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

Smart Hotels Are Promising to Fix Travelers' Woes

স্মার্ট হোটেলগুলি ভ্রমণকারীদের সমস্যার সমাধান করার প্রতিশ্রুতি দিচ্ছে৷

Els hotels intel·ligents prometen solucionar els problemes dels viatgers

Los hoteles inteligentes prometen solucionar los problemas de los viajeros

Az intelligens szállodák azt ígérik, hogy orvosolják az utazók gondjait

Gli hotel intelligenti promettono di risolvere i problemi dei viaggiatori

スマートホテルは旅行者の悩みを解決すると約束している

스마트 호텔, 여행객의 고민을 해결해 주겠다고 약속

Hotel Pintar Berjanji untuk Memperbaiki Kesengsaraan Pengembara

स्मार्ट होटलहरूले यात्रुहरूको समस्या समाधान गर्ने प्रतिज्ञा गर्दैछन्

Smart Hotels Ti Tshembisa Ku Lulamisa Makhombo Ya Vafambi

Khách sạn thông minh hứa hẹn sẽ giải quyết nỗi lo của du khách

智能酒店有望解决旅行者的烦恼

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?

Build a Command-Line Tool for Skyline Queries in Golang

I spent 2019 - 2022 thinking a lot about consumer health insurance while building a consumer health insurance business, getting acqui-hired, and serving as Senior Vice President of Consumer Business at Reliance Health. This essay illustrates how the biggest industries in healthcare make money and how new upstarts can make entrepreneurial profits. But first, let’s talk about the law of conservation of attractive profits by Prof. Clay Christenson. The law of conservation of attractive profits states that in the value chain there is a requisite juxtaposition of modular and interdependent architectures, and of reciprocal processes of commoditization and decommoditization, that exist in order to optimize the performance of what is not good enough. The law states that when modularity and commoditization cause attractive profits to disappear at one stage in the value chain, the opportunity to earn attractive profits with proprietary products will usually emerge at an adjacent stage. The law of conservation of attractive profits states that in the value chain there is a requisite juxtaposition of modular and interdependent architectures, and of reciprocal processes of commoditization and decommoditization, that exist in order to optimize the performance of what is not good enough. The law states that when modularity and commoditization cause attractive profits to disappear at one stage in the value chain, the opportunity to earn attractive profits with proprietary products will usually emerge at an adjacent stage. 💡 The terms modularity and commoditization will be used a lot in this essay, so it’s important that I define them. modularity commoditization 💡 Modularity means that a component in a business’ product value chain isn’t proprietary to the business/product. Instead, the component is created by a 3rd party who’s able to innovate and make the component to very high standards that it makes no sense for businesses that need that component in their product to make it themselves. Example: Most smartphone manufacturers do not make their own phone screens instead they buy them from a supplier, hence phone screens are modular components. Modularity 💡 Commoditization means that the profits in one of the components that make up the product’s value are driven to zero. This often happens because of competition and innovation. When a company commoditizes a component, the expectation is that they’ll unlock value in a different part of the value chain. Example: MTN, the African telecoms giant, started by selling SIM cards for ~$200. When the competition came in, they crashed the price to ~$5 thereby making SIM cards a commodity. The profits they were making on SIM card sales disappeared overnight however this meant they could mass-acquire customers and make the profits on the actual utility of a SIM card (making calls). Commoditization Back to Prof. Clay Christenson’s quote. A simple translation of his quote is that a new business can find a way to make the profits disappear from one part of the business value chain by commoditizing a layer of service or component and make the profits re-appear at another part of the value chain by integrating new service layers or components. A very good example is online travel agencies (OTAs) vs hoteliers and commercial airlines. If you tried picking a place to stay in a new city without an OTA (Ex: Booking.com), you would be constrained by how many properties you can check out since one of the most important things when making a decision on where to stay is trust – trust that the property is good – you would select a property based on their brand because brand is a proxy for trust. Booking.com OTAs make it possible for you to view every property (pictures, reviews, descriptions) in any location hence commoditizing the properties’ brand because the thing you’re looking for (trusted accommodation experiences) is no longer dependent on the property’s brand as the OTA gives you enough information to make the purchase decision. The OTA commoditized all properties and eroded the profits a property would have extracted through the brand they have built while the OTA extracts value from the customer by enabling reservations. Since the OTA collects the money by enabling reservations, they can ask the hotels to give them a commission if they want the guest to stay. You can apply the same value chain disruption to the airline industry vs OTAs too. This is why Booking.com or any hotel booking marketplace can quickly try to replicate Airbnb’s business, but big chain hoteliers like Marriot and Holiday Inn cannot do that because their business value chain is very different. This means that the OTAs are counter-positioned to the hoteliers. Booking.com quickly try to replicate Airbnb’s business A layer being modular means that any player can integrate that layer into their value chain easily, however, profits are stripped away when the layer becomes commoditized while value capture happens on the integrated level. If a layer in the value chain becomes commoditized, then the economic opportunity of capturing value on that layer goes to zero, especially if the innovation that made this new business model possible is disruptive. Read my essay on how businesses make entrepreneurial profits to see how profits go to zero. essay on how businesses make entrepreneurial profits The value chain for people looking to access care looks like this: Hospitals and clinics integrate the facility and trusted care into one service and market it to consumers of healthcare, so you end up picking a facility based on the brand around trusted care that they have built. The payment/billing layer is modularized which means they do not have a direct financial relationship with healthcare consumers, hence the profit opportunities they can pursue are constrained by their integration & value capture layer. The hospitals make their margin from bundling trusted care and the facility together. This is why the rates at each hospital are different and consumers of healthcare make their decision based on how much they trust a health provider not necessarily on price because trust is more important. A hospital can decide to integrate the billing layer into their trusted care + facility layer by charging a membership fee that gives access to all care you need, but because care is not commoditized this value chain restructure will break (no profits to extract) because you need scale economies to extract value from commoditized layers. trusted care + facility care Health insurance providers restructure the value chain to look like this Health insurance providers integrate the payment method with trusted care. The facility becomes a commodity hence the health insurance provider isn’t trying to extract any value from the facility. Their intent is to pay the least amount of money to the healthcare facility so that they can extract more value from the Trusted care + Billing layer. What consumers of healthcare need is trusted care, and the health insurance provider has taken on the job of providing facilities you can access trusted care for free. It’s also in the best interest of the health insurance organization to only offer facilities that give trusted care because it’s cheaper for them (helps retention and reduces costs from patients having multiple encounters from bad care). This is why health insurance providers have teams whose objective is to eliminate fraud and unnecessary risk from healthcare facilities and other providers of healthcare. Trusted care + Billing By bundling the payment method with trusted care, health insurance providers are not constrained by the business model of only being able to offer in-person care like hospitals, they can offer more in their bundle of trusted care or sell you extra services like health financing for care that is not covered within your health insurance plan. In this business model, the profits are not made from the facility and the facility becomes a commodity in the value chain where the prices are the same across all facilities to the health insurance organization. The trusted care + payment integration creates a bundle of several benefits to the consumer and the consumer’s affinity to pay for each of these services varies. A consumer wants dental care, but they feel there’s a low chance of them ever needing surgery, however, the consumer can do mental math and conclude that it’s cheaper to pay for the health insurance plan they select than it’s to pay out of pocket for every procedure they might need to undergo even though there’s a chance that they might only utilize care once. The insurance company makes its margin from the healthcare bundle it sells the consumer. It prices all the risk of providing care then sells you the bundle at a discount to the average amount an average consumer pays for healthcare in a period. So if the average person hospital-goer spends $100 per year on hospital visits, the health insurance company can sell everyone a plan for $80 and assume that not everyone that bought the plan would ever use it. The regular Joe already knows they spend $100 or more on their bad years so an $80 deal you might never use is better than paying >$100 in case you need to use healthcare. trusted care + payment What makes health insurance providers powerful is that they aggregate supply (healthcare providers) on one side and consumers of healthcare on the other side which means that if hospitals want access to healthcare consumers they need to go through health insurance providers, however health insurance companies fail to live up to the economics of a true aggregator like Booking.com or Airbnb because the cost of fulfilling the service has real-world components, which makes it hard for them to flex their strategic muscles (this muscle comes from re-organizing the healthcare value chain) because they are burdened with managing costs. Booking.com In the case of Booking.com, you go there because they have the supply you want (a hotel in the city center) and the hotel agrees to work with them because they have demand (lots of guests). The same thing happens for health insurance providers too. However, this is where the economics take a turn, Booking.com sells you a reservation at a hotel and keeps their commission (they pay zero transaction fees from that commission). It’s the hotel that has real-world costs. Health insurance providers have to pay an expensive transaction fee every time a customer utilizes the product, this fee is a variable cost, and minimizing this variable cost of the transaction requires a lot of managerial complexity in managing costs. This managerial complexity becomes a sunk cost in the organization which gets ingrained in the company’s operations, hence positioning health insurance providers in a tough place that makes it hard to react to new business models. Booking.com Booking.com This is how managing cost can transform the business The cost of care on the right rises very fast because of Capex costs, but once you break even on Capex the costs begin to flatline even as utilization increases. The graph on the right shows that there will always be a proportional increase in cost with every extra bit of utilization so if utilization should skyrocket, the pricing model will break. The complexity of making that curve bend and flat line as utilization increases is hard. For instance, one way to manage costs is to invest more in CAPEX (capital expenditures). You can take a cost from the bundle, turn it into CAPEX and reduce the reliance on real-world fulfillment as possible. Example: replacing primary care consultations with telemedicine consultations. Another example, howbeit expensive and hard to scale: if the providers in the health insurance organization’s network bill them $10 for a primary care medical consult, the health insurance company can invest in building their own health facilities in locations with a lot of their healthcare consumers, hence they can drive the price down to a fraction of $10 (maybe $6 per medical consult assuming the hospital makes a 40% margin). This is the same business case Amazon most likely used to bootstrap their logistic business. Shipping is a variable cost – Amazon pays a relatively fixed fee per item shipped – that adds up to billions of USD every year. Let’s assume Amazon pays $8 per item shipped and they ship 2 billion items per year, that’s $16 Billion they are paying to other logistic providers. Also assuming that logistic providers are keeping $2 out of the $8 as profit, at that very high spend Amazon can turn that cost into Capex. We can assume the logistic providers make $2 as profit on every $8 spent to ship an item which means the cost to service each item shipped is $6. Amazon might be able to drive better efficiency since they are vertically integrating shipping into their business and the cost of shipping each item becomes $5 this means Amazon’s $16 billion in shipping costs can go further. Now that they’ve commoditized shipping within their business through vertical integration they can extract value from the demand side (buyer) through Amazon Prime and the supply side (sellers) through Amazon Seller Central and Fulfilled by Amazon. It took a lot of managerial complexity to bend the cost curve and all of that complexity are sunk costs. If a new model of delivering physical goods came out today that was different from existing technologies of today, it might make it difficult for Amazon to compete because of their overinvestment in managing operational costs. It takes a lot of business attention to bend a cost curve like this through Capex. Scaling these kinds of CAPEX puts any business in a place where they suffer from the managerial complexity of managing those costs. They eventually become sunk costs that the business has to live with because of the nature of their business. Where are the opportunities for a new player One of my best business quotes is by Jim Barksdale, former CEO of Netscape. There are only two ways to make money in business: one is to bundle; the other is unbundle. There are only two ways to make money in business: one is to bundle; the other is unbundle. A good example to illustrate the quote above are banks and Fintechs. Banks bundle a lot of financial products (loans, savings, business banking, investments, et al). Many Fintechs unbundle the different offerings from banks and provide them as a standalone service so you have an app for loans, another app for savings, another app for fixed income investments, another app for stocks, et al. All your different apps provide a superior service to what your bank provides, but you would also notice that your Fintech apps are beginning to bundle services again as they get bigger. Any player bundling a bunch of services together means they are half-assing some of these services no matter how seemingly great they look on the outside. There’s always an opportunity for a player to gain market share when they whole-ass a service and focus on a differentiated product rather than a service/product that is heavily commoditized. A hospital that provides multiple types of care will perform worse than a hospital treating a specific type of disease alone because it’s harder to innovate when you don’t have “focus” as your innovation strategy. The same thing happens in consumer technology where Notion is a better document editor than Google docs, or where Super Human is a better email provider than Gmail. The innovation strategy for Notion and Super Human is to focus on the job to be done whereas Google is attempting to bundle the entire work suite. innovation strategy Now that you realize there’s always opportunity, you can decide to take one part of the value chain and break it down into its own value chain, then reorganize the steps. For instance, you can break down diabetes care (a sub-part of trusted care) as: diabetes care + diabetes drugs + appointment/payment + healthcare consumer diabetes care + diabetes drugs + appointment/payment + healthcare consumer Many pharmacies integrate some section of diabetes care + diabetes drugs as a way to add more margin to their business because people with diabetes are willing to pay for diabetes drugs even if they cost a lot. diabetes care + diabetes drugs You can re-organize this value chain so that you focus on the healthcare consumer (demand) If you own demand (healthcare consumer), it means the cost of acquiring each new customer gets cheaper as you grow. It does not cost Google more money to acquire their n+1 user than it cost to acquire n+∞ user. You can acquire members by making your CAPEX free or self-sustaining especially if the transaction costs are marginal and tend to zero (zero operating costs). For instance: a community where the members share their healthcare experience and help other people to be more successful in taking care of their health has zero operating costs and as the community gets bigger you acquire more customers because the intent for joining the community is to manage bad health. If you own the payment method via appointments, you can extract value through new business models. People with diabetes also need to see a specialist, they need to do advanced investigations, they need insurance cover for every other type of care, and they often will have other pre-existing conditions. The business you build on top of this is up to you, but you might want to read my essay on how businesses make entrepreneurial profits and listen to this podcast on 7 business powers by Jeff Lawson, Twillio’s CEO. essay on how businesses make entrepreneurial profits podcast on 7 business powers

The Startup Playbook for Disrupting Healthcare’s Value Chain

How to Tell if AI Really is a Revolution

Hoe om te sê of AI werklik 'n revolusie is

Как да разберем дали ИИ наистина е революция

Jak zjistit, zda je AI skutečně revoluce

Πώς να μάθετε αν το AI είναι πραγματικά μια επανάσταση

Cómo saber si la IA es realmente una revolución

כיצד לדעת אם AI הוא באמת מהפכה

कैसे बताएं कि एआई वास्तव में एक क्रांति है

AIが本当に革命であるかをどのように知るか

როგორ გაიგოთ, თუ AI ნამდვილად რეკლამა

AI가 정말로 혁명인지 어떻게 알 수 있습니까?

Ako zistiť, či je AI skutočne revolúciou

Làm thế nào để biết nếu AI thực sự là một cuộc cách mạng

This Color Tool Turns Any Image Into a Wes Anderson Fever Dream

Hierdie kleur gereedskap verander enige prentjie in 'n Wes Anderson-koors droom

Tento barevný nástroj promění jakýkoliv obraz ve sen o horečce Wes Anderson

Esta herramienta de color convierte cualquier imagen en un sueño de fiebre de Wes Anderson

このカラーツールはあらゆるイメージをウェス・アンダーソン熱の夢に変える

Оваа алатка за боја ја претвора секоја слика во сон на Вес Андерсон

Alat warna ini mengubah apa-apa imej menjadi impian demam Wes Anderson

Deze kleurtool verandert elk beeld in een Wes Anderson-koortsdromen

Bu Renk Aracı Herhangi Bir Görüntüyi Wes Anderson Fırtına Rüyasına Dönüyor

یہ رنگ آلہ کسی بھی تصویر کو ویز اینڈرسن گرمی کے خواب میں تبدیل کرتا ہے

I-Color Tool Yenza Yonke Iifoto Enye I-Wes Anderson Fever Dream

The entire dev community building with AI is vibing over MCPs right now, but do we really need a new thing to hype over every day? Especially when the best generative AI products may be hiding in plain sight. The Big Tech Priorities ChatGPT has the first-mover advantage and caused the initial shock with GPT 3.5, so it makes sense that it is the most popular AI product on the market. DeepSeek briefly took over amid the hype-cycle. Grok is benefiting from its integration into X. Meta is sitting out on the business-to-consumer (b2c) race right now even as it has developed some of the most impressive large-language models (LLMs) yet seen on the market in the open-source LLM series. It has a “Meta AI” chat available on its platform but Mark Zuckerberg’s company doesn’t seem to invest in marketing it. Apple is also focusing on native integration into its existing products through Apple Intelligence (a major failure, for what it is worth), rather than trying to grab a piece of the quickly-growing generative AI chat userbase. Even as all of this seems more straightforward, Google’s case is more noteworthy. To Be, Or Not To Be When Wall Street first began reading the implications of generative AI — Google was identified as one of its first victims. If everybody is asking ChatGPT everything, who would be asking Google anything? The question clearly bugged Google — it launched its own rival ‘Bard’ in a rush — and, I.T. W.A.S. A. D.I.S.A.S.T.E.R. Google’s Bard and initial Gemini launches were disaster. The generative AI couldn’t answer comparably to other models at the time and its photo generation grabbed attention — not for image quality — but for political correctness. The “woke” AI just wouldn’t generate images of white people even when asked in appropriate context, and it became a hot topic at a time when the U.S. was going through a political shift. Google stock tanked, everyone wrote the company’s obituaries. Yet, the vibes have been shifting over the past year, and not enough people outside of tech seems to notice. Google’s Shifting Priority In Gen AI The tech giant’s public-facing AI chat interface is still not popular — and it isn’t particularly good either. Certainly, can’t compete with ChatGPT, Claude or Grok. But here is the thing — I don’t think Google cares anymore. It has different schemes. Google seems to now have two priorities in AI: integrate gen AI into interfaces where its users are and second, give tool to other passionate developers and let them build cool products using its APIs. The first means you see the email writer AI in gmail, you see “AI overviews” in Google Search (or now the “AI chat“ coming soon!), you can have AI do templating or other work on your Sheets, or write in Google Docs. The second is a bit more interesting, at least to me! Google AI Studio for developers is now by far the best AI API interface for developers out there! Seriously, it is just sooo much better than OpenAI’s Playground. Google AI Studio I seriously began noticing the product when Google hired Logan Kilpatrick, formerly of OpenAI, a year ago to lead product development for the AI studio. Logan Kilpatrick Logan has an impressive reputation for listening to developers when it comes to building products that actually work for them and I had been following him for a while. Google has been rolling out LLMs after LLMs — its Flash Thinking model is incredible at reasoning and available at throw away prices. The Pro 2.0 performs way better than GPT-4o at most tasks, for example. While all developers get free access to the models that are still in experimental stage, even the production-ready models are priced very competitively. The Gemini 2.0 Flash is priced at 10 cents per million input token and 40 cents output. Compare that with GPT-4o's pricing of $2.5 per million tokens input and $10 output! A Silent Turnaround When Google takes the Thinking model out of experimental stage, much of narrative around AI would have moved on from Reasoning model to something else — so the company may miss out on the marketing but the fact that it has a reasoning model at pricing that outshines competition by far wouldn’t have changed. Anecdotally, I am hearing more and more from my developer friends that they are switching over from OpenAI to using Gemini API for several use-cases. Generative AI is a rapidly-progressing space and media and marketers are looking for shiny gold nuggets — but I have changed my mind on Google. It may just survive the storm when it all blows over. WTF’s An MCP? If you've been anywhere near AI Twitter this week, you've probably seen people throwing around the term "MCP" like it's the latest tech revolution. But hold onto your GPUs — it's not exactly groundbreaking. "MCP," or Model Context Protocol, is basically a standardized way for apps to pass context to LLMs. Think of it like giving your AI better briefing notes before it starts talking—so it's smarter, sharper, and doesn't embarrass itself. Tools like Claude and Cursor have been playing with similar ideas for months, and it's closely related to something called Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)—a fancy term for "fetching extra context for smarter responses." Sure, MCP makes things tidier and more convenient. But despite Twitter bros hyping it like the AI equivalent of sliced bread, it's more incremental improvement than revolutionary leap. It’s just Twitter bros being Twitter bros. Gotta leave you with this sarcastic tweet from Pieter on the topic though.. https://twitter.com/levelsio/status/1898793069551419886 https://twitter.com/levelsio/status/1898793069551419886 New Happenings OpenAI has made major updates to its API, as it prepares for an “AI Agents” oriented future. These include the Responses API and making tools like Web Search and Computer Use available. I am yet to try these, but I am excited about experimenting with them in my Agents.
"Law & Order" Creator Dick Wolf is backing his son's new AI startup 'Wolf Games; that aims to develop daily murder mystery games.
IPO-bound CoreWeave is at it again! This time with a $12 billion deal with OpenAI for AI data centers and other services.
Google has launched Gemma-3 model for developers that it says is the most powerful model that can be run on a single GPU.
McDonalds is doing an AI makeover at all of its 43,000 restaurant to improve service. This includes replacing some human roles like administrative managers and taking customer orders but also sensors on equipments. OpenAI has made major updates to its API, as it prepares for an “AI Agents” oriented future. These include the Responses API and making tools like Web Search and Computer Use available. I am yet to try these, but I am excited about experimenting with them in my Agents. major updates "Law & Order" Creator Dick Wolf is backing his son's new AI startup 'Wolf Games; that aims to develop daily murder mystery games. new AI startup IPO-bound CoreWeave is at it again! This time with a $12 billion deal with OpenAI for AI data centers and other services. $12 billion deal Google has launched Gemma-3 model for developers that it says is the most powerful model that can be run on a single GPU. Gemma-3 model McDonalds is doing an AI makeover at all of its 43,000 restaurant to improve service. This includes replacing some human roles like administrative managers and taking customer orders but also sensors on equipments. an AI makeover Builder’s Corner I wanted to do a small section for non-developers to learn how to get gradually better at coding using AI! Let me know if you like it or not through the Feedback section below. I am surprised that a lot of people are using dedicated “AI website builder” apps at premium pricing, when you don’t really need them. To get started with learning about the capabilities of current AI, let’s start with coding our childhood-favorite snakes game. Put this prompt in Claude (or Cursor/any IDE assistant if you use that): Make a snake game with a basic snake using css and any js needed, including any standard free library, it collects points with squares. Let's keep memory of session high score, and display some basic messages. Do the game with minimal features but fully functional. Now take this content and paste it into any text editor on your laptop, save it as “index.html” or “snakes.html.” Open the saved file in your web-browser by clicking on it, and you have got your own personal version of the game! Want to customize it further? Just do follow-up prompts like “I want it to have a triangle head instead. Or I want the background of the game to be different.“ So, now you don’t need to go to any website to play a game but just on your own laptop. Check out my results at: https://snakes.artificiallyboosted.com/ https://snakes.artificiallyboosted.com/ AI is also a great way to learn, so if you want to know more about how the game is being developed, just try asking the AI, “how is the code functioning at a high-level?“ or “what is javascript and what role does it play in this game?” If you take if far enough, you may just end up making a game that is perfectly customized for your needs! Did you like this small little tutorial? Should we do a builders series? From Artificially Boosted Family We have rolled out hotel recommendations on https://tushitaai.com/ main chat and also customized destination recommendations based on your location! Working on improving speed.


Dzambhala Nodex was first to break news of Starlink-Airtel partnership! This is just one example of how AI is set to play a crucial role in consumption of financial data and information. We have rolled out hotel recommendations on https://tushitaai.com/ main chat and also customized destination recommendations based on your location! Working on improving speed. We have rolled out hotel recommendations on https://tushitaai.com/ main chat and also customized destination recommendations based on your location! Working on improving speed. https://tushitaai.com/ Dzambhala Nodex was first to break news of Starlink-Airtel partnership! This is just one example of how AI is set to play a crucial role in consumption of financial data and information. Dzambhala Nodex was first to break news of Starlink-Airtel partnership! This is just one example of how AI is set to play a crucial role in consumption of financial data and information. first to break news We are growing everyday! 🎉 If you have friends, family, acquaintances or even (pesky) relatives who may enjoy this newsletter, please share! It means a lot. I read and take all feedback very, very seriously! That’s what is helping improving this newsletter everyday. Just reply to this email. What did you think of today's newsletter? Really enjoyed it
Meh - you suck
I just skimmed through
it was 50-50 Really enjoyed it Meh - you suck I just skimmed through it was 50-50 This newsletter was first published on Artificially Boosted. Subscribe to the newsletter for more such insights. This newsletter was first published on Artificially Boosted. Subscribe to the newsletter for more such insights. Artificially Boosted more such insights.

Google is Secretly Building an Edge in the AI Race

Agents 101: A Guide on How to Build Your First AI Agent in 30 Minutes!

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?

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

* Windows

* Desktop

* Mac

Bit Hotel Story Mentions

Related Videos About Bit Hotel:

Read More Tech Stories Related to #Bit Hotel

Trending Topics

Light-Mode

Classic

Newspaper

Dark-Mode

Neon Noir

Minty

HN StartUps

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

* Windows

* Desktop

* Mac

Bit Hotel Story Mentions

Related Videos About Bit Hotel:

Read More Tech Stories Related to #Bit Hotel

Trending Topics

Light-Mode

Classic

Newspaper

Dark-Mode

Neon Noir

Minty

HN StartUps

Bit Hotel News on
HackerNoon and Around the Web