for the diversity in tech problem so we can’t pin it on them. But this is their conference, so surely they made sure their panel of speakers diverse because they prize diversity and inclusion. You woulda thought thats what happened. I saw zero people of color on stage. Oh, I saw one woman! But she didn’t even give the presentation on the topic. She came from behind the stage to answer questions because I think she was in charge of the service. If that was the case, WHY DIDN’T SHE PRESENT FROM THE JUMP!? These are the things that annoy me about the tech overlords. Amazon, you are one of the richest companies on the planet, maybe even in history, with the richest man in the world at the helm of your universe conquering death star, and you’re telling me that you could not afford to put one of your best, brightest, most overpaid, employees to solve the representation problem at your tech conference!? If you’re really customer obsessed fix the diversity problem at your conference. But wait theres more! You know this recap would not be complete without someone doing the most to exclude the minorities by saying something prejudice that perpetuates the alienation we feel on the daily. Inclusion sucks. There was a re:Invent sponsored pub crawl within the various casinos. My coworker, who is black, and I were lost and confused so we decided to ask questions to other conference participates. Mind you, we both had our badges visible and we had branded AWS bags with out things. Clearly, we belonged at this conferences. Right? We saw a group of people (all white obviously) walking by that had AWS badges like ours. We asked the group for directions to the pub crawl, and I kid you not, the brogrammer of the group looked at us laughed, walked away, and said it was a private event. As common as these things are, anger is never really the first response, instead we were shocked that such an interaction even occurred. Did you know the conference has a ? Let’s look at the behavior section. code of conduct Behavior 1. You will behave in a way as to create a safe and supportive environment for all event participants. Thanks for creating an unsupportive environment for us, you dick. 2. You will not engage in disruptive speech or behavior or otherwise interfere with the event or other individuals’ participation in the event. Because of your comments and behavior, you interfered with us participating in the pub crawl event, you dick. 3. You will not engage in any form of harassing, offensive, discriminatory, or threatening speech or behavior, including (but not limited to) relating to race, gender, gender identity and expression, national origin, religion, disability, marital status, age, sexual orientation, military or veteran status, or other protected category. Thanks for offending us, you dick. 4. You will comply with the instructions of event and venue staff. Thanks for violating the code of conduct, you dick. 5. You will comply with all applicable laws. Not sure if you broke a law but you’re still a dick. And there you have it folks, even in our precious tech bubble, full of all its free snacks, high salaries, ping-pong tables, innovative disruption, and feel good talks about unlimited paid time off, even in 2018, there are some groups of people that just live a different experience within the tech world. Message to the brogrammer, we still made the pub crawl, you dick. Cheers!Dec 2, 2018 👋🏽Hi! I’m Steven Natera. Follow me on Twitter . I’m actively involved in the , specifically . I like writing about code, startups, React and Kubernetes. If you‘re a hacker or maker where we share the dope shit we’re building. @StevenNatera open source community GatsbyJS join the Dope Technophiles newsletter

AWS re:Invent 2018 Recap - The Minority Perspective

End-to-end encryption, the tech to make sure only you can access your data, is getting traction recently. Even if you're not familiar with privacy-friendly services like Signal, you're still using end-to-end encryption while you're in WhatsApp, iCloud or Messenger, which means billions of people are using it worldwide. sending messages The adoption of end-to-end encryption is also growing in business tools: companies now have the option to switch to that when using Zoom or Microsoft Teams, besides choosing services that come with built-in end-to-encryption. But what is exactly end-to-end encryption, how does it protect your data and why is it superior to all other types of encryption out there? Read below for an overview of the different types of encryption, and some fun facts you may or may not already know. What is the definition of end-to-end encryption? The of end-to-end encryption is as follows: “The encryption of information at its origin and decryption at its intended destination without any intermediate decryption” US federal standard Why is this definition problematic? The above definition has now become problematic because it is: Outdated Open to interpretation Given the various personal interpretations of encryption floating around the market, we always stick with ‘end-to-end encryption’ as our universal go-to definition for what Tresorit delivers to its customers. Not all encryption is created equal. What are the different types of encryption available? To answer this question, we’re going to get a little creative. Imagine that you are checking into a hotel. You’re on a business trip to deliver important documents to a client. You want to find a safe place in your room to put your documents before meeting your client for a meal. Where should you leave them? Leaving the documents in your room is an option, but that puts a lot of weight on your trust in the hotel’s staff. It also leaves the documents vulnerable to a breach in the hotel’s own security – like a thief who makes off with a master key, or a hotel cleaner gone rogue. The set-up we’ve described is called at-rest encryption. It is intended to prevent access to the physical infrastructure (in this case, your hotel room). With this set-up, your documents are encrypted, but the keys to unlock them are stored in the same environment, so…. easy work to decrypt should they fall into the wrong hands. At-rest encryption Session encryption provides a higher level of protection than at-rest encryption - the files are encrypted by the server, and the encryption key is stored in an encrypted format on this server for a short time. In the unfortunate event a system using session encryption is breached, only the users online during this period are compromised (the equivalent of only having your documents stolen from your person if you happen to be in the hotel at the time of theft). So… mixed reviews from us on this one. (Fun fact: Zoom actually sold this type of session encryption - which allowed their server to access and decrypt content - as end-to-end encryption to their customers. Lesson learnt the hard way. Session encryption One way of reducing the risk of your precious documents being stolen in transit is to find a secure channel to deliver them to your client from the hotel, like a taxi or (if you’re not looking to travel discretely) a convoy of armoured vehicles. This approach is called in-transit encryption, and functions well up until a point your vehicle gets apprehended or a weak link in your convoy is exposed. In-transit encryption To keep our hotel metaphor just a little bit longer, an example of client-side encryption would be a hotel room safe housed within your hotel room. Safes allow us to safeguard important documents with a code that is only accessible to the owner and the people he or she shares the code details with. Client-side encryption Sounds like client-side encryption is where I want to be, how do I get started? Not so fast. There are a couple of issues with client-side encryption. First up, if you’re using a mainstream cloud solution, you have to encrypt your files before uploading them which, much like bringing a safe to your hotel room you’re staying in, is pretty inconvenient. Another problem is the terminology of client-side encryption – which is mostly used for storage systems, not transactions. This means that the safe combination may not match up with the information that the client is able to access, creating a whole new set of problems in the process. What’s the solution then? We believe that end-to-end encryption is encryption in its purest form – and, semantically speaking, the easiest way to articulate what we provide our customers as an . ultra-secure service What are the defining characteristics of E2EE? We believe that a system can be called ‘end to end encrypted’ if it fulfills the following 6 criteria as much as practically possible (Tresorit disclaimer: it’s pretty much impossible to apply all of these criteria at once in a business setting, but all 6 can and should be taken into account). The encryption happens between two (or more) parties, whereby the intended origin encrypts the message, and the intended destination(s) decrypt the message without being disturbed. In this case, a ‘party’ could be an organization (not just a private individual) and applies to any system which is under full control of the organization? Make sense? Great, let’s move on… Architecture criteria. . If the key exchanges for your encryption are done in a way that only allows the parties (that we described above) access, then you’ve got yourself some end-to-end encryption! Key exchange criteria Same approach, but applied to the management and generation of keys this time around. If a third party (even a trusted one) has access to these even temporarily, then your system is not end-to-end encrypted! Key generation & management criteria. . The parties private keys need to be backed up in a format that no one else has access to. Pretty straightforward. Key back-up criteria . The parties need to ensure that the software they are using is infection free, backdoor free and purchased from the original trusted vendor. Binary authenticity criteria . Both parties need to be 100% certain that the public keys belong to their respective counterparts. End-point authentication criteria How can we execute E2EE? One of the most popular ways to execute E2EE involves an application server in the middle. This is a set up popularized by both messaging apps such as WhatsApp and VoIP systems. Pro tip: from the provider side, it’s crucial to ensure that there is no available access to the application server when building this type of system. Failure to secure your central routing element = bad news. How does E2EE work for businesses? Making E2EE work within a business environment depends on being able to control or ‘trust’ the server being used to transfer information. And… the good news is that this doesn’t necessarily mean investing in your own cloud infrastructure – 3rd party cloud storage options can be brought into play provided that the gateways to this storage are controlled by the company doing the encryption/key exchange. One Last Thing… We realize that not every aspect of cryptography (and what makes E2EE secure) can be distilled or described simply, and that even end-to-end encryption is still subject to very high-level definition. Nevertheless, we believe it’s important for everyone who handles confidential information (as an individual, or as part of a business) to have an overview on how to share securely. We believe that E2EE is the best possible way to achieve this – – and we hope that this insight into our world inspires you to dig a little deeper yourself. whether you’re a legal firm or a non-profit

A Cryptographer's Guide to End-to-End Encryption

The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . Chapter XX CHAPTER XX I drove to the hotel. There was no one in the lounge that I knew. I ran upstairs and tapped on Suzanne’s door. Her voice bade me “come in.” When she saw who it was she literally fell on my neck. “Anne, dear, where have you been? I’ve been worried to death about you. What have you been doing?” “Having adventures,” I replied. “Episode III of ‘The Perils of Pamela.’” I told her the whole story. She gave vent to a deep sigh when I finished. “Why do these things always happen to you?” she demanded plaintively. “Why does no one gag me and bind me hand and foot?” “You wouldn’t like it if they did,” I assured her. “To tell you the truth, I’m not nearly so keen on having adventures myself as I was. A little of that sort of thing goes a long way.” Suzanne seemed unconvinced. An hour or two of gagging and binding would have changed her views quickly enough. Suzanne likes thrills, but she hates being uncomfortable. “And what are we all doing now?” she asked. “I don’t quite know,” I said thoughtfully. “You still go to Rhodesia, of course, to keep an eye on Pagett——” “And you?” That was just my difficulty. Had Chichester gone on the Kilmorden, or had he not? Did he mean to carry out his original plan of going to Durban? The hour of his leaving Muizenberg seemed to point to an affirmative answer to both questions. In that case, I might go to Durban by train. I fancied that I should get there before the boat. On the other hand, if the news of my escape were wired to Chichester, and also the information that I had left Cape Town for Durban, nothing was simpler for him than to leave the boat at either Port Elizabeth or East London and so give me the slip completely. It was rather a knotty problem. “We’ll inquire about trains to Durban anyway,” I said. “And it’s not too late for morning tea,” said Suzanne. “We’ll have it in the lounge.” The Durban train left at 8.15 that evening, so they told me at the office. For the moment I postponed decision and joined Suzanne for somewhat belated “eleven-o’clock tea.” “Do you feel that you would really recognize Chichester again—in any other disguise, I mean?” asked Suzanne. I shook my head ruefully. “I certainly didn’t recognize him as the stewardess, and never should have but for your drawing.” “The man’s a professional actor, I’m sure of it,” said Suzanne thoughtfully. “His make-up is perfectly marvellous. He might come off the boat as a navvy or something, and you’d never spot him.” “You’re very cheering,” I said. At that minute, Colonel Race stepped in through the window and came and joined us. “What is Sir Eustace doing?” asked Suzanne. “I haven’t seen him about to-day.” Rather an odd expression passed over the Colonel’s face. “He’s got a little trouble of his own to attend to which is keeping him busy.” “Tell us about it.” “I mustn’t tell tales out of school.” “Tell us something—even if you have to invent it for our special benefit.” “Well, what would you say to the famous ‘Man in the Brown Suit’ having made the voyage with us?” “What?” I felt the colour die out of my face and then surge back again. Fortunately Colonel Race was not looking at me. “It’s a fact, I believe. Every port watched for him and he bamboozled Pedler into bringing him out as his secretary!” “Not Mr. Pagett?” “Oh, not Pagett—the other fellow. Rayburn, he called himself.” “Have they arrested him?” asked Suzanne. Under the table she gave my hand a reassuring squeeze. I waited breathlessly for an answer. “He seems to have disappeared into thin air.” “How does Sir Eustace take it?” “Regards it as a personal insult offered him by Fate.” An opportunity of hearing Sir Eustace’s views on the matter presented itself later in the day. We were awakened from a refreshing afternoon nap by a page-boy with a note. In touching terms it requested the pleasure of our company at tea in his sitting-room. The poor man was indeed in a pitiable state. He poured out his troubles to us, encouraged by Suzanne’s sympathetic murmurs. (She does that sort of thing very well.) “First a perfectly strange woman has the impertinence to get herself murdered in my house—on purpose to annoy me, I do believe. Why my house? Why, of all the houses in Great Britain, choose the Mill House? What harm had I ever done the woman that she must needs get herself murdered there?” Suzanne made one of her sympathetic noises again and Sir Eustace proceeded in a still more aggrieved tone. “And, if that’s not enough, the fellow who murdered her has the impudence, the colossal impudence, to attach himself to me as my secretary. My secretary, if you please! I’m tired of secretaries, I won’t have any more secretaries. Either they’re concealed murderers or else they’re drunken brawlers. Have you seen Pagett’s black eye? But of course you have. How can I go about with a secretary like that? And his face is such a nasty shade of yellow too—just the colour that doesn’t go with a black eye. I’ve done with secretaries—unless I have a girl. A nice girl, with liquid eyes, who’ll hold my hand when I’m feeling cross. What about you, Miss Anne. Will you take on the job?” “How often shall I have to hold your hand?” I asked, laughing. “All day long,” replied Sir Eustace gallantly. “I shan’t get much typing done at that rate,” I reminded him. “That doesn’t matter. All this work is Pagett’s idea. He works me to death. I’m looking forward to leaving him behind in Cape Town.” “He is staying behind?” “Yes, he’ll enjoy himself thoroughly sleuthing about after Rayburn. That’s the sort of thing suits Pagett down to the ground. He adores intrigue. But I’m quite serious in my offer. Will you come? Mrs. Blair here is a competent chaperon, and you can have a half-holiday every now and again to dig for bones.” “Thank you very much, Sir Eustace,” I said cautiously, “but I think I’m leaving for Durban to-night.” “Now don’t be an obstinate girl. Remember, there are lots of lions in Rhodesia. You’ll like lions. All girls do.” “Will they be practising low jumps?” I asked, laughing. “No, thank you very much, but I must go to Durban.” Sir Eustace looked at me, sighed deeply, then opened the door of the adjoining room and called to Pagett. “If you’ve quite finished your afternoon sleep, my dear fellow, perhaps you’d do a little work for change.” Guy Pagett appeared in the doorway. He bowed to us both, starting slightly at the sight of me, and replied in a melancholy voice: “I have been typing that memorandum all this afternoon, Sir Eustace.” “Well, stop typing it then. Go down to the Trade Commissioner’s Office, or the Board of Agriculture, or the Chamber of Mines, or one of these places, and ask them to lend me some kind of a woman to take to Rhodesia. She must have liquid eyes and not object to my holding her hand.” “Yes, Sir Eustace. I will ask for a competent short-hand-typist.” “Pagett’s a malicious fellow,” said Sir Eustace, after the secretary had departed. “I’d be prepared to bet that he’ll pick out some slab-faced creature on purpose to annoy me. She must have nice feet too—I forgot to mention that.” I clutched Suzanne excitedly by the hand and almost dragged her along to her room. “Now, Suzanne,” I said, “we’ve got to make plans—and make them quickly. Pagett is staying behind here—you heard that?” “Yes. I suppose that means that I shan’t be allowed to go to Rhodesia—which is very annoying, because I want to go to Rhodesia. How tiresome.” “Cheer up,” I said. “You’re going all right. I don’t see how you could back out at the last moment without its appearing frightfully suspicious. And, besides, Pagett might suddenly be summoned by Sir Eustace, and it would be far harder for you to attach yourself to him for the journey up.” “It would hardly be respectable,” said Suzanne, dimpling. “I should have to pretend a fatal passion for him as an excuse.” “On the other hand, if you were there when he arrived, it would all be perfectly simple and natural. Besides, I don’t think we ought to lose sight of the other two entirely.” “Oh, Anne, you surely can’t suspect Colonel Race or Sir Eustace?” “I suspect everybody,” I said darkly, “and if you’ve read any detective stories, Suzanne, you must know that it’s always the most unlikely person who’s the villain. Lots of criminals have been cheerful fat men like Sir Eustace.” “Colonel Race isn’t particularly fat—or particularly cheerful either.” “Sometimes they’re lean and saturnine,” I retorted. “I don’t say I seriously suspect either of them, but, after all, the woman was murdered in Sir Eustace’s house——” “Yes, yes, we needn’t go over all that again. I’ll watch him for you, Anne, and if he gets any fatter and any more cheerful, I’ll send you a telegram at once. ‘Sir E. swelling. Highly suspicious. Come at once.’” “Really, Suzanne,” I cried, “you seem to think all this is a game!” “I know I do,” said Suzanne, unabashed. “It seems like that. It’s your fault, Anne. I’ve got imbued with your ‘Let’s have an adventure’ spirit. It doesn’t seem a bit real. Dear me, if Clarence knew that I was running about Africa tracking dangerous criminals, he’d have a fit.” “Why don’t you cable him about it?” I asked sarcastically. Suzanne’s sense of humour always fails her when it comes to sending cables. She considered my suggestion in perfectly good faith. “I might. It would have to be a very long one.” Her eyes brightened at the thought. “But I think it’s better not. Husbands always want to interfere with perfectly harmless amusements.” “Well,” I said, summing up the situation, “you will keep an eye on Sir Eustace and Colonel Race——” “I know why I’ve got to watch Sir Eustace,” interrupted Suzanne, “because of his figure and his humorous conversation. But I think it’s carrying it rather far to suspect Colonel Race, I do indeed. Why, he’s something to do with the Secret Service. Do you know, Anne, I believe the best thing we could do would be to confide in him and tell him the whole story.” I objected vigorously to this unsporting proposal. I recognized in it the disastrous effects of matrimony. How often have I not heard a perfectly intelligent female say, in the tone of one clinching an argument, “Edgar says——” And all the time you are perfectly aware that Edgar is a perfect fool. Suzanne, by reason of her married state, was yearning to lean upon some man or other. However, she promised faithfully that she would not breathe a word to Colonel Race, and we went on with our plan-making. “It’s quite clear that I must stay here and watch Pagett, and this is the best way to do it. I must pretend to leave for Durban this evening, take my luggage down and so on, but really I shall go to some small hotel in the town. I can alter my appearance a little—wear a fair toupee and one of those thick white lace veils, and I shall have a much better chance of seeing what he’s really at if he thinks I’m safely out of the way.” Suzanne approved this plan heartily. We made due and ostentatious preparations, inquiring once more about the departure of the train at the office and packing my luggage. We dined together in the restaurant. Colonel Race did not appear, but Sir Eustace and Pagett were at their table in the window. Pagett left the table half-way through the meal, which annoyed me, as I had planned to say goodbye to him. However, doubtless Sir Eustace would do as well. I went over to him when I had finished. “Good-bye, Sir Eustace,” I said. “I’m off to-night to Durban.” Sir Eustace sighed heavily. “So I heard. You wouldn’t like me to come with you, would you?” “I should love it.” “Nice girl. Sure you won’t change your mind and come and look for lions in Rhodesia?” “Quite sure.” “He must be a very handsome fellow,” said Sir Eustace plaintively. “Some young whipper-snapper in Durban, I suppose, who puts my mature charms completely in the shade. By the way, Pagett’s going down in the car in a minute or two. He could take you to the station.” “Oh, no, thank you,” I said hastily. “Mrs. Blair and I have got our own taxi ordered.” To go down with Guy Pagett was the last thing I wanted! Sir Eustace looked at me attentively. “I don’t believe you like Pagett. I don’t blame you. Of all the officious, interfering asses—going about with the air of a martyr, and doing everything he can to annoy and upset me!” “What has he done now?” I inquired with some curiosity. “He’s got hold of a secretary for me. You never saw such a woman! Forty, if she’s a day, wears pince-nez and sensible boots and an air of brisk efficiency that will be the death of me. A regular slab-faced woman.” “Won’t she hold your hand?” “I devoutly hope not!” exclaimed Sir Eustace. “That would be the last straw. Well, good-bye, liquid eyes. If I shoot a lion I shan’t give you the skin—after the base way you’ve deserted me.” He squeezed my hand warmly and we parted. Suzanne was waiting for me in the hall. She was to come down to see me off. “Let’s start at once,” I said hastily, and motioned to the man to get a taxi. Then a voice behind me made me start: “Excuse me, Miss Beddingfeld, but I’m just going down in a car. I can drop you and Mrs. Blair at the station.” “Oh, thank you,” I said hastily. “But there’s no need to trouble you. I——” “No trouble at all, I assure you. Put the luggage in, porter.” I was helpless. I might have protested further, but a slight warning nudge from Suzanne urged me to be on my guard. “Thank you, Mr. Pagett,” I said coldly. We all got into the car. As we raced down the road into the town, I racked my brains for something to say. In the end Pagett himself broke the silence. “I have secured a very capable secretary for Sir Eustace,” he observed. “Miss Pettigrew.” “He wasn’t exactly raving about her just now,” I remarked. Pagett looked at me coldly. “She is a proficient shorthand-typist,” he said repressively. We pulled up in front of the station. Here surely he would leave us. I turned with outstretched hand—but no. “I’ll come and see you off. It’s just eight o’clock, your train goes in a quarter of an hour.” He gave efficient directions to porters. I stood helpless, not daring to look at Suzanne. The man suspected. He was determined to make sure that I did go by the train. And what could I do? Nothing. I saw myself, in a quarter of an hour’s time, steaming out of the station with Pagett planted on the platform waving me adieu. He had turned the tables on me adroitly. His manner towards me had changed, moreover. It was full of an uneasy geniality which sat ill upon him, and which nauseated me. The man was an oily hypocrite. First he tried to murder me, and now he paid me compliments! Did he imagine for one minute that I hadn’t recognized him that night on the boat? No, it was a pose, a pose which he forced me to acquiesce in, his tongue in his cheek all the while. Helpless as a sheep, I moved along under his expert directions. My luggage was piled in my sleeping compartment—I had a two-berth one to myself. It was twelve minutes past eight. In three minutes the train would start. But Paggett had reckoned without Suzanne. “It will be a terribly hot journey, Anne,” she said suddenly. “Especially going through the Karoo to-morrow. You’ve got some eau-de-Cologne or lavender water with you, haven’t you?” My cue was plain. “Oh, dear,” I cried. “I left my eau-de-Cologne on the dressing-table at the hotel.” Suzanne’s habit of command served her well. She turned imperiously to Pagett. “Mr. Pagett. Quick. You’ve just time. There’s a chemist almost opposite the station. Anne must have some eau-de-Cologne.” He hesitated, but Suzanne’s imperative manner was too much for him. She is a born autocrat. He went. Suzanne followed him with her eyes till he disappeared. “Quick, Anne, get out the other side—in case he hasn’t really gone, but is watching us from the end of the platform. Never mind your luggage. You can telegraph about that to-morrow. Oh, if only the train starts on time!” I opened the gate on the opposite side to the platform and climbed down. Nobody was observing me. I could just see Suzanne standing where I had left her, looking up at the train and apparently chatting to me at the window. A whistle blew, the train began to draw out. Then I heard feet racing furiously up the platform. I withdrew to the shadow of a friendly bookstall and watched. Suzanne turned from waving her handkerchief to the retreating train. “Too late, Mr. Pagett,” she said cheerfully. “She’s gone. Is that the eau-de-Cologne? What a pity we didn’t think of it sooner!” They passed not far from me on their way out of the station. Guy Pagett was extremely hot. He had evidently run all the way to the chemist and back. “Shall I get you a taxi, Mrs. Blair?” Suzanne did not fail in her rôle. “Yes, please. Can’t I give you a lift back? Have you much to do for Sir Eustace? Dear me, I wish Anne Beddingfeld was coming with us to-morrow. I don’t like the idea of a young girl like that travelling off to Durban all by herself. But she was set upon it. Some little attraction there, I fancy——” They passed out of ear-shot. Clever Suzanne. She had saved me. I allowed a minute or two to elapse and then I too made my way out of the station, almost colliding as I did so with a man—an unpleasant-looking man with a nose disproportionately big for his face. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Agatha Christie (2020). The Man in the Brown Suit. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/61168/pg61168-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html.

I drove to the hotel

Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . The Hotel Concert CHAPTER XXXIII. The Hotel Concert PUT on your white organdy, by all means, Anne,” advised Diana decidedly. They were together in the east gable chamber; outside it was only twilight—a lovely yellowish-green twilight with a clear-blue cloudless sky. A big round moon, slowly deepening from her pallid luster into burnished silver, hung over the Haunted Wood; the air was full of sweet summer sounds—sleepy birds twittering, freakish breezes, faraway voices and laughter. But in Anne’s room the blind was drawn and the lamp lighted, for an important toilet was being made. The east gable was a very different place from what it had been on that night four years before, when Anne had felt its bareness penetrate to the marrow of her spirit with its inhospitable chill. Changes had crept in, Marilla conniving at them resignedly, until it was as sweet and dainty a nest as a young girl could desire. The velvet carpet with the pink roses and the pink silk curtains of Anne’s early visions had certainly never materialized; but her dreams had kept pace with her growth, and it is not probable she lamented them. The floor was covered with a pretty matting, and the curtains that softened the high window and fluttered in the vagrant breezes were of pale-green art muslin. The walls, hung not with gold and silver brocade tapestry, but with a dainty apple-blossom paper, were adorned with a few good pictures given Anne by Mrs. Allan. Miss Stacy’s photograph occupied the place of honor, and Anne made a sentimental point of keeping fresh flowers on the bracket under it. Tonight a spike of white lilies faintly perfumed the room like the dream of a fragrance. There was no “mahogany furniture,” but there was a white-painted bookcase filled with books, a cushioned wicker rocker, a toilet table befrilled with white muslin, a quaint, gilt-framed mirror with chubby pink Cupids and purple grapes painted over its arched top, that used to hang in the spare room, and a low white bed. Anne was dressing for a concert at the White Sands Hotel. The guests had got it up in aid of the Charlottetown hospital, and had hunted out all the available amateur talent in the surrounding districts to help it along. Bertha Sampson and Pearl Clay of the White Sands Baptist choir had been asked to sing a duet; Milton Clark of Newbridge was to give a violin solo; Winnie Adella Blair of Carmody was to sing a Scotch ballad; and Laura Spencer of Spencervale and Anne Shirley of Avonlea were to recite. As Anne would have said at one time, it was “an epoch in her life,” and she was deliciously athrill with the excitement of it. Matthew was in the seventh heaven of gratified pride over the honor conferred on his Anne and Marilla was not far behind, although she would have died rather than admit it, and said she didn’t think it was very proper for a lot of young folks to be gadding over to the hotel without any responsible person with them. Anne and Diana were to drive over with Jane Andrews and her brother Billy in their double-seated buggy; and several other Avonlea girls and boys were going too. There was a party of visitors expected out from town, and after the concert a supper was to be given to the performers. “Do you really think the organdy will be best?” queried Anne anxiously. “I don’t think it’s as pretty as my blue-flowered muslin—and it certainly isn’t so fashionable.” “But it suits you ever so much better,” said Diana. “It’s so soft and frilly and clinging. The muslin is stiff, and makes you look too dressed up. But the organdy seems as if it grew on you.” Anne sighed and yielded. Diana was beginning to have a reputation for notable taste in dressing, and her advice on such subjects was much sought after. She was looking very pretty herself on this particular night in a dress of the lovely wild-rose pink, from which Anne was forever debarred; but she was not to take any part in the concert, so her appearance was of minor importance. All her pains were bestowed upon Anne, who, she vowed, must, for the credit of Avonlea, be dressed and combed and adorned to the Queen’s taste. “Pull out that frill a little more—so; here, let me tie your sash; now for your slippers. I’m going to braid your hair in two thick braids, and tie them halfway up with big white bows—no, don’t pull out a single curl over your forehead—just have the soft part. There is no way you do your hair suits you so well, Anne, and Mrs. Allan says you look like a Madonna when you part it so. I shall fasten this little white house rose just behind your ear. There was just one on my bush, and I saved it for you.” “Shall I put my pearl beads on?” asked Anne. “Matthew brought me a string from town last week, and I know he’d like to see them on me.” Diana pursed up her lips, put her black head on one side critically, and finally pronounced in favor of the beads, which were thereupon tied around Anne’s slim milk-white throat. “There’s something so stylish about you, Anne,” said Diana, with unenvious admiration. “You hold your head with such an air. I suppose it’s your figure. I am just a dumpling. I’ve always been afraid of it, and now I know it is so. Well, I suppose I shall just have to resign myself to it.” “But you have such dimples,” said Anne, smiling affectionately into the pretty, vivacious face so near her own. “Lovely dimples, like little dents in cream. I have given up all hope of dimples. My dimple-dream will never come true; but so many of my dreams have that I mustn’t complain. Am I all ready now?” “All ready,” assured Diana, as Marilla appeared in the doorway, a gaunt figure with grayer hair than of yore and no fewer angles, but with a much softer face. “Come right in and look at our elocutionist, Marilla. Doesn’t she look lovely?” Marilla emitted a sound between a sniff and a grunt. “She looks neat and proper. I like that way of fixing her hair. But I expect she’ll ruin that dress driving over there in the dust and dew with it, and it looks most too thin for these damp nights. Organdy’s the most unserviceable stuff in the world anyhow, and I told Matthew so when he got it. But there is no use in saying anything to Matthew nowadays. Time was when he would take my advice, but now he just buys things for Anne regardless, and the clerks at Carmody know they can palm anything off on him. Just let them tell him a thing is pretty and fashionable, and Matthew plunks his money down for it. Mind you keep your skirt clear of the wheel, Anne, and put your warm jacket on.” Then Marilla stalked downstairs, thinking proudly how sweet Anne looked, with that “One moonbeam from the forehead to the crown” and regretting that she could not go to the concert herself to hear her girl recite. “I wonder if it is too damp for my dress,” said Anne anxiously. “Not a bit of it,” said Diana, pulling up the window blind. “It’s a perfect night, and there won’t be any dew. Look at the moonlight.” “I’m so glad my window looks east into the sun rising,” said Anne, going over to Diana. “It’s so splendid to see the morning coming up over those long hills and glowing through those sharp fir tops. It’s new every morning, and I feel as if I washed my very soul in that bath of earliest sunshine. Oh, Diana, I love this little room so dearly. I don’t know how I’ll get along without it when I go to town next month.” “Don’t speak of your going away tonight,” begged Diana. “I don’t want to think of it, it makes me so miserable, and I do want to have a good time this evening. What are you going to recite, Anne? And are you nervous?” “Not a bit. I’ve recited so often in public I don’t mind at all now. I’ve decided to give ‘The Maiden’s Vow.’ It’s so pathetic. Laura Spencer is going to give a comic recitation, but I’d rather make people cry than laugh.” “What will you recite if they encore you?” “They won’t dream of encoring me,” scoffed Anne, who was not without her own secret hopes that they would, and already visioned herself telling Matthew all about it at the next morning’s breakfast table. “There are Billy and Jane now—I hear the wheels. Come on.” Billy Andrews insisted that Anne should ride on the front seat with him, so she unwillingly climbed up. She would have much preferred to sit back with the girls, where she could have laughed and chattered to her heart’s content. There was not much of either laughter or chatter in Billy. He was a big, fat, stolid youth of twenty, with a round, expressionless face, and a painful lack of conversational gifts. But he admired Anne immensely, and was puffed up with pride over the prospect of driving to White Sands with that slim, upright figure beside him. Anne, by dint of talking over her shoulder to the girls and occasionally passing a sop of civility to Billy—who grinned and chuckled and never could think of any reply until it was too late—contrived to enjoy the drive in spite of all. It was a night for enjoyment. The road was full of buggies, all bound for the hotel, and laughter, silver clear, echoed and reechoed along it. When they reached the hotel it was a blaze of light from top to bottom. They were met by the ladies of the concert committee, one of whom took Anne off to the performers’ dressing room which was filled with the members of a Charlottetown Symphony Club, among whom Anne felt suddenly shy and frightened and countrified. Her dress, which, in the east gable, had seemed so dainty and pretty, now seemed simple and plain—too simple and plain, she thought, among all the silks and laces that glistened and rustled around her. What were her pearl beads compared to the diamonds of the big, handsome lady near her? And how poor her one wee white rose must look beside all the hothouse flowers the others wore! Anne laid her hat and jacket away, and shrank miserably into a corner. She wished herself back in the white room at Green Gables. It was still worse on the platform of the big concert hall of the hotel, where she presently found herself. The electric lights dazzled her eyes, the perfume and hum bewildered her. She wished she were sitting down in the audience with Diana and Jane, who seemed to be having a splendid time away at the back. She was wedged in between a stout lady in pink silk and a tall, scornful-looking girl in a white-lace dress. The stout lady occasionally turned her head squarely around and surveyed Anne through her eyeglasses until Anne, acutely sensitive of being so scrutinized, felt that she must scream aloud; and the white-lace girl kept talking audibly to her next neighbor about the “country bumpkins” and “rustic belles” in the audience, languidly anticipating “such fun” from the displays of local talent on the program. Anne believed that she would hate that white-lace girl to the end of life. Unfortunately for Anne, a professional elocutionist was staying at the hotel and had consented to recite. She was a lithe, dark-eyed woman in a wonderful gown of shimmering gray stuff like woven moonbeams, with gems on her neck and in her dark hair. She had a marvelously flexible voice and wonderful power of expression; the audience went wild over her selection. Anne, forgetting all about herself and her troubles for the time, listened with rapt and shining eyes; but when the recitation ended she suddenly put her hands over her face. She could never get up and recite after that—never. Had she ever thought she could recite? Oh, if she were only back at Green Gables! At this unpropitious moment her name was called. Somehow Anne—who did not notice the rather guilty little start of surprise the white-lace girl gave, and would not have understood the subtle compliment implied therein if she had—got on her feet, and moved dizzily out to the front. She was so pale that Diana and Jane, down in the audience, clasped each other’s hands in nervous sympathy. Anne was the victim of an overwhelming attack of stage fright. Often as she had recited in public, she had never before faced such an audience as this, and the sight of it paralyzed her energies completely. Everything was so strange, so brilliant, so bewildering—the rows of ladies in evening dress, the critical faces, the whole atmosphere of wealth and culture about her. Very different this from the plain benches at the Debating Club, filled with the homely, sympathetic faces of friends and neighbors. These people, she thought, would be merciless critics. Perhaps, like the white-lace girl, they anticipated amusement from her “rustic” efforts. She felt hopelessly, helplessly ashamed and miserable. Her knees trembled, her heart fluttered, a horrible faintness came over her; not a word could she utter, and the next moment she would have fled from the platform despite the humiliation which, she felt, must ever after be her portion if she did so. But suddenly, as her dilated, frightened eyes gazed out over the audience, she saw Gilbert Blythe away at the back of the room, bending forward with a smile on his face—a smile which seemed to Anne at once triumphant and taunting. In reality it was nothing of the kind. Gilbert was merely smiling with appreciation of the whole affair in general and of the effect produced by Anne’s slender white form and spiritual face against a background of palms in particular. Josie Pye, whom he had driven over, sat beside him, and her face certainly was both triumphant and taunting. But Anne did not see Josie, and would not have cared if she had. She drew a long breath and flung her head up proudly, courage and determination tingling over her like an electric shock. She would not fail before Gilbert Blythe—he should never be able to laugh at her, never, never! Her fright and nervousness vanished; and she began her recitation, her clear, sweet voice reaching to the farthest corner of the room without a tremor or a break. Self-possession was fully restored to her, and in the reaction from that horrible moment of powerlessness she recited as she had never done before. When she finished there were bursts of honest applause. Anne, stepping back to her seat, blushing with shyness and delight, found her hand vigorously clasped and shaken by the stout lady in pink silk. “My dear, you did splendidly,” she puffed. “I’ve been crying like a baby, actually I have. There, they’re encoring you—they’re bound to have you back!” “Oh, I can’t go,” said Anne confusedly. “But yet—I must, or Matthew will be disappointed. He said they would encore me.” “Then don’t disappoint Matthew,” said the pink lady, laughing. Smiling, blushing, limpid eyed, Anne tripped back and gave a quaint, funny little selection that captivated her audience still further. The rest of the evening was quite a little triumph for her. When the concert was over, the stout, pink lady—who was the wife of an American millionaire—took her under her wing, and introduced her to everybody; and everybody was very nice to her. The professional elocutionist, Mrs. Evans, came and chatted with her, telling her that she had a charming voice and “interpreted” her selections beautifully. Even the white-lace girl paid her a languid little compliment. They had supper in the big, beautifully decorated dining room; Diana and Jane were invited to partake of this, also, since they had come with Anne, but Billy was nowhere to be found, having decamped in mortal fear of some such invitation. He was in waiting for them, with the team, however, when it was all over, and the three girls came merrily out into the calm, white moonshine radiance. Anne breathed deeply, and looked into the clear sky beyond the dark boughs of the firs. Oh, it was good to be out again in the purity and silence of the night! How great and still and wonderful everything was, with the murmur of the sea sounding through it and the darkling cliffs beyond like grim giants guarding enchanted coasts. “Hasn’t it been a perfectly splendid time?” sighed Jane, as they drove away. “I just wish I was a rich American and could spend my summer at a hotel and wear jewels and low-necked dresses and have ice cream and chicken salad every blessed day. I’m sure it would be ever so much more fun than teaching school. Anne, your recitation was simply great, although I thought at first you were never going to begin. I think it was better than Mrs. Evans’s.” “Oh, no, don’t say things like that, Jane,” said Anne quickly, “because it sounds silly. It couldn’t be better than Mrs. Evans’s, you know, for she is a professional, and I’m only a schoolgirl, with a little knack of reciting. I’m quite satisfied if the people just liked mine pretty well.” “I’ve a compliment for you, Anne,” said Diana. “At least I think it must be a compliment because of the tone he said it in. Part of it was anyhow. There was an American sitting behind Jane and me—such a romantic-looking man, with coal-black hair and eyes. Josie Pye says he is a distinguished artist, and that her mother’s cousin in Boston is married to a man that used to go to school with him. Well, we heard him say—didn’t we, Jane?—‘Who is that girl on the platform with the splendid Titian hair? She has a face I should like to paint.’ There now, Anne. But what does Titian hair mean?” “Being interpreted it means plain red, I guess,” laughed Anne. “Titian was a very famous artist who liked to paint red-haired women.” “Did you see all the diamonds those ladies wore?” sighed Jane. “They were simply dazzling. Wouldn’t you just love to be rich, girls?” “We are rich,” said Anne staunchly. “Why, we have sixteen years to our credit, and we’re happy as queens, and we’ve all got imaginations, more or less. Look at that sea, girls—all silver and shadow and vision of things not seen. We couldn’t enjoy its loveliness any more if we had millions of dollars and ropes of diamonds. You wouldn’t change into any of those women if you could. Would you want to be that white-lace girl and wear a sour look all your life, as if you’d been born turning up your nose at the world? Or the pink lady, kind and nice as she is, so stout and short that you’d really no figure at all? Or even Mrs. Evans, with that sad, sad look in her eyes? She must have been dreadfully unhappy sometime to have such a look. You know you wouldn’t, Jane Andrews!” “I don’t know—exactly,” said Jane unconvinced. “I think diamonds would comfort a person for a good deal.” “Well, I don’t want to be anyone but myself, even if I go uncomforted by diamonds all my life,” declared Anne. “I’m quite content to be Anne of Green Gables, with my string of pearl beads. I know Matthew gave me as much love with them as ever went with Madame the Pink Lady’s jewels.” About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. L. M. Montgomery (2008). Anne of Green Gables. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45/pg45-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html . The lead image was generated using HackerNoon's Stable Disffusion Al Image Generator feature, via the prompt "Anne of Green Fables".

The Hotel Concert

THE HARDINGHAM HOTEL, AND HOW WE BECAME BIG PEOPLE

Critical Thinking, Cryptocurrency, and a Space Hotel

We, as humans, love to be pampered. We love having our needs met, we love to feel special in our own ways. Modern hotels can get that right if you visit the same one over and over, getting to know the staff, and hope that they remember you; but when you stay at a different one, that slate is wiped clean. Sure, you’ll get a smile and the usual “have a great stay!” mantra no matter where you end up, but what if you could bring a record of all your preferences, your desires, your needs with you? Better yet, what if someone (or something) else did the heavy lifting - alerting each new hotel to exactly how your stay should be? We all have smart companions on the devices we carry in our pockets, so isn’t it time that tech is pushed into the travel aspect of our lives? The current AI-infused hotel landscape Artificial intelligence was a huge buzzword not too long ago, and companies were working tirelessly to integrate it into everything. Some companies went a bit overboard, sure, but through all the hype the concept stuck - whether you realize it or not, AI is part of your life if you interact with society. There are many current market leaders in the hotel world that use AI to enhance your stay, but most of it happens behind the scenes, mostly to eliminate human error. Source: dilbert.com Occasionally, AI technology is used for more, though, and it is in these areas where it really shines. Airbnb, for instance, uses AI to that you see. Have you ever noticed that after you’ve booked a few Airbnb’s around the same price, you tend to see that price range first during your next search? The same goes for the types of places you tend to book, random preferences like included amenities, and it even extends as far as how Airbnb hosts interact with their guests. personalize the listing Booking.com has a similar AI feature that works behind the scenes to make your entire trip more fulfilling. They what you’ll do during your stay, using customer’s potential purchasing intent to book tours and activities ahead of time. These activities can then be accessed by the customer by simply showing up at the venue and scanning a QR code. All of these activities and tours are arranged through AI protocols, getting smarter every time you utilize them. focus on Artificial intelligence isn’t just helping customers, though, as it also has huge applications for business owners. Allora is a company that guarantees a 25% increase in direct revenue by streamlining a hotel’s booking experience. Quite a lofty goal, but they have been in business for many years and more importantly, the AI to back it up. an array of chatbots, machine-learning algorithms, recommender engines, and network intelligence insights to push their hotel client’s booking rates and upsales up. Allora combines All of this is being done by a technology that was just a media buzzword not too long ago, which begs the question: what will blockchain do once it is no longer purely hype? Artificial intelligence has proven itself time and time again, and people are no longer skeptical of it. The early adopters, companies like Allora for instance, are benefiting heavily just for realizing the applications of AI before the market caught up. Blockchain tech is the next big hype, so... Can blockchain tech make AI even stronger? Some companies are currently using blockchain without AI, and although the results are pleasant, they are nothing groundbreaking. , for instance, allows you to book nearly any hotel with cryptocurrency, instantly converting your crypto into fiat for the hotel to accept. Along a similar vein, encourages you to book through their zero-commission platform to earn crypto rewards while paying in fiat. Although both of these concepts are great for pushing the blockchain technology envelope forward, they probably aren’t going to turn any mainstream heads. LockTrip Trippki Source: xkcd.com For AI to function at full capacity it needs a place to store the information it has learned about you, and what better place than a secure blockchain. Decentralized tech could also offer a way for you to interact with hotels without intermediary companies like Expedia or Booking.com. When looking at everything that is being accomplished by centralized companies and artificial intelligence in the hotel ecosystem, it should come as no surprise that a blockchain-based company would eventually try their hand in the market. is an AI-powered SaaS (software as a service) hotel management system that is hitting a lot of the right notes touched on by traditional companies. While Airbnb focuses on the customer side and Allora focuses on the hotel side of operations, ModiHost is attempting to seamlessly interweave blockchain tech with artificial intelligence to benefit all parties involved. ModiHost works by focusing on three distinct categories: ModiHost Personalizing the client-centric experience Guaranteeing hotel-centric services through smart contracts Giving token holders actual incentives to own the token When everything is scheduled through AI, routines can be optimized, so when an AI learns that guest X doesn’t want their room cleaned everyday, hotel staff doesn’t have to waste time and resources cleaning. Hotels can use the platform to schedule daily hotel operations (cleaning, cooking, laundry, maintenance, front desk, etc.), which has the potential to reduce costs. Token holders are often viewed as redundant participants that are taken for granted - but it’s not 2017 anymore. Companies have to show real worth, and this is where ModiHost shines for both their investors and their real-world users. Hotels need tokens to access the services that ModiHost provides, but it would be silly to assume every hotel is going to buy a bunch of tokens right off the bat. Instead, hotels and investors could interact through pools for mutual benefit. Pools are a novel concept. They can be created by anyone and they will act as a lending feature when hotels need to use ModiHost services. All of these services will be routed through the ModiHost blockchain using smart contracts, and when a hotel uses the platform it will borrow tokens from a pool at a small premium (paying the pool reward) in a rotating order. In short, pools act as a type of credit system that hotels can borrow from, paying interest to the pool just as you would with a credit card. When your pool’s tokens are used, the hotel will reward your pool with the pool reward fee. This means that, as an investor, you’ll be earning interest on your return everytime a hotel draws from your pool. Is it viable? There are plenty of real-world examples where both AI and blockchain tech succeeds separately in the hotel world. There are also many examples of massive travel companies trying to figure out ways to combine these two technologies together. The , for instance, is attempting to create a massive network using blockchain to track all open hotel rooms, while is doing something similar to replace online travel agents. TUI Group Nordic Choice Hotels Only time will tell if blockchain will surpass the hype surrounding its name, but if we look to history for examples then we can be fairly confident that it will do just that. After all, remember when artificial intelligence was just a sci-fi dream?

Booking with AI and blockchain tech: Hotels of the future?

A Roadmap for Addressing Critical Challenges in Human-Machine Social Systems

The Sneaky Way Web Browsers Are Identifying You (Even When You Turn Off Cookies)

Die skelm manier waarop webblaaiers jou identifiseer (selfs wanneer jy koekies afskakel)

Вэб-браўзеры ідэнтыфікуюць вас (нават калі вы адключаеце файлы cookie)

Ο ύπουλος τρόπος Τα προγράμματα περιήγησης Ιστού σας αναγνωρίζουν (ακόμα και όταν απενεργοποιείτε τα cookies)

La forma encubierta en que los navegadores web te identifican (incluso cuando desactivas las cookies)

वेब ब्राउज़र आपको गुप्त तरीके से पहचानते हैं (तब भी जब आप कुकीज़ बंद कर देते हैं)

Fason sournwa navigatè entènèt yo idantifye ou (menm lè ou fèmen bonbon)

The Sneaky Way վեբ զննարկիչները նույնականացնում են ձեզ (նույնիսկ երբ անջատում եք թխուկները)

ウェブブラウザがあなたを識別する巧妙な方法（クッキーをオフにしている場合でも）

The Sneaky Way ვებ ბრაუზერები იდენტიფიცირებენ თქვენ (მაშინაც კი, როდესაც გამორთავთ ქუქი-ფაილებს)

द स्नीकी वे वेब ब्राउजरहरूले तपाईंलाई पहिचान गर्दैछन् (तपाईंले कुकीहरू बन्द गर्दा पनि)

Mënyra e poshtër Shfletuesit e uebit po ju identifikojnë (edhe kur i çaktivizoni cookies)

网络浏览器以狡猾的方式识别你（即使你关闭了 Cookie）

Before we begin, if you haven’t read <Part 1> and <Part 2> of The Reality of Digital Nomads, make sure to check it out! <Part 1> The Reality of Digital Nomads: Chasing Adventure, Finding What? <Part 2> The Reality of Digital Nomads: Defying Sight and Sound Rediscovering Home The best part of being a digital nomad didn’t strike me until it was over.. I returned home like Leonardo DiCaprio after surviving an attack from a grizzly bear. As the bus carried me from Incheon Airport to Gangnam, I gazed at Seoul’s cityscape through the window. We passed the park where I once cried after an unprecedented fight with my ex, the luxurious hotel where I’d had a staycation with my high school best friend, and the tall building where I’d faced my first nerve-wracking job interview. All my history that I had forgotten during my travels came back as once, as something that I was so proud to have endured. And when we finally arrived in my old neighborhood, I felt the familiar comfort it always offered, quietly welcoming me back. As I mentioned in Part 1, the idea of being “digitally homeless” reminds us that a home is more than just a roof over our heads. It includes family, friends, familiar neighborhood faces—like the couple I awkwardly greet internally every morning at the gym. Being away and facing challenges brought a deep sense of gratitude for these overlooked constants that have shaped me. And simply feeling this gratitude for something so familiar is, in itself, a profound joy. Growth Through Challenges Finding myself while away from home hasn’t made me dislike the culture and community that shaped me. With a greater understanding of who I uniquely am, I realize that the customs formed by my culture and community will remain a lifelong part of my identity. Back in my home community, my shyness still existed.  Before, I was the type of girl who loved popcorn but would skip it when at the theater alone, worried about what strangers might think if they saw me in line by myself. I’d even wait until the theater emptied out to shyly grab a bag on my way out, and it didn’t magically wash away from being a digital nomad. But it got better as I learned about my incredible adaptability and the kindness that emerges when it needs to. The whole experience let me rediscover my strengths and cultivate new ones. Yet, the downsides of being a digital nomad are hard to ignore. The immense mental stress of constant relocation while balancing a full-time job was the toughest. While traveling, I was often overwhelmed by the fear of losing my job due to poor performance. Ironically, I ended up losing my job four months after finishing my travels—not because of poor performance while traveling, but due to something entirely out of my control: restructuring. (Though, if I’m honest, it had more to do with a new marketing manager who didn’t seem to like me, but getting fired is a story for another post.) Having returned home after surviving and overcoming massive stress on the road, I wasn’t even fazed by the bad news. Instead, it served as a double reminder not to stress over things beyond my control. Pushing my limits under intense pressure had made me mentally stronger. This newfound ability to handle stress with composure might just have become my greatest superpower. Possibly in the future.. (Never Mind) I’m now working remotely for another blockchain company, and I still have a desire to live as a digital nomad again. However, if I set off again, I’d like to stay in each city for at least three months. Living through Airbnb rates, even in Southeast Asia, ended up costing quite a bit. As a young woman who likes nice things, I stayed in spacious apartments with pools and gyms in the most developed neighborhoods. When I got sick of Airbnbs, I headed for hotels. My monthly rent alone was at least $1,600. If I go again, I’d prefer to reduce costs with a short-term rental contract instead of Airbnbs. Moreover, with a longer stay, I want to try blending in with the local community rather than just being a foreigner. Now that I have a clearer sense of who I am, I’d like to confidently introduce myself to new friends and share in detail what parts of me come from my culture and what parts are intrinsically me. I’d also like to reduce the stress of constantly moving from place to place and really take in my surroundings at a more relaxed pace. (Never Mind) The Complexities of Immersion Actually, while the last paragraph might have made for a neat conclusion to this article, it wouldn’t be honest. I enjoy being alone; that’s why I write these blogs. As an introvert, it’s the most entertaining activity for me. Initially, I intended this piece to present slowmads as the next big trend, aiming to craft a buzzworthy article. But the truth is, traveling slowly—staying in one place for two to six months—might strip away the convenience, thrill, and lessons of the fast-paced digital nomad lifestyle. Settling down for an extended period has its downsides. You begin to see the cracks of a culture. When I stayed in Tokyo for the seventh time—accumulating a total of two months—I realized that its meticulous, rule-based culture came with challenges. There seemed to be a “right” way to do everything, and I quickly learned that I was often doing things “wrong.” Something as innocuous as receiving a wet towel with one hand was a faux pas. I only became aware of this because of a friendship I formed during my stay. She was half-Japanese, half-American, and would quietly correct me under her breath: “You’re not supposed to do it that way.” What began as harmless ignorance soon made me feel increasingly self-conscious. Japan, my culinary haven of udon, tempura, and yakiniku, started to feel less comforting and more judgmental. I no longer felt at ease there. That’s when I started longing for home—not just the physical space, but the feeling of being somewhere where I was noticed yet inherently accepted. This journey, ironically, led me to a newfound appreciation for home and all the ways it raised me and allowed me to exist in my most natural form. With already a lot of stress that comes from balancing full-time work and adapting to a new environment, I wouldn’t prefer to also have to experience the downsides of the different culture that makes me feel inferior. But this is all about perspective - maybe I’ve just learned that Japan isn’t the right place to settle long-term, as a new home was what I was looking for in the beginning anyways. Why Fast-Paced Travel Still Appeals From my experience, being a digital nomad is the perfect opportunity to become a borderline workaholic, driven by loneliness and isolation from any sense of community. Yet, paradoxically, it also offers profound opportunities for spiritual growth. Experiencing diverse cultures and unfamiliar landscapes pushes you out of your comfort zone, uncovering parts of yourself long buried beneath habitual ways of thinking. During my time as a digital nomad, I found the space to love myself again as I turned 28. I advanced in my career, diving headfirst into work while enduring immense psychological pressure. If you’re considering taking the leap into this lifestyle, I’d highly recommend a fast-paced approach. It provides the illusion of starting over—a fresh, history-free existence—and keeps you moving so quickly that you’re not weighed down by the need to create one. Above all, traveling alone allows you to amplify that small, inner voice until it’s finally loud enough to be heard. Final Thoughts To summarize, fast-paced digital nomading delivers life in its rawest form. The frantic juggling act of adapting to new environments while maintaining a full-time workload builds resilience and sharpens your ability to manage stress. The exposure to various cultures, coupled with the freedom from the labels of your past, nurtures spiritual growth. And the solitude—no friends, no usual yoga or fitness studios—creates a unique opportunity to focus intensely on your work and yourself. When the journey inevitably leads you back home, you’ll find a newfound sense of gratitude. You’ll see your old environment with fresh eyes and uncover unexpected joys in the familiar. I recognize that everyone’s journey as a digital nomad is unique. I’d love to hear about yours in the comments—how you traveled, managed the logistics, and what you gained or perhaps lost along the way. Thank you for reading my stories, and thank you to those who reached out after. I hope it provided good insight to everyone of you :) Before we begin, i f you haven’t read <Part 1> and <Part 2> of The Reality of Digital Nomads, make sure to check it out! Before we begin, f you haven’t read <Part 1> and <Part 2> of The Reality of Digital Nomads, make sure to check it out! <Part 1> The Reality of Digital Nomads: Chasing Adventure, Finding What? <Part 1> The Reality of Digital Nomads: Chasing Adventure, Finding What? <Part 2> The Reality of Digital Nomads: Defying Sight and Sound <Part 2> The Reality of Digital Nomads: Defying Sight and Sound Rediscovering Home Rediscovering Home The best part of being a digital nomad didn’t strike me until it was over.. I returned home like Leonardo DiCaprio after surviving an attack from a grizzly bear. As the bus carried me from Incheon Airport to Gangnam, I gazed at Seoul’s cityscape through the window. We passed the park where I once cried after an unprecedented fight with my ex, the luxurious hotel where I’d had a staycation with my high school best friend, and the tall building where I’d faced my first nerve-wracking job interview. All my history that I had forgotten during my travels came back as once, as something that I was so proud to have endured. And when we finally arrived in my old neighborhood, I felt the familiar comfort it always offered, quietly welcoming me back. As I mentioned in Part 1, the idea of being “digitally homeless” reminds us that a home is more than just a roof over our heads. It includes family, friends, familiar neighborhood faces—like the couple I awkwardly greet internally every morning at the gym. Being away and facing challenges brought a deep sense of gratitude for these overlooked constants that have shaped me. And simply feeling this gratitude for something so familiar is, in itself, a profound joy. Growth Through Challenges Growth Through Challenges Finding myself while away from home hasn’t made me dislike the culture and community that shaped me. With a greater understanding of who I uniquely am, I realize that the customs formed by my culture and community will remain a lifelong part of my identity. Back in my home community, my shyness still existed.  Before, I was the type of girl who loved popcorn but would skip it when at the theater alone, worried about what strangers might think if they saw me in line by myself. I’d even wait until the theater emptied out to shyly grab a bag on my way out, and it didn’t magically wash away from being a digital nomad. But it got better as I learned about my incredible adaptability and the kindness that emerges when it needs to. The whole experience let me rediscover my strengths and cultivate new ones. Yet, the downsides of being a digital nomad are hard to ignore. The immense mental stress of constant relocation while balancing a full-time job was the toughest. While traveling, I was often overwhelmed by the fear of losing my job due to poor performance. Ironically, I ended up losing my job four months after finishing my travels—not because of poor performance while traveling, but due to something entirely out of my control: restructuring. (Though, if I’m honest, it had more to do with a new marketing manager who didn’t seem to like me, but getting fired is a story for another post.) Having returned home after surviving and overcoming massive stress on the road, I wasn’t even fazed by the bad news. Instead, it served as a double reminder not to stress over things beyond my control. Pushing my limits under intense pressure had made me mentally stronger. This newfound ability to handle stress with composure might just have become my greatest superpower. Possibly in the future.. (Never Mind) I’m now working remotely for another blockchain company, and I still have a desire to live as a digital nomad again. However, if I set off again, I’d like to stay in each city for at least three months . Living through Airbnb rates, even in Southeast Asia, ended up costing quite a bit. As a young woman who likes nice things, I stayed in spacious apartments with pools and gyms in the most developed neighborhoods. When I got sick of Airbnbs, I headed for hotels. My monthly rent alone was at least $1,600. If I go again, I’d prefer to reduce costs with a short-term rental contract instead of Airbnbs. at least three months Moreover, with a longer stay, I want to try blending in with the local community rather than just being a foreigner. Now that I have a clearer sense of who I am, I’d like to confidently introduce myself to new friends and share in detail what parts of me come from my culture and what parts are intrinsically me. I’d also like to reduce the stress of constantly moving from place to place and really take in my surroundings at a more relaxed pace. community (Never Mind) The Complexities of Immersion (Never Mind) The Complexities of Immersion Actually, while the last paragraph might have made for a neat conclusion to this article, it wouldn’t be honest. I enjoy being alone; that’s why I write these blogs. As an introvert, it’s the most entertaining activity for me. Initially, I intended this piece to present slowmads as the next big trend, aiming to craft a buzzworthy article. But the truth is, traveling slowly—staying in one place for two to six months—might strip away the convenience, thrill, and lessons of the fast-paced digital nomad lifestyle. Settling down for an extended period has its downsides. You begin to see the cracks of a culture. When I stayed in Tokyo for the seventh time—accumulating a total of two months—I realized that its meticulous, rule-based culture came with challenges. There seemed to be a “right” way to do everything, and I quickly learned that I was often doing things “wrong.” Something as innocuous as receiving a wet towel with one hand was a faux pas. I only became aware of this because of a friendship I formed during my stay. She was half-Japanese, half-American, and would quietly correct me under her breath: “You’re not supposed to do it that way.” What began as harmless ignorance soon made me feel increasingly self-conscious. Japan, my culinary haven of udon, tempura, and yakiniku, started to feel less comforting and more judgmental. I no longer felt at ease there. That’s when I started longing for home—not just the physical space, but the feeling of being somewhere where I was noticed yet inherently accepted. This journey, ironically, led me to a newfound appreciation for home and all the ways it raised me and allowed me to exist in my most natural form. With already a lot of stress that comes from balancing full-time work and adapting to a new environment, I wouldn’t prefer to also have to experience the downsides of the different culture that makes me feel inferior. But this is all about perspective - maybe I’ve just learned that Japan isn’t the right place to settle long-term, as a new home was what I was looking for in the beginning anyways. Why Fast-Paced Travel Still Appeals Why Fast-Paced Travel Still Appeals From my experience, being a digital nomad is the perfect opportunity to become a borderline workaholic, driven by loneliness and isolation from any sense of community. Yet, paradoxically, it also offers profound opportunities for spiritual growth. Experiencing diverse cultures and unfamiliar landscapes pushes you out of your comfort zone, uncovering parts of yourself long buried beneath habitual ways of thinking. During my time as a digital nomad, I found the space to love myself again as I turned 28. I advanced in my career, diving headfirst into work while enduring immense psychological pressure. If you’re considering taking the leap into this lifestyle, I’d highly recommend a fast-paced approach. It provides the illusion of starting over—a fresh, history-free existence—and keeps you moving so quickly that you’re not weighed down by the need to create one. Above all, traveling alone allows you to amplify that small, inner voice until it’s finally loud enough to be heard. If you’re considering taking the leap into this lifestyle, I’d highly recommend a fast-paced approach. Final Thoughts Final Thoughts To summarize, fast-paced digital nomading delivers life in its rawest form. The frantic juggling act of adapting to new environments while maintaining a full-time workload builds resilience and sharpens your ability to manage stress . The exposure to various cultures, coupled with the freedom from the labels of your past, nurtures spiritual growth . And the solitude—no friends, no usual yoga or fitness studios—creates a unique opportunity to focus intensely on your work and yourself . resilience ability to manage stress spiritual growth focus intensely on your work and yourself When the journey inevitably leads you back home, you’ll find a newfound sense of gratitude. You’ll see your old environment with fresh eyes and uncover unexpected joys in the familiar. I recognize that everyone’s journey as a digital nomad is unique. I’d love to hear about yours in the comments—how you traveled, managed the logistics, and what you gained or perhaps lost along the way. I recognize that everyone’s journey as a digital nomad is unique. I’d love to hear about yours in the comments—how you traveled, managed the logistics, and what you gained or perhaps lost along the way. Thank you for reading my stories, and thank you to those who reached out after. I hope it provided good insight to everyone of you :)

The Truth of Digital Nomads: The Long Way Home and What It Really Teaches Us

የዲጂታል ዘላኖች እውነት፡ የረዥም መንገድ ቤት እና በእውነት የሚያስተምረን

La verdad de los nómadas digitales: el largo camino a casa y lo que realmente nos enseña

حقیقت عشایر دیجیتال: راه طولانی به خانه و آنچه واقعاً به ما می آموزد

デジタル遊牧民の真実：長い道のりとそれが私たちに教えてくれること

Ny fahamarinan'ny mpifindrafindra monina nomerika: Ny lalana lavitra mody sy ny tena ampianariny antsika

Therešo ya Digital Nomads: Tsela e Telele ya Gae le Seo e Re Rutago Sona e le ka kgonthe

د ډیجیټل کوچیانو حقیقت: د کور اوږده لاره او هغه څه چې دا واقعیا موږ ته درس راکوي

Adevărul nomaților digitali: drumul lung spre casă și ceea ce ne învață cu adevărat

ඩිජිටල් නාමිකයන්ගේ සත්‍යය: දිගු මග නිවස සහ එය අපට සැබවින්ම උගන්වන දේ

Pravda digitálnych nomádov: dlhá cesta domov a čo nás v skutočnosti učí

E vërteta e nomadëve dixhitalë: Rruga e gjatë për në shtëpi dhe çfarë na mëson vërtet

ڈیجیٹل خانہ بدوشوں کی حقیقت: گھر کا طویل راستہ اور یہ واقعی ہمیں کیا سکھاتا ہے۔

Periods - Do Women Really Need Them?

Why Smart Committed Couples Have an "Open Phone" Policy

What Are General Search Engines?

Dear America, I Am Breaking Up With You

প্রিয় আমেরিকা, আমি তোমার সাথে ব্রেকিং আপ করছি

Liebes Amerika, ich mache Schluss mit Dir

Querida América, estoy rompiendo contigo

Chère Amérique, je romps avec toi

प्रिय अमेरिका, मैं तुमसे नाता तोड़ रहा हूँ

親愛なるアメリカへ、私はあなたと別れます

사랑하는 미국이여, 나는 당신과 헤어지고 있습니다

Querida América, estou terminando com você

Дорогая Америка, я расстаюсь с тобой

Sevgili Amerika, Senden Ayrılıyorum

Nước Mỹ thân mến, tôi sẽ chia tay với bạn

亲爱的美国，我要和你分手

How Mental Models and Mathematics Help Solve
Engineering Problems

Imagine yourself as the proud owner of a souvenir shop inside the Spot-On Change Hotel. When closing the cash register, you notice an excess of 8 euros. It seems that a guest didn’t receive the exact change. This could tarnish the hotel’s reputation. To avoid this, you decide to solve the mystery of the incorrect change. Upon opening the shop’s cash system, you discover that the error occurred on two different accounts! You devise a plan: to visit each room and ask the guests what change they received in the shop until you find the two with the wrong bill. Arriving on the first floor, a guest reports receiving 4 euros in change. You calculate that you need to find a number that, when added to the 4 euros, results in 8. Moving to the second floor, the guest’s change is 5 euros. 4 + 5 results in 9, so it can’t be this one… Fifth floor, sixth… Tenth, NO, NO, NO! Since you didn’t find the value on the first attempt, you go down to the second floor and start asking all the guests again about their change so that you can compare it with the value from the next starting floor, exhausting, isn’t it? In computer science, this search method is called brute force, an extremely slow search method that works by comparing one item with the following ones in the array. This consumes a lot of time and is not efficient, imagine going up and down all the floors of the Spot-On Change Hotel several times! This is not practical for you and also not practical for the computer. If you’re curious about how this going up and down the floors would be in a software program, it would look like this in JavaScript: twoSum(nums, target) {
  for (let i = 0; i < nums.length; i++) {
    for (let j = i + 1; j < nums.length; j++) {
      if (nums[i] + nums[j] === target) {
        return [i, j];
      }
    }
  }
} After assessing the situation calmly, you realize that there’s a more efficient way to find the two guests with the wrong change. You refine your initial mathematical intuition that 9 euros equals x + y. Applying a bit of arithmetic, you realize that: x + y = 9 is the same as saying that y = 9 — x, and that makes all the difference when increasing the efficiency of your search. Another thing that changed in your strategy is that now you will take a notepad to write down the values that the guests tell you, so you don’t have to ask the same value twice for the guests, and you don’t have to spend the day going up and down stairs. (What a terrible time for the elevator to break!). With the new tools in hand, you head to the first floor, where a guest informs you that they have 5 euros in change. You record this as {5: 0}, indicating a value of 5 at position 0. Substituting x with 5 in the equation, you calculate y = 8–5, resulting in y = 3. Since your notepad is still empty, you don’t have the number 3 recorded, which would be the complementary number to 5 to reach the result 8. You then write down the number 5 on your notepad (remember to always write down the number verified at the moment and not its complement; you will only use the complement to compare it with the target number that you have written down). You proceed to the second guest, who mentions receiving 2 euros in change. Applying the formula again: y = 8–2 => y = 6, you check your record, where you don’t find any number 6. Thus, you add the 2 to your record, which now stands as {5: 0, 2: 1}. Continuing the search, the next guest reports receiving 3 euros in change. You calculate again: y = 8–3 => y = 5. Bingo! You have a 5 recorded on your notepad! The guest from floor 0 is complementary to the one from floor 2! This approach is known as a hash table, and it’s much faster and efficient, both for you and the computer. In JavaScript, this would be implemented as follows: twoSum(nums, target) {
  const myTable = {};
  for (let i = 0; i < nums.length; i++) {
    const complementaryNumber = target - nums[i];
    if (complementaryNumber in myTable) {
      return [i, myTable[complementaryNumber]];
    }
    myTable[nums[i]] = i;
  }
} This is an easy problem from Leetcode that only becomes easy after you understand the concepts behind it. I recommend that you try to solve the problem on your own and spend some time trying to build intuition behind it, create your own analogy, review, and try to write pseudocode before moving on to the solution. I hope my analogy has helped you better understand the concepts behind the two sum challenge. See you next time! Imagine yourself as the proud owner of a souvenir shop inside the Spot-On Change Hotel. When closing the cash register, you notice an excess of 8 euros. It seems that a guest didn’t receive the exact change. This could tarnish the hotel’s reputation. To avoid this, you decide to solve the mystery of the incorrect change. Upon opening the shop’s cash system, you discover that the error occurred on two different accounts! You devise a plan: to visit each room and ask the guests what change they received in the shop until you find the two with the wrong bill. Arriving on the first floor, a guest reports receiving 4 euros in change. You calculate that you need to find a number that, when added to the 4 euros, results in 8. Moving to the second floor, the guest’s change is 5 euros. 4 + 5 results in 9, so it can’t be this one… Fifth floor, sixth… Tenth, NO, NO, NO! Since you didn’t find the value on the first attempt, you go down to the second floor and start asking all the guests again about their change so that you can compare it with the value from the next starting floor, exhausting, isn’t it? In computer science, this search method is called brute force, an extremely slow search method that works by comparing one item with the following ones in the array. This consumes a lot of time and is not efficient, imagine going up and down all the floors of the Spot-On Change Hotel several times! This is not practical for you and also not practical for the computer. If you’re curious about how this going up and down the floors would be in a software program, it would look like this in JavaScript: twoSum(nums, target) {
  for (let i = 0; i < nums.length; i++) {
    for (let j = i + 1; j < nums.length; j++) {
      if (nums[i] + nums[j] === target) {
        return [i, j];
      }
    }
  }
} twoSum(nums, target) {
  for (let i = 0; i < nums.length; i++) {
    for (let j = i + 1; j < nums.length; j++) {
      if (nums[i] + nums[j] === target) {
        return [i, j];
      }
    }
  }
} After assessing the situation calmly, you realize that there’s a more efficient way to find the two guests with the wrong change. You refine your initial mathematical intuition that 9 euros equals x + y. Applying a bit of arithmetic, you realize that: x + y = 9 is the same as saying that y = 9 — x, and that makes all the difference when increasing the efficiency of your search. Another thing that changed in your strategy is that now you will take a notepad to write down the values that the guests tell you, so you don’t have to ask the same value twice for the guests, and you don’t have to spend the day going up and down stairs. (What a terrible time for the elevator to break!). With the new tools in hand, you head to the first floor, where a guest informs you that they have 5 euros in change. You record this as {5: 0}, indicating a value of 5 at position 0. Substituting x with 5 in the equation, you calculate y = 8–5, resulting in y = 3. Since your notepad is still empty, you don’t have the number 3 recorded, which would be the complementary number to 5 to reach the result 8. You then write down the number 5 on your notepad (remember to always write down the number verified at the moment and not its complement; you will only use the complement to compare it with the target number that you have written down). You proceed to the second guest, who mentions receiving 2 euros in change. Applying the formula again: y = 8–2 => y = 6, you check your record, where you don’t find any number 6. Thus, you add the 2 to your record, which now stands as {5: 0, 2: 1}. Continuing the search, the next guest reports receiving 3 euros in change. You calculate again: y = 8–3 => y = 5. Bingo! You have a 5 recorded on your notepad! The guest from floor 0 is complementary to the one from floor 2! This approach is known as a hash table, and it’s much faster and efficient, both for you and the computer. In JavaScript, this would be implemented as follows: twoSum(nums, target) {
  const myTable = {};
  for (let i = 0; i < nums.length; i++) {
    const complementaryNumber = target - nums[i];
    if (complementaryNumber in myTable) {
      return [i, myTable[complementaryNumber]];
    }
    myTable[nums[i]] = i;
  }
} twoSum(nums, target) {
  const myTable = {};
  for (let i = 0; i < nums.length; i++) {
    const complementaryNumber = target - nums[i];
    if (complementaryNumber in myTable) {
      return [i, myTable[complementaryNumber]];
    }
    myTable[nums[i]] = i;
  }
} This is an easy problem from Leetcode that only becomes easy after you understand the concepts behind it. I recommend that you try to solve the problem on your own and spend some time trying to build intuition behind it, create your own analogy, review, and try to write pseudocode before moving on to the solution. Leetcode I hope my analogy has helped you better understand the concepts behind the two sum challenge. See you next time!

Leetcode: Two-sum an Intuitive Approach

লিটকোড: দুই-সমষ্টি একটি স্বজ্ঞাত পদ্ধতি

Leetcode: Zweisummen, ein intuitiver Ansatz

Leetcode: dos sumas y un enfoque intuitivo

Leetcode : une approche intuitive à deux sommes

लेटकोड: दो-योग एक सहज दृष्टिकोण

Leetcode: 2 つの合計を直感的に計算するアプローチ

Leetcode: 직관적인 접근 방식의 2합

Leetcode: duas somas e uma abordagem intuitiva

Leetcode: интуитивный подход с двумя суммами

Leetcode: İki Toplamlı Sezgisel Bir Yaklaşım

Leetcode: Tổng hợp hai cách tiếp cận trực quan

Leetcode：二和的直观方法

I recently spoke with Lingo Co-Founder & CEO, HM Rawat, about the potential impact of Web3 on community empowerment. In our conversation, we also touched on the uniqueness of Web3 rewards, its challenges, and how a novel approach could shape the industry. I hope you find the discussion insightful. Tell us a bit about yourself and how you got into Web3. From selling MP3 CDs at school to exiting Mauritius’s fastest-growing Subway franchisee chain of 12+ restaurants, I’ve been an entrepreneur all my life. Heading marketing and sales at HMRawat Communications, our family business, was a milestone in my journey. During my time there, we secured over 80% of Mauritius’s mobile phone market share and achieved a 300x YoY revenue growth for the Madagascar unit. The Seychelles unit also saw a 1500x growth. Now, I’m applying all the lessons I learned over 30 years to build and scale Lingo. It’ll help fill Web3’s marketing gaps—the reason I entered this space. While the underlying tech is growing 2x faster than the Internet in the 90s, it’s not transforming as many lives as it can. Loyalty schemes feature heavily in Web2’s attract-extract models. How are Web3 rewards different? The global loyalty management market was roughly $10.5 billion in 2023. It’ll possibly grow at over 9% till 2030. But consumers will only get a tiny share of this revenue, as usual. Web2 loyalty schemes are extractive because they work within walled gardens owned and controlled by centralized entities. Consumers mostly receive points or token money that have limited redeemability. You can use them at partner stores only, for example. Web3 rewards, on the contrary, can put real value in the consumer’s hands. Consumers can trade loyalty tokens in secondary markets or exchange them with their friends. That’s the power of interoperability. Plus, on-chain revenue models are usually transparent and verifiable, enhancing accountability. Have Web3 rewards evolved fully? If not, what are its main challenges? No. Lingo will take Web3 rewards over the line but there’s still a long way to go. Inferior design and sub-par incentives are the main problems. The inability to sustain rewards and engage communities long-term is a key reason why over 72% of projects from the 2020-2021 bull market have died. Web3 projects typically have Ponzinomics for economic models. They constantly need to onboard new users to maintain rewards, etc. This is very dangerous in volatile, cyclical markets like crypto. It’s also unsustainable. Moreover, Web3 rewards don’t have enough real-world utility yet. They’re even inferior to centralized Web2 rewards in some ways. Meaning, communities don’t have the incentives to stay loyal long-term. Speculation and frothy practices are more prevalent instead. How does Lingo solve these problems? What’s unique about its approach? We’re solving the root cause, i.e., Ponzinomics. The lack of intrinsic value and solid foundations fuel the problems we discussed so far. Lingo fixes that. We’ve developed a new model that’ll generate tangible community rewards using Real World Assets (RWAs). The algorithm supporting Lingo’s circular economy invests transaction fees into high-performing RWAs and the returns go to the rewards pool. It ensures compound growth. Consumers will earn $LINGO tokens that they can redeem for real-world rewards by staking, etc. This system works irrespective of market conditions, making it robust and sustainable. We’re already seeing strong support for our vision and novel approach. Over 140K consumers have joined the waitlist. Our Twitter and Discord communities have 84,000+ and 50,000+ members respectively. We have 100+ brand ambassadors and raised over $5 million via private rounds. What’s in it for the community? How will Lingo change the experiences of end-users? Lingo users get passive, risk-minimized access to the RWA industry, which is expected to cross $16 trillion by 2030. Early adopters will further reap the benefits accruing from our first mover’s advantage. Consumers can access Web3’s largest rewards ecosystem with Lingo. This means special benefits at 3000+ brands like Nike, IKEA, Spotify, Uber, Netflix, and more. Our solutions will be available in 80+ countries, powered by Fizen and our 100,000+ hotel network. I’ve spent 12+ years building solutions and services for global consumers. Our Co-Founder, David Amsellem, built John Paul — the world’s top premium loyalty program that Accor Hotels acquired for $150 million in 2016. Over the years, we’ve both learned the importance of ensuring top-notch user experiences. That’s our priority at Lingo. Plus an awesome team of blockchain researchers, developers, and advisors is helping us turn vision into reality. We’ll unleash next-gen Web3 incentives. Community members will be the biggest beneficiaries here — it’ll be a win-win for consumers and partner brands. And finally, distributed governance gives users a meaningful say in the platform’s policies and financial models. We welcome anyone who’s ready to surf the tide. I recently spoke with Lingo Co-Founder & CEO, HM Rawat , about the potential impact of Web3 on community empowerment. In our conversation, we also touched on the uniqueness of Web3 rewards, its challenges, and how a novel approach could shape the industry. I hope you find the discussion insightful. Lingo HM Rawat Tell us a bit about yourself and how you got into Web3. Tell us a bit about yourself and how you got into Web3. From selling MP3 CDs at school to exiting Mauritius’s fastest-growing Subway franchisee chain of 12+ restaurants, I’ve been an entrepreneur all my life. Heading marketing and sales at HMRawat Communications, our family business, was a milestone in my journey. During my time there, we secured over 80% of Mauritius’s mobile phone market share and achieved a 300x YoY revenue growth for the Madagascar unit. The Seychelles unit also saw a 1500x growth. Now, I’m applying all the lessons I learned over 30 years to build and scale Lingo. It’ll help fill Web3’s marketing gaps—the reason I entered this space. While the underlying tech is growing 2x faster than the Internet in the 90s, it’s not transforming as many lives as it can. Loyalty schemes feature heavily in Web2’s attract-extract models. How are Web3 rewards different? Loyalty schemes feature heavily in Web2’s attract-extract models. How are Web3 rewards different? The global loyalty management market was roughly $10.5 billion in 2023. It’ll possibly grow at over 9% till 2030. But consumers will only get a tiny share of this revenue, as usual. roughly $10.5 billion roughly $10.5 billion Web2 loyalty schemes are extractive because they work within walled gardens owned and controlled by centralized entities. Consumers mostly receive points or token money that have limited redeemability. You can use them at partner stores only, for example. Web3 rewards, on the contrary, can put real value in the consumer’s hands. Consumers can trade loyalty tokens in secondary markets or exchange them with their friends. That’s the power of interoperability. Plus, on-chain revenue models are usually transparent and verifiable, enhancing accountability. Have Web3 rewards evolved fully? If not, what are its main challenges? Have Web3 rewards evolved fully? If not, what are its main challenges? No. Lingo will take Web3 rewards over the line but there’s still a long way to go. Inferior design and sub-par incentives are the main problems. The inability to sustain rewards and engage communities long-term is a key reason why over 72% of projects from the 2020-2021 bull market have died. 72% of projects 72% of projects Web3 projects typically have Ponzinomics for economic models. They constantly need to onboard new users to maintain rewards, etc. This is very dangerous in volatile, cyclical markets like crypto. It’s also unsustainable. Moreover, Web3 rewards don’t have enough real-world utility yet. They’re even inferior to centralized Web2 rewards in some ways. Meaning, communities don’t have the incentives to stay loyal long-term. Speculation and frothy practices are more prevalent instead. How does Lingo solve these problems? What’s unique about its approach? How does Lingo solve these problems? What’s unique about its approach? We’re solving the root cause, i.e., Ponzinomics. The lack of intrinsic value and solid foundations fuel the problems we discussed so far. Lingo fixes that. We’ve developed a new model that’ll generate tangible community rewards using Real World Assets (RWAs). The algorithm supporting Lingo’s circular economy invests transaction fees into high-performing RWAs and the returns go to the rewards pool. It ensures compound growth. Consumers will earn $LINGO tokens that they can redeem for real-world rewards by staking, etc. This system works irrespective of market conditions, making it robust and sustainable. We’re already seeing strong support for our vision and novel approach. Over 140K consumers have joined the waitlist. Our Twitter and Discord communities have 84,000+ and 50,000+ members respectively. We have 100+ brand ambassadors and raised over $5 million via private rounds. What’s in it for the community? How will Lingo change the experiences of end-users? What’s in it for the community? How will Lingo change the experiences of end-users? Lingo users get passive, risk-minimized access to the RWA industry, which is expected to cross $16 trillion by 2030 . Early adopters will further reap the benefits accruing from our first mover’s advantage. $16 trillion by 2030 $16 trillion by 2030 Consumers can access Web3’s largest rewards ecosystem with Lingo. This means special benefits at 3000+ brands like Nike, IKEA, Spotify, Uber, Netflix, and more. Our solutions will be available in 80+ countries, powered by Fizen and our 100,000+ hotel network. Fizen Fizen I’ve spent 12+ years building solutions and services for global consumers. Our Co-Founder, David Amsellem, built John Paul — the world’s top premium loyalty program that Accor Hotels acquired for $150 million in 2016. Over the years, we’ve both learned the importance of ensuring top-notch user experiences. That’s our priority at Lingo. Plus an awesome team of blockchain researchers, developers, and advisors is helping us turn vision into reality. We’ll unleash next-gen Web3 incentives. Community members will be the biggest beneficiaries here — it’ll be a win-win for consumers and partner brands. And finally, distributed governance gives users a meaningful say in the platform’s policies and financial models. We welcome anyone who’s ready to surf the tide.

Connecting Web3 Rewards To Real-World Assets - A Discussion With HM Rawat

Once in a while, I write non-technical blog posts when I've something worth sharing. Today, I'd like to write about my North America "Tour" across several conferences and user groups. The first leg of my journey started in Oakland, California, with . Developer Week is an established conference with different editions in several locations and online during the year. Though I'm on their advisory board, this is only the second time I've spoken at one of their events. Pro-tip: Avoid being on any board of a conference where you speak. It's bad taste and casts doubt on whether you validated yourself. Developer Week I flew from Geneva the day before my talk and crashed into my hotel bed. Of course, I woke up very early in the morning and decided to check the demo of a talk planned for the end of the tour. It didn't work, so I tried to remove the stopped containers. Tired as I was, I deleted my Docker images, including the ones I'd need a few hours later for my talk on ! all Open Telemetry https://twitter.com/stmcallister/status/1760397694282121559?embedable=true The talk is heavily based on a demo. When I tried to start the latter, I noticed the issue immediately and realized my mistake, but it was too late. Even though I had a Docker Compose file with statements, one of the components is in Rust—there was no time to compile it. build Long story short, it was an epic fail. I apologize again for this to the attendees if any of them read this post; I hope the explanations and slides were enough for them to play with the GitHub repository. Afterward, my friend drove me to San Francisco for lunch and a lovely walk along the piers. Josh The next day, I woke early to fly to Montréal, Canada. It was a pretty long flight; the day after, I had to talks at , one of my favorite conferences in North America. ConFoo started as a PHP conference, hence the elephant mascot, but has now widened its horizon . ConFoo a lot I had two talks there: Open Telemetry (again) and . I had rebuilt my images, and both talks went flawlessly this time. Chopping the Monolith https://twitter.com/spencerbgibb/status/1761046658303877615?embedable=true Over the weekend, my friend invited me to ski in Sutton. The temperature was very low compared to what I'm used to, around-10°C. Fortunately, Anthony was prepared and gave me self-heating thingies for my hands; unfortunately, he only had one - but it was enough nonetheless. Anthony also connected me with all the meetups I have the pleasure of presenting at in Canada, so I'm fortunate to count him as a friend. Anthony Having survived the Canadian cold, I ran one of my favorite runs on Monday: from the Bonaventure Hotel to the top of the Mount Royal. The slope is pretty steep at the foot of the mount, so you either choose to use the twisty path to the top or the multiple stairs that cut a more direct route. I managed to use all the stairs but the last (and longest) one and caught my breath running along the regular path. In the evening of the same day, I talked at the meetup. It's interesting because though I've been a developer for a long time, I never belonged to the "crafter" movement, though it resonates. The talk chosen was . The room was packed, and I believe it was pretty well received. Software Crafters Montréal Evolving your APIs The next step in my journey was the . I spent most of my developer years on the JVM, so my network is quite developed among JUGs. The organizer is : he's been accommodating and has driven me from my hotel and back again. He's trying to rebuild the Ottawa JUG back to its pre-COVID attendance. If you're a speaker and plan to be around Ottawa, please get in touch with him: his organizational skills are second to none. Ottawa Java User Group Sebastien Pelletier https://twitter.com/t_mammarella/status/1762628620193775717?embedable=true Ottawa is located between Montréal and Toronto, so the was a logical step in my tour. I stayed for a couple of days, including the weekend, so I had time to explore the city, including the CN Tower, as it was my first time there. is the organizer there, and I'm sure she'll be happy to host you. Toronto JUG Therese Mammarella You may have noticed she liked my talks so much that she drove to Ottawa on purpose the week before to attend the one I did at the JUG. The talk was well-attended but less than I expected for a city of this size. Anyway, I had a lot of fun presenting Evolving Your APIs - I hope the attendees had too. https://twitter.com/shaunmsmith/status/1764812180992426409?embedable=true Toronto is quite close to Niagara Falls. It would have been a shame not to go there, but I felt sick the weekend, so I decided to skip it. Yet, some things are just bound to happen. After the talk, a couple of us went to have dinner. There, I met a Ukrainian guy who had moved to Toronto years before the war and knew about me and my support for Ukraine. After talking together, we realized we had friends in common. He offered to drive me there as he was not working the next day. I happily took a day off myself and didn't regret it one bit! Thanks, Ihor, for the drive and the conversation. Afterward, I returned to the USA, namely Chicago, Illinois, to speak at . I have known the JUG leader, , for over a decade. She took the time to organize the meetup despite her busy schedule. Chicago JUG Mary Grygleski https://twitter.com/mgrygles/status/1765903150668517579?embedable=true is a familiar face in the Java community - and beyond. He's also the leader of the Denver Java User Group. I was lucky to know him, as he also arranged a double hit: , then . Even better, , whom I don't need to introduce, lives close to Boulder was there to invite me for a hike. But before that, I spend my weekend hiking according to his suggestion. Matt Raible Boulder Denver Venkat Subramaniam and First, I went to Boulder Moutain Park, and then, the day after, I went to Lake Bernard. The not-so-fun part about the second hike: for a reason unknown, mid-way, my head started to hurt. The headache lasted for the whole day. I checked online, and since I had my water bag and kept drinking, it might have been mountain sickness. It's weird since I live close to the mountains and go on top regularly, but it's the only explanation I could find. Fortunately, it went away the next day, and the talks went well. https://twitter.com/GregOstravich/status/1768070218855612800?embedable=true It was time for me to leave for the last leg of my journey, the in Pasadena. Before that, life took an interesting turn of events: the forecast warned about a snowstorm in the area. The airline rebooked me twice: from 6 AM to 7 AM, then from 7 AM to 11 AM. I was lucky enough to get a seat, and though spraying the plane with unfreezing liquid took a bit of time, it managed to leave anyway. I left Denver under the snow and landed a handful of hours later in Los Angeles under the sun. Southern California Linux Expo It was my second time at SCaLE, , SoCalLinux; the first time was the year of Covid. I need to explain why speaking at SCaLE during this journey was necessary. At the time, I was to speak at two different meetups in San Francisco, then SCaLe, fly to Romania, then Istanbul, get back home on Saturday, and leave on Monday for Australia. Granted, it was not terrific planning, but I like to think that I lived and learned since then. aka Anyway, one of the meetups was canceled, and I did the other online from my hotel room. At SCaLe, the venue was pretty empty for an event this size. Some people were wearing masks, and antiseptic gel dispensers were everywhere. I had around ten people in my room, which was my record at the time - I've done worse since then. Later, the Romanian conference announced they would cancel the event. I called the Istanbul one, but they confirmed the event would occur. I rebooked to Istanbul, then one day later, they canceled as well. When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade; I decided to keep it that way to avoid more rebooking fees and spend the days in Istanbul anyway. For the record, on Sunday, the whole world stopped. The Australian conference was also canceled, and I had no chance to go there since. Thus, that was what went in my head by preparing for my talk at SCaLE: I wanted to exorcise my previous experience. I'm happy to say it worked! https://twitter.com/cantbewong/status/1768725626306150526?embedable=true Before leaving for home, though, I met with my friends from Yugabites: and . We had lunch, then enjoyed an hour or so walking on the shore of Venice Beach. Here, you can see them counting on their fingers: Denis Magda Franck Pachot Did you notice that you count on your fingers differently depending on where you were raised? Hint: find out how the English spies unwillingly reveal themselves in the Inglorious Basterds movie, despite speaking flawless German. It was time to get home after this last pause on American soil. Many hours later, I was at home, tired but happy from all those events. Many thanks to all the organizers who made them possible, especially Anthony, who worked as my agent for Canada. I also want to thank the people who came to my talks: speakers are nobody if there's no audience to listen to them. Finally, I want to thank my employer , who made it all possible. api7.ai See you soon ! somewhere PS: I tried to document my journey via #APISIXNorthAmericaTour. Find more pictures on , , and . Twitter LinkedIn Mastodon BlueSky Also published here

Apache APISIX: How My North America Tour Went

Bit Hotel News on
HackerNoon and Around the Web

Bit Hotel is a Social-first Play 2 Earn NFT Gaming Metaverse, in which users can compete to earn Bit Hotel tokens and acquire native NFTs. These NFTs have in-game usability and consist of characters, hotel rooms, furniture and other artifacts that have their own perks.

bithotel.io

* Desktop

* Windows

* Mac

Bit Hotel Story Mentions

Related Videos About Bit Hotel:

Read More Tech Stories Related to #Bit Hotel

Bit Hotel News on HackerNoon and Around the Web

Bit Hotel is a Social-first Play 2 Earn NFT Gaming Metaverse, in which users can compete to earn Bit Hotel tokens and acquire native NFTs. These NFTs have in-game usability and consist of characters, hotel rooms, furniture and other artifacts that have their own perks.

bithotel.io

* Desktop

* Windows

* Mac

Bit Hotel Story Mentions

Related Videos About Bit Hotel:

Read More Tech Stories Related to #Bit Hotel

Bit Hotel News on
HackerNoon and Around the Web