WhileAirBnB‘s “Rent a holiday home from a local” formula has proved popular in the US, it’s still relatively unknown elsewhere in the world. Pouncing on this opportunity,Qypefounder Stephan Uhrenbacher has launched a European rival based on the same idea –9flats. Opening for business today after having been in stealth mode for three months, the service is very much like AirBnB, with accommodation that users can rent directly from owners. The ‘9flats’ name comes from the page design, which will always show nine places to stay....

4 years ago today, famed American writer and humanist Kurt Vonnegut died in his home in Manhattan. But Vonnegut, one of my favorite authors, often depicted technological development in a disturbing light. InPlayer Piano, Vonnegut first novel published in 1952, he describes a bleak future in which companies have computerized so successfully that most of the population have been put out of jobs. InSirens of Titan,his second novel published in 1959, he discusses free will, omniscience, and the overall purpose of human history in relation to the Martian invasion of Earth....

Marginalized people often suffer the most harm from unintended consequences of new technologies. For example, the algorithms that automatically make decisions about who gets to see what content or how images are interpretedsuffer from racial and gender biases. People who have multiple marginalized identities, such as being Black and disabled, areeven more at riskthan those with a single marginalized identity. This is why when Mark Zuckerberg laid out hisvision for the metaverse– anetwork of virtual environmentsin which many people can interact with one another and digital objects – and said that it willtouch every productthe company builds, I was scared....

In a letter to its customers,RackspaceVP of ProductMark Interrantehas announced thatSlicehost, the IT hosting company Rackspace acquired in 2008, will be shut down within 12 months. Interrante gives the complexities of managing “two brands, two control panels and two sets of Support, Engineering and Operations teams” as the underlying driver behind the move. Managing one product will give the company a greater chance of succesfully coordinating the shift fromIPv4 to IPv6as well as the development ofOpenStack Technology....

The Fixis a site about addiction and recovery, but not from the superficial self-help angle. It’s a mix of crazy stories of addiction–drugs, booze and sex– with advice from therapists and doctors. The site, which officially launches today, was created byRadar MagazineFounder Maer Roshan, who after selling Radar over two years ago, moved to LA and entered rehab for alcohol abuse. Joe Schrank, an “interventionist,” and the Founder and CEO of The Core Company, is also a Co-Founder of The Fix and its Editor-at-Large....