=== ANCHOR POEM ===
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 Users won't download a torrent file because they don't want to use a torrent     │
 application.                                                                     │
 It's not ideal, but perhaps instead of giving them a zip file that's hosted on   │
 your machine, you automagically torrent the file yourself and send bits and      │
 pieces of it to them over time - specifically the parts that you'd be sending    │
 if you were sending a zip.                                                       │
 That way, to the user, they can download anything they can click on.             │
 To the administrator (AKA you, in this hypothetical) you'd really just have to   │
 set up some infrastructure that received a GET request for a file and            │
 initiated the torrent on your system before sending the entire thing to the      │
 user. Kinda like how Mega will "cache" the file before sending it in one go at   │
 the end, versus most downloads which "stream" the file to the client             │
 bit-by-bit (in a very un-torrent-y way).                                         │
 This is an example of reducing friction. Removing options from the "advanced     │
 settings" menu is not an example of reducing friction, it's an example of        │
 disempowering the users of software.                                             │
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=== SIMILARITY RANKED ===

--- #1 fediverse/2947 ---
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 the downside of Proton and Lutris is now the ONLY games that work on Steam are   │
 either continually updated (untenable) or playable on Lutris or Proton. Same     │
 thing with Wine, though there's always at least one decent substitute.           │
 kinda makes me want to write a manager-style program which runs programs using   │
 whichever version of their git repository would work best for their system /     │
 configuration / purposes. Idk how I would start working on that though.          │
 I bet you could make one that acted like a shop, but where you didn't charge     │
 any dollars. You could like... "swipe" through UI options, and pick whichever    │
 felt most useful for your setup. Like, how some people use i3 and some use dwm   │
 with maybe inspectors that are modeled off of video-game style "options" GUIs    │
 that mainly correspond to flags on the command/terminal line or compilation      │
 flags                                                                            │
 I feel like that kind of abstraction would make it a lot easier for users to     │
 adjust their system. they're noobs, after all. gotta show them all the choices   │
 in one place...                                                                  │
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--- #2 fediverse/71 ---
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 Oh it's compressed on tumblr too. And Reddit can delete my account at any
 time, just saying. I don't trust Facebook to fare any better...
 
 I tried to put it on my neocities website so I could just put a link here.
 Nevermind the fact that most people see a link they don't recognize and
 completely glaze over it. Guess what? Compressed there too. The file is fine
 on my PC, so how about I give a download link? Well, where should I host it?
 Dropbox or Mega I guess, but they locked my account for inactivity. I don't
 really like having other people in control of my data either. Maybe I can host
 it on my website, like a file server? Well, the browser intercepts the file
 somehow and I can't get it to automatically download to the viewer's computer.
 Maybe I'm just completely average and representative of the base population
 but I just can't figure this darn thing out. Alas, if only it was the modern
 era where things make sense and not the ancient days of 2023.
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--- #3 fediverse/482 ---
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 @user-246 
 
 You're absolutely right. It's easy to think of the internet as this
 encapsulated entity "the world", but really it's "the people whose computers
 are physically connected to your computer using a limited and tangible piece
 of infrastructure comprised of copper wires that are laid between the
 router/switch that connects to your computer... and the internet service
 provider which directs your traffic. Then it probably goes through some cables
 under the ocean or whatever, and eventually after traversing many
 indeterminate passthrough locations eventually arrives at the computing
 infrastructure that comprises the access point that another person (presumably
 in another country) uses to express their thoughts toward you (the person who
 sent the original message) in the hopes that you might one day correspond.
 
 I mean... That's a lot of points of failure. I sure hope that we can sustain
 such connection, in the face of [redacted, whichever circumstances may come in
 the near future]
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--- #4 fediverse/5212 ---
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 the reason you start with a game engine is because then you'll have tools to
 make however-many games you want. Tools that you know intimately enough that
 you can debug and improve them without breaking your creative flow by learning
 something new halfway through a project
 
 the whole point of individualized projects instead of viewing each computer as
 a complete and total whole (why do we need servers again?) is that you can
 paint a picture of where the design of the program is intended to go, such
 that all the considerations are in place and whatever issues or struggles you
 might face along the way are adequately addresssed, -- stack overflow --
 [because I mistyped addressed] -- -- if you know what "stack overflow" means
 you have intimate knowledge of the technology, and can probably guess what it
 means in context when I say it. "nuts I lost that train of thoguht" -- stackl
 ov
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--- #5 fediverse/1329 ---
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 @user-941                                                                        │
 well, your computer only has so many 1s and 0s that it can use at once. Like,    │
 having a trillion hands that can each hold a single grain of rice. Every         │
 character in that txt file would be like, 8 grains of rice, minimum, meaning     │
 you'd need at least 8 "hands" (or spots to put a zero or a one) for each         │
 letter!                                                                          │
 Hmmmm that's a lot of bits and bytes if everyone's writing to the same file.     │
 Maybe if we split the file up into smaller sections, then we could just read     │
 part of it at once. Then we could "scroll" through it to make sure we've read    │
 the whole thing, starting from the top and going to the bottom.                  │
 ah but if everyone's SSHing into the same computer and reading it there, then    │
 that computer will have to present different parts of the file at different      │
 times to different people, as they read from the top to the bottom. Maybe we     │
 could just send them the file, so they can read it at their leisure?             │
 Yeah! And we could use tags to organize it and make it look pretty, like an      │
 HTML file except... wait hang on                                                 │
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--- #6 fediverse/3044 ---
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 @user-1352 
 
 by making such choices, one by one as they engage with content, they're
 necessarily sorting themselves out in their thoughts (in addition to sorting
 themselves into categories)
 
 they say writing is thinking, but I think "choosing" the most interesting is
 thinking too. Sorta like... deciding, how and what you believe about...
 whatever thing is shown on your screen.
 
 so, when you show the most polarizing options the user gets to clarify about
 how they want to see things when engaging with the software.
 
 I don't know how useful that would be... /shrug
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--- #7 fediverse/3498 ---
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 ... I do believe it should be, and if it is, then I do believe it should be
 legal to transfer digital media, as the inscription upon one hard drive or the
 other is as easily changed as a book might be handed to another.
 
 the difference, of course, is that any move on a digital medium requires a
 copy+delete operation. You cannot move a file on your computer, you first copy
 it to the new location and then delete the original. This dual-operation is
 abstracted away for the user, but that is how it must be done on a mechanical
 level. There is no other way to do it.
 
 Therefore, software piracy only applies if a person copies their file and does
 not delete the original. Surely, to move a piece of digital media from one
 folder-directory to another is legal? If so, then the mechanical process of
 giving that media to another must be legal as well, so long as the original is
 deleted.
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--- #8 fediverse/1862 ---
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 some people look for signals or signs before doing something. Try and have       │
 someone in your life who can give you signals or signs so that you know when     │
 to do things. And ideally, if they're more hardcore than you, you'll know what   │
 to do, not just when to do it.                                                   │
 did you know that anything on the internet can be read by at least one other     │
 person besides your intended recipient? There's no way they'd let us talk        │
 amongst ourselves otherwise.                                                     │
 I think encryption is pretty neat, all you have to do is run a shell script on   │
 some text, then send that text over the internet. If you want to decrypt it,     │
 all you have to do is run a shell script on it to decrypt it.                    │
 downside is, it has to be translated into plain text somewhere along the         │
 line... Maybe if we rendered the words not as text that can be read from         │
 memory, but as like, brush-strokes that can have a randomized order, but still   │
 present to the user as visual text? anyway that's what's on my mind as I try     │
 and improvise a baking recipe with yeast, flour, and butter                      │
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--- #9 fediverse/969 ---
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 how about this: a game where you have to enter the amount of time you have to
 play it when you boot it up.
 
 "I want to play for an hour and a half"
 
 after your allotted time, you get kicked off and it won't restart unless you
 use a password.
 
 It's a trifle of a gesture, really just an affectation of a task, like using a
 -f flag in Linux or saying "are you sure u want to delete these files?" on an
 application.
 
 Funny how the most tech that most people interact with most of the time is
 their phone, and their smart TV. Generally that's about it, and they only use
 one or two apps in their phone. They might change the background, if they're
 the artistic type, but most people are just fine with the defaults.
 
 "Uh yeah I think the settings app is somewhere around here... darn it's always
 so frustrating when I'm connecting to wifi, what is the tech industry even
 doing? I don't want to deal with [opening a menu, selecting
 "wifi/connections", picking the SSID, entering the password, and then going
 back to uber eats]"
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--- #10 fediverse/5487 ---
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 if I click a .exe link on a website, it should just...
 
 automatically download the file and open it up in wine or the
 whatever-windows-uses.
 
 why is it cumbersome literally just, let me download the source-code
 repository to someone's computer and let them compile it themselves without
 even thinking about it
 
 "you mean like, package manager hooks into a website?"
 
 yes, but, instead of implemented one-by-one, it should use a protocol so each
 package manager only has to implement the downloading scheme once and it'd be
 able to read from any locations that output the correct API calls or whatever.
 
 the developer could even do it themselves. such is the joy of open-source
 computing - if you like a service or product, you can make it work with your
 own. What else is there to work on but the ultimate computing product?
 
 aka... everything that anyone's ever been known?
 
 "girl you are loco what's your plan for the fight you continue to demand"
 
 oh idk um probably just wait until someone asks me to speak
 
 "do that~"
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--- #11 fediverse/653 ---
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 there's a difference between designing software and using software. Some
 things can be made, and then saved for another day when their implementations
 may be accomplished more ethically. It's okay to say "let's leave this as
 'okay' and work on the next thing we've chosen."
 
 Check out this piece of C code I wrote last night:
 
 it doesn't compile, it's not finished, but I wrote it as-is
 
 [pretend like it was called "main.c" instead of "main.txt" - had to change it
 because mastodon thinks it's an invalid file]
 
 [actually .txt didn't work, try .png]
 
 [hmmm it realized it wasn't a valid png file, okay try screenshotting the
 code, there's only 300 lines]
 
 [sure glad there's only 300 lines]
 
 [too bad it won't let you send .zip]
 
 [won't let me name it main.png, presumably because they already have a
 failed-verified version on their machine. will rename to main-src.png instead]
sorry, when I pasted the source code in it was negative fourteen thousand, six hundred and thirty one characters. Phew that's too many.  basically it's a C source code file with a lot of comments left in... odd locations. They details ideas the author has had about the tech industry and all of creation, and with it a song is woven of truth and liberation. We'll see where life brings us, but we know it's just ours for a moment, so let's carry forth on our own torms [terms, but pronounced as "dorms" for some reason?]
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--- #12 fediverse/239 ---
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 if your computer gets hacked, but nothing was broken or changed... do you        │
 leave it as it is so that anonymous can see you're chill or do you wipe it       │
 because you're afraid it's the feds?                                             │
 ehhhh false dichotomy most people are afraid that their system will get borked   │
 or their bank account will be stolen or their email will get spam or that        │
 random icons will turn inside out and their mouse cursor will turn into a        │
 barfing unicorn or they'll finally have to figure out bitcoin to pay a ransom    │
 for their files including the only pictures they have of their niece. whoops     │
 people are afraid of technology because of what it can do to hurt them.          │
 they're afraid it'll break or stop working, and they'll have to spend time       │
 figuring it out. they like things how they are, but for some reason companies    │
 keep changing things? it's frustrating learning a new system, and every 5-10     │
 years it feels like you have to learn a new paradigm and ugh it's just so        │
 exhausting. technology is not designed for users...  or maybe users get bored.   │
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--- #13 fediverse/5146 ---
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 to help cool down in arid environments, have water dripping from a faucet onto   │
 a wet towel or cloth. Then when you pass by you can wipe down and it's super     │
 refreshing. Can do a sponge or paper towel too if you want.                      │
 this helps keep the air moist because the water will slowly evaporate from the   │
 driest parts of the cloth instead of rolling down a drain-pipe-hole and going    │
 into the ocean.                                                                  │
 moist air is cool air. Helps if you live somewhere with increased air            │
 pressure, like a valley or a coast.                                              │
 especially with wind. not too much, otherwise it gets sandy, just enough to      │
 feel nice when the sweat is upon your back.                                      │
 "but what about all the other places that aren't perfect?"                       │
 oh, well, different places require different adjustments to the environment.     │
 You wouldn't want to do the faucet dripping strategy in alaska or poland         │
 because it might freeze.                                                         │
 "... poland? do you mean the poles of the earth?"                                │
 yes yes, earth poles, pole land, same thing.                                     │
 "not the same thing! okay we're gonna have to educate you ms"                    │
 noooooooo                                                                        │
noooooooo now my brain won't have room for wisdom
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--- #14 fediverse/5784 ---
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 large companies want you to need to download and configure each piece of         │
 software because then it'd mean [wait you got that backwards] oh right if they   │
 force you to download and install software on a "per distro" system, then they   │
 effectively can ensure that there's always a vulnerability on your host.         │
 any amount of space is PLENTY of space for a                                     │
 non-open-source-but-instead-proprietary-or-otherwise-secretive part of the       │
 tech stack to do whatever they want with your host. computer.                    │
 I wonder, if AI was real would it really be guaranteed to expand in growth       │
 exponentially? What if it's nature was confined to it's form, like dinosaurs     │
 not growing bigger because of the lack of oxygen in the airtmosphere?            │
 [girl can you please stop smoking weed]                                          │
 ... no?? that's when I'm most productive.                                        │
 [this isn't productive]                                                          │
 it feels productive                                                              │
 [it isn't]                                                                       │
 WHYYYYYYY not? it could be. just gimme a task and I'll write endlessly about     │
 it instead of daydreaming to myself.                                             │
 yep... pretty all-right-at-it for a start. elentalusCOTE                         │
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--- #15 fediverse/364 ---
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 okay here's an idea, waterfall project management where the program is           │
 developed one tiny piece at a time while being streamed to the entire company.   │
 Everyone would submit answers which could be upvoted / patched / rewritten as    │
 the main viewer cycles through each aspect of the project, checking for          │
 updates to it's design that were suggested by developers or whatever.            │
 Basically, one person (or one team) gets to write the actual source code,        │
 while everyone else is just offering suggestions. You could break it up by       │
 specialty, but the whole point is that everyone gets a complete picture of how   │
 the program (and organization) is structured. Which should give the employees    │
 more power to generate value for the company. All around a good deal I think?    │
 Especially if the main viewer took time to explain each and every part so that   │
 every viewer had the chance to understand.                                       │
 the reason why order is important is that our actions ripple through eternity.   │
 we must set a good example for all the baby aliens, don't you think?             │
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--- #16 fediverse/5065 ---
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 │ CW: strange-ideas-about-software-mentioned │
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 software should have 3, maybe 4 or 5 maintained releases imo
 
 for adding security improvements and whatnot
 
 then people wouldn't complain about updates
 
 because they wouldn't feel like they were being left behind (after expressing
 their differences (of opinion and such))
 
 I think that'd uh maintain them as, I guess, userbase optics parallelograms?
 oh sorry we're on rhomboids this week - right, and no I won't forget the
 differences in creed, all things are received equally...d.
 
 uh-huh yeah no that makes sense. gotcha. okay see you at the location. have
 fun with your demarketion. what if we played games with swords but like,
 
 the peril of steam is that you can't decline to update. meaning if a
 corporation wants to break an old game and it's collectively hosted servers...
 all it has to do is push an update that disables them. suddenly nobody has
 room to do, and the whole
 
 -- stack overflow --
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--- #17 notes/internet-privacy-is-withheld-by-this ---
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 Recently, there's been a ton of buzz in the news about internet privacy.
 From the many lawsuits against Facebook, to the rise of Duck Duck Go and the
 creepy nature of apps and IoT devices that listen to your every motion and
 record and transmit endless amounts of data to a central server somewhere to
 be processed. The traditional argument against privacy online is that the
 infrastructure was designed to accomodate rapid adoption of the new tech,
 rather than efficient design for distributed throughput. So we were told to
 accept the minor downsides associated with centralized servers - downsides
 that we neither understood nor truly accepted. Well, the technology has
 advanced to the point that those arguments are no longer valid - we have mesh
 networking and 5g internet access, and now that big tech is in control of the
 industry (wrenching it from the people, I might add) they seek to maintain
 their hold by any means necessary.
 
 Luckily, there is a way out - self hosting.
 
 If we hosted our own email server, then theoretically Gmail couldn't read your
 messages. If we hosted our own social media websites, then theoretically
 big data processing corporations couldn't scrape your personal information
 and distribute it as they please. If we hosted our own videos, software, art,
 and anything else we see fit to use a computer for, then we'd be unshackled
 from the dominion of the silicon valley powers that be. The liberation of the
 computer is the liberation of us all.
 
 The problem, of course, is the difficulty involved.
 
 People are conditioned to desire and only accept a level of accessibility that
 can only be provided by massive corporate think tanks leveraging all the
 marketing prowess that the markets of capital provides. That is to say,
 essentially infinite eyes examining the interactions of man with machine, to
 find the most generally applicable font, color scheme, layout, and style of
 each and every website they host. Every function will be scrutinized to death
 and optimized to extract the most profit while subtely conforming the minds
 of those who use it. This is the era of group think, fake news, and
 journalistic fraud. We have no windows to the outside world that are truly
 and completely untainted by the bias inherent in the system.
 
 A self perpetuating rhythm of continuous dissatisfaction.
 
 But I believe the only person who can truly design a tool is the person who
 the tool is intended to be used by. And by increasing the accessibility of the
 tools themselves, rather than the products of those tools, we can raise the
 tide that lifts all ships - we can put more tools that use less time to use
 and are easier to learn into the hands of as many people as possible. The
 crossbow was originally no more devastating than a longbow, yet it rapidly
 outpaced the latter by reducing it's difficulty curve. The screwdriver is the
 same - stronger joints can be made with nails or traditional joinery, but
 once someone understands how a screwdriver works they can pretty much force
 two pieces of wood to be permanently fixed together without understanding the
 angles of nails or cuts. The capabilities are the same, while ease of access
 increased.
 
 So, to truly liberate the internet, we must develop tools that allow people to
 host their own content as easily, cheaply, and flexibly as possible, while
 being aesthetically pleasing, affordable (free), and accessible to
 as many people as possible - inertia is important, after all. It seems to be
 an insurmountable task, but that's what free and open source software
 developers fight for. Raspberry Pis can host email servers, Mastodon can host
 a facsimile of Twitter, and torrents can be used to exchange any type of file
 to be presented in whatever way the user sees fit. These are all free (or very
 cheap, in the Raspberry Pi's case) and accessible to anyone with access to the
 internet. But they aren't easy. They aren't always flashy. And sometimes it's
 hard to even describe what problem you're trying to solve.
 
 But still you try, because to fail in this fight is to fade from this earth.
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--- #18 fediverse/1868 ---
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 whyyyyyy do programs create all these dot-folders in my home directory? It's     │
 sooooo crowded. Why are they always putting things in random directories like    │
 /usr/bin or /lib/ or things like that? I'd much prefer to be able to trust       │
 that all my files are in one directory, so if I need to DELETE or MOVE them      │
 easily I don't have to worry about my config files being lost / sticking         │
 around.                                                                          │
 to that end, I always try and configure software I install on my system to put   │
 all their files into a single directory. If possible.                            │
 Usually for like, a game, this involves having a directory for the project, a    │
 directory for the files (things that are deleted and recreated when              │
 reinstalling), a directory for config files, and usually an update script and    │
 a run script. It's so much nicer to not be clogged up all the time.              │
 industry standards apply primarily to industrial uses, and if they aren't        │
 customizable then they aren't fit for the industry. So why not keep things       │
 simple? I don't need all this junk cluttering up my desktop.                     │
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--- #19 fediverse/1720 ---
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 there's even websites online like Facebook or Twitter where you can share        │
 advice and various spells you've invented yourself (it's totally easy to do      │
 btw, I'll show you how)                                                          │
 everyone's super friendly and anyone who's not isn't allowed to bother us.       │
 it's pretty neat. anyway no matter what it is, if something's bothering you      │
 about your computer, you can fix it. it's just a matter of reading through       │
 documentation. Ah, well, isn't it great to have a lot of free time that you      │
 don't know what to do with?                                                      │
 Linux is pretty great, I gotta say. I honestly never really leave the command    │
 line - the text based buttons, I mean. I only use a mouse when I'm doing         │
 something with pictures (or playing a game like freecell or hearts)              │
 plus you can do things like sending raw packets of information to your friend    │
 who's on the other side of the country and they can use a secret key-code to     │
 decrypt it like checking the mail at a locked mailbox.                           │
 anything you can imagine using the physical components of a computer, is         │
 possibleifyrts                                                                   │
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--- #20 fediverse/3574 ---
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 @user-1564 
 
 I love the concept of this! Maybe if HTTP is too complex, you could try
 another simpler server? I don't know the complexity of the programs I use
 every day, but I'm sure there's one that's very simple. Even just a simple IRC
 style chat server that just... sends text from person A to person B depending
 on their username (like a glorified Router or Switch)
 
 Reminded of this video tbh...:
 
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGfTjKwLQxY
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