Thanks Elyse for your feedback.. It turns out my programming "around" such an error as your describe failed. Ouch.. Am going to try and fix it tomorrow. I wrote a page such as when people upload images, it should show a marker (check or x) if the thumbnail image is not smaller than the main image. I failed! In the meantime I've turned off the image altogether, as from home, I don't have access to the proper size.
Ugh my life is bugs! I feel like I squash one, and twenty more appear!
Thanks again, I appreciate it so much when you guys let me know what's broke.
BFN
ps. Kristen you really made my team's day. We receive so much negative feedback, it's such a wonderful thing to get something positive! Morjana also helps us tons, she's great like you! (and all the other fans, you all make Stargate what it is, without you we'd be lost)
Elyse, thankfully most of it doesn't have to get entered by hand, but someone has to look at every entry and determine where it should get moved to in the new schema. We only have one person looking after content on all our sites, and she's going to be horribly drained by the experience. She's the one responsible for all the new content on Stargate. She's awesome!
pps. Elyse.. I love your blog and I read it every day! Keep up the good work! Thanks for all the traffic to my lil old nerdville.!
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Friday, February 8, 2008
Oracle's increment/id thingie
I think I jumped the gun yesterday complaining about Oracle and it's "last inserted id" issues. Turns out there is sort of something I can do. "Life after Coffee" has explained a way I can do it, but I'm not quite to the part where I need it yet, so have not tested it in action. His method of doing the sequence/trigger auto increment worked, so I'm fairly certain the method he explained will work. Basically you get the "current value" of the sequence.. after the trigger gets the "next value" to insert as the auto increment. Fancy!
I managed to consolidate a list of 16 ratings (some old, some new, some wrong) down to 6. It was confusing for people inserting content, as they weren't sure which to pick (difference between Unrated or Not Rated).
On Monday I should be able to get content started on actually moving the data. There are over 4000 titles in our movie and tv database, so it's going to be a long process for whoever has to eyeball every single title. A lot of data will have to be entered after the move. I've created tables to hold episodic data for TV series, which previously wasn't kept in the site database. Stargate is easy, as I can run a dump from that site database and import it straight. TV Shows like the Outer Limits, Dead like me, Poltergeist are going to be tougher, as I'm not even sure if we HAVE all the data for them. Since "owning" and having rights for in entertainment can be really hazy, I've designed the new database to have at it's core only what MGM actually owns. An additional structure will exist for all the titles MGM has rights for (for example Reno911, Chappelle's Show which we have rights for syndication).
I printed out the database design a couple weeks ago when I thought it was finalized. I've changed it so much in the past week, my printout is now too old. Even with a tiny font, it takes four pages taped together to see the whole schema. :D
All quiet on the Stargate front today. Some comments on comments:
Kristen: I emailed your comment to everyone in my team, as we mostly only hear feedback in a "negative" sense, so they opened my email with the subject "Stargate feedback" with trepidation. Only to be pleasantly surprised by your comment! We plan on printing it out and framing it. ;) (only half joking!). As far as the problems with the video, all I've been told is: It works in Quicktime 7. I mentioned you'd updated your quicktime fully, so I'm not sure, but they are looking into it further. Can you try and open the direct url to it?
watcher652: I'll pass on your ideas for more Stargate stuff to marketing. I'd love more stickers and stuff! Everything in my cube aside from the posters from Comic-Con I brought in myself. I even have a "Joe" corner, with the signed photo (that I bought off ebay..) and two of the posters from Stargate magazine.
Morjana: Blow up enterprise's! That sounds brilliant! We should make blow up stargate's.. like.. life sized.. ooooooo! I'll ask the marketing people about the Team Stargate survey.. did that go out already? I didn't see an email. Strange!
Elyse: Stargate site won't be affected at all, it's got a nice brand new system database and all I designed for it last year. MGM had an old messy, badly planned database that I didn't have time to redesign when I moved the site about a year ago. We were in such a hurry we used the same schema when we switched from Sybase to Oracle. It's FUBAR! The front end is definitely changing for MGM.com.. to something usable, with actual content *gasp*
Pedantic Bohemian: Web Dev's and fangirls unite! :D
BFN
I managed to consolidate a list of 16 ratings (some old, some new, some wrong) down to 6. It was confusing for people inserting content, as they weren't sure which to pick (difference between Unrated or Not Rated).
On Monday I should be able to get content started on actually moving the data. There are over 4000 titles in our movie and tv database, so it's going to be a long process for whoever has to eyeball every single title. A lot of data will have to be entered after the move. I've created tables to hold episodic data for TV series, which previously wasn't kept in the site database. Stargate is easy, as I can run a dump from that site database and import it straight. TV Shows like the Outer Limits, Dead like me, Poltergeist are going to be tougher, as I'm not even sure if we HAVE all the data for them. Since "owning" and having rights for in entertainment can be really hazy, I've designed the new database to have at it's core only what MGM actually owns. An additional structure will exist for all the titles MGM has rights for (for example Reno911, Chappelle's Show which we have rights for syndication).
I printed out the database design a couple weeks ago when I thought it was finalized. I've changed it so much in the past week, my printout is now too old. Even with a tiny font, it takes four pages taped together to see the whole schema. :D
All quiet on the Stargate front today. Some comments on comments:
Kristen: I emailed your comment to everyone in my team, as we mostly only hear feedback in a "negative" sense, so they opened my email with the subject "Stargate feedback" with trepidation. Only to be pleasantly surprised by your comment! We plan on printing it out and framing it. ;) (only half joking!). As far as the problems with the video, all I've been told is: It works in Quicktime 7. I mentioned you'd updated your quicktime fully, so I'm not sure, but they are looking into it further. Can you try and open the direct url to it?
watcher652: I'll pass on your ideas for more Stargate stuff to marketing. I'd love more stickers and stuff! Everything in my cube aside from the posters from Comic-Con I brought in myself. I even have a "Joe" corner, with the signed photo (that I bought off ebay..) and two of the posters from Stargate magazine.
Morjana: Blow up enterprise's! That sounds brilliant! We should make blow up stargate's.. like.. life sized.. ooooooo! I'll ask the marketing people about the Team Stargate survey.. did that go out already? I didn't see an email. Strange!
Elyse: Stargate site won't be affected at all, it's got a nice brand new system database and all I designed for it last year. MGM had an old messy, badly planned database that I didn't have time to redesign when I moved the site about a year ago. We were in such a hurry we used the same schema when we switched from Sybase to Oracle. It's FUBAR! The front end is definitely changing for MGM.com.. to something usable, with actual content *gasp*
Pedantic Bohemian: Web Dev's and fangirls unite! :D
BFN
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Oracle frustrates me with no id handling
Well that's not entirely true, about the no id handling. Today was spent trying to work out how to get the "last inserted id" from oracle. It's pretty simple with mySQL.. it's .. LAST_INSERT_ID().
I think I'll have to kludge it for the transfer tools, and work out something for the new administration site.
Not sure if I'd mentioned it here yet but we're working on a complete redesign from the database up for mgm.com. It's been in the works forever, but it's not a priority for our PTB, so we only work on it when there's nothing to do on Stargate, MGM HD, American Gladiators, or any of the theatrical sites. Basically never.
Now onto the subject I know 99% of the people that read the blog are here for ;)
I finished watching "the Ark of Truth" at lunchtime. The only thing I'll say is that it's got some lovely whump in it for.. well.. just about everyone. I can't wait for it to be released, so I can sit on my couch and watch it properly (the version I was loaned was meant to be played widescreen, but I couldn't get it to "unsquish" - my technical term).
I checked out the video's that we'll be posting to stargate.mgm.com in the coming weeks from the People's Choice Awards. It's the viewer questions, and I don't remember seeing them before on the People's Choice site. Lots of fun. We're also posting the extended video's from when Extra was on the set with Genii Jerry. There's a video each for Amanda Tapping, David Hewlett, Joe Flanigan, Jewel Staite, and Jason Momoa which will be released over the next few weeks leading up until the end of the season. I watched them all, and was shocked to see I'd spoiled myself by watching two particular ones. That's probably the worst part about working on the site, and people at work knowing I'm a fan and showing me stuff that's not out yet. I constantly spoil myself ><. I checked with the content person and confirmed they weren't going to be posted on the site until after the particular spoiler content had aired.
Earlier this week I forgot to post the results of last week's poll:
Will the events in "Harmony" affect Genii relations?
As I see it, Yes. - 53% - 2399
Cannot predict right now. - 20% - 891
My reply is No. - 28% - 1259
Total votes: 4549
In response to some comments:
beaniesheppard: Actually we host that site (AtlantisDVD.co.uk) but we did not build it. It's maintained by a company in the UK, for Fox (who does MGM's DVD distribution). There is someone at that company who emails me to push files live for them, so I can certainly point your concerns in the right direction. Email me at jeniimages@gmail.com and I'll send your email on to them.
Kristen: Sorry I don't know anything about the pics specifically. We get a disc full of them, and then get told which few are approved by legal to put up on the site (like 10 out of 100). The designer then resizes them, and the content person posts them. I just happened to get a disc from early in the season and snagged some of the choice images.
Liz: I've tried to move that rss link, but I think it's a blogger thing. I can't find it anyplace in the template or settings to move it. I noticed other people with blogger blogs have the same issue.
Crystal: I love New Voyages! Great BTS pictures on your blog, very exciting!
Side note about today's pics.. nothing exciting from the show, but I'm almost out until after the end of the season (got some nice eps 20 bts shots) and after the Ark of Truth is released. These frisbee thingies were given to the cast when they were here to film the People's Choice bit in early Jan. David commented that Mars will take about 10 seconds to chew it to pieces.
This image for scale..
You sort of twist it down into a little circle and stuff it in a little pouch. Reminds me of a sun shade I used to have for my car, but much smaller.
BFN
I think I'll have to kludge it for the transfer tools, and work out something for the new administration site.
Not sure if I'd mentioned it here yet but we're working on a complete redesign from the database up for mgm.com. It's been in the works forever, but it's not a priority for our PTB, so we only work on it when there's nothing to do on Stargate, MGM HD, American Gladiators, or any of the theatrical sites. Basically never.
Now onto the subject I know 99% of the people that read the blog are here for ;)
I finished watching "the Ark of Truth" at lunchtime. The only thing I'll say is that it's got some lovely whump in it for.. well.. just about everyone. I can't wait for it to be released, so I can sit on my couch and watch it properly (the version I was loaned was meant to be played widescreen, but I couldn't get it to "unsquish" - my technical term).
I checked out the video's that we'll be posting to stargate.mgm.com in the coming weeks from the People's Choice Awards. It's the viewer questions, and I don't remember seeing them before on the People's Choice site. Lots of fun. We're also posting the extended video's from when Extra was on the set with Genii Jerry. There's a video each for Amanda Tapping, David Hewlett, Joe Flanigan, Jewel Staite, and Jason Momoa which will be released over the next few weeks leading up until the end of the season. I watched them all, and was shocked to see I'd spoiled myself by watching two particular ones. That's probably the worst part about working on the site, and people at work knowing I'm a fan and showing me stuff that's not out yet. I constantly spoil myself ><. I checked with the content person and confirmed they weren't going to be posted on the site until after the particular spoiler content had aired.
Earlier this week I forgot to post the results of last week's poll:
Will the events in "Harmony" affect Genii relations?
As I see it, Yes. - 53% - 2399
Cannot predict right now. - 20% - 891
My reply is No. - 28% - 1259
Total votes: 4549
In response to some comments:
beaniesheppard: Actually we host that site (AtlantisDVD.co.uk) but we did not build it. It's maintained by a company in the UK, for Fox (who does MGM's DVD distribution). There is someone at that company who emails me to push files live for them, so I can certainly point your concerns in the right direction. Email me at jeniimages@gmail.com and I'll send your email on to them.
Kristen: Sorry I don't know anything about the pics specifically. We get a disc full of them, and then get told which few are approved by legal to put up on the site (like 10 out of 100). The designer then resizes them, and the content person posts them. I just happened to get a disc from early in the season and snagged some of the choice images.
Liz: I've tried to move that rss link, but I think it's a blogger thing. I can't find it anyplace in the template or settings to move it. I noticed other people with blogger blogs have the same issue.
Crystal: I love New Voyages! Great BTS pictures on your blog, very exciting!
Side note about today's pics.. nothing exciting from the show, but I'm almost out until after the end of the season (got some nice eps 20 bts shots) and after the Ark of Truth is released. These frisbee thingies were given to the cast when they were here to film the People's Choice bit in early Jan. David commented that Mars will take about 10 seconds to chew it to pieces.
This image for scale..
You sort of twist it down into a little circle and stuff it in a little pouch. Reminds me of a sun shade I used to have for my car, but much smaller.
BFN
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Quick note today
Can't spend time telling everyone all about the wonderful code I wrote today, or the awesome new system I designed for mgmhd.com's admin tool to automatically detect whether images have been properly uploaded for primetime. Don't have time! Have to run.
Got to see Ark of Truth today at work. Yep.. I almost fell off my chair when someone from another department came by and said "hey do you want to watch this? give me back the disc when you're done". Yeah!! I didn't manage to get all the way through it (my lunch break wasn't long enough) but so far it's just so awesome, I kept rewinding bits and watching them over. I forgot how lovely Ben Browder's eyes are, and how twitchy Vala is.
We also got a bunch of Stargate Atlantis flyers (sort of soft frisbee's) to be incorporated into a sweepstakes or giveaway of some kind. I took some photo's with it, except of course I can't find my camera download cable.
Nevermind.. here are some fun pics anyhow.
This one is from the main site, but a larger version if you click on it!
BFN
Got to see Ark of Truth today at work. Yep.. I almost fell off my chair when someone from another department came by and said "hey do you want to watch this? give me back the disc when you're done". Yeah!! I didn't manage to get all the way through it (my lunch break wasn't long enough) but so far it's just so awesome, I kept rewinding bits and watching them over. I forgot how lovely Ben Browder's eyes are, and how twitchy Vala is.
We also got a bunch of Stargate Atlantis flyers (sort of soft frisbee's) to be incorporated into a sweepstakes or giveaway of some kind. I took some photo's with it, except of course I can't find my camera download cable.
Nevermind.. here are some fun pics anyhow.
This one is from the main site, but a larger version if you click on it!
BFN
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Finally a press release is released!
What a relief that that release is finally out on SciFi. I had heard about the cast changes a couple months ago (not all the changes) in passing, and have been bursting to talk about it ever since!
I could see Amanda Tapping wanting to leave for Sanctuary, but Woolsey! I love Robert Picardo, but to me he'll always be an emergency medical hologram. His character on SG-1 was very unpleasant, and he didn't improve much coming to Atlantis at all. I read in Joe Mallozzi's blog that he points out that McKay was really unpleasant at the start too. Does this mean they will try and "makeover" Woolsey? That would be strange after all this time. Excited to see Michael Shanks, even if it's just for two episodes.
Not too much going on today, more dreary transfer tool stuff for mgm.com data. Updated home page for Stargate so that one of the sub banners rotates out with other images and links from the administration site like the old header used to do (before it was made using flash). Yesterday Amanda Tapping was moved in the header to the side, and made slightly smaller. I really don't understand all the rules and contract agreements about head size, billing order and such. The reason why Jewel had been flipped in the header was in the attempt to get them all to fit, all with the same "head" size. Yes.. That's the criteria.. same head size. *shakes head* Nothing gets marketing teams into a tizzy as much as billing.
I'd love to see your Star Trek pics Morjana! I actually just won two free tickets to go back to the Tour. Thinking about taking a day off work and going again.
BFN
I could see Amanda Tapping wanting to leave for Sanctuary, but Woolsey! I love Robert Picardo, but to me he'll always be an emergency medical hologram. His character on SG-1 was very unpleasant, and he didn't improve much coming to Atlantis at all. I read in Joe Mallozzi's blog that he points out that McKay was really unpleasant at the start too. Does this mean they will try and "makeover" Woolsey? That would be strange after all this time. Excited to see Michael Shanks, even if it's just for two episodes.
Not too much going on today, more dreary transfer tool stuff for mgm.com data. Updated home page for Stargate so that one of the sub banners rotates out with other images and links from the administration site like the old header used to do (before it was made using flash). Yesterday Amanda Tapping was moved in the header to the side, and made slightly smaller. I really don't understand all the rules and contract agreements about head size, billing order and such. The reason why Jewel had been flipped in the header was in the attempt to get them all to fit, all with the same "head" size. Yes.. That's the criteria.. same head size. *shakes head* Nothing gets marketing teams into a tizzy as much as billing.
I'd love to see your Star Trek pics Morjana! I actually just won two free tickets to go back to the Tour. Thinking about taking a day off work and going again.
BFN
Monday, February 4, 2008
Timing is everything
People on my team switched out an image on the stargate site today. The change was subtle, but it was really all about the timing. We had planned to make the change today, because of news that was supposed to be released today. Unfortunately it came out early, last Thursday I think.. so we're slow again!
See if you can spot the difference? ;)
Much discussion today about writing documentation for vendors (people who write micro sites for our movies) so they can know what platform we run, how they can login, what we expect of them. I wish this didn't always automatically fall to me, but apparently I know more than most about what vendors should know, and about the mistakes they always make. I hate writing docs.. seriously hate it!
MGM HD website changes are in the works, tomorrow TPTB meet to talk about the future of the site. Apparently they want a site that appeals to business in a way that business will think it will appeal to consumers. That's a spec? great stuff!
Sunday Loui and I went to "The Star Trek Tour" at the Queen Mary Dome in Long Beach. It was an _awesome_ day out, and we had so much fun! I was so pleased that they had not only the TNG bridge (of which I'd already posed on a version in Las Vegas) but also the TOS bridge, as well as a mock version of the TNG engineering. Another favourite spot was a hallway containing a transporter room, quarters, medical and turbo lift from TNG.
We were in trekkie heaven, and luckily I am clueless about American Football, so I'd bought the tickets for Super Bowl Sunday! We had the place to ourselves (practically).
Lots of fun, and that's where today's photo's are from! If you love Star Trek as much as me, you'll see more pictures over at my site (jeninason.com)
Loui at the controls
What does this button do?
Inertial Dampers offline?!?!
BFN
See if you can spot the difference? ;)
Much discussion today about writing documentation for vendors (people who write micro sites for our movies) so they can know what platform we run, how they can login, what we expect of them. I wish this didn't always automatically fall to me, but apparently I know more than most about what vendors should know, and about the mistakes they always make. I hate writing docs.. seriously hate it!
MGM HD website changes are in the works, tomorrow TPTB meet to talk about the future of the site. Apparently they want a site that appeals to business in a way that business will think it will appeal to consumers. That's a spec? great stuff!
Sunday Loui and I went to "The Star Trek Tour" at the Queen Mary Dome in Long Beach. It was an _awesome_ day out, and we had so much fun! I was so pleased that they had not only the TNG bridge (of which I'd already posed on a version in Las Vegas) but also the TOS bridge, as well as a mock version of the TNG engineering. Another favourite spot was a hallway containing a transporter room, quarters, medical and turbo lift from TNG.
We were in trekkie heaven, and luckily I am clueless about American Football, so I'd bought the tickets for Super Bowl Sunday! We had the place to ourselves (practically).
Lots of fun, and that's where today's photo's are from! If you love Star Trek as much as me, you'll see more pictures over at my site (jeninason.com)
Loui at the controls
What does this button do?
Inertial Dampers offline?!?!
BFN
Friday, February 1, 2008
Dreams of a full team and something working on it's own
I know, I know.. pipe dreams right? On the day that I am pretty much alone (only developer here) the wheels fall off.
Starts off with an error Morjana let me know about. Something had expired a day early, and there was no default "whoops" image for the homepage, so it just picked the first one in the list, which happened to be miller's crossing. Arghhhhh...
Next was an email from our host, cheerily informing me that the cname had been setup for stargate. I use dnsstuff.com to check and find it's not there. Umm.. of course.. they wouldn't understand this sentence:
I call them, they promise to fix right away.. I check a couple minutes later and there is no longer a cname on the www, it's on the other one. JOY.
Two hours later I decide I should just check and make sure www.stargate.mgm.com is going to the other site (stargate.mgm.com). Nothing.. no resolve.. um. I check.. they deleted the entire zone file!! This means there is no site there at all! I storm into my boss's office and rant and rave for a while, pulling on my hair. I'd done a couple sites already this week, sites that get next to zero traffic. One of the large sites comes up for moving, and voila.. they can't understand the most simple of instructions. I call again.. please fix. Right now, 4 hours later, I still can't get to www.stargate.mgm.com, but friends in other parts of the country seem to see it ok. If anyone happens to notice it not working, please let me know, and I'll call the host in a screaming fit.
We're luckily planning to change over to manage our own DNS in the future. Although this means even more work and responsibility for me, it means that I won't have to deal with this crap. They are SLOW.. omg so slow.. and they get it wrong about 30% of the time.
Now to top it off. I get emailed a link for the "game" that's on the stargate site on Friday's. Today I get the email, do my usual code updates to put it on the live servers, and push it live. It's not there. I check the servers over and over.. but to no avail. It just won't load. If I browse to http://stargate.mgm.com/games/ it works fine, if I go to http://stargate.mgm.com/games/index.html it shows last week's game. I have tried to "expire" the page with meta tags, I've tried to change the link to it in the nav, but it won't pick up the new javascript file. This CDN stuff is great.. until you can't make it work!! Akamai was pretty easy, you just login to their interface, and specify the file you want to renew, and it does it within 10 minutes. I've poured over the Limelight interface and can't find anything like it. We have a short 8 page document from them which explains nothing.
It's 5.30pm, and I am staring at the door. I know there are 4 beers in my fridge (Coopers!!) that are calling my name. It's been an alright week.. well up until today!
I'm excited that SciFi channel ordered 13 eps of Sanctuary! Thanks to Morjana for the heads up there.. I think they sent out the press release earlier than we were expecting though. There may be changes to the Stargate site in the new future.
All these great fanfic recommendations have been running my printer dry! (Happily!)
Have a great weekend!
BFN
Starts off with an error Morjana let me know about. Something had expired a day early, and there was no default "whoops" image for the homepage, so it just picked the first one in the list, which happened to be miller's crossing. Arghhhhh...
Next was an email from our host, cheerily informing me that the cname had been setup for stargate. I use dnsstuff.com to check and find it's not there. Umm.. of course.. they wouldn't understand this sentence:
What I need is Stargate.mgm.com (not with the www, I’ll redirect them over to just Stargate.mgm.com) to have a CNAME pointing to mgmstudios.vo.llnwd.net.They setup the cname on www.stargate.mgm.com. Arghhh... now it's showing a blank page, and some of the marketing material for stargate has that misbegotten url on it.
I call them, they promise to fix right away.. I check a couple minutes later and there is no longer a cname on the www, it's on the other one. JOY.
Two hours later I decide I should just check and make sure www.stargate.mgm.com is going to the other site (stargate.mgm.com). Nothing.. no resolve.. um. I check.. they deleted the entire zone file!! This means there is no site there at all! I storm into my boss's office and rant and rave for a while, pulling on my hair. I'd done a couple sites already this week, sites that get next to zero traffic. One of the large sites comes up for moving, and voila.. they can't understand the most simple of instructions. I call again.. please fix. Right now, 4 hours later, I still can't get to www.stargate.mgm.com, but friends in other parts of the country seem to see it ok. If anyone happens to notice it not working, please let me know, and I'll call the host in a screaming fit.
We're luckily planning to change over to manage our own DNS in the future. Although this means even more work and responsibility for me, it means that I won't have to deal with this crap. They are SLOW.. omg so slow.. and they get it wrong about 30% of the time.
Now to top it off. I get emailed a link for the "game" that's on the stargate site on Friday's. Today I get the email, do my usual code updates to put it on the live servers, and push it live. It's not there. I check the servers over and over.. but to no avail. It just won't load. If I browse to http://stargate.mgm.com/games/ it works fine, if I go to http://stargate.mgm.com/games/index.html it shows last week's game. I have tried to "expire" the page with meta tags, I've tried to change the link to it in the nav, but it won't pick up the new javascript file. This CDN stuff is great.. until you can't make it work!! Akamai was pretty easy, you just login to their interface, and specify the file you want to renew, and it does it within 10 minutes. I've poured over the Limelight interface and can't find anything like it. We have a short 8 page document from them which explains nothing.
It's 5.30pm, and I am staring at the door. I know there are 4 beers in my fridge (Coopers!!) that are calling my name. It's been an alright week.. well up until today!
I'm excited that SciFi channel ordered 13 eps of Sanctuary! Thanks to Morjana for the heads up there.. I think they sent out the press release earlier than we were expecting though. There may be changes to the Stargate site in the new future.
All these great fanfic recommendations have been running my printer dry! (Happily!)
Have a great weekend!
BFN
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