Tag Archives: technology

6 November 2022
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ski with a bot

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When I was 2, I started my journey with skiing. My only regret is that I haven’t started professional career as a kid, but I am trying to improve my skiing by every opportunity. I even took coach courses and trainings to be able to spread my passion to others.
While looking how my major ( AI ) could be connected to my passion I stepped on a revolutionary and outstanding idea.

Skiing is all about understanding the forces around u and making your muscles to use them well ,to go as fast and efficient as you can. But it takes a lot of experience and many tries and errors to achieve that. It is crucial to see and understand your mistakes but still it takes many slopes to correct one.

For making the process shorter and more effective CARV introduced a device containing: shoe-pad an electronic processor and software ( app ) that measures every force and analyse it, to eventually correct your mistakes even in live timing via headphones. It collects hundred thousands of data to show you how your turns could be improved and what you should change to be faster and better.
If your hands are not in the right position, for example not as up front as they should be, they are misplacing the downforce from the tips of your ski to the back and you are losing traction and ability to turn. This app after such mistake, would show you how your shoe and skis were behaving during each phase of a turn and the most important- it would show you a solution and couple of exercises how to correct that.

I can see a bunch of potential in it, in case of professional and also amateur skiing. Professional teams can use it to analyse every slalom run and after every race or training, they would be able give the best possible feedback to their athlete. Also in FIS World Cup, Longines introduced really similar but simpler thing. Device that is showing all skier parameters during a run in live timing to the TV stations, making the championships and experience much more interesting to watch. For the amateur users who want to improve their skills, that device could be a tool that helps your personal trainer in doing his job just quicker and additionally, it could be great advertisement of such services. Just imagine a company campaign boasting about using AI to teach skiing.

In my opinion that is the future of teaching this sport and as we are often scared of many AI and tech news- we shouldn’t, because such devices won’t replace us as coaches but can help us in developing better performances and techniques of our customers. If you ask me, I would spend so much time studying this app, because at my level of experience, when I can correct my mistakes, usually by myself, it would save a lot of money and time to become a better skier and instructor. Let me know how about you, and in what sports AI and tech could be a game changer?

sources

Longines technology (FIS WC) : https://www.fis-ski.com/en/international-ski-federation/news-multimedia/news/article=longines-launches-live-alpine-data-system

AI in sports: https://imaginovation.net/blog/ai-in-sports-industry/

Carv review: https://www.skimag.com/gear/carv-ai-technology-for-skiers/

https://getcarv.com

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31 October 2022
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With the acquisition of Twitter, Elon Musk excites the crypto markets more and is full of ideas to integrate the blockchain into Twitter more strongly.

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Elon Musk pushes Dogecoin up 20% with  tweet of Tesla accepting the meme coin  
https://nairametrics.com/2022/10/30/dogecoin-gains-126-in-one-week-as-musk-buys-twitter/

Well, let’s start as everyone knows, recently Elon Musk became the official owner of Twitter. As we can see, Elon Musk is wasting no time and is trying to implement a blockchain system on Twitter in the near future, and Bloomberg analysts believe that this will happen.

So,against the backdrop of these news the “meme” currency dogecoin (dogecoins), which Musk has long supported for a long time (he even called himself “Dogefather”), and which, according to his negotiations with colleagues, he even planned to use on Twitter to pay for reposts and comments, as result already gone up sharply in price.We can notice over the past five days, the dogecoin (DOGE) rate has grown by 83%, however, then it slightly decreased as part of the correction.

So, in a discussion with The Boring Company President Steve Davis, Musk said that “my plan B is a blockchain version of Twitter, in which transactions are built into the commenting system. The user will pay… let’s say 0.1 DOGE for each repost or comment.” Later, however, Elon Musk admitted that the plan was not feasible, but the course of his thoughts was generally clear.

However, you need to understand long before the acquisition of Twitter by Musk, Twitter was still consciously developing its crypto direction and Twitter even created a dedicated Twitter Crypto department.Earlier, under the leadership of Jack Dorsey, Twitter took steps to integrate blockchain technology into this social network – for example, the ability to accept tips in Bitcoins, Ethereum, NFT and the USDC digital dollar was introduced.

In general, Elon Musk is not the first time integrating cryptosystems into his companies. Let me remind you that in May 2021, Tesla offered the opportunity to pay for electric cars with bitcoins, but two months later the project was curtailed. However, from January 14, 2022, the company introduced payment in dogecoin cryptocurrency for Tesla merch. So, currently, you can buy a whistle in the form of the expected Cybertruck SUV with meme-coins. Previously, you could also buy a Tesla logo buckle and a Tesla Cyberquad for kids.

We should also note that one of the co-investors in the purchase of Twitter was the Binance crypto exchange, which, according to some information, has already created a special department whose task will be to study the use of cryptocurrencies in the Twitter social network.

So let’s wait, what will be the consequences of Elon Musk’s decision to strengthen crypto integration on Twitter, as well as cooperation with Binance, and what will they achieve together?

Sources:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-29/how-elon-musk-can-add-crypto-nft-transactions-on-twitter?leadSource=uverify%20wall

https://www.analyticsinsight.net/everything-elon-musk-has-said-about-dogecoin-twitter/

https://www.tesla.com/support/dogecoin

https://www.reuters.com/technology/crypto-exchange-binance-musks-co-investor-help-twitter-with-blockchain-2022-10-28/

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30 October 2022
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Business

Is Mark Zuckerberg’s grand vision going to be the biggest flop in tech history?

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Thomas Edison. Nikola Tesla. The Wright Brothers. Alexander Graham Bell. 

What do all these visionaries have in common? 

Well, they all changed the course of humanity and our civilization’s technological development.

From inventing the lightbulb (Edison) to the creation of the telephone (Bell), they were undoubtedly figures that played key roles in getting to where we, as humans, have come so far.

But why am I mentioning them?

They were all ridiculed at first.[1]

In 1903, just nine weeks before the first manned flight, The New York Times stated that it would take at least a million years for humanity to create a functional airplane.[2] A million years.

And how are they relevant to Mark Zuckerberg?

As you might have read, the Meta (formerly known as Facebook) founder has come into great criticism recently over his vision of the Metaverse. With a 2021 loss of 10 billion dollars[3] and being over 300 000 users short of Meta’s year-end goal,[4] the Metaverse has already been branded as a massive flop by major media outlets.

The major feedback points were that:

  • The users’ avatars were ‘soulless’ and had no legs;
  • The virtual world felt empty and lonely.

The issue doesn’t seem to be only existent in Meta’s creation, as another metaverse, Decentraland (valued at over 1.1 billion USD[5]), reportedly had only 38 daily active users.[6]

Mark Zuckerberg showcasing his Metaverse avatar
Source: https://qz.com/2081426/facebooks-meta-company-wants-control-of-the-metaverse

The metaverse was supposed to serve as an “alternate reality” to our real world, with limitless possibilities. In fact, the idea seemed quite appealing, as you could travel to any place in the virtual world instantly. Of course, there are also dystopian visions of a Matrix-like scenario, where, in the distant future, a person would be constantly hooked up to a headset and haptic pads that would produce a fully immersive experience, essentially replacing actual reality.

But what is actually going on in the Metaverse?

For now, the main purpose of this virtual world seems to be entertainment, with virtual concerts making headlines.[7] Other such virtual experiences include art exhibitions, movie showings and gambling. 

As crazy as it may seem, there are going to be Subway franchises in the Metaverse – the company has filed for a trademark earlier this year.[8] So, worry not, you’ll be able to order a sandwich that you cannot actually eat soon enough.

While some of the ideas (such as virtual food and drinks) are ridiculous, if implemented properly, a virtual world could serve well for business and educational ventures. It could replace Zoom for virtual conferences and add at least a touch of reality to remote calls and work. 

Zuckerberg seems confident enough in his strives to popularize the Metaverse and there is no sign of him backing down anytime soon. For one, as he recently stated on his Joe Rogan Experience appearance, he wants VR to ‘eat TV’, so that people could spend time socializing inside of his creation instead of sitting in front of a TV.[9]

Mark Zuckerberg
Source: https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2020/12/mark-zuckerberg-surfing-again-electric-board-sunscreen

So where is this alternate reality headed? It is hard to say for sure, but it doesn’t seem to be replacing actual life anytime soon. There is major money to be made in the technology, and perhaps we could see a Metaverse boom after we come out of the upcoming recession. 

In the distant future, we might hold business meetings virtually by default. It is not impossible that we are headed into a Matrix-like world. Or maybe, in 50 years’ time, we might remember the Metaverse as the biggest flop in tech history.

If the Meta founder fulfills his ambitions, perhaps a future Kozminski student will start his October 2053 tech blog entry with the words:

Thomas Edison. Nikola Tesla. The Wright Brothers. Alexander Graham Bell. Mark Zuckerberg.

Where do you think is the Metaverse headed? Would you prefer to hold your classes and business meetings in such a virtual world, or do you think that the venture is going to fail miserably? Feel free to reply in the comments.

Until next time,
Jan

[1] https://scienceinfo.net/7-famous-inventions-were-initially-badly-criticized.html

[2] https://bigthink.com/pessimists-archive/air-space-flight-impossible/

[3] https://stealthoptional.com/news/facebooks-metaverse-lost-10-billion/

[4] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11319449/Mark-Zuckerbergs-Metaverse-FLOP-users-complain-lonely.html

[5] https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/decentraland/

[6] https://insidebitcoins.com/news/is-it-that-lonely-in-the-metaverse-platforms-speak-out-about-daily-active-users

[7] https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2022/07/27/the-world-of-metaverse-entertainment-concerts-theme-parks-and-movies/?sh=53f366136531

[8] https://www.todaynftnews.com/subway-files-2-trademark-applications-to-enter-the-metaverse/

[9] https://open.spotify.com/episode/51gxrAActH18RGhKNza598?si=TSH3vCOcQP6NOddq3a_XIg

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26 October 2022
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VR technology

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The virtual reality concept was created in the mid-1950s with a device called sensorama. Since then VR became one of the technologies with the highest potential growth. Most forecasts believe that the Metaverse by the end of the decade will be worth between 6-13 trillion dollars. No wonder tech giants are following this trend. The most interesting usage of this technology is in the Metaverse.

Sensorama

What the Metaverse is?

It is a concept developed by Neal Stephenson in his novel “Snow Crash” 1992. Matthew Ball defines it as “A massively-scaled and interoperable network of real-time-rendered 3D virtual worlds that can be experienced synchronously and persistently by an unlimited number of users with an individual sense of presence while supporting the continuity of data.” But what does it mean? It is a virtual world with the ability to link independently-operated simulations and give us cyberspace where everyone is coexisting.

How do we use VR/AR technology nowadays?

The biggest part of the market uses this technology for entertainment purposes- mostly video games, but this technology has much more to offer. Surgeons are trained using simulations of complex operations and this method is more efficient than traditional one- scientists from Harvard University have done the research and the result of it showed that surgeons trained in VR technology had a 230% growth in efficiency. U.S and British militaries are using Unreal Engine for simulation training of active combat. Even cities are being designed with graphics-based computing. This technology is opening a huge amount of opportunities and I am curious about what it will look like in the next ten years.

What do you think about this piece of technology?

Sources:

  1. Top 5 Virtual Reality Trends of 2022: The Future of VR – Program-Ace

2. VR w medycynie. Nadchodzi rewolucja? (chip.pl)

3.Virtual Reality, the technology of the future – Iberdrola

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24 October 2022
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Devices, Software

The light printing technology

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Not a long time ago polish inventors have developed innovative method of producing OLED screens. They have created the cheapest and the thinnest electronic band with OLED screen which is now the biggest innovation in so called the light printing technology.

How it works?

They named it Inuru and it uses Organic Light Emitting Diodes, which is something similar to LEDs but it’s made out of organic components.

OLED display technology which is using organic diodes degrade rapidly therefore it provides a light for only a few seconds or minutes . That’s why it is hard to introduce it on a mass scale. However by creating more and more products Inuru is going to optimise the use of diodes to increase theirs lifetime which allows them to glare a lot longer.

It’s also worth mentioning that this solution is sustainable and ecological. Inuru does not use heavy metals or heavy ions. Also the materials are similar to those used right now, that means this tech is fully recyclable.

The ideas of use:

Because of the display being so thin there are no limitations to it’s use. For example you can print it onto clothes so that the display shines if someone hugs you. This technology is also meant to help people, the idea is to combine the diodes with the labels on the medicine to indicate when it expires. We could spend hours and hours thinking about the applications but the most interesting aspect is changing the way of advertising products.

Changes in adverts

Personally I think the biggest changes will be seen in the way of promoting products by multiple companies. Since the great economic development every one of them want to be the best in the marketing. Now when the Inuru is on the market a lot of companies started to make some initial projects. One of the first corporation to cooperate with Inuru creators is Coca Cola. They have created the first label to use on bottles and it looks like that:

They are planning to use such labels on special edition bottles. In my point of view think there will be more and more products using this technology because it surely attracts the eye of the customer and that’s what companies are looking for.

Video

To get the better understanding of Inuru technology i recommend you watching this video. Unfortunatelly it’s in polish but you can add english subtitles. Let me know what are your thoughts and ideas were you would use that technology.

Sources:

Dignity: https://dignitynews.eu/en/polish-inventors-developed-an-innovative-method-for-producing-oled-screens/

Swiat oze: https://swiatoze.pl/inuru-polacy-drukuja-swiatlem-ekologiczne-etykiety-technologia-roku/

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20 October 2022
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Flying electric cars tested in Dubai

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XPeng Inc has developed the XPeng X2 flying car, which has been successfully tested in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

XPeng is a Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer that was established in 2014 by Xia Heng (Henry Xia) and He Tao. The goal of XPeng is to create smart cars using the latest technologies with the possibility of using their products by ordinary users.

On Monday, October 10, the novelty took off over the Marina in Dubai, a prototype of its electronic taxi, which will soon be able to transport people around cities over the main road routes. The tests took place with an empty cockpit, but the company says it conducted a manned flight test in July 2021 last year.

The developers claim that the car can reach speeds of 130 km/h (81 mph) and a flight time of 35 minutes. It is controlled by an eight-rotor design and can carry two passengers 

at the same time. Also, the car was specially created for Urban Air Mobility (UAM). Chinese engineers were able to provide fast and affordable point-to-point travel inside the city without specially equipped takeoff and landing sites.

The XPeng X2 weighs 360 kg (794 lb) and has a maximum takeoff weight of 560 kg (1,235 lb). The Chinese company achieved such a small weight by making the body of the aircraft from carbon fiber

The approximate cost of the novelty is from $126,000.00 – $236,000.00 USD. In the future, tests of the car in Europe are planned, and serial production will occur in 2024.

Theoretically, flying cars can be a discovery for mankind and transport people high above traffic jams, but so far the problem with flight duration has not been resolved (35 minutes without recharging), as well as security problems and general conditions for flying many such cars at the same time

sources:

https://evtol.news/xpeng-voyager-x2

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XPeng

https://ir.xiaopeng.com/

https://abc7news.com/flying-cars-2022-electric-taxis-dubai-taxi-evtol/12314863/

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22 June 2022
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Printing with sound. Sounds interesting?

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3D printing is a method of applying a building material layer by layer and its selective bonding. Each technology uses a different material that is bonded in a different way. 3D printing can be divided according to the material used. There are three basic groups of 3D printing: thermoplastics in the form of a line, light-curable resins and powder technologies. But now thanks to Muthukumaran Packirisamy and Mohsen Habibi we can add one additional method to that list.

An alternative to the traditional solutions, using plastics and sometimes other substances, 3D printing techniques called direct sound printing (DSP), which uses ultrasound to create new objects, was created in the laboratory of the Canadian University of Concordia. A researcher’s work on this subject describes this method of using focused ultrasound waves to induce reactions in areas of small cavitation, which is essentially tiny bubbles. Extreme temperature and pressure changes lasting trillionths of a second can result in predesigned complex geometries that cannot be produced with known additive techniques.
“We found that if we use a certain type of ultrasound with a certain frequency and power, we can create very local, very focused chemically reactive regions,” Habibi says. “Basically, the bubbles can be used as reactors to drive chemical reactions to transform liquid resin into solids or semi-solids.” 

Researchers experimented on a polymer used in 3D printing called polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). They used the transducer to generate an ultrasonic field that passes through the shell of construction material, solidifying the target liquid resin and depositing it on a platform or other previously solidified object. The transducer follows a programmed path, creating the desired product pixel by pixel. The microstructure parameters can be manipulated by adjusting the duration of the ultrasonic wave frequency and the viscosity of the material used. According to the authors of the technique, it is potentially an excellent alternative to the 3D printing technique in many applications.

References:
https://www.eurasiareview.com/01062022-direct-sound-printing-is-a-potential-game-changer-in-3d-printing/

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20 June 2022
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Processor powered by algae

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Recently, scientists developed a processor powered by photosynthesis from algae. The creators of the small system are scientists from the University of Cambridge, and their processor has been working continuously for over a year. Their research gives hope for creating a stable, renewable power source for small devices.

The size of the entire system is comparable to the small AA batteries. It consists of algae, a small aluminum electrode and a microprocessor. Everything is made of cheap, widely available and mostly recyclable materials. The creators of the system say that it will be most useful in places where there is no access to energy networks, and where small amounts of energy are needed, like power sensors.

Our system does not have the problem of running out of energy because sunlight is used to produce it, he adds. During the experiment that is currently underway, algae are used to power the Arm Cortex M0 + processor. Powered by algae, the processor worked both indoors and outdoors. It was exposed to natural changes in light and temperature. We were impressed with the continuity of his work.

Algae do not need any special nutrition as they provide themselves and the processor with energy through photosynthesis. And although light is required to carry it out, the processor was powered even during periods of darkness. The algae were still carrying out metabolic processes.

The creators of the system point out that it would be impractical to power billions of the Internet of Things with currently used lithium-ion batteries. This would require more lithium than we currently produce. And traditional photovoltaic cells are manufactured with the use of environmentally hazardous materials. Hence the need to develop new, stable and environmentally friendly energy sources.

If you want to take a closer look at the solution, I recommend visiting the creators’ article: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2022/EE/D2EE00233G

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31 May 2022
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Should you care about your calendar’s privacy?

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People use calendar apps on daily bases to organize their time. In organizations, we utilize calendars like Google Calendar to setting up events, syncing with coworkers, etc. Privately, we use calendars to organize our private time and private events from meeting with friends to shopping at Biedronka. Did you ever wonder if events you put into your calendar and share with others’ calendars are really private?


According to the Forbes article, Google Calendar had a potential privacy issue in 2017: when you wanted to share your calendar with others with the use of a calendar link, the URL to your calendar was indexed in Google Search which meant that anyone could access data from your schedule. It was not only a problem for individuals that someone could access their private calendars but also for organizations – that privacy issue could be a reason for leaks of company’s confidential data like meetings, events, zoom links, files to documents, etc. Another privacy concern related to calendar apps is that through creating events and shared meetings we give data about our life events and people we meet to companies like Google which are considered not to be the best firm in terms of privacy. Also, rumors from the internet state that companies may be using calendar data for targetting.


More and more companies that offer encrypted solutions enter the market to address these problems. One of the largest players is ProtonMail which recently rebranded to Proton and offers encrypted email services, calendars, cloud drives, etc. According to Proton’s blog about calendar privacy: “A calendar is more than just a tool. It’s a record of the moments that make up your life.” which indicates that our calendars should be private by design, and no one should even try to take advantage on that. Proton’s CEO Andy Yen in an interview with Wired states that Proton’s ultimate policy is to provide users with useful tools with collecting as little data as possible. Data from ProtonMail and ProtonCalendar are fully encrypted and protected from data leaks, and data-exploiting by the cloud provider or government requesting information on users.


I believe that in the era of raising awareness and the importance of data privacy, companies like Proton have huge opportunities to stand out and even compete with tech giants like Google or Apple. The question is, whether users and companies are ready to abandon the big providers and their perfect solutions and switch to smaller data privacy-oriented entities?

References:

  1. https://www.wired.com/story/proton-mail-calendar-drive-vpn/#intcid=_wired-verso-hp-trending_349bf67d-2f68-4dae-be84-804acaa60d40_popular4-1
  2. https://www.forbes.com/sites/daveywinder/2019/09/17/exclusive-1-billion-google-calendar-users-are-one-click-away-from-privacy-disaster/
  3. https://www.newsbytesapp.com/news/science/protonmail-launches-new-encrypted-calendar/story
  4. https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/1/21045836/protonmail-launched-encrypted-protoncalendar-beta-2020
  5. https://proton.me/news/protoncalendar-beta-announcement
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27 May 2022
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Subsea Internet Cables Could Detect Earthquakes

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The UK’s National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and their partners say that the cables could be used as deep sea scientific sensors, helping to sense earthquakes, tsunamis, or see how climate change alters the currents.

Fibre-optic cable

This has already been tested by scientists through the use of a cable connecting the UK and Canada. This is being tested because installing sensors to monitor the ocean floor can be very costly and very difficult, and for that reason only very few of such sensors exist. Using subsea internet cables would be more cost effective.

Theres an estimated 430 of these cables, spanning over 800,000 miles, providing good coverage from country to country. Vibration, pressure, and temperature changes can slightly affect the speed that the light is travelling through these cables, which could be detected. As scientists could detect waves through the link from the UK to Canada, the same same could be done for the other cables around the world, providing a great coverage of underwater sensors. Theres also a potential, untested yet, possibility to sense the temperature change in the ocean due to climate change.

Overall, the ability to sense earthquakes, tsunamis, and other factors at such close range would be very beneficial, as it provides the possibility to have more time to prepare for such events, and with preparation damage and more importantly casualties could be limited.

Sources:

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-61506705

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abo1939

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