🇹🇭 V and I have quickly settled back into Bangkok life - we really love our Bangkok apartment; how nice it would be to have something like this in Hong Kong! In addition to the regular Bitcoin meetups we have also been getting out and about together to enjoy the city. We have also met up with a few HK friends here in Bangkok - small world. Happy to say that Chatuchak market finally seems to be back operating on full-steam. We were there over the weekend and pretty much all of the stalls seem to be open, with more variety than before; I hope they get the tourists they need to support it - we did pick up a few handy things - it is good to support local vendors.

We also had a couple of enjoyable evenings out at the Bangkok Awakening Festival. Notwithstanding the symbolism (of the name and the lettering) we had a really great time as did all the other people attending - locals and tourists alike. Click below for info and photos - there are some 29 installations spread over several locations in old Bangkok town and walking around in the evening is a real treat. Firstly, the heat of the day has passed and the evenings are great and then the atmosphere in the streets is amazing - these are local-residential and working areas with families and kids out playing in the streets.

Overnight Saturday, starting Sunday morning at 2am we had the Bangkok marathon! Yes - they run the races during the night to take advantage of the cooler nighttime temperatures - it really is too hot to do it in the daytime. All the winners were from Ethiopia and Kenya, of course!

We also got to do our own tour of EmSphere after the hype of the opening weekend. It is massive and it is certainly true that Bangkok can do the most extraordinary shopping experiences - better than anywhere else. Of course all the local YouTubers did their own tours - you can see examples here and here and you can search for plenty more. Ikea is certainly the anchor tenant up on the 3rd floor (really the 6th floor, due to G, GM and M floors!) and it is great to have this so handy; the other Ikea shops in Bangkok are a bit of a trek.

V and I have also started doing walkabouts in various parts of the city. Bangkok is truly vast - it is bigger than you can possibly imagine. More on these in due course!

Getting ready for Christmas and Year End

With December already here many will be preparing to take time off work and go on holiday for a bit. Smart move(!) and you might want to use some of that time to read, watch or listen to something informative and useful. Re-reading some of the past newsletters can be a good start - lots of references in them and in the coming weeks I'll be sharing additional suggestions for such material. I would love also to hear from you about things that you have found useful. Do reach out and let me know.

Podcast of the week

Following on from last week's Podcast Series recommendation I got feedback from several subscribers who appreciated it and gained new insights from it, as did I. One subscriber pointed me to the work of Alan Watts.

Alan Watts was an English philosopher, speaker and writer born in 1915 in London, England. He moved to the United States in 1938 and became an Episcopal priest before resigning to pursue a career in writing and speaking. He was known for introducing Eastern philosophies like Zen Buddhism to Western audiences in the mid-20th century. He wrote many books and gave lectures exploring concepts of personal identity, ego, nature of reality.

This prompted me to look into my archives and I am happy to recommend one of Alan's lecture recordings for you to listen to and learn from. This is an easy one to get you started. He goes much deeper into many philosophical topics and we may well cover some of them in upcoming newsletters.

So what do you think? Have you any favourite lectures or ones that you recommend? Do reach out and I am happy to discuss!

More in this issue

• Photo memories - Bangkok Awakening
• Project Updates - Back to basics, sleeves rolled up
• Plenty of useful links - don't say nobody told you!
• Closing out - a couple of Higherside Chats

🛠️ Project Updates

Being settled in Bangkok for a bit, I got back into my development projects. The updates this week are pretty much hands-on and in-the-weeds as I get my feet back on the developer pedals again. What are you doing?

Hands-on again

First task was to re-familiarise myself with the development tools and Docker. I have absolutely got to recommend Mosh and his courses - this one got me back up to speed quickly - it is amazing how your technical knowledge and skills evaporate when you don't use them for a bit but Mosh fixes this!

Recommended follow-up to this is his Docker-compose tutorial - teaching you how to interconnect and combine your containers.

Putting AI to practical use

I was happy to hear Guy's latest podcast on practical uses of AI. Indeed he points out a few that can give you super-powers. I am already building my own library of tools and techniques in each of the 5 categories he discusses - how about you?

If you are looking to maximise your productivity, to use the Ai tools available in a way that genuinely gives you that 5x improvement of your capabilities, this is the episode for you. These are the 5 ways I am currently using Ai more than any other to maximise my output - Guy gives his suggestions on each of these - check them out.

1. Troubleshooting (03:49) - you can feed it context and describe symptoms and it will give you all sorts of useful suggestions to try. You can iterate and refine as you go.
2. Making Tutorials (15:25) - making and sharing your own tutorials - eg after you have done the troubleshooting!
3. Compositing Images (31:08)- it lowers the cost of producing original and exciting artwork, making it accessible to everyone who puts in just a bit of effort - for example Thumbnails for YouTube, Images for Newsletters and App Icons
4. Automate everything (40:50) - use it to write code and simple applets that will automate actions that you often need to do. The more you do this the more you will realise how useful it is! Eg transcribing videos and podcasts, archiving project work or any type of repetitive actions that you need to do.
5. Standardising and formalising workflow (49:05) - this builds on number 4 - helping you to have better organised and searchable workspace and archives

Let me know if you are doing any of these or have more suggestions.

Nala - who knew? It is much better

Chris Titus is a most interesting character. He freely shares his years of useful experience, tips and tricks in a rather chatty style. This was an interesting find - indeed it is MUCH nicer and faster too! Another one of many handy tools I have found via him.

SimpleX Chat - now with desktop/mobile linking

I have long been impressed by SimpleX Chat. The technology behind this is amazing. It does allow completely private communication with no user-ids! If you have not tried it you really ought to give it a test drive before you really need it.

Things have just got even better with the release of their latest version that allows you to link your mobile with desktop computer. This has long been the stumbling block for adoption as every other messaging client offered this feature - now we have it.

Ocean.xyz and Bitcoin mining improvements

Next up is an interesting development. The consensus of those in the know seems to be rather on the side that this is indeed a great development. I also tend to agree and whilst there might be some temporary or potential drawbacks I think these will resolve in the right direction as the commercial incentives push things as they should.

Matt is convinced that this is good and he presents all the main arguments for the new (revitalised) mining pool - in particular decentralisation and audibility of the mining and rewards process. The current pool options are indeed somewhat opaque or suboptimal.

Next Stephan does a great and in-depth interview with Bitcoin Mechanic on how this works and they go into quite some detail on anticipating and addressing the concerns.

There have been concerns expressed of potential censoring of transactions due to the temporary use of Knots for templates but this will evolve and resolve, especially when Stratum V2 comes along. Also, whilst the concern on being Custodial for small amounts has some validity they really have picked about the best solution that I can see and the upcoming addition of Lightning payments will do wonders - including for the Lightning Liquidity Provider space.

Overall I expect the economic incentives of Bitcoin to direct the evolution in the right direction. I like too Matt Odell's suggestion that template production should be based solely on most-fee; this too is incentivised by Bitcoin and decentralised pools will be incentivised to adopt this.

Regular team meeting

Lastly on the technical side we had the regular Bitcoin Developer review meeting. This is just the best way to keep up to date with all the ongoing developments and to have experts in the field interpret and explain what is happening and the implications.

Read the extensive meeting notes here with links to listen to the meeting recording (recommended!)

🔗 Links for your edification

The following are links from my NetNewswire feeds - learn, enjoy and share.

Zero common sense

UK Column is a great source of sensible discussion on important topics with plenty of pointers to trustworthy data sources. This latest interview is well worth a listen - you will learn a thing or two beyond what you already know.

The Creature from Jekyll Island

The Federal Reserve heads up the cartel of international private bankers. There is nothing Federal about it, nor does it have any reserves. The corruption behind this is a cancer that has now metastasised throughout the world. What you see happening around you is a direct consequence of the evil behind this organisation.

It is not enough to know the truth - you and others need to take action - this will help you understand and get started:

Madeira

You may well remember that Madeira is where V and I fled to when we escaped from the Covid Lunacy that was breaking out in Hong Kong back in March 2022. Madeira at that time was standing out as the first place to welcome all travellers without any ridiculous tests or other nonsense. Check back to Issue 10 in case you have already forgotten how mad things were at that time - this is why we started travelling around the world!

Continuing in this pioneer role, Madeira will be hosting the Bitcoin Atlantis Conference this coming March. The primary objective of the event is to delve into the possibilities of a better future that Bitcoin presents. The event also aims to establish Madeira Island as a global destination in the fields of Bitcoin and technology, highlighting its potential and quality of life.

For the latest insights from those onsite who are organising the conference listen along here.

Why not schedule at least a one-week vacation, bring your family, and enjoy Madeira Island, while attending a 3-day conference that will unite all the Bitcoin Giants!

🤔 Closing Thoughts

Closing out this week I am recommending you listen to a couple of the Higherside Chats. Greg Carlwood, the presenter and interviewer, does fantastic research to get the most interesting people and he thoroughly researches each interviewee ahead of the interview. These really are some of the best interviews that you will find.

First up: Some straight talking from Joe Atwill. You might well remember him from a few months ago when we talked about Caesar's and Shakespeare's Messiah back in Issue 73. You might well want to go back and check that previous discussion. Alternatively do dive straight in: Inexplicable Facts, Masonic Manipulations & the Converso Cabal

And for something completely different, but equally well researched, listen to this next one. Whatever you think you know about this you will be surprised.

Do let me know what you think and which you find most interesting - happy to discuss.

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No one can be told what The Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.
- Morpheus to Neo in The Matrix

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