April » 2009 » Glenn Ward

Creating Video for Powerpoint and inserting video into Microsoft Powerpoint

This post should hopefully be useful for teachers, students and presenters.

Producing Video for PowerPoint
The two major considerations when producing video files for use in PowerPoint are which file format to export to and the dimensions of the final piece of video. File formats are continually changing and this section may need updating regularly but make these considerations. If you are presenting away from the office and need to carry with you your files on a memory stick then file size is an issue, whether you clips are 10 seconds long or 3 minutes long also has implications on file size and so to does the dimensions of the video, small 320 x 240 YouTube size videos are a lot smaller files than a video playing at 720 x 640. Of all the video formats supported by PowerPoint each have their positives and making the above considerations will enable you to choose the right one.

My current preferences: In the past, as a Mac user I favoured mpegs. The reason being they were a more generic format working across multiple platforms and operating systems. They seemed to be of a better quality than WMV exports and both seemed on par in comparison of file size. While Avi’s produced a better quality image the file size was dramatically larger and inappropriate for most purposes. I am currently exporting to WMV’s for my clients for two reasons. Since PowerPoint supports mpeg1 and mpeg2 formats I have recently addressed issues with these exports using Premiere Pro and receive an error during playback in Quicktime (Although they do seem to play on a PC) Also since I installed Flip4Mac Pro it allows me to fine tune my WMV exports and achieve very impressive quality video at exactly the file size and dimensions I require. Over time I have had less compatibility issues with with clients machines when I provide them with a WMV as apposed to an MPEG. I’m sure PowerPoint will soon support a wider range of file formats though, so watch this space.

Finally, Choosing the dimensions for your video is very important and can be decided upon by asking the following questions. What resolution and size is the display you are using? How would you like the video to sit on your slide?

If you are going to playback your presentation onscreen a small video might be hard to distinguish and so possibly a larger video would be better suited. If you were to display your presentation on an overhead projector you may still want to produce a large video but could also get away with a smaller video in this scenario.

Would you like the video to accompany other information on the slide or be the slides main attraction? I have produced a guide below to help you decide upon your dimensions.

Video dimensions on a Powerpoint slide

Note: I would recommend exporting your video at the desired size you would like the video to play in you presentation and NOT resizing it from within PowerPoint, this will cause pixelation of the image and reduce the quality of your image

Inserting the Video
Firstly place all your video files within the same folder that your PowerPoint presentation resides, unlike images PowerPoint does not embed the video in the project it merely creates a link to the video file (note that as you add the video, the .ppt does increase in memory, right click > properties to see the file size of your presentation) Create the slide that you would like to house your video then choose Insert > Movies and Sounds > Movie from File and browse to your video. You will be prompted to choose play automatically or when clicked, choose the option you are most comfortable with or best suits your presentation. Click and hold the video in order to place it correctly on the slide. Test the video is working by viewing the presentation.

An alternative method of displaying your video is to create a hyperlink from either a text or image object within your slide. This option launches your default media player and plays the video outside of your presentation. This offers greater playback functionality and is probably suited more towards a training exercise and less for a fluid corporate presentation. To insert a hyperlink, highlight your text or select your image. Again choose Insert > Hyperlink and then browse to your file.

Common Problems
Problem: Often you will receive a file and save it to a convenient location i.e. your video folder, you then insert it into your presentation. When you copy the presentation to your memory stick for the big show, your video no longer works.
Solution: Save all your presentation documents locally in a presentation folder, as the file is not physically in your presentation it will not play unless you have the video file on your memory device as well.

Problem: Your video will not play in your presentation and you view a white square onClick.
Solution: Reduce the length of you video filename and also the file path, generally over 128 characters causes this problem.

Problem: Lack of sound can be a problem in power point presentations
Solution: Be sure to use external speakers and test the sound before you present.

Problem: In Power point 2007 sound can often be quiet.
Solution: The 2007 version of power point now has a volume setting on the toolbar, this defaults to medium, set this to loud if your sound is reduced.

Windsurf videos and stuff from Moon Beach, Egypt, West Wittering, IOW etc

This is going to be a quick blog with two windsurf videos I put up on Youtube, one is of me and the guys windsurfing at Moon Beach in Egypt and the other is the one I made of the 2008 UKWA wave event down at West Wittering.

Here is the short 2XS write up for the event
The final round of the UKWA Wave series was hosted by West Wittering Windsurf Club and Glenn Ward was there to cover the action. This 3 day event attracted windsurfers from all over the UK . Due to the light winds things got off to a slow start, on Sunday the wind picked up and provided a platform for a high level of windsurfing. Conditions were tough for filming but we managed to put together a 5 minute presentation of the event. View the coverage below.

Thanks to 2xs, X-train, Ezzy, RRD and Dakine, Boardseeker, Boards and Windsurf…

Mobile Phones and Mobile Phone Contracts

I am often asked at the moment about whichare the best mobile phones to buy. most importantly though, which contract to get, as I don’t know whether you have noticed you have slipped into an 18 month or even 24 month contract. The reason being is that the cost of the technology going into phones these days far exceeds that which can be subsidized on a 12 month contract. Without a doubt if you can afford to buy your phone outright you are making a saving over the contract term. This means you can reduce your initial contract and line rental. O2′s Simplicity contracts are perfect! If you do not wish to upgrade your phone they offer a roling 1 month contract as low as a tenner a month, you are still entitled to your free texts (or should I say tex’s) and free minutes but at a fraction of the price. These contracts offer the flexibility of Pay as you go and the perks of a contract without signing your money away. On top of this remember to shop around, suppliers will price match and offer more than the last for your money, whichever suits you. Also sometimes merely updating your contract online entitles you to double the amount of texts and minutes.

OK, now for phones. I have always been very brand loyal. Firstly, from 1998 I was a big fan of the panasonics and at some point had most of the GD range, then as they died out I swore by Sony Ericsson, Z600 first then most of the K range. As I needed more functionality I switched to O2 XDA II and then the O2 XDA Ignito and now I have an iPhone. I resisted the iPhone for a long time giving myself the reasoning that the camera was poor, there was no polyphonic ringtones and the hard drive was far off that of my ipods capacity. While the XDA’s served the phone, sat nav and PDA functions with the addition of expanding its capabilities by installing software. I finally gave up to the iPhone when my XDA started playing up and I got annoyed after I ebayed my ipod and had no tunes. You will probably know what I am about to say but I’ll say it anyway. From someone who keeps up to date with mobile technology, aspiring to role all my mobile devices into one and from someone who also gets to see future concept phones as part of my job. I believe the iPhone is untouchable at the moment. Thank you to the blackberry for introducing free emailing from your mobile and thank you to O2 for the introduction of free internet. For a simple device that needs no instructions (it just works how you think it should work) the internet and open sourcing of code allowing for the creation of millions of apps to expand and personalise your phone makes this phone complete. The hardware is standard, camera, gps, bluetooth, wireless etc but its how you use the hardware with the apps that is genius… to be honest! I can’t think of much hardware improvements you could want, possibly a higher pixel camera, possibly a larger hard drive but its enough! I don’t use my phone for professional photography and I have spells of listening to certain albums so I haven’t filled the HD anyway.

Just so you are aware as my brother has just asked a few questions before changing his companies phones to iPhones, you can put your regular sim card in the iPhone, this is what I did! it just meant that the internet wasn’t free and was charged the same as any other phone. The web bolt on is reasonable though and well worth it.

Feel free to add your 2 penneth to this one in the blog comments.

Introduction to Apple Mac OSX

Finding Files and Programs
OSX does not have the regular start menu you see in Windows. We navigate the file system and programs using the Finder. Finder is the equivalent of Windows Explorer, by double clicking on the Macintosh HD on the top right corner of the desktop you open a finder window. Here you will find all files and folders including all programs. By clicking on the apple in the top left corner you will see your recent documents and files. Programs are opened using the Dock across the bottom of the screen or in the application (Finder) folder.

Using the Dock
6-dock To quickly launch your programs the Dock can be set up to include “shortcuts” or using Mac’s naming convention “aliases”. It is possible to drag and drop your applications from the application folder to the dock in order to create these aliases. 6-dock-remove

To remove an item from the Dock, merely drag and drop it away.

The Trashcan
The trashcan is located on the right hand side of the Dock and can be used in much the same way as the Recycle Bin in Windows. To empty either right click the can or follow Finder > Empty Trash eject1

Eject using the Trashcan
The Trashcan is also used to eject CDs, DVDs and External Drive by dragging and dropping to the trashcan location. You can also use the eject key on the keyboard. Please see the keyboard navigation later in this document.

Closing windows and closing applications
Close (Red) – Closing the window only closes the window and not the program. The program will still be running in the background. Programs that are running are shown with a highlighted with dot under the application icon on the dock.

Minimise (Amber) – Minimised programs programmes are held in the dock. To maximise the window click on the icon in the dock.

Maximise (Green) – The maximise button will maximise the window based on the space available on your screen.

To close a program completely click File > Quit.

Expose
It is really easy to switch between programs and windows on an apple mac. The expose key (F3)

expose-key

Alt + Tab in windows = Apple + Tab on a Mac
As you may tab between programs on your PC you can also do this on a Mac to speed up your workflow. Apple + Tab has the exact same effect as Alt + Tab.

The Apple Key serves a similar function as the Windows control key

The Apple Mouse
Mighty Mouse Right Click (lack of physical right click button)
Although you can’t see a right click button on the Mighty Mouse the function does exist. By clicking the area of the mouse where you would usually right click you will discover the drop down menu. Also ctrl + click has the same desired effect.

Scroller Ball
The Mighty Mouse also has a scrollball unlike the PC version that provides the capability to not only scroll pages but also scroll left and right particularly useful for scrolling timelines.

The Apple Keyboard

apple_keyboard
Sound inputs and settings
The sound settings control sound for most Mac programmes.

Apple > System Preferences > Sound

However, Premiere Pro has its sound control settings.

Premiere Pro > Preferences > Audio

While editing you may need to switch between your sound outputs.
There is a headphone socket on the front and back of the computer and one microphone socket on the back. Note if you are using the external speaker and you plug in the headphones the sound output will automatically switch to headphones. If you intend to use the external speakers you will need to change the sound settings in system preferences and if you are using Premiere Pro change the Audio setting as shown above.

Input Devices
Most USB and Firewire devices will run automatically when plugged into the Mac. There are ports on the front and back of the unit.

The different ports you may come across are as follows

On / Off Button

Headphones

USB
USB

Firewire 400

Firewire 800

mac-pro-connections-back

USB

Firewire 400 – Firewire 800

Optical

Line in – Headphones

Ethernet

The Firewire connection is the most frequently used for video and camera connections. An explanation of the different types follows.

Firewire 400 (6 pin)
In relation to filming the firewire 400 lead is the most popular way of connecting the camera to the computer. Usually this cable will have a 6 pin male (connects to the computer) and 4 pin male (connects to the camera. This cable also allows for device control which allows you to control the camera using buttons or programs on your desktop rather than the device.

Firewire 800
Firewire 800 is an even faster connection and often used for hard drives and is capable of very fast data transfer speed.

Firewire 400 (4 pin)

The camera end of the firewire 400 lead. Although most cameras have USB connections the firewire lead allows for faster data transfers capable of real time playback on the computer as you view and capture footage.

Apple Mac Keyboard (66) Apple Mac Mouse (53)

Around the world in 80 Raves – Chapter One – The proposal

More 80 Raves
“Around the world in 80 Raves” Chapter One – The proposal
“Around the world in 80 Raves” Chapter Two – Ready for the off!
“Around the world in 80 Raves” Chapter Three – Miami
“Around the world in 80 Raves” Chapter Four – Daytona Beach
“Around the world in 80 Raves” Chapter Five – Myrtle Beach

Before you read on, here is a Youtube promo produced by Mike Christie. Watch this to get a vague idea about what I am writing about.

Like most, I’d always said, “when I’m older I fancy being famous” but I never really believed it would even come close to ever happening. As I grow up, I realised that life has many traps. You gladly leave college with some qualifications behind you truly believe that the world is your oyster but slowly you get drawn into the system. I was determined not to have a conventional job and get stuck in the city I was born, so after saving for a few months after A-levels, I decided to train to become a watersports instructor, a profession I’d often thought about many times after going on school trips as a child. That would be my ticket to see the world and get an experience of life. I must say it was a good decision; I probably had the best time of my life, living away from home, doing what I’m into. And making some of the best mates I’ll ever have. It was like being at school again only no rubbish lessons and not as many girls, but women, which made things more interesting. oh and out on the piss every night. Plus, here’s the biggy! spending six weeks living in Barbados, windsurfing everyday and again, plenty of the other at night.

I was living, seeing the world and loving it. But as they say, all good things come to an end. After six months of living it fairly easy, I found myself back in Leicester and back to the job I had left at the beginning of that year. At this point I think I had a chance to stop and think… I had done what I’d set out to do, the qualifications I now had could get me a job pretty much anywhere in the world. But wait there, I now have a three and a half grand career development loan, two thousand pound credit card bills and I owed my Nanna one thousand eight hundred cos I was going to sell my motorbike to pay for my course fee’s but good old Nan knew how much I loved it and offered me the money as long as I paid her back when I did finally sell it. But I digress, the point is I now can’t go anywhere in the world cos I’ve got too many bills to pay. Realising that my cunning plan to avoid getting tied down had gone tits up, I went back to stacking shelves, the job that when I was doing it part time after college I didn’t mind cos it was paying for me to go out and that was pretty much all I cared about at the time. Only now I am doing it because I have to, because I need to, to pay back what I’d borrowed, a different concept all together. I couldn’t grumble though at this point, I still had my bike, some spendo and had just had the best six months of my life, or had I?

Before I lose everyone’s total interest, that’s the only moaning I’m going to do (the bills) and I’ve got it out of my system now. It’s only relevant cos it made me think about life. I wasn’t going to fall into that trap again. But now things must come for free. I know I have always been the fluky bastard that gets out of most situations, but that was at school or college, you know the type of thing, getting out of detentions, reading GCSE notes the night before the exam but still managing to pass, being threatened to be thrown out of the sixth form but painting a lovely mural on the common room wall so the head of sixth form praises me for a few weeks. This though was on a bigger scale though I was in the big wide world and people are a little harder to manipulate than your peers and teachers.

So this is what I came up with. In between having fun at the supermarket, I was obviously watching a lot of TV, as you do during the winter and outdoor activity doesn’t look inviting. I started to make a few mental notes of all the things I liked on TV. Stuff that other’s my age would be interested in to. Then I incorporated the fact that I want nothing more than to travel, and become worldly wise. It began to take shape on its own, I was coming up with a travel show / documentary with a bit of docu-soap, though this was before Big Brother. I was getting my inspiration from shipwrecked. It was all easier than I thought, inventing a revolutionary TV show that was basically what I wanted to do, using tele as a means of doing it. Who then would honestly listen to a nineteen-year-old watersports instructor that thinks he’s got a good idea. I went down to my life long friend’s house to offer my scam. Usually we come up with idea’s laugh about them then never pay them a second thought, but surprisingly this idea began putting further thoughts into Joel and his girlfriend Rebecca’s head. We spent the next two weeks putting together a proposal, knowing nothing about whether there was a proper way of doing it or if there were certain people we should contact. But our content and writing style kicked ass. But sod it, it was passing the time and giving us something to do. Still not sure whether it was worth our while sending it to anyone, Rebecca went on the net found five addresses and sent it. Last we would hear of it we thought.

Intoduction to Search Engine Optimisation – SEO Learn at lunch

Search engine optimisation is now far more than putting some keywords into a page and mimicking them in your meta data. Search engines have brains and combine a whole heap of site tests in order to assess where your site should appear on the search results.

Most importantly, it is vital that the content in your page is correct and reflects the pages purpose, this is not just in the text but also, the images should be named accordingly to reinforce the content and ALT Tags used to aid the visually impaired user. A good example of this would be a product on an ecommerce site. The product has a brand, possibly a model and what it is. This text will no doubt be on the page but the search engines will check the pages images to see if it matches the content and so imagery should be named accordingly.

In this example the image should be named Dakine_101_Rucksack.jpg the underscores allow the search engine to see the text as separate words and therefore understands exactly what it is. The ALT Tag should read Daking 101 rucksack.

Approach – Assessing the site

A good place to start is to access the site. I use Domain Tools to get an initial overview of how the pages are scoring and the Alexa page rank gives you an idea of your website overall placement out of all the websites in the world (more detail on the Alexa site) I then move onto the SEO Browser located on the right hand side of the whois lookup on domain tools.

By clicking on here you will get to see how a search engine views the site and what the true content looks like. In the top right hand corner you will see a percentage score for the site. By clicking on the I button on the top left of the browser you will see a break down of the score and what needs improving in order to achieve 100%

The SEO Optimisation notes on this page are broken down into the following categories; Meta, General, Keywords, Composition, Links, Images and Terms. All are very important and getting everything right will result a massive shift in search engine placement.

Note: Achieving 100% on this assessment is all well and good and is quite easy to do but the score must reflect your initial copy, content or purpose for the website. Getting this wrong will not attract your target audience and even run the risk of being seen as a spam site.

As touched upon earlier search engines are also very conscious of accessibility for disabled visitors. The Images category in the SEO Browser reflects some possible issues such as alt tags (alternative text) missing and also images not having height and width attributes assigned within the html.

At this point I would move to the W3C (Web Standards) website and use there tools to check the page for accessibility and also for correct use of html. The Markup Validation Service will identify missing code (often accessibility issues) and also errors in the code. Again two identical sites one with errors and one without would affect the websites position on the search engine.

Using Google as a benchmark is always good as search usage figures of their competitors does not even come close to that of Google, as you can see using analytical software on any website. To begin with, installing Google toolbar to your web browser will allow you to see the Google page rank of every page you visit marked out of 10. This is not only useful in accessing your own page but also that of your competitors.

For far more detail on page ranks and how they are achieved you can also use the webmaster tools in your Google account. The webmaster tools are generated when your Google sitemap is submitted and pages are indexed on the Google database. This service provides various assessments broken down into the following categories, Overview, Settings, Diagnostics, Statistics, Links, Sitemaps and Tools.

This sitemap should not be confused with a sitemap page within a website. These pages are designed to ensure there are link trails throughout your site and do help the spiders navigate your entire site but are not used to index your site on a search engine.

Sitemaps in another session!!

Note: Similar sitemap submissions are necessary for other major search engines including yahoo and msn.

So… knowing what we now know and lets say we have applied all our changes to improve naming conventions, errors, accessibility etc, how do we climb the search engines?

I like to work backwards and reinforce what we have already achieved. At this point it’s good to know and assess where your existing traffic is coming from. This can be easily identified with Google analytics or AWStats. and allows you to identify the terms that users are searching for and arriving at the site. With this information, greater density of keywords and terms can be added further in the copy and stressed back through the meta data page title etc as identified with our earlier tools. Also it is useful to quickly identify keyword and term frequency, a useful site for this is LinkVendor words appearing a number of times within a page are not always used in the Meta keywords, description and title and as a search engine does not understand subject matter these words should be considered. Finally, and this is one of my favourites SEMRush formally known as seodigger. Pop your domain name in here and it will reveal loads of search terms, where you appear on Google for each term and the traffic they generate. SEMRush are now providing the same for adwords keyword terms.

It is also good practise to look at your Google Adwords and your Google organic traffic as a cost saving exercise for your Adwords account and also to identify terms to work into your natural traffic sources but that’s a whole other project.

Final Thought – All this is useless if you make a number of changes at the same time as you will not know which has worsened or improved your placement also unless you monitor your progress you have no means of knowing if it is working.

Useful Tools

Also available from my head.

Sitemaps, PPC Campaigns, Analytics, quality linking, usability,

Canni X – Cross Country with your dog

The final never ending hill

During this winter break I went home for christmas. My brothers were taking part in the Cannock Chase Canni X event in Staffordshire (results). Unfortunatly my older brother, Adrian had a rugby injury and I took his place. I was not running fit, as the commute to London from Chichester over the last 4 months had meant I could not train as much, but I still felt I was fit enough to compete. We travelled down there early on the 28th of december.

Despite coming last in the male catagory with a shocking time of 31:24.16, I have to say it was a great event and I am definately signing up for some more events. Starting with a half marathon in May entitled the Neolithic CaniX, I have begun training which is going well with 4 mile runs to the gym, a casual 30 lengths then the 4 mile run back.

I am tracking my progress using imapmyrun on my iphone which uploads to my mapmyrun account and inturn notifys Twitter, facebook and this blog, so not only can you see how things are going, I will also hope to record the run on the day.

I am running on behalf of InnerWolf Ltd for dogs and dog owners with a love for the great outdoors, so check out their website.

My experience of Social Media and how I predict the linking of online spaces and applications.

My first experience of online Social Media was Myspace. After being introduced to the promotional power of the platform through a friend in the music industry I thought I’d give it a go. Although I think if I am honest the the largest breakthrough for me in keeping in touch with my friends had to be in 1998 when I got my first mobile phone and discovered text messaging (this will become apparent later), I later discovered Facebook and used this for my personal social networking mainly because it excelled in the uploading and tagging of pictures which far exceeded the capabilities of Myspace. I had no need for flicker or other image banks because as far as I was concerned Facebook did it all and I soon reduced my usage of Myspace. I was aware of twitter and until recently didn’t see a purpose for a platform that merely mimicked the Facebook status field, although I was fascinated that it could be updated from a mobile phone whilst going about your everyday business.

It all became clear when I recently upgraded to an iPhone. I already used a PDA phone that integrated well with my PC applications but was always keen to take this further, the iPhone allowed me to do this. The free internet access made a huge difference but it was as I installed apps I realised the true power.

My prediction: Quite obviously we see trends in social media and if you read the magazines they will say this one is in and that one is out, which I believe is true to some extent. My prediction is linking, not just that of your online spaces but also the linking of your devices (which is why I mentioned the forgotten mobile phone earlier) and now apps that offer massive extensions to your device. Here is an early example; I use mapmyrun to work out how far I run, which in itself has become a social network site with profile and the ability to share runs and view others, but none of my friends are on Mapmyrun!! So I installed iMapmyrun on my iPhone which automatically maps my training using the inbuilt GPS then sends my data to the site when I complete my run, upon receiving the data the website then updates my tweet on twitter and adds it to a box on Facebook, Genius! And all I needed to do was hit save, a perfect example of the linking of web 2.0 and mobile applications.

So I have Facebook, I have myspace, twitter, mapmyrun etc, but I do not have the time to maintain them all. As an experiment I have taken this one stage further. I have set up my first blog to provide the link in the chain (in fact I think this will be my first post). In theory my twitter which I can operate from my phone now updates my Facebook status and is included in a mini feed both on my Facebook page and my blog, this is also fed by the app iMapmyrun which also populates a space on my Facebook. Facebook will also offer a direct link to my Myspace profile and each blog entry now offers the option to post to Facebook and the users can post each blog post to their own profiles using “share this”, now one update from my phone will spread across my own network. I also have plans for my Youtube and Ebay accounts! But I am aware of how much I have written! This will all be monitored with Google analytics installed on the blog and sitemaps regularly submitted to all major search engines.

A little bit round the houses but here is how I think this has implications on research. I recently researched QR codes, one of the largest mobile phone functions in Japan that despite been taken onboard by some large UK companies still doesn’t seem to have caught on. As I discussed with a colleague this in itself has research implications although I think it carries a greater message. It offers a choice to the user that they do not receive when they are stopped in the street, answer a call or a knock on the door. In an age where most now fear identity theft and not all are embracing shifts in technology, I believe it to be beneficial that the user now believe it was their decision to be forthcoming with information and this is where apps, applications and social network style platforms can play a role.

My final thought and an example of how this has been achieved is Pruhealth. I found out through the Martin Money Saving Expert website forum that I could achieve free gym membership if I signed up for Pruhealth medical insurance and became a frequent user. They have designed a point scoring system whereby the more points you score the cheaper your gym membership. The clever trick is that my Pruhealth account links (reoccurring theme) to my nectar card and Pruhealth know when I buy fruit and veg (I’m sure they know when I buy chocolate bars and pork scratchings too, but I don’t get points for that). Pruhealth also follow my ebay account and know when I buy sporting goods, again I’m sure they are not just watching my healthy purchases. Most importantly and in my case, every time I swipe my card at Nuffield Health Centre formally Cannons gym and for others it might be Virgin Active or LA Fitness they know about it. This has allowed for me to achieve £4 a month health insurance and free gym membership, but most importantly this is achieved because Pruhealth are safe in the knowledge that I am a low risk customer.

Creating Video for Powerpoint and inserting video into Microsoft Powerpoint

Windsurf videos and stuff from Moon Beach, Egypt, West Wittering, IOW etc

Mobile Phones and Mobile Phone Contracts

Introduction to Apple Mac OSX

Around the world in 80 Raves – Chapter One – The proposal

Canni X – Cross Country with your dog

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