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Humphreys posted:On one of the LD groups theres a lunatic who actually works for an archival department for a major broadcaster. Oh boy doesn't he scream that it's a dumb project and not required. There is no reasoning with him. Does he actually want to do archiving or was he just assigned to do it as a job? I could see him being upset about the project if it were more work than just putting media in a player and recording the output because it's his job.
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Nov 19, 2023 09:13
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Cojawfee posted:Does he actually want to do archiving or was he just assigned to do it as a job? I could see him being upset about the project if it were more work than just putting media in a player and recording the output because it's his job. He's quite high up I think the head of the department, referenced in papers as 'the guy' a lot and very vocal. He does have a lot of experience doing the work but I think it's complete elitism from what a number of us see. "Why would you capture an LD of this if there is a DVD of it, or we have it in our (private) archives?" Completely out of touch. Stuck in his little universe that if he doesn't have equipment to do the work it doesn't exist.
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Nov 19, 2023 09:40
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Humphreys posted:"Why would you capture an LD of this if there is a DVD of it, or we have it in our (private) archives?" Completely out of touch. Stuck in his little universe that if he doesn't have equipment to do the work it doesn't exist. Yah he can gently caress off. Reminds me of the absolute state academic papers are in. If he doesn't recognize that mastering can be very different for different releases of the same content, he is in no way an expert
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Nov 19, 2023 14:24
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Humphreys posted:He's quite high up I think the head of the department Ah, so he's very stupid 
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Nov 19, 2023 16:04
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3D Megadoodoo posted:Ah, so he's very stupid That was implied by his high position.
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Nov 19, 2023 21:08
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EVIL Gibson posted:he is in no way an expert Part of my particular project is to be a See You Next Tuesday and to A:B comparisons from all known physical media of a particular release 
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Nov 20, 2023 08:35
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I want that HD version of HGttG BBC series.
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Nov 21, 2023 01:58
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0vzB-Fy8bY
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Nov 25, 2023 07:55
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Ups and downs today. I got this lovely piece of 1980s technology, and it was working great for all of ten minutes, then on reboot it just shows lines on the screen. Gonna be a deep dive trying to figure it out.
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Nov 26, 2023 05:09
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I had an issue with a T3200, with jittering lines on the screen (but also normal text etc). The problem was gone after a Rifa RFI suppressor cap popped and i swapped out all of the rifas. I have no clue if they were related to the interference on screen, but you need to check it for rifas anyway. My T3100/e doesn't have them.
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Nov 26, 2023 17:39
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LimaBiker posted:I had an issue with a T3200, with jittering lines on the screen (but also normal text etc). Caps are used to keep the power supply constant. I can imagine a lot of different signals that would act strange if they had to deal with large dips in voltage.
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Nov 26, 2023 19:33
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I have a T3200SX and I don’t think the screens were ever perfect but yeah that looks like a cap or caps somewhere
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Nov 26, 2023 19:40
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Just to be clear the picture is it working normally with regular camera effects on old screens. When it starts now it's just vertical lines and no boot process. Some initial research suggested it's related to video initialization. I figure I'll disassemble it fully and check the motherboard for anything visibly off.
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Nov 26, 2023 19:54
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EVIL Gibson posted:Caps are used to keep the power supply constant. I can imagine a lot of different signals that would act strange if they had to deal with large dips in voltage. In the case of the Rifas, they're on the primary side and not smoothing anything - mostly serving to avoid the computer spreading interference via the mains, and to a lesser degree making sure no interference from other devices makes it into the computer. My best guess would be that the cap was arcing slightly on the inside before completely exploding, which creates a ton of interference that messed with the video system. If there is no video at all, just vertical lines, there's a whole different issue. You could try to find a CGA monitor and hook it up to the external monitor connector to see if it's the actual gas plasma display electronics, or the video system.
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Nov 26, 2023 22:32
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Killer robot posted:Ups and downs today. I got this lovely piece of 1980s technology, and it was working great for all of ten minutes, then on reboot it just shows lines on the screen. Gonna be a deep dive trying to figure it out. I have one very much like that, a T3200. A few years ago, I powered it on for the first time in a while and found the screen had gone from "perfect" to "barely visible", like a contrast knob got turned all the way down to zero. I'm not sure how to go about diagnosing and fixing that -- it would be lovely if it turns out I'm just a bonehead and there actually is a contrast knob that got bumped and I just never found it.  In any case, it has a VGA port and it's perfectly usable with an external monitor... although using it that way does rob the machine of a lot of its charm.
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Nov 26, 2023 23:15
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Beve Stuscemi posted:I was looking for something in my basement the other night and came across this big thicc monstrosity. Its a Toshiba T3200SX and its a "portable", really a "luggable" 386 and was my first "laptop" ever. I have great memories of playing Commander Keen on this and writing Turbo Pascal assignments with it for high school. Released in 1989 and being a 386, it was pretty ancient by the time I was in high school in the mid 90's, but actual laptops of the time were wildly expensive and way out of my reach. I can recall going to a classmate's house to work on a programming assignment and while he tapped away on his shiny new Pentium desktop, I sat on the floor (near an outlet of course) with this thing, writing terrible Pascal code and slowly roasting my lap. I loved it though, because I could just pick it up and move, which was a real game-changer during a time when actual laptops were only for business executives and smartphones were a decade or more away. I knew I posted about it somewhere in this thread
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Nov 27, 2023 00:09
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Mercifully it has the factory hard drive, whos values are preprogrammed into the BIOS, because there is no way in hell I could figure out sectors and platters and whatnot anymore in 2020. I used to know that stuff like the back of my hand.
Hmm it appears that monochrome red gas plasma displays are immune to the powers of Hotdog Stand
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Got the T3100e disassembled and there's definitely some dirtiness on the motherboard. Nowhere near the video out, but that doesn't mean it couldn't affect it.  There's just one capacitor that looks weird, though it's also nowhere near video. The components near the video out seem fine.. Gonna be rough if I have to replace some since I'm having a pain figuring out how to pull the motherboard itself out without breaking anything. The maintenance manual says "Remove the screws then replace it" so thanks for that I guess. And I definitely don't want to too much jostle the 35+ year old ribbon cables between the halves of the motherboard.   Beve Stuscemi posted:I knew I posted about it somewhere in this thread Yeah, the plasma display is seriously crisp next to the LCDs of the day.
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Nov 27, 2023 04:18
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I think the bad capacitors in that machine are more likely to be on a power supply board or display controller board, those plasmas usually run on pretty high voltage internally. It’s not always immediately obvious when a cap is bad but what seems to happen is that the rubber plug at the bottom of the cap turns back into oily sludge and the seal fails, letting liquid out and air in.
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Nov 27, 2023 07:45
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I didn't know about Rifas, so I did some searching to gain knowledge. I found an article about a guy's investigation into failure rates between Rifas being used in both DC and AC. The conclusion was, surprisingly, if you see a Rifa being used on AC mains, don't look for failure signs, just replace them immediately. The lifetime/failure rates for AC use are much shorter than when used on DC, and when they fail, it's not just a pop but clouds and clouds of smoke. https://hackaday.com/2023/04/01/why-do-rifa-capacitors-fail/ EVIL Gibson has a new favorite as of 19:33 on Nov 27, 2023 |
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Nov 27, 2023 18:56
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Killer robot posted:Got the T3100e disassembled and there's definitely some dirtiness on the motherboard. Nowhere near the video out, but that doesn't mean it couldn't affect it. Looks like moisture damage to me. Brush it clean with IPA + demineralized water (about 75:25) and an antistatic brush, while holding some part of the chassis. Dry thoroughly. Test. No improvement? Unplug and reseat any connectors or flatcables. Tap the boards carefully with the plastic back of a screwdriver. No improvement? Go back to the potentially moisture damaged parts, and check for continuity between board traces and IC legs or something. After that, it gets complicated and requires more in depth understanding of how the system works.
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Nov 27, 2023 19:46
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EVIL Gibson posted:I didn't know about Rifas, so I did some searching to gain knowledge. I found an article about a guy's investigation into failure rates between Rifas being used in both DC and AC. The conclusion was, surprisingly, if you see a Rifa being used on AC mains, don't look for failure signs, just replace them immediately. The lifetime/failure rates for AC use are much shorter than when used on DC, and when they fail, it's not just a pop but clouds and clouds of smoke. Replace If Found Always. RIFA.
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Nov 27, 2023 19:57
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LimaBiker posted:Looks like moisture damage to me. Brush it clean with IPA + demineralized water (about 75:25) and an antistatic brush, while holding some part of the chassis. Dry thoroughly. Test. That's what I'm hoping at least. I'm going to work the motherboard first before I try recapping anything since the startup behavior is somewhat variable and I'd rather solve things without solder if that will do it. Also ordered one of the parallel port style POST testers. That won't be there for a while, but I'll clean and reassemble the laptop once the new battery arrives sometime in the next week. Power supply interior looks good at least.
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Nov 27, 2023 22:01
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The creature lives. Cleaning the crud off the board was all it needed, I guess. Looking at one of those combination CF/AdLib/Ethernet cards someone made for the proprietary Toshiba slot. The only one that really makes a big difference is sound, but having a better hard drive than the 40MB which might die any day would be nice too.
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Dec 1, 2023 07:01
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Now get some pictures of that lovely amber screen running some post apoc crpg, I needs it.
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Dec 1, 2023 13:30
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That screen makes me want to connect to a PLATO system again, but even more so it makes me want to find an actual PLATO terminal (never gonna happen)
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Dec 1, 2023 18:17
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Pham Nuwen posted:That screen makes me want to connect to a PLATO system again, but even more so it makes me want to find an actual PLATO terminal (never gonna happen)
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Dec 1, 2023 19:38
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Long time since I had anything to add here, but buying a Christmas-Mac is fast becoming tradition. Last year I picked up the PowerMac G4 AGP which I've been using as an eBook reader for the last month (surprisingly good at it!). Picked up a couple of thing the last month or so: WallStreet G3 with a weird CD-ROM issue (if it's inserted at all the computer locks up when copying files on the internal hard drive) but a working original battery, and a 2006 Mac Mini + 20" Cinema Display (post ADC model). The old G4 450 GPU can't drive it though and I don't want to get into the Mini yet so waiting on a new GPU that can drive 1680x1050. But the real fun is I found my beige whale: iMac G4 17", 1.25 GHz!  And I found a set of somewhat appropriate SoundSticks II speakers in good condition. Showed up working and running 10.2.8, and filled with approximately 3000 family photos from the previous owner who apparently used it until 2011. The files had been securely erased by moving them to the Trash folder so all good! Surprised it ran 10.2.8 since most sources say all these models came with 10.3. It also identifies as a version 6.1 PowerMac, but online sources say this is a slower 1 GHz model. This might be a transitional batch between the two series? It was kind of yellow upon receipt, but some light melamin sponge scrubbing brought it back pretty well, seems to just be general grime and muck, and no cigarette remains like the G4 450 had. Biggest/only issue: the screen was seriously out of level, correcting this is a simple 50 step procedure so better get started.  Bottom service cover pulled off easily enough, the original owner never upgraded the RAM, nor did she install a Wifi card. I think they may have used dial-up until the end of this machine (it had a connection profile set up).  We're in! This is as far as it opens until you undo the ground strap and the IDE cables.  Dusty, but looking pretty good. There is a taped off antenna-wire which would go to the Bluetooth module if one were fitted, and a pre-wired one for the user-installable Wifi card. The heat pipes for the GPU are thermally connected to the dome-casting, and it's pretty important to ensure thermal paste + pads remain installed when reassembling.  The ~10" dome (it looks tiny in pictures, but is pretty big!) is a pretty hefty casting with a plastic cover around it, the antennas go off under that copper tape. Here the drive assembly has been pulled and extricated. We can also see the power supply, it's split in two with one side handling the AC-input and a cable runs over to the DC/DC section that powers the computer. The 92 mm fan wasn't completely shot, but I did pick up a 3-wire Noctua replacement which is definitely a bit quieter. I also lost and later recovered the optical tray door springs, turns out there are two of them and they are not identical!  Stack of 3.5" 80 GB Seagate drive and the DVD-RW capable (and working) SuperDrive.   Pulling the fan and hub, we can see the bottom of the screen arm, there are white tubes covering the wire bundles to keep up the æsthetics.  Pulling some more screws and we can get the screen off entirely. This is not the specified order of operations for getting at the screen levelling adjustment but I wanted to clean it up anyway. Didn't get pictures, but the screen is relatively simple to open (no clips) but the individual cables are taped very tightly so opening it does risk ripping some flexes. Once opened the machine can be reassembled partially and the mounts levelled.  To get this thing back in one piece I just pulled the G4 450 drive + adapter instead of waiting for another set. I ended up duct-taping the drive in place to keep it from wandering during reassembly. This just worked, definitely worth doing that instead of having to go in twice. Reassembly took probably 2 hours, and involved a lot of fiddling with the cable-tubes to get all the lengths right again so it could actually be put back together at all. Definitely a massive pain in the rear end to work on, do not recommend but the Apple service documentation is fairly decent at least.  Keyboard goes to F16. It also has volume and optical drive eject controls, I have no idea how you open the door other than by using this keyboard. It's over all a pretty mid membrane keyboard, even if it looks nice. And I need to clean it. Arsenic Lupin posted:Do plasma screens degrade over time? They use phosphor like a CRT so presumably yes, but in my experience amber plasmas are pretty good, I have a ~25 year old RF tester with one and that's still in great shape.
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Dec 1, 2023 20:59
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By popular demand posted:Now get some pictures of that lovely amber screen running some post apoc crpg, I needs it. That sounds like a great idea but now the floppy isn't working so I need to need to figure that out.  Edit: I take it back, I just was misinterpreting how the floppy/printer switch on the side worked. I'll put a game on to try. Sadly my copy of Wasteland is EGA and won't run. Killer robot has a new favorite as of 23:27 on Dec 1, 2023 |
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Dec 1, 2023 22:56
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Arsenic Lupin posted:Do plasma screens degrade over time? I just meant that I've never seen one in person, I assume there were never that many to begin with and that most of the terminals got junked pretty quick when PLATO shut down in the 80s.
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Dec 1, 2023 23:30
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longview posted:
I think only color plasmas use phosphors. The ones in the Toshiba T3200 and similar appear to be filled with neon gas, and you are directly looking at the neon light. I will verify with a spectroscope one of these days. By eye, the color looks exactly like the color of an NE2 indicator bulb. The display can still selectively wear out. My t3200 has a wider screen than CGA and none of the software that it came with, used the wider resolution. You can vaguely see the outline of the 320x240 CGA resolution that most programs used.
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Dec 2, 2023 00:30
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Okay, got the game installed.   Next project, recapping that old EGA monitor.
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Dec 2, 2023 00:47
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Perfection.
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Dec 2, 2023 00:49
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OH GOD YES Edit: So to clarify, not only am I a huge retro computing nerd, and about Wasteland specifically, but I first played it on an amber monitor, and of course have not seen it like that for 30+ years, so I just got rocketed back to 1990 instantly God I want the opening image in amber as a tattoo Dr. Quarex has a new favorite as of 02:38 on Dec 2, 2023 |
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Dec 2, 2023 02:31
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It belongs in a museum.
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Dec 2, 2023 02:35
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Oh that's absurdly good.
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Dec 2, 2023 04:06
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sweet lord that title screen shot looks incredible
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Dec 2, 2023 04:57
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That’s the stuff.
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Dec 2, 2023 05:47
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For comparison, the CGA display would look like this if I connected it to a color monitor.  I think I'm happy with it. Moved on to disassembling the EGA monitor related. Realized one of the caps I want to replace I do not actually have and had to order one. Cheap, but from China so with holiday stuff that probably won't be until January. But hoping to get the rest this weekend. Not tonight though, had a couple drinks and alcohol makes my hands steadier and my judgement shakier. Not entirely sure if this crud is capacitor leakage or just old glue that's accumulated stuff over the decades. Either way, time to replace it. Got the RIFA caps on my last pass months back, so they're good.  The two biggest caps are enormous and the replacements I ordered are like half the volume. But it's the same voltage and capacitance so it should work by all I can tell.   I don't really need an EGA monitor since almost all my stuff is VGA and I got a CGA2RGB a while back, but I like those old TTL screens.
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Dec 2, 2023 06:30
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Pham Nuwen posted:That screen makes me want to connect to a PLATO system again, but even more so it makes me want to find an actual PLATO terminal (never gonna happen) 
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Dec 2, 2023 09:52
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longview posted:Long time since I had anything to add here, but buying a Christmas-Mac is fast becoming tradition. Last year I picked up the PowerMac G4 AGP which I've been using as an eBook reader for the last month (surprisingly good at it!). nice machine! our family computer for many years was the OG 15" 800MHz powermac4,2. still annoyed at myself for giving it away like 10-12 years ago. i recently got a nice 17" 800MHz 4,5, but the power supply is dead and i haven't poked around to see which half is the culprit. should be easy to fix once i spend some time with it. i have been meaning to learn more about smps, and this is as good a reason as any. longview posted:Keyboard goes to F16. It also has volume and optical drive eject controls, I have no idea how you open the door other than by using this keyboard. It's over all a pretty mid membrane keyboard, even if it looks nice. And I need to clean it. you can put an eject button in the menu bar by clicking code:code:
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Dec 2, 2023 10:36
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