Music - Beginners Guide to Starting a Band

Let's cut to the chase: You've just started a band, or at least... just started taking it more seriously. This is why you're here right? Scouring the internet for tips and ideas that can take your music career up a few notches (and no I'm not just talking about turning it up to eleven). Don't worry, even I cringed at that one.

Dodgy references aside, I'm going to talk about two of the first major goals to aim for when breaking into the music scene and what you can do today for a kick start in the right direction.

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Number one on everyone's list is money right? Now you can sit there and tell yourself (in a pompous accent of course) "Oh I couldn't possibly be doing this for the money... I'm in it for the music" Well that's where the conflict sets in. Psychologically speaking, you may be fueled by the love of the music or whatever, but in this article we are talking about actions to take things more seriously... we are talking about pushing a music "career" after all. Broadly speaking here, a career in music consists of working for your money, but here's where Confucius really helped us out at least a squillion years ago: "Find a job you love and you'll never work a day in your life." So with that in mind, trying to make a living from music, suddenly seems a more morally positive concept to accept. Throw that one in the mix next time you have an independent thought and someone accuses you of just 'day dreaming' or 'mortgaging your future':)

Next on the list is popularity? Of course, that's a no-brainer. You can't really play to an audience consisting of your parents and best friends for the rest of your career. Popularity and money go hand in hand, it's one of those metaphorical 'holy grails' chased everyday in the modern music industry. Assuming you've become popular for all the right reasons, your fans will afford you the money, success and lifestyle you've always dreamed of (yeah right). The question is, how do you become popular? There is no real formula for popularity as so many factors can affect the outcome: music niche, target audience, what do you sound like and of course what do you look like?

In the information age, social media representation plays a big part in your perceived image. Just go take a minute to look at all the bigger boys that inspire you. Have a look at their MySpace or Facebook pages. Yes, of course they have the music available to listen to, but you won't find anything visually unappealing or placed there by accident. Everything you see has been carefully considered and designed to evoke an emotional association. This means that successful branding of your music is a matter of creating an image that is Positive, Relevant, and Memorable. I'm a sucker for creative design and polished production, I can honestly say that I regret being this superficial sometimes... countless money wasted on seeing movies because "the poster looked awesome". Unfortunately this 'book by its cover' attitude influences most of our life decisions on a day to day basis. Start taking advantage of these human predictabilities and you could be competing with the bigger boys in no time. Yeah they've got the all money, but before you say it yourself... most of these things can be achieved at very little cost to begin with.

Study and understand your target audience. Your fans are the most important and readily accessible commodity available to you. Listen and converse to your fans using Social Media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. Believe it or not, people do care about the pasta salad you had for lunch... even to the point of caring how it came out at the other end, so don't discount the massive potential Social Media channels have to offer.

Begin by plastering Social Media details online to ensure fans have easy access to your profile links when searching your band name. Usually Google picks up MySpace accounts before websites, so make sure to maintain top page links with current and correct details. It's a no brainer, but maybe including these details on gig flyers and business cards (depending on how you choose to market yourselves).

Music - Beginners Guide to Starting a Band

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Emini Trading Courses

Trading eminis can be a very profitable occupation, but it takes a hard work and a lot of determination to become a consistently profitable trader. Not to mention that you also need a strategy that would guarantee a positive edge over a longer period of time. It is not easy to combine all these elements into one robust package and so no wonder that many wanna-be traders fail at this endeavor rather miserably.

When this happens, they invariably turn to more accomplished traders, or at least those who act like that, for help. Little do they know that this may turn into perhaps the biggest mistake they can make for it very often sets them on the path of seeking the holiest of holy grails, a trading method that never fails. And while the method like that simply does not exist, it is not impossible to come across those who offer it for sale. 

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There is only one way you can become a profitable trader, your own unique way. I wish more books and trading courses emphasized this aspect of trader development, but, alas, that is not the case. There is, however, one book, that does so splendidly and even though it does not address trading eminis directly, I recommend it wholeheartedly. This book can be obtained online in its digital form. It is called "Bird Watching in Lion Country." Before you ever start trading eminis or any other financial instrument, I strongly recommend that you equip yourself with the wisdom this ebook delivers.

There are many emini trading courses out there, most of which can be not only purchased online but even downloaded right after the transaction is completed. Some of them cost thousands of dollars, others retail in the hundreds of greenbacks, but there is also a niche of ebook emini trading courses that can be purchased for less than 0.

Before you ever purchase one of those overpriced, and more often than not, worthless courses, I suggest that you start with those priced below 0. They are about as good as the more expensive ones. I also suggest that you stick to ebooks that come with a money back guarantee of some sort with conditions that are clearly spelled out. Your best choice in this respect are ebooks offered by Clickbank vendors as they are supposed to adhere to an 8 week (or 56 day) money back guarantee. And while it is certainly true that most of them do so, some may bend the rules more or less in their favor. Keep in mind, though, that these practices are not always recognized as legitimate by Clickbank. Sometimes this guarantee is totally unconditional, which means that if you are not happy with the product for any reason you can get your money back, but you are also entitled to it if you believe that the sales page was misleading in some way.

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The Translator Google Made

It's a widely publicized anecdote about the algorithm translator Google had licensed at one time; and it was popularized in the New York Times. According to the story, one of Google's founders tried translating something to the effect of "Google is a favorite search engine" through the algorithm. What he got out of that was, "Google green onion thing". That incensed the Google genius so much, he unleashed the company's research department on the job. Today, not only is the translator Google has come up with much better, it does dozens of languages across the world and handles a hundred million of translation requests every single day.

Traditionally, translation software that's anywhere near as successful as Google's has to be dedicated to one subject area. General-purpose translation software usually ends up saying something like "a green onion thing". As great a piece of success as this has been for Google, the company has shown how it is capable of making mistakes in the past - consider its failed social networks Buzz and Orkut, its collaboration engine Wave, and its book scanning project that's been impossibly tangled up in court. When Google succeeds though (the Google Phone initiative appears to be wildly successful right now), it can take over the world.

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People wonder how it is that Google succeeded so well in translation when it apparently failed at lots of other things. There's a little secret to that - the translator Google made is so successful because it directly benefits from having access to Google's mega powerful computing centers - the ones it calls its search engine farms. Whenever Google finds a way to exploit its overwhelming computing power, it wins.

The thing is, Google has done this at a time no one else has been really taking the market for translation as all that important. Translation has forever been one of the Holy Grails of artificial intelligence. The approach that scientists have always taken with machine translation has been to teach the computer the rules of the languages involved, and then fed in dictionaries. But for about 20 years now, scientists have found that computers that have access to millions of pieces of human translation are able to grasp things that the plain algorithms before never did. And guess who has millions of snippets of human-generated translation? Google, that's who.

Right now what the translator Google has created is capable of doing is it can take a message and give you a general idea of what it is about. It's not going to really create a finely nuanced translation that a human translator with begin to feel insecure about. What it does is, it gets the job done. If you're wondering where it gets all the human generated translation snippets in the millions from, Google does have access to the transcripts of everything the United Nations does, translated into dozens of languages. And it has everything that goes on in the European Parliament.

It is something that no one but Google could have done, given the amount of computing horsepower needed. And it's really opened the Internet up to new audiences. And that's always a good thing for Google's bottom line.

The Translator Google Made

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Why Choose Groovy and Grails for Web Application Development?

Grails is a Rapid Application Development web framework inspired from Ruby on Rails. Grails runs on Java's Virtual Machine (JVM) and relies on Groovy - a JVM compatible language. Grails is one of the fastest growing RAD (Rapid Application Development) web frameworks.

Grails provides a no ceremony, Convention over Configuration framework that increases the developer's productivity by multiple times.

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In a traditional Java project, one spends weeks writing the initial code to set up the infrastructure but that can be done in a matter of couple of hours with Groovy and Grails. The Speed and Productivity that it gives you is incredible. Development with Grails is not like traditional Java development. Some of the advantages that are associated with Grails are scaffolding, auto reloading of classes (change code, click refresh in browser to see the change), unparalleled testing support, and GORM - greatest of all database abstraction layers.

Grails has provided a solid solution to Java community who can now develop applications with the speed of Rails and at the same time capitalize on the robustness of Java.

Grails follows a DRY (Do Not Repeat Yourself) principle which enables an accommodation of requirements changes with a breeze. Extensive plugins (there are around 500 plugins), vibrant Grails community & extensive online documentation is a big plus and helps developers not to get stuck on any issue for more than a few hours. Its intuitiveness helps speed up the productivity of team members new to Grails framework.

Grails is now being used by companies such as LinkedIn, Pepsi, Wired.com, Sky.com, Aegeon etc.

There is no denying the fact that current adoption of Grails is nowhere near to Rails or Django, leading RAD web frameworks but at the same time, growth of Grails is astonishing.

Grails is now in the making of a main stream technology & RoR of Java world. G2One, the company behind Groovy and Grails was acquired by SpringSource in Nov 2008 and SpringSource was later acquired by VMware which speaks volumes about the growth and importance of Groovy and Grails.

Why Choose Groovy and Grails for Web Application Development?

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Forex Trading Tool - Trendlines and Pivot Points Strategy That Makes Winning Trades For Beginners

Are you new to Forex trading? The best way to success is to follow those who are already making lots of money. Forex trading tools of the wealthy traders are something you need.

There are no Holy Grails or Silver Bullets in trading. However, there are methods that do constantly make more profitable trades than not. If you've read any of my publications, you'll know that I'm not a huge fan of manual trading. With that said, there are a few methods that some successful traders use. One of these tools are called trendlines.

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This tool alone will not work. They need to be used with other indicators. When a group of signs come together, you can visually see that it's time to make a trade or to exit a trade.

The Trendline Pivot Point Method

Before we begin, you need to have a basic understanding of how trendlines are drawn. Here's a brief overview.

When a currency pair trends up or down, it makes peaks and valleys. It never goes in a completely straight line. These peaks and valleys made by price fluctuations are where you draw your trendlines. When the trend is down, you draw your trendline on the peaks and on the valleys if it's trending up.

This method requires you to draw trendlines on two different charts for one currency pair. One will be drawn on the 15 minute and one on the 1 hour chart.

15 Minute Chart
Look to see if there is a currency pair that has a clear trend either up or down. If you find one that is trending down, find the last two peaks in prices. Make a trendline using these two points. If it's trending up, use the last two valley low points.

60 Minute Chart
Now you need to do the same on the 60 minute chart as you just did on the 15 minute chart. Drawing trendlines on the recent lows or the recent highs depending on which way the currency pair is trending.

Pivot Points
Now, draw pivot points on the 15 minute charts. This is where you will be pinpointing your trade entry.

Trade Entry
Let's say that the EUR/USD was trending down. You see price break through the trendline on the 1 hour chart. Now you watch the 15 minute chart. Price punches up and through the trendline. It then goes through a pivot point that is no more than 5 Pips away from the trendline break. Now you enter a trade to buy. If price was trending up, it's very similar. You wait until the trendlines on the 60 minute and 15 minute charts are broken and price also punches through a pivot point.

The most important part is to determine the trends. Don't try to force it. For this strategy to work, you need to have some nice, easy to see trends on both charts.

These trades don't happen all the time. You may find only a few a week. But when you do, you can capture 20 Pips. The way to maximize your profit is to add more lots. I would also use trailing stop loss orders on half of the lots in case you catch a nice long price movement.

As with any Forex trading tool, you must be very patient and very cautious. Don't ever try to force a trade to happen. Either the setup is there or it's not. Looks for obvious trade setups and never deviate from this.

These simple trendlines and pivot points together with trading the trend can make you some nice profits. These Forex trading tools may make the difference between success and failure as a trader.

Forex Trading Tool - Trendlines and Pivot Points Strategy That Makes Winning Trades For Beginners

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Traditional and Web Application Testing

There are several components of traditional application testing that can be used in the web testing process because of best practices along with the probability that traditional systems may be supporting the web system in the background. Some of the components of traditional testing that can be used in Web testing include checking its function and performance in regards to accessibility and reliability.

In testing of Web systems, one has to check functionality using all browser variants to ensure consistency in its display and navigation across the various platforms. Due to the nature of Web systems, there is also the issue of network infrastructure capacity and compatibility which would have an impact on both functionality and performance.

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As an example, if the Web system includes audio or video feeds, then there will be a requirement for quality of service (QOS) functionality within the network infrastructure equipment and the ability to appropriately burst bandwidth allowances when required due to traffic loads. Without QOS functionality in these areas, the Web system may not function as designed from the end user perspective, because the multimedia stream is subjected to jitter, latency, or both. In traditional systems these concerns were limited to the constraints of the CPU, memory and other internal hardware components. Although this example walks a fine line between functionality and performance, sometimes the difference between them is only a matter of perspective.

One type of testing that if overlooked that could have a detrimental effect on functionality and performance is security testing. Although security testing is occasionally performed, depending on the particular design, in a traditional systems environment, it should be mandatory for Web systems due to the effects on confidentiality, integrity, and availability of these customer facing and back-end systems. An attacker could find a way to take control of the administration, performance, and functionality of a Web system. One small example would be having a website defaced...it would be a public embarrassment to any business and even more troubling if it causes a loss of income due to customer loss of confidence in the organization.

The complexity and criticality of Web systems absolutely requires due diligence in the exercise of its testing and that has been the inspiration to adapt traditional testing techniques and go several steps further.

Traditional and Web Application Testing

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The Hidden Location of the Holy Grail Revealed

Where is the Holy Grail Hidden? This is one of the biggest mysteries of history. A lot of people searched it for hundreds of years.

My research is started when I read a BBC news at November 2004 about The Shugborough Code and its The Holy Grail connection. The Shugborough Code was a real Da Vinci Code. Chief among these are the beliefs that the connections between The Holy Grail and secret societies (Priory of Sion , Knights Templar , Illuminati etc).

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The Shugborough Code has been said to indicate the location of The Holy Grail because of the connections of The Anson Family, with the grand masters of the closed society of Knights Templar.

As additional , Nicolas Poussin (The Shepherd Monument's relief is based on his famous painting "ET IN ARCADIA EGO") was believed to be a Grand Master of the Knights Templar, an order which captured Jerusalem during the Crusades and were known as the keepers of The Holy Grail. I have spent about two years studying letters etched on The Shepherd's Monument in England.

At last, I decoded this mysterious inscription and I found the exact location of The Holy Grail.

News Released about Shugborough Inscription :

BBC - May 11, 2004 - New puzzle for war code breakers

The Guardian - May 12, 2004 - Bletchley veterans tackle 'toughest puzzle yet'

BBC - May 19, 2004 - Vandals attack historic monument

BBC - November 26, 2004 - Code points away from Holy Grail

BBC - November 26, 2004 - The never-ending search

The Scotsman - November 26, 2004 - Code cracked as hunt for Grail goes on

Sydney Morning Herald - November 26, 2004 - Mysterious code finally cracked

The Guardian - November 26 , 2004 - Has the mystery of the Holy Grail been solved?

IC Birmingham - March 16 , 2006 - Da Vinci link may soon be revealed

BBC - March 17, 2006 - Holy Grail 'lies at stately home'

BBC - March 22, 2006 - Da Vinci Code at Shugborough Hall!

The Hidden Location of the Holy Grail Revealed

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Comic Collecting is a Family Affair

Putting together one of the best comic collections in America has always been a family affair for Gary Keller.

It began with visits to his grandparents' home when he was a boy in the 1960s. "They lived near Larry's Comic Book Store, which was on Devon Avenue in Chicago," Keller says. "I spent a lot of time there and that's what kind of got me going as a kid, just spending time in an old, damp, dusty, musty comic book shop and loving every second of it."

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It helped that Keller's father liked comics as well, and often joined him on trips to the comic store. "My father was absolutely a comic collector," Keller says.

Nearly five decades later, Keller's collection is one of the best in the hobby. "From doing business with Gary over the years, we know he has an eye for quality," says Ed Jaster, vice president at Dallas-based Heritage Auctions (HA.com), which specializes in comic-book auctions. "But the other secret to his collecting success is support from the folks back home."

Growing up, Keller bought comics wherever he could find them. He picked them up at drugstores, but also sent away for the famous back-issue lists of vintage comic pioneers Robert Bell and Howard Rogofsky. In a stroke of collecting luck, the last book Keller bought off the stands before "discovering girls and other things" was 1974's Incredible Hulk No. 181, a favorite among collectors for its first full appearance of the popular Wolverine.

Keller returned to collecting in the late 1980s and by the late 1990s, success in business allowed him to take his comic interest to the next level. He expanded his focus to Golden Age comics and began snatching up Mile High pedigrees. "Since 1999, I have 'collected hard,' " Keller explains. "I bought books that were previously holy grails and unattainable. You get your hands on one of those Ernst Gerber Photo-Journals and tell yourself it would be cool to have this and this and this."

Now married with four daughters, Keller's support on the home front remains strong.

"My wife in particular is very understanding," he says. "Most wives' toes would curl if they knew their husband was spending these amounts on comic books. All I needed was a little bit of a green light! I got it, and I was off." On top of that, "All my daughters are heavily into comic books. Spider-Man and Captain America are their favorites."

Selections from Keller's collection will be featured in Heritage's vintage comics and comic art auction scheduled for May 20-21, 2010. Some of Keller's comics, such as DC's Adventure Comics #67 from 1941, graded in near-mint/mint condition, could fetch up to ,000.

Although he's parting with some of his prized comics, including Golden Age Adventure Comics and Flash Comics, Keller says his collecting days are far from over. He's just focusing on his world-class toy and muscle-car collections, with full support from the wife and kids, of course.

Comic Collecting is a Family Affair

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Web Development - Springing to Life

As the accessibility of the internet develops in leaps and bounds, do too do the websites and applications which populate it. A few years ago choosing what frameworks, programmes, languages and tools to use during the development of a website was a simple process, but with the recent introduction of open-source and community projects there are hundreds of frameworks, applications and infrastructures for web developers to choose from. One of the pioneers of these open-source technologies is SpringSource.

The source of innovation

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SpringSource is a specialised division of the global leader in cloud-based infrastructures VMWare Inc. SpringSource employs and collaborates with the leaders of open-source development communities to create new website development technologies which are innovative and productive. Quickly becoming a global leader in Java application developments, SpringSource has introduced a comprehensive range of technologies to build, run and manage Java based websites and web applications including Apache and Tomcat Spring Servers and Hyperic Data Manager Centres.

Building innovation with the Spring Framework

SpringSource's signature Spring Framework is a popular and globally used development framework that enables web developers to build high quality web applications and websites in an efficient way. The Spring Framework encourages the use of consistent coding, programming and configuration to improve developer productivity. Spring has transformed the way web developers programme and build by making J2EE (Java 2 platform Enterprise Edition) platforms easier to use through the promotion of good programming practices. Available as a free community edition, and as an enterprise edition suitable for larger businesses and enterprises, web developers can use Spring to quickly and easily build lightweight internet applications.

Getting productive with Groovy & Grails

SpringSource has also created an advanced and sophisticated web application platform and programming language, Groovy & Grails, to deliver new levels of developer productivity. Groovy is a dynamic object-orientated programming (OOP) language that has been created to improve the development of Java based platforms. Groovy encourages developers to use data structured objects to develop websites and applications, improving the productivity of developers and reducing build times. An open source web application platform, Grails is a high-productivity framework which follows principals such as Convention over Configuration to improve the way websites and applications are built.

Although sharing many of the high-productivity features of other open-source frameworks and languages like Ruby on Rails, Groovy & Grails is suitable for Java developers that require a more integrated development environment and non-Java developers that require a high-productivity development environment.

The right tools for the job

SpringSource's unique Tool Suite™ - STS is an Eclipse-powered building environment for Spring enterprise applications. STS combines the development tools needed to build and manage enterprise Spring and Java based applications, as well as additional tooling for the development of enterprise OSGi applications. STS provides developers with direct application targeting and management tools for local, virtual and cloud-based servers.

Web Development - Springing to Life

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Focusing on Concentration - Improving Mental Focus and Concentrating Effectively

"How can I focus more effectively, and when I lose focus how can I get it back quickly?" This is one of two key requests made by high-performance clients who have tapped into our programs over the years. It's what I refer to as one of the Holy Grails of the performance equation!

What most businesspeople and athletes don't realize is that the ability to mentally focus is a skill and because it is a skill, it can be developed through quality practice. The first step to begin to gain control over your "focus of attention" is to clearly understand what components make up the skill of concentration and how to manage 'concentration energy', based on the demands of the situation. The second step involves actually training the skill of concentration using cognitive tasks that challenge your mind to focus and process mental information in specific ways.

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The four interrelated components that define concentration include: Width, Direction, Intensity, and Duration.

The width of attention can vary from a broad perspective, where you process a large amount of information coming from various sources to a narrow one, where only a limited amount of information is allowed to capture your attention. There are instances where a broad focus of attention is appropriate while at other times, you need to shift your focus of attention to only a few thoughts... When you've mastered the ability to shift from broad to narrow concentration and back again, and the capacity to maintain the correct focus based on the demands of the activity, you'll be able to avoid irrelevant thoughts since they can negatively affect both your decision-making and your reactions.

The second component has to do with the direction of your focus. There are occasions when an internal focus of attention is necessary... you selectively filter external events. At other times, an external focus of concentration may be more appropriate since you must continue to focus on the changing events that are occurring around you in real time.

Concentration can also vary in terms of its intensity - from being weak to being intense. Finally, concentration can vary in terms of its duration. Here, concentration varies from brief to sustained periods of time. It's important to understand that these components of concentration are mutually exclusive in that it's not possible to concentrate both broadly and narrowly at the same time, nor can you concentrate internally and externally at the same time. Likewise, the more intense your concentration is, the shorter will be the length of time you can maintain focus at that intensity before mental fatigue sets in.

Under relaxed conditions we possess greater mental flexibility - we are better at shifting amongst these four different components of attention. But under conditions of pressure or when we allow emotional stress to increase, we tend to rely on our own particular concentration bias. This may become a disadvantage if your bias is inappropriate for the particular demands of the situation at that time.

A practical technique you can use to control your focus of attention is to think of concentration as an adjustable flashlight shining from your forehead, where YOU control this 'beam of concentration'. You can choose a broad focus, directed to a lot of events in your environment (like a floodlight would reveal) or a narrow focus, directed to a specific object or idea (like a spotlight). This beam of concentration can also be turned inward toward your mind to target specific thoughts, images and feelings. When your beam of concentration is broad (whether internally or externally directed) it takes in a lot of information but when it is directed narrowly, it intensifies as it's directed to the object of your focus. It's like spinning the head on your adjustable flashlight! When directed in this narrow way, everything on the periphery of the object of your focused concentration fades to black. Using this imagery technique, you can begin to consciously control the direction and intensity of your 'beam of concentration'.

Even though mental skills are acknowledged as being important to effective performance 'on the limit', competitors haven't had an effective 'tool' to develop their ability to focus, to control that focus, and to develop other important mental skills like visual scanning ability and mental processing speed and accuracy - until recently. Visit the link below to learn about the MindSHAPER suite and other high performance products.

Focusing on Concentration - Improving Mental Focus and Concentrating Effectively

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