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Intern Saga: Continued. I got him to try and reconfigure the temp sensor again - factory reset, connect to the wifi router, etc. he totally didnt remember any of it despite having my instructions in front of him again. Even plugged the routers LAN port into our network, again... So I took him aside into our meeting room to have a chat. I asked him what hes studying. Hes doing an online course in business analytics. I ask him if he understands or knows any of the things I have been tasking him with the last week. He does not, but wants to learn (he was very half hearted wit this, you will know why shortly) I suggested to him the idea of not continuing his internship here, and finding somewhere he can actually apply his knowledge. He says that he doesnt mind and wants to just finish his internship (another 20 days) to get his certificate. In principle this makes me want to tell my manager to kick his rear end to the curb considering how much of our time he has wasted. Not only that, the online course and internship = cert is setting off all kinds of red flags. So right now I have him going through our tickets and generating some reports (hes still stupid enough to not use the automated REPORTS function thats built in and is manually entering the data into excel) but at least hes occupied. in the mean time I am weighing up giving him low level access to run some queries on some demo DBs we have sitting on a VM. He says he knows SQL but didnt know what I meant by 'run DB queries' and 'use select/from/where' so Im not sure it would even generate anything useful. Im emailing the team to try and farm him out for any kind of analysis that might be useful but I dont think anyone is comfortable letting him access their data by this stage  Free labor isnt free guys.
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Apr 29, 2015 07:08
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Honestly, I'd just fire him. If he gets his cert, he's going to start haunting other businesses in the area, because they will assume he has SOME kind of knowledge...
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Apr 29, 2015 07:16
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A slightly concerning ticket came in...quote:Is there a way to turn off the “Audit Trail” function under the Profile of the documents in records. For example, if we check a file, open it. make it final, it is all recorded under the Audit Trail. Can we turn this function off or is there an option where we can edit the data recorded? I called the user and she was laughing about it - apparently her accountancy firm is about to be audited and the senior partners are freaking out about what's in all the file logs for their records and yelled at her to find out if it was at all possible to get rid of. Nothing suspicious at all....... She was cool with being told no, since she is actually pretty nice and won't be in the firing line once whatever dark secrets are revealed.
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Apr 29, 2015 07:41
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Laserface posted:Intern Saga: Continued. You sound like one of the Seniors that I had to pleasure of guiding me during my internship. The way you ask for input from the intern is almost exactly the same as he did with me. I can only imagine the stuff I would learn if I was your intern When I started my internship. I was given the task of checking and if needed update the software on our smartboards. I did that and I noticed we used educational software on our business smartboards. I reported what I had found. and he said install the business version. So i took that and removed the educational software and installed the business software. I report back again with what I did. And i get scolded for removing the educational software. He was trying to make me see, how I can't just remove something the customer already has. "it's like i'm giving you this yellow car with air conditioning and ask you to check and fix what is broken and you return me a green car without air conditioning but with better chairs. That's not what I asked for. I'm trying to make you think in change. every thing you do has an effect and you need to be able to determine that. How big of an effect does this thing i'm doing have? Think before you decide to do something". After that I was configuring directAccess with him. I was nodding along as he was explaining how it worked. what he is having difficulty with and kept saying are you still following me? I always said yes until I really didn't understand wtf was going on, which only was at the part where he was configuring certificates. He always let me think and figure it out myself before giving me the answer. So we were configuring DirectAccess and to check if I was paying attention he asked. How do you connect to this server from your own thinclient. I respond with. I just RDP into it. He says, how do you do that? I respond with, the computername of the directAccess server. He says show me. So I try to RDP into it. and I can't. He laughs and says. What do you do now? i check to see if I can ping it. I can't. So my next step is going back to the server. Its connected to the network and all. So I run an ipconfig /all and check the computername to see if it;s correct. and everything checks out. So I open up firewall and check to see if rdp is blocked. (he started smiling when I started up firewall) Everything checked out fine over there. At this point i have no idea why it wont connect and I just ask my senior Why I can't connect. Then he says "going to the firewall was a good idea, but we use a different one and as you can see it's blocking everything for our directAccess server (he then went on to show me how to add whitelists for it.) Kind of long story. but I truly miss that guy. Loved the way he let me handle things and kept challenging me. Even though i hosed up at some points. He asked to put some a box in the storage he was working on. i did that. and a few days later. the person who runs the IT department asked me to throw that away. I went and threw it away. a few days later the senior i'm working with notices the box is gone. I say I threw it away. he says why? i say "person who runs department asked me to throw it away" he confirms it with that person and asks me, when did i throw it away. I say 2 days ago. So there's maybe some hope it's still there. We go to the trash and look. and it's gone. Turns out it had some valuable hardware. He didn't blame me but I still felt bad. I should have 1st checked with the senior before I threw it away, since I knew that box was his. So yeah. i'm that intern. 
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Apr 29, 2015 08:09
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Interns aren't really supposed to be productive. By law, they should be about zero to negative utility when you take into account the effort of training them. In practice, the industry benefits as a whole and you get all sorts of side benefits to internships, but it's not supposed to be free labor. I guess my point is that if you're an intern, don't feel bad about being a screwup if you're honestly trying hard and learning. I don't know how much patience I would have mentoring an intern who didn't give a poo poo though.
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Apr 29, 2015 08:17
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Sefal posted:You sound like one of the Seniors that I had to pleasure of guiding me during my internship. Man, you arent as bad as this kid. At first I was annoyed that we had to find poo poo for him to do, until we kind of realised he couldnt really do anything - the guy didnt even know what ping was or how to do it. Im actually curious why we took him on in the first place and it seems to be one of a few decisions by our relatively new sysadmin guy that has been sort of just done to get it over and done with. the Intern has attempted to be mentored by myself and my two colleagues but he was just frustrating us with his lack of knowledge. I realise now that it wasnt due to incompetence but just a bad hire. So I figured it must be pretty hard for him trying to seem enthusiastic and eager to work when we keep giving him lovely jobs because when we try IT-focused work he cant do it and we get short or annoyed wit him. I made sure to tell him that he was frustrating us, but not because hes a bad person, just not suited for the role we are trying to push him into. Now that we know what he might have some skills in, I will start throwing him some stuff thats better suited. but yeah if we had an IT intern i wouldnt be any different - give them a task with loose instructions, see how far they get on their own, and then rather than answer their questions, guide them through the process of figuring it out for themselves. Dr. Arbitrary posted:Interns aren't really supposed to be productive. By law, they should be about zero to negative utility when you take into account the effort of training them. our manager (the non-IT guy) wanted someone literally because 'free labor'. I mean I get it, but it backfired big time for us. It all started because the finance team got 3 interns to help chase debt and then everyone thought to do the same - little did they know that much like our intern, the accounts ones were rubbish except for one (who we hired to replace a retiring accountant) and had much the same affect on our output. So yeah, if anyone suggest getting more I would be very hesitant, or at the very least want to be involved in the interview process to make sure we get someone who actually knows How To Computer. And yeah he gives a poo poo in the sense that he turns up and doesnt complain about being told to chuck out boxes. Hes just not IT savvy at all. its definitely a test of my patience though, for sure.
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Apr 29, 2015 10:05
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Yeah I'm doing alright so far. They said I was the best intern in quite a while. I even got 2 job offers. 1 is from the network specialist, who sits across from me. He is working here from some other company and he recommended me to them. They called me and interviewed me. Interview went really well. (and they regard the network specialist very highly, so they take it to heart when he recommends someone.) They wanna hire me now. and the place i'm interning at itself wants to hire me (they even want me to educate myself further by paying for my HBO college) they have a few options for me. They can either give me a perm spot if a spot opens up. They can invest in me by letting me educate myself further. or they give me a one year contract. and go from there, to see if they still want to invest in me. I think I'm going for option 3. Prove my worth by getting a few certs. i'm graduating in july from MBO lvl 4 IT administrator. Can any dutch goon give me some advice on this? How much more difficult is HBO? It's a golden opportunity for a company to pay my college. and it will increase my salary quite a bit. and I can keep working during those extra 4 years of school. I know my freetime will die out. but the investment is worth it, i think. But my biggest fear is, what if i fail, what if i don't graduate. That's something i will have to talk with the company I guess I don't mind sharing my grades, if you need that to determine if i stand a chance for a HBO education.
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Apr 29, 2015 11:19
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For foreign goons: MBO is vocational school, HBO is community college If the company is paying for it, you should grab the opportunity. e: Come to the Dutch thread in SAL! 
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Apr 29, 2015 11:25
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Recent office networking changes and now the DHCP server only hands out a 1 hour lease  Gettin' real tired of having to re-log in to all my ssh sessions every 58 minutes on the dot.
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Apr 29, 2015 15:22
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Prescription Combs posted:Recent office networking changes and now the DHCP server only hands out a 1 hour lease Why aren't your clients simply renewing the lease at the 50% mark instead of going through the whole DHCP dance at lease expiration?
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Apr 29, 2015 15:32
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Jeoh posted:For foreign goons: MBO is vocational school, HBO is community college drat I thought he was going to get to watch TV all day or something.
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Apr 29, 2015 17:10
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Trastion posted:drat I thought he was going to get to watch TV all day or something. It's not TV, it's HBO.
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Apr 29, 2015 17:37
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Apex Rogers posted:It's not TV, it's HBO.  Jeoh posted:For foreign goons: MBO is vocational school, HBO is community college That would require being or learning Dutch, a fate worse than death.
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Apr 29, 2015 18:15
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Luigi Thirty posted:
Ach, het valt wel mee.
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Apr 29, 2015 18:34
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Laserface posted:Intern problems Why don't you ask the Intern what online course/internship he is doing to see if they are legit?
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Apr 29, 2015 21:30
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Supeerme posted:Why don't you ask the Intern what online course/internship he is doing to see if they are legit? THE TOP OF THIS PAGE posted:I asked him what hes studying. Hes doing an online course in business analytics.
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Apr 29, 2015 21:36
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Potato Salad posted:A ticket came in... I love the users who will say things like "You're the computer guy, can't you just hack it?" and simultaneously be all "What do you mean the security software you sold me doesn't give me 100% protection from everything ever always??"
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Apr 29, 2015 21:46
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Entropic posted:I love the users who will say things like "You're the computer guy, can't you just hack it?" and simultaneously be all "What do you mean the security software you sold me doesn't give me 100% protection from everything ever always??" "Can't you like put a trojan horse in the video file that tracks who watch it" was a question I got yesterday. Sure let me get right on that.
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Apr 29, 2015 22:04
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pr0digal posted:"Can't you like put a trojan horse in the video file that tracks who watch it" was a question I got yesterday. Put a condom on their Monitor. "There, that'll keep them out"
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Apr 29, 2015 22:11
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Entropic posted:I love the users who will say things like "You're the computer guy, can't you just hack it?" and simultaneously be all "What do you mean the security software you sold me doesn't give me 100% protection from everything ever always??" I shocked an old lady once when I told her that I'll "Hack something together for you" or something along those lines. I meant "hack" has in "Bang my head against your computer until it starts working, maybe add duct tape if it takes too long" but from the look on her face I realized ( a little too slowly) that she thought I meant "Write a GUI in Visual Basic to trace Window's IP back to the government to retrieve your missing files from the government internets"
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Apr 29, 2015 22:25
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flosofl posted:Why aren't your clients simply renewing the lease at the 50% mark instead of going through the whole DHCP dance at lease expiration?
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Apr 29, 2015 23:17
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Our network engineer commented to me today that he received a request from a contracted 3rd party to "open up UDP on the firewall for tunneling" with no further details. The more I think about it the more my head hurts.
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Apr 30, 2015 00:54
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hihifellow posted:Our network engineer commented to me today that he received a request from a contracted 3rd party to "open up UDP on the firewall for tunneling" with no further details. NTP possibly?
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Apr 30, 2015 00:55
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An unexpected conference call suddenly came in. Company got gutted and IT got the chop. They're outsourcing! Whee! Time to find a new job.
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Apr 30, 2015 01:59
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hihifellow posted:Our network engineer commented to me today that he received a request from a contracted 3rd party to "open up UDP on the firewall for tunneling" with no further details. I work at a company that requires that for many of our client setups, but we always specify the ports. Our tunnels won't get built unless UDP ports X and Y are open (and I know this because I troubleshoot these setups regularly). It couldn't hurt to ask the 3rd party what specific ports they need opened.
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Apr 30, 2015 02:08
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So Intern was here at 8am this morning smashing away at a little task I gave him to work on. I wanted a report on how many tickets PRTG was raising for our DVR in another site and how many of those tickets were actually because the system was offline or the disk was nearing capacity. He successfully did a flashy report detailing how many tickets, how many valid, who was handling them, the time they took to handle, and all sorts of nice little metrics. So he actually has skills! not IT skills, but skills in his field of study at least. So now I have him doing the same thing on a national scale since it seems we are getting about 10% useful info from monitoring this one machine and 90% filler. This will probably save us a buttload of time if we can stop the bogus alerts since we still have to check and close them (even if we get 10 alerts and they are all the same, someone still has to close 9 and leave one open and investigate) so maybe theres a good ending to this story afer all.
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Apr 30, 2015 02:10
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Honestly I'm kinda happy this was apparently just a grave misunderstanding and awful job placement
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Apr 30, 2015 02:14
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Basically he'd do well in administrative services, or a secretarial position.
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Apr 30, 2015 02:30
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Dr. Arbitrary posted:Interns aren't really supposed to be productive. By law, they should be about zero to negative utility when you take into account the effort of training them. This is reply something that should be looked at closely in a lot of companies. Interns are supposed to be paid if they provide any gain for the company. Learned about this while researching interns for my family's now defunct restaurant. http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs71.htm
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Apr 30, 2015 03:05
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SlayVus posted:This is reply something that should be looked at closely in a lot of companies. Interns are supposed to be paid if they provide any gain for the company. Learned about this while researching interns for my family's now defunct restaurant. You'd be right, the unfortunate reality, however, is that often times the proper oversight authorities are aware of companies pulling poo poo like that, they rarely seem to enforce it, it seems.
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Apr 30, 2015 04:38
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larchesdanrew posted:What did he throw away Are you me? I got a two year degree in accounting, did bookkeeping for a while, then up and got my A+ and joined a small company last year. Group Policy and Active Directory? I'd never touched it, but we were doing a migration to new systems company-wide and my boss was busy with other tasks so he tasked me with configuring over 100 machines in dozens of locations for the rollout. It was really cool to figure out how Group Policy worked by just getting to work with it on a test bed and make things work and figure out why they didn't work; once I started really getting into it I was like "this is like being a goddamn wizard, I can set custom desktop shortcuts by computer name and user logon and map drives and run logon scripts and push out registry entries  ".
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Apr 30, 2015 06:13
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Snuffman posted:An unexpected conference call suddenly came in. At least you get to laugh at them a few months down the road when they try to hire you back because the outsourced IT is poo poo. 
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Apr 30, 2015 07:46
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I meant what company he is getting the online course from.
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Apr 30, 2015 08:51
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Supeerme posted:I meant what company he is getting the online course from. It's definitely a lovely certificate with no real value. He's still a mr magoo deep down. Like I said, numerous social skills issues and general nativity.
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Apr 30, 2015 09:01
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Laserface posted:...and general nativity. Kind of a weird criticism but ok: 
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Apr 30, 2015 09:25
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Dr. Arbitrary posted:Kind of a weird criticism but ok: He's the bull, led around by the nose for a while, producing nothing but poo poo, then eventually taken out back and hit in the head with a sledgehammer until dead.
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Apr 30, 2015 10:22
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Merijn posted:At least you get to laugh at them a few months down the road when they try to hire you back because the outsourced IT is poo poo. This rarely happens, they don't put two and two together at all.
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Apr 30, 2015 13:19
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guppy posted:This rarely happens, they don't put two and two together at all. If these people understood cause and effect and that their actions have consequences, they wouldn't be outsourcing their IT in the first place. It's a specific instance of a general problem. Storysmith fucked around with this message at 13:48 on Apr 30, 2015 |
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Apr 30, 2015 13:41
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We got threatened by the general manager that we were gonna get outsourced due to our teams half rear end attempts to keep things going. This was directly after a 9 year employee left and caused a massive brain drain that left me and the remaining other guy to pick up the pieces and figure out how to keep the old guys poo poo running while we implement new stuff we knew. Unsurprisingly the half assing and ticket queue immediately disappeared when we got to hire a third tech.
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Apr 30, 2015 14:00
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Merijn posted:At least you get to laugh at them a few months down the road when they try to hire you back because the outsourced IT is poo poo. Ohhh...I wish. There is going to be a shitstorm over this, our sites are used to being babied by IT and having every little thing fixed promptly. Corporate will more than likely just tell them to suck it up. Our portfolio covered a lot more than just computers and I don't think corporate realizes just how much outsourcing they'll have to do. They're just looking at dollar signs. Ah well, such is life. There's still a 2 month "transition" period, so I'm not on the street yet. Time to buff up my resume and start firing it off. guppy posted:This rarely happens, they don't put two and two together at all.  Best case scenario, they extend the transition period as they realize how screwed they are. Regardless, I still lose my job in the end. The outsourced company is offering to hire 7 out of the 30 techs we have now (national company, we're IT field techs) but it's a huge pay cut and way more road time. I'm pretty sure it's not for me. Snuffman fucked around with this message at 14:08 on Apr 30, 2015 |
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Apr 30, 2015 14:02
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