Category: Rants

Rants – Self Interest & Office Politics

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Being on the desktop support team means at times I will form negative impression about some users or even dislike them. As time goes by I learn not to be angry with users and to provide support according to their computer proficiency – e.g. for some who do not understand certain computer terms, simply go to the desk and not try to guide them over the phone. When users ask over emails what seems to be dumb questions or write emails in a nasty or impolite manner, these days I generally just muttered some curses (or scream a little) at the mail, ignore the more ’emotional’ parts of the mail and just get down to business.

The worst lot of users are those who simply throw everything at the IT department as long as it runs on electricity. Once, some guy held a electrical calculator on one hand with the plug on the other and asked my colleague, “What do I do with this?” In another occasion, the call-centre received a call from a user on National Day reporting that the air-conditioners are not working. There was even a case about the failure of the StarHub TV with MSNBC in the trading room! All of these examples showed exceptional laziness because they could either do something about it, or at least call the right department to handle it. Whenever we remember these examples, we can’t help but wonder how they deal with these problems at home. Perhaps they have a maid a housekeeper to do all these for them and with them in mind, I can empathise with crazy maids who make special soup with their menses or urine for their employers.

Some users also ceased thinking the moment they see some instructions about something that runs on computer. Once, a vendor sent a document (with some instructions on it) to a group of users to do some changes to the settings on their trading terminals. It was not long that a request for assistance was logged into the system, and the instructions sent by the vendor was attached to the case. To cut the long story short, the document talks about changes that is required as a result of the recent acquisition of my ex-company by the current one. To put it in an analogy: “It is something like adjusting the mirrors and the driver seat before starting the vehicle. The document speaks about the modifications being made to the vehicle which has changed some of its dynamics, and the users were advised to make adjustments to the mirrors and driver seat as a result of this. Basically, the mechanic shouldn’t be the one who making those adjustments because they are unique to each driver.”

Even so, there’s nothing unforgivable about these users even though I may dislike their actions, simply because at the end of the day everyone is just doing a job. Above which, there is something worse than ‘computer morons’, nasty / impolite users, or even lazy users describe above – The sickos from the same my own department* who create issues and play office politics because of their self interest. A recently incident has my blood boiling.

About 2 months ago, I wrote about ‘unlocking’ Blackberry 8707 handsets sent from the Tokyo office. The 15 sets are all locked down by the Japanese provider NTT Docomo and we intend to use them as spares, or at the very least keep them as loan sets for users with 2G Blackberry Smart Phones who are required to travel for short periods to regions with only CDMA networks. Since IT initiated the request to ship these sets to Singapore, I find it a waste to throw these 3G handsets away or give them to a recycling company. I took upon myself and on my own initiative found the method to ‘unlock’ them.

Someone in the my own department* then asked for a set to replace his allegedly faulty Blackberry after I ‘unlocked’ two sets, and all was well for the the last 2 months. Perhaps he intended that set to be simply a loaner until his contract runs out where the company will renew and obtain a new one. However, our colleagues from procurement start stock taking recently, and they assigned this set to him permanently. They informed him that since there is no fault with ‘the loan set’, along with the fact that 3G Blackberry 8707s are still on the company’s approved list and relatively advanced (as compared to his previous 2G one), it will not be replaced. At that point in time, I had unlocked ten sets (nine Blackberry 8707 + 1 Blackberry 9000 Bold), with fives sets (four Blackberry 8707 and 1 Blackberry Bold 9000) assigned and active.


[* Amendment: To avoid the confusion that “the” department was referring to the traders.]

Here’s where the whole hullabaloo started. He was upset that the procurement department will not obtain for him a new one – presumably the Blackberry 9000 Bold. He then informed me to put on hold and not unlock the six remaining ‘locked’ sets and went so far to justify his actions, saying that unlocking these sets may actually not be legal.

Legal, my farting ass! For the past two months when that set is in use, he said nothing about it not being ‘legal’. In my opinion, since these handsets are already out of warranty and written off by the Tokyo office, the company need not be concerned that ‘unlocking’ the set might render the warranty null and void under any existing end user agreements. Even if I break them in the process of unlocking, it makes no difference to the company. By suggesting that it may not be legal, it would suggest that I am acting without approval from higher management and I might be subjected to disciplinary action. While nothing would benefit me by making these sets usable, I certainly did not expect the someone to make a big fuss which would potentially put me into trouble. On top of which, I am now stuck with all these ‘locked’ handsets under my desk, because I cannot hand them over to the procurement department.

How do I feel about that? I felt like someone deliberately scored an own goal because he wasn’t given something and didn’t even realise he had! He further went on screaming to the referee that a foul may have been committed. Because of this, I might even get a yellow card for it.

Thank you very much, sir! All these shit just because you were indignant you weren’t given a new Blackberry Bold. How you can create such a big fuss over your very own penis “Blackberry Bold Envy” would probably be a legend that will be told again and again among the colleagues in the procurement and legal department in time to come. I hope someone from high management can see this idiocy in itself, then proceed to kick your ass and shut you up for a long time!

Political Video:

Random Discourse – Insurance Coverage

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This is a blog post inspired in part by this Plurk, and also a conversation overheard on the MRT. The rest is based on my personal experience.

First, let me recap the conversation overheard on the MRT a few weeks ago. This guy was telling his female companion that he complete dislike his Insurance Agent (also known as ‘Financial Consultant’ / ‘Financial Planner’). The reason is when they meet once every year for an annual review, the insurance agent will always tell him he does not have sufficient coverage and try to sell him something new. The guy then went rattling on about his personal experience which I didn’t quite catch as the train was quite noisy and packed.

I am quite sure that his personal experience will be similar to what many of us have with our very own agents. How pushy the agent will be depends on how acquainted one is with him. Personal friends will usually be worse than an random agent on the streets or from referral by friends. A quick yardstick on the ‘success’ of an agent in their ‘insurance business’ will be the car he drives, and the awards he has received. Back when I was in the army, the agent who sold me my first contract went from an old Datsun 120 to a Jaguar, and then run his own insurance agency selling AIA policies. He then dumped me with a new hire in his agency, probably because my account wasn’t profitable. Another agent I knew (who is a fellow NSmen during my reservist trainging) has since upgraded to a BMW 5-series and is a few time award winning member of AIA’s million dollar club.

Anyway, these are just a few success stories and it’s not the main point I am going to make. For a start, let me just point out that another friend (who didn’t do too well in this line) told me the reason the surrender value of our policies is zero for the first 3 years is because the contribution we made goes into paying for the insurance coverage and the agent’s commission. That was a startling discovery when I looked at all the policies I have bought over the years. Simply put, the amount of money an agent make is directly proportional to the policies he sold. In view of that, I must say the guy ranting on the train and my poor friend who said her agent is irritating are both quite justified.

Back to the policies I have bought. During my NS days I bought an endowment plan which I can afford with a part of my NS allowance. There wasn’t much coverage in that, but that was far better than the pathetic S$4000 coverage I get from the SAF in the event of death during training. When I started working, that plan got converted into something else with a better coverage since I could now afford a higher premium. As time went on, I was introduced investment plans, which now I have a few – ranging from those allegedly low risk, to those which allegedly gives better returns. All of which went south during last year’s financial crisis. Some of these investment plans were bought with cash, and some with CPF. Over the past 10 years, I now have a good S$100,000 sunk into all of these investment plans. At one point of time I was looking at a paper loss of S$40,000, but as of this writing it has since recovered to S$17,000. The losses would be steeper if I include accrued interest from either the CPF or a vanilla low risk fixed deposit.

The losses is something any investor have to bear with, but there is something very irritating in those savings-cum-investment plans. The insurance company will first take the payment to purchase units from unit trusts of the policy holder’s choice, and then sell a small amount to pay for the insurance coverage. The reason they do this is pretty obvious, because they will buy the units at the ‘sell price’, and sell the units at ‘bid price’. In short, in the process of siphoning off a small portion of your premium legally to pay for the insurance coverage, the insurance company also earn from the spread (i.e. difference between the bid / sell price). Why they didn’t already factor that into the premium already is beyond my imagination, not to mention that I personally find this… unethical.

As I looked through all the investment policies, I noticed there are at least two bought with CPF-OA (Ordinary Account), and one from the CPF-SA (Special Account). While I can understand why there is a separate policy for an investment made with my CPF-SA, I cannot understand the rational between having two policies for CPF-OA from the same company. Perhaps I have been told I couldn’t just ‘top up’ into an existing policy but I’ll ask again just to be sure. However, I am certainly not happy with having several policies with overlapping coverage. If one wants to argue that I enjoyed ‘extra coverage’, perhaps they should be aware that it is coverage for accidental death which in reality is only to the advantage of my beneficiaries and does not actually benefit me.

Now, that’s not all an agent can (or will try to) sell. There are also health-care plans covering hospitalisation and outpatient. Please be careful when you buy any of these because it probably wasn’t emphasized strong enough to me that the standard health-care plan I had only covers up to $3000 and I have to pay the rest of the medical bill myself. I only did a re-cap with the agent and I was reminded it is a co-pay system which I have to come out with part of the bill first too. I did this because I received a letter suggesting that I upgrade my plan (and my parents) for better coverage when the premium is due. While I had ignore them at first, by coincidence a brother-in-Christ spoke about this with me and subsequently explained it all to me in detail. Otherwise, the entire matter would have slipped my mind.

I am quite sure many are reading this would say that I am being lazy because being an educated person I would have read the letters and policy documents and figured out all these by myself. Perhaps, but my gut feeling is that most people except for a handful would even bothered to read those freaking documents! On top of that, I will not be surprised if a lot of clauses in the policy documents are repetitive and they probably come out of a template. Let me buy your a beer to congratulate you if you have several insurance policies and you actually read every page of them.

This isn’t the end of my gripes yet! An agent told me last year during review that I ‘do not have sufficient coverage in the event of hospitalisation for my medical expenses’. He advised me to buy yet another investment policy which in this case part of the premium paid will go into getting me this coverage. When I asked whether I can add this coverage to an existing policy in the form of a rider, he was reluctant to do it and cited that this would reduce the investment portion of the existing policy.

That really pissed me off because I am agreeable to lowering the investment portion of my policy or pay more into an existing policy for this coverage. His refusal to do so convinces me that he just wants to make more money out of me, and not to ensure I am well covered. I breathed a sigh of relief and thanked God that I didn’t sign up for it because a few weeks after that, the entire financial market was shot to hell.

Looking back at my experience with insurance agents so far, I think it maybe necessary insurance company create an vanilla plan detailing the complete insurance coverage everyone should acquire when the first policy is sold. This plan would help an agent remind a policy holder what he lacks during the annual review so he would not discover to his horror every year that he suddenly didn’t have enough coverage. In fact, this plan should be based on the potential buyer’s earning power so he can work out a comfortable amount to set aside to obtain coverage. I get rather sick with the fact that every few years I am told I don’t have enough coverage when a few years ago I thought I had everything covered rock solid. In fact, I can’t help but feel that my agent or the insurance company is either trying to rip me off or milking me for more money to keep their profits going. As it stand now, I would rather take the risk and go ‘naked’ without the coverage I allegedly lacked unless the government gahmen makes it mandatory by law to do so.

Insurance agents should understand how policy holders and potential buyers are feeling to have an idea why we are all reluctant to meet them regardless of the prevailing economic conditions.

Humor: The ‘Wisdom’ of the Lycan

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The first seven ‘gender-war related’ comments are also known as ‘The collection of Drunken Men Talk’.

  • 1. When a man agrees with everything a woman says, he simply wants to fxxk her. 😛 (Incidentally, that is also true when you want to have sex with a prostitute. You need to agree to the price she set.)

  • 2. Women are not illogical. They simply understand only one logic that is unfathomable to all men: Her own.

  • 3. Men don’t care if you have cellulite on your thighs, women! They won’t be looking at that when having sex!

  • 4. Women, as a rough guide, you are too fat only when your tummy protrudes more than your breasts (when you are NOT pregnant).

  • 5. Never ask a guy “Will you ever lie to me?” Because when he answers no, that will be the first time.

  • 6. The perfect man written about on female magazines is but a figment of the imagination of old spinsters.

  • 7. Natural selection gets a free hand in eliminating stupid women when they think bony models is the standard.

  • 8. Language evolves. If it changes not, this invective would read “methinks ye should sucketh p***s mine, language nazis”.

For Laughs:
Battle for the Blood : Werewolves vs. Vampires.

Random Discourse – Macintosh and Apple Products

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I ‘have been a PC’ since my first PC/AT Compatible in 1987, and I have witness its progress from DOS to Windows and from Windows running on DOS to Windows 7 today. Back then, installing a new peripheral is a nightmare a it may require one to have some understanding of what are interrupts (IRQ) and I/O address, while manually configuring the peripheral with jumpers. It was a far cry from the true plug and play systems we have today where the BIOS and the OS does everything for you. Few would remember the horror days of ISA and VESA bus before the PCI bus standard was introduced.

I also witness how we progress from slow analog modems connecting to a jumble of BBS, to the broadband modems connecting to the Internet today. Not to mention how Microsoft’s NT server products and its descendants displaced Novell Netware from the corporate world to become the new standard in Local Area Networking.

As such, I have rarely been in touch of any Apple hardware, except in one instance back in 2000 when I had to support 2 companies (one into designing and the other into magazine publishing) as a system integrator. Even then, I had minimal contact with a Mac, as another vendor handles them and my job is simply to coordinate with that vendor. Since I don’t even use any of its products, I wouldn’t have been critical of Apple if not for all those Apple ‘evangelists’ and advertisements disparaging the PC. These people and ads annoy me to no end as they apparently have no touch whatsoever with reality.

FACT: PCs are the real workhorse in the world.

As far as I am concerned, when I stepped into the office, the only machines that is doing much of the real work, are PCs. In fact, in the bank I worked, 100% of the trading activities are done on PCs. There is no Mac in sight. It doesn’t matter the spin doctors in the advertisement firms are using Macs to create those nice ads you see on TV or the Internet, the fact remained that it is probably a PC running the CAD/CAM software designing the machines that produce the Macs, and the building that Apple, Inc is situated may even have been drawn by an architect using Autocad on a PC, while the employees of the bank which Apple does most of its transactions are also using PCs. All of which run on Windows!

FACT: The Mac is not superior in engineering to a PC

For those of you who might not be aware, the PCI-Bus was first introduced on the PC before Apple incorporated it on its Power Macintosh. So now who is disparaging PC as being inferior? Frankly, while Macs may have the allegedly more superior Firewire, it is the PC’s USB standard that dominates and even Macs have some USB ports built in. Meantime, Macs today use Intel processors and so do PCs – which have been using Intel CPUs all these while.

Some argues that it is true that a Mac is superior because the Mac version of the software runs faster and better on a Mac than on the PC. Well, that is a fallacy. Consider this, a game would probably run smoothly on the XBOX but a PC version will never provide the same experience. Consoles are thus superior than PCs since the same game runs faster on them? By no means is that true because the consoles have very specific range of hardware and are specifically designed for that purpose. While a Mac is not designed specifically for a particular purpose, the available range of Macs with limited variation in specifications makes it easy for Apple to optimise code of its OS for these machines. Now consider a PC which is a product of a Sim Lim Square Ah Beng Shop, with parts ordered by an enthusiast with ‘the best components’ he reads about on forums and magazines, or the myriad of so-called ‘state of the art’ PCs and laptops produced by a branded manufacturer. Need I elaborate further?

FACT: The Mac OS is not superior to Windows

Mac users often felt more superior than Windows users. I can still remember the term ‘Windows 95 = Mac 86’ when that version of Windows hit the market, and I have heard remarks as ridiculous as “I can code better with Java on my Mac than on my PC”. Doh!

I will concede that the Mac OS may have more user friendly features considering some of the reviews I have read. But I would disagree those makes it superior to Windows unless those features are something you use constantly, which translates into a remarkable improvement in productivity over time. However, other than the features, is there anything else a Mac User can boast about? In fact, this is my challenge to Apple, let Psystar or anyone put the Mac OS on any machine other than just those Apple make, let it go onto machines with configurations as diverse as those supported by Windows and let us then see how will it holds up!

Stability? I have seen Windows XP machines running for months on end without crashing. Now, take a moment to consider the easily available number of peripherals out there for the PC – display cards, sound cards etc – how of often do you change or add any of these things in a Mac? A bad driver from one of these, or a component with some inherent flaws in the process of manufacturing, can produce a remarkably bad experience for a user. And if you want to talk about Windows vulnerability to exploits, malware and virus, it is of no surprise malware writers worked overtime to exploit Windows when the PC is the real workhorse of the world. After all, that is where it make the most impact. I personally wouldn’t be surprise if Mac users would just double, they would also see an increase in such attacks on their systems.

FACT: The iPhone is nothing great

Yep, nothing great. It first came without an MMS feature, and only after several upgrades of the phone’s OS did Apple finally put that feature in grudgingly. In fact, in earlier versions of the phone you can’t delete individual SMS. You either leave them alone or you delete the entire thread of SMS you have exchanged with a friend. On top of that, for a long time, you can’t use it as a teethered modem. If I am not wrong, you can configure it as a modem over Bluetooth, but if you are using an old Bluetooth dongle then the transmission speed will be atrocious. That’s not mentioning you also can’t transfer a file directly over bluetooth. Yet, all of these features are built into the phone, but denied to the users. Users can gain access to these features only after they ‘jailbreak’ the phone and install third party software which might not be approved – all of which will nullify their warranty.

Can you imagine Toyota building a car that comes with an airbag that you can’t use? Or an anti-lock braking system that you must find an shady mechanical to enable before you can use it? That’s not mentioning that it comes with an internal battery that is not replaceable. Is it a surprise why some of those iPhones explode?

Now, talk about a phone that Apple claims the screen would shatter because the user exerts too much force on it. How preposterous! Remember this, while it only take a touch for one to type on the screen of an iPhone, one needs to actually press the Blackberry Storm’s screen down when typing a message. Now have you see any of Research In Motion’s Blackberry Storm with its SurePress touch screen exploding in the face of its users?

With all of the above, I am convinced that everything about Apple is nothing more than hype. Now, when I also consider also some of Apple’s anti-competition business practices, I continually find myself looking unfavorably on Apple. In fact, do you know you can’t play songs you buy on iTunes anywhere else other than on iTunes or an iPod? Whatever happened to choice? In fact, while I may frown on Palm’s method in impersonating its Palm Pre as an iPod, I find Palm’s intention in providing users with a choice admirable and noble. I could only pray for Palm to find a better method in doing so without bringing itself into conflict with the USB Implementers Forum, a standards group.

Surprisingly, you don’t see people complain about such monopolistic and anti-choice practices from Apple. I shudder to imagine what will happen if Microsoft does something like that. Frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised that the courts in Europe and the U.S. haul Microsoft in and slaps it with a hefty fine in a jiffy. Talk about double standards.

Random Discourse – Ignorant Youths

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Fellow blogger Chillycraps heard the following nonsense during his daily commute a few days ago.

China 没有 economics,
China 没有 civil engineering,
China 没有 mechanical engineering

When I asked Chillycraps on Windows Live Messenger where he heard those comments from, I was surprised that those comments came from several youths who looked like university undergrads. I sincerely hope these frogs in the well are not a reflection of the sad state of our education training system. The so-called social media revolution clearly hasn’t benefited these youths. It amuses me to no end when some talked about how this new form of media can supplant traditional ones when perhaps this would be an example of how the lack of contact with the traditional media led to these youth’s ignorance. After all, China is always in the news these days!

Anyway, even if these comments were made in the 1970s, I might not agree. If I am not wrong, the People’s Republic of China back then built an ICBM force from scratch, detonated her first atomic bomb after the Soviet Union withdrew its assistance and launched the first satellite on her own. So for the record, I must point out that China is currently the third largest economy in the world after Japan, and is expected to surpass Japan in 2020. Justin Lin Yifu, the World Bank’s Chief Economist, is from China. If you need any evidence of China’s civil engineering you can look at the Three Gorges Dam, the Shanghai Jinmao Tower, and the Hangzhou Bay Bridge. And what about all those new Chinese tanks and J-10 interceptors on display during their national day parade if not a sign of their mechanical engineering prowess? Not to mention the Chang E Probe orbiting the moon and their recent first space walk?

My diatribe against our youths, and not just these few youths in particular, would have ended here. But this particular post reminded me of another comment on Plurk by some young people which started with: Dear Old People Who Run the World, My generation would like to break up with you. It apparently was in reference to a blog post here.

In light of the recently crisis in the financial systems, I personally have no problems with some, if not all of the points (or ideals) in the blog post. In fact, it is an admirable blog post and I ain’t writing this blog post to rebut it. In spite of that, I still agree when Plurker miccheng said this in response: One day you’ll get old too. Let’s see how you’ll fare running the world..

The main reason I agreed with miccheng is simply one of the Plurkers who plurked about the blog post is an irresponsible individual. For an authentic, deep democracy everywhere to come about with such irresponsible riffraffs would be disastrous. Imagine such an individual causing rifts within the community and then disavow of having any responsibility in doing so while blaming the people who sided with her or those who opposed her for it! Furthermore, it is almost ludicrous for the ‘iPod and Macintosh generation’ to demand small, responsive, micro-scale commerce when they would mindlessly disparage another product or anyone who criticise Apple. Frankly, can anyone make a reasonable guess just how these people would actually make some of the things in the blog post happen when they are themselves slaves of consumerism? We are talking about a generation which gather mostly in TCCs or Starbucks, change mobile phones and laptops faster than they change underwear, falls into the trap of branding as being hip and cool and go gaga over idols and stars living a decadent lifestyle.

革命要流血，改革要牺牲。i.e. A revolution requires bloodshed, and a reform requires sacrifices. Are they even aware that they would need to completely relive their lives to make things in that blog post happen? Talk about brainless and I won’t even bother to lambast everyone who repeated the link when some of these people are self defeating!

To think of it, I cannot even imagine how such people can run the world as it is, much less change it! In fact, this impression was further reinforced when I was queuing to get my Ezlink Itchy-Link card checked because it wouldn’t work at the MRT station a few days ago. As I was fuming at the long queue which is moving rather slowly, there was a few full-time NS SCDF personnel queuing behind me and one of them said this:

I think we should just cut this queue and go right to the counter. We are civil servants and should be given priority in this queue.”

I was speechless and I hope it was just said in jest. First of all these guys clearly have no idea what the strictest meaning of the word servant meant, not to mention that the role of a civil servant is to serve the public. My friend Ed has said it best when I shared this to my fellow Plurkers: “That’s the whole point. You are civil SERVANTS… not civil LEADERS.”

I shudder to imagine what will happen if some of these people with such a wrong sense of entitlement end up in high level management in an MNC or even the real civil service. In fact, when I looked at all these youths I seriously think there is a complete failure in their upbringing. These days it is easy to find a blog post where they bare all their animosity against their parents, siblings or even teachers, colleague and bosses to the general public. Sometimes you might even see people re-post some of that nonsense in Facebook, Twitter or Plurk – the so-called social media. At times, you even see them ranting about an anonymous member of the public and it is not even about the usual things that the general public detest (like someone spitting in public, or blocking the entrance while one is exiting the MRT etc). Evidently, these people seems to have no idea how to live responsibly as a member of society while they have much angst, hatred and anger against family or society in general.

For these people to ask for a break up with the elder generation is a joke because they reminded me of juvenile elephants without a pack and the guidance of an matriarch or adult elephants. Often these young elephants are shot dead by their human handlers or the park rangers. I personally won’t feel sorry seeing some of these people being put down, be it by law enforcers or another member of the general public.

To end, let me share this:

Former President Reagan was telling a group once about his tumultuous days as governor of California during the rebellious sixties and early 70s. He said he had a meeting with some of the organizers of the protests. They came into his office wearing t-shirts and jeans, and some were barefoot.

Their spokesman began, “Governor, it’s impossible for your generation to understand us…. You didn’t grow up in a world of instant electronic communications, of cybernetics, of men computing in seconds what once took months, even years, or jet travel, nuclear power, and journeys into space….”

When the young man finished, Reagan said, “You’re absolutely right. Our generation didn’t have those things when we were growing up. We invented them.”

Recommended Reads:
The Secret Political Blog: Why Singapores social divide is inevitable
Chillycraps: Crapital Finance
Mong Palatino: Singapore plans to require bloggers to reveal sponsors

Interesting Facts:
Countries with the Biggest Gaps Between Rich and Poor: No 2. Singapore

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