Weekend Discussion

The snow finally fell hard on Toronto last night. It's a welcome change of pace from the dirty, muddy look the city has been sporting for most of the holiday season. Now, where's my shovel!

Here's what Team Shack will be playing this weekend.

  • Alice O'Connor: I'm hoping to spend the weekend reading or out and about but I'll probably end up playing a dash of Vanquish or Kane & Lynch 2 anyway.
  • Garnett Lee: It's the first round of the NFL playoffs and there are some great games to watch. The rest of the time I'll be finishing Uncharted 2, starting LittleBIGPlanet 2, and probably spending some time in the jungles of Bad Company 2 "Vietnam" online.
  • Brian Leahy: This weekend I'll be playing more WoW and SC2, though I do plan on turning my consoles on again this weekend to check out the Community Playlist in Halo: Reach, Vanquish, Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, and more NFS: Hot Pursuit.
  • Xav de Matos: Since I have to get ready for some upcoming travel, I may focus my attention on handhelds for a while. I've packed my iPhone with new games, downloaded new titles for my PSP, and dusted off Chrono Trigger for my NDS. At home, I'll keep my focus on replaying Dead Space, perfecting rounds of Super Street Fighter IV, and tearing it up in Vanquish.
  • Jeff Mattas: [Shoveling sand. There's no snow in California.]
  • Ozzie Mejia: School's started, so I'll be hitting the books...and sneaking in some rounds of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood.

Xav de Matos was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    January 8, 2011 8:00 AM

    [deleted]

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      January 8, 2011 8:13 AM

      The guys that did the 27 part video have a new series started, only 6 parts so far.

      Survival Island, part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcsN3d7eKgY (thanks anhero for posting)

      The 27 part series: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UdEFmxRmNE

      I watched all 27 videos of the original series. They start out as noobs, and learn things as they go, so it's kind of fun watching them bumble along. They eventually find diamonds and build a Nether portal, so they definitely know how the game works.

      In the new series, they are still playing dumb, and I'm not finding it entertaining anymore. :( They go digging with their bare hands, instead of chopping down the tree and making tools. I really hope they are playing dumb for the camera...

      The 'survival island' thing could be fun, if someone did it right. I'd like to see a video of someone who can efficiently take that single tree and turn it into a massive underground tree farm, with big farms of wheat and everything. Instead we get these morons bumbling around. :(

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        January 8, 2011 8:16 AM

        I watched the first one and thought it was really funny. They aren't playing dumb... they are on a custom map with extremely limited resources. They didn't want to cut down the tree until absolutely necessary.

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          January 8, 2011 9:19 AM

          There are some amusing parts, but the parts where they should know what to do yet play dumb just got annoying to me.

          I'm watching it again, I fell asleep last night while watching it, I think.

          'We need torches'. Duh.

      • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
        reply
        January 8, 2011 10:51 AM

        They're not playing dumb, they were using their hands because they were trying to conserve wood.

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          January 8, 2011 12:43 PM

          That seems dumb. Go get some wood and plant some saplings.

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            January 8, 2011 12:50 PM

            There is ONE tree! They have no, zero, idea how many resources are available. It is a custom crafted map. There could be one coal block or twenty. It could be two blocks down or ten. Their apprehension is understandable. You didn't watch the video, did you?

            Bleh! Watch the video and enjoy! It is funny!

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              January 8, 2011 12:55 PM

              PS. Thx for posting it Nixxer! I came looking for the thread to repost it again.

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              January 8, 2011 1:15 PM

              That sounds even stupider. Kill that tree and get the saplings!

    • reply
      January 8, 2011 8:17 AM

      REMINDER: Back up you /bin directory.

      http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?id=24955171#itemanchor_24955171

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        January 8, 2011 9:28 AM

        You're assuming there that notch hasn't changed how his update checks for "versions"

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          January 8, 2011 1:52 PM

          it would have to already be in there. there's no indication that he changed this last patch

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      January 8, 2011 8:33 AM

      Has the labyrinth on m0rfus been finished yet?

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      January 8, 2011 10:44 AM

      @notch I sent an email a couple days ago about the implications of single-file saves on our 4.4 GB world; did you have a chance to read it?

      http://twitter.com/notch/status/23776167144194048
      @pokeylope .. you have a 4.4 gb world? =O No, I missed it.. resend and cc jeb pls. :)

      If it's not one thing, it's another. Split up saves and people have problems, make it one file and people have problems.

      Mo money, mo problems.

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        January 8, 2011 11:02 AM

        NTFS or basically anything that isn't FAT/FAT32 should not have an issue with > 4GB files.
        Plus, with on large file, the compression should be better.

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          January 8, 2011 11:20 AM

          So I shouldn't be running my server on DOS?

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          January 8, 2011 1:50 PM

          hopefully he won't continue using gzip to blindly compress his dumb file format. the continued presence of gzip will tell me that notch still doesn't know what he's doing. the correct solution here is a geometrically-adaptive method of reducing the amount of information right out of the gate (like an octree), rather than spewing a bunch of redundant data and hoping a generic compressor will clean up the mess.

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            January 8, 2011 1:55 PM

            as a side note of interest, gzip actually doesn't improve with larger files. it only takes the previous 32KB of data into account when looking for redundant lengths of data

          • reply
            January 8, 2011 4:13 PM

            You should email him!

      • reply
        January 8, 2011 2:03 PM

        [deleted]

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      January 8, 2011 1:21 PM

      Couple of new things: http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/minecraft/1143151p2.html

      1. He also wants to add options that give players a few additional constraints -- like an inventory weight limit, the need to eat and drink regularly

      2. Monster villages are also in the works, says Notch. "Basically, they'd be towns of initially neutral creatures. If you do nice things to them, they start rewarding you, and if you do bad things, they start attacking you," he explains. "I also have high hopes for competitive multiplayer modes, like Team Furnace and Capture the Pig."

      • reply
        January 8, 2011 1:22 PM

        Capture the Pig.

        Awwww yeah.

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        January 8, 2011 1:46 PM

        Oh man, there is so much possibility left in this game...

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        January 8, 2011 1:47 PM

        these are really things that are better off as mods. it'll take notch like a year to do #2 and he'll break every single other feature in the game in the process

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        January 8, 2011 2:09 PM

        I wonder what Team Furnace is going to be like?

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        January 8, 2011 2:23 PM

        #1 is a terrible idea

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          January 8, 2011 2:26 PM

          as long as it's optional it sounds fine to me. it would be nice to have a "hardcore" mode

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            January 8, 2011 2:40 PM

            knowing notch it won't be optional tho.

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              January 8, 2011 2:43 PM

              well, the article explicitly says "option" but it's the author's summary and not a direct quote from notch. i'd guess that it will actually be an option but it'll be something you can change on the fly in the middle of the game at the first sign that it's become inconvenient (just like the difficulty setting now).

              • reply
                January 8, 2011 2:59 PM

                i just see myself mining and getting one too many cobble right as creepers come at me :X
                also, the eating thing is just stupid imo

                • reply
                  January 8, 2011 3:03 PM

                  i think the eating thing is just as dumb as decaying torches and decaying tools, but if it's optional then i don't care.

                  • reply
                    January 8, 2011 3:08 PM

                    I love decaying tool, lol. You mine your ass off down to diamond and make diamond tools only to have them be worse then stone or iron because diamond is so goddamn rare. seriously, lol.

    • reply
      January 8, 2011 1:36 PM

      Can't believe I'm posting a Kotaku article, but this is a really good read: http://kotaku.com/5724989/why-minecraft-is-so-damn-popular

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        January 8, 2011 6:11 PM

        Except that, fundamentally, the entire article is ass backwards.

        I know the majority of people who would read this thread, because they play mincraft regularly and like it in it's sandbox-without-a-game form, are going to disagree... but to me minecraft *is* just a different form of the same hype and BS about what could be delivered, and yet won't be. Minecraft isn't a game, it's just a beta, which means it's still just the precursor to something else. It might as well just be a cinematic trailer and a bunch of pre-sales. It's just an engine, a shell of a game, that has me at least interested in what could be, but most certainly in it's current form I find it over-hyped and boring after about 10 hours of explorying.

        • reply
          January 9, 2011 12:54 AM

          Yeah, I agree on everything else in the article except the "they love the idea" part.

    • reply
      January 8, 2011 2:12 PM

      1:1 replica of Roman Colosseum

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UeJGdSBouM&hd=1

    • reply
      January 8, 2011 4:30 PM

      [deleted]

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        January 8, 2011 5:40 PM

        [deleted]

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        January 8, 2011 5:40 PM

        foo1.

      • reply
        January 8, 2011 5:55 PM

        mercfox1, as long as we can setup a torrent or something to download the foo1 world.

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        January 8, 2011 6:07 PM

        [deleted]

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        January 8, 2011 6:22 PM

        It sure would be nice if Minecraft's main attraction - Legos With Friends - could get back to mainstage. So many other games offer PvP options that are deep and well-polished, I'm not sure it's a worthwhile strength of Minecraft's to be worth sacrificing the interest of all the builder-type players.

        It has proven that having a critical mass of people on a server is really the key to it's success. I hope the Shack community can find a way to reduce the fragmentation of the few dozen players that are out there. Or are the days of a MercFox1amount of players / critical mass not achievable any more?

        • reply
          January 8, 2011 6:25 PM

          The community was rather fragmented after the implementation of PVP. Many players myself included wanted to play PVP and that is not allowed on Foo1 or Mercfox1. And the community was further split after some players wanted PVE so they moved to foo1.

          So... no.

          • reply
            January 8, 2011 7:03 PM

            We should have implemented this mod: http://forum.hey0.net/showthread.php?tid=260

            It would have allowed people to pvp or pve on mercfox1 and have it actually be enforceable--along with messages telling people that they have entered different zones.

          • reply
            January 8, 2011 7:06 PM

            [deleted]

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              January 8, 2011 7:52 PM

              [deleted]

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                January 8, 2011 8:09 PM

                [deleted]

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                January 8, 2011 8:33 PM

                Agreed.

              • reply
                January 8, 2011 8:38 PM

                Which is why the servers are fragmented.

                There are now three different playerbases that server owners have to cater too and the only option is to pick one playerbase or have multiple servers. Either way the community becomes fragmented.

              • reply
                January 8, 2011 9:23 PM

                I agree it is very flawed, yet somehow I've managed to have fun. Sorry. ;)

                I wouldn't mind going full retard PVE, if done right. Hardcore, basically, because things are really easy right now, once you get going.

          • reply
            January 8, 2011 9:28 PM

            Is the PvP in Minecraft something that was a novelty you wanted to try, or an experience that was of such high quality that there needs to be a fragmentation of the community to facilitate the PvP long-term?

      • reply
        January 8, 2011 7:56 PM

        [deleted]

      • reply
        January 8, 2011 8:04 PM

        mercfox1

      • reply
        January 8, 2011 9:04 PM

        Mercfox1, no question.

        Even if I can't get unbanned, there is so much cool stuff.

      • reply
        January 8, 2011 10:57 PM

        foo1

    • reply
      January 8, 2011 5:56 PM

      MAZE: mountain top looks great, putting some finish touches on it. the area has been sealed so we can reset the rooms and take care of the griefing King did.

      i was thinking of allowing a Shack group to complete the whole thing prior to opening it up public again.

      • reply
        January 8, 2011 6:07 PM

        [deleted]

      • reply
        January 8, 2011 6:09 PM

        ill make an announcement and allow a party of 5 to try and complete it. EricZBA is taking video for a plug of its' awesomeness.

        • reply
          January 8, 2011 6:23 PM

          Restrict their inventory! lol

        • reply
          January 8, 2011 7:55 PM

          [deleted]

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          January 8, 2011 8:07 PM

          [deleted]

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            January 8, 2011 8:11 PM

            [deleted]

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            January 8, 2011 8:29 PM

            [deleted]

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            January 8, 2011 9:35 PM

            [deleted]

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              January 8, 2011 9:41 PM

              [deleted]

              • reply
                January 8, 2011 9:51 PM

                Best ending ever!

                • reply
                  January 8, 2011 9:58 PM

                  They should have had maddog download a skin that didn't have a shirt on lol.

              • reply
                January 8, 2011 10:03 PM

                floating bookshelves?

                wtf....

                someone wrecked my bookshelf setup?

                • reply
                  January 8, 2011 10:03 PM

                  Yeah, did you hear about King?

                  • reply
                    January 8, 2011 10:04 PM

                    yes i did but i didn't realize how much he fucked up

                    • reply
                      January 8, 2011 10:05 PM

                      Oh yeah, he pretty much went to every room and fucked them up.

                      • reply
                        January 8, 2011 10:06 PM

                        bah, alright. tbh i'm not in the mood to rebuild it until maze rules are established.

                        • reply
                          January 8, 2011 10:09 PM

                          I can't seem to log onto the server anyways--don't seem to be responding.

                          • reply
                            January 8, 2011 10:32 PM

                            Actually, it seems I can't connect to any minecraft server :(

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                          January 8, 2011 10:45 PM

                          I believe morfus will be doing a dungeon reset so it's all good.

                          • reply
                            January 8, 2011 10:55 PM

                            By dungeon reset, you mean we all go in and fix it, because that's what we have been doing to "reset" the dungeon.

                            • reply
                              January 8, 2011 11:56 PM

                              Well Morf's words not mine. Anyway, if that's true then we need to do a restore from server backup thing. How is that not in place?

                              • reply
                                January 9, 2011 12:01 AM

                                Because we don't need it to be. And because people would go batshit crazy if we did that over something they don't give a shit about.

                                Besides, most of the maze is fixed already.

                                • reply
                                  January 9, 2011 12:16 AM

                                  Just try and think about what happens when player after player has run through it.

                                  • reply
                                    January 9, 2011 12:24 AM

                                    With nothing but a sword? I have, it is quite amusing.

                      • reply
                        January 8, 2011 10:14 PM

                        Huh, that sucks.

                        So how'd he do it, exploiting bugs (bedrock bugs)?

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                          January 8, 2011 10:31 PM

                          Well someone told him the coords to the maze. After he fucked up the rooms is when morfus sealed the entrance.

                          • reply
                            January 8, 2011 11:00 PM

                            Yeah, but how did the fuck up the rooms? Did he do it legit?

                            • reply
                              January 8, 2011 11:10 PM

                              imagine just throwing water and dirt EVERYWHERE to avoid the trap and not actually try

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                                January 8, 2011 11:15 PM

                                Hm, I guess there isn't much you could do to stop that...unless...hmm.

                                Could you, with something like MCEdit, move this thing to be in the spawn area? That way people couldn't build there, it'd be easy to find, easy to get back to when people die inside...

                                You'd need an exit that is away from spawn, so if someone makes it through then they can get away with the loot.

                                • reply
                                  January 8, 2011 11:51 PM

                                  There is alot of things you can do to fix it quite easily.

                                  1. Regulate dungeon crawler inventory.
                                  2. Use a mod like Towny to make blocks indestructible.
                                  3. Totally encase the labyrinth with bedrock, which we have done.

                    • reply
                      January 8, 2011 10:06 PM

                      did he get to all the rooms?

              • reply
                January 9, 2011 9:32 AM

                :D

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              January 8, 2011 9:43 PM

              Bhahahaha I almost woke up everybody in my house up at the ending.

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              January 8, 2011 9:45 PM

              the video is like 90% darkness and gives you absolutely no clue as to what the hell this thing is.

              You need some reference for scale, and a lot of time speeding up instead of 'oh look another dark corridor that looks just like everything else'

              also why are you being THAT GUY with the music

            • reply
              January 8, 2011 10:07 PM

              [deleted]

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              January 8, 2011 11:03 PM

              holy fucking shit THAT DELIVERS!!!

            • reply
              January 9, 2011 9:23 AM

              Too bad youtube is uploading at 2400 baud atm.

      • reply
        January 8, 2011 8:05 PM

        i'll go ahead and reset my rooms now. you on?

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        January 8, 2011 8:35 PM

        lol, king said he is going to camp out that area to kill us all for insulting his sandy vagina.

        • reply
          January 8, 2011 8:38 PM

          haha good for him

        • reply
          January 8, 2011 9:05 PM

          Heh tell me more of the drama with King. Since he's not a Shacker you can give the dirty details!

          • reply
            January 8, 2011 9:39 PM

            I'm gonna start hunting him down just for fun :D

            • reply
              January 9, 2011 8:54 AM

              I can tell you his base is on the very edge of the 4000 x 4000 limit border. I won't say what direction.

        • reply
          January 8, 2011 11:04 PM

          he has no idea the force he is messing with

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        January 8, 2011 11:13 PM

        one last thing! looks like i can create a zone with Borderlands in which no one enter or leave and apply rulesets to those zones. looking into this for the anti-maze room destruction.

        • reply
          January 8, 2011 11:15 PM

          Oh, I just posted a similar idea above, heh. This works too.

        • reply
          January 8, 2011 11:26 PM

          awesome. I think I can rebuild tomorrow, but i'd have to do it quickly. I'll be leaving for New York this Wednesday and will be gone all weekend until Monday

          • reply
            January 8, 2011 11:50 PM

            It's sealed off man. We have all the time in the world now. I'll harass you when you get back.

    • reply
      January 9, 2011 10:46 AM

      so I finally played this for a bit this weekend. built some cool stuff in single player survival..

      how does the multiplayer work?I connected to MercFox1's world but couldnt do anything..

      • reply
        January 9, 2011 11:12 AM

        they have a build list. i have anarchy. an admin on Merc1 needs to give you build rights.

      • reply
        January 9, 2011 9:23 PM

        Post on the Shack next time you're online on Merc1 and one of the mods will connect and fix you up with build access

    • reply
      January 9, 2011 11:13 AM

      Maddog_Delphi97 is requesting a RAIDING party for fun antics!

    • reply
      January 9, 2011 2:01 PM

      There we go, at a blazing 15-20 fps: http://i.imgur.com/9LR4W.png
      http://twitter.com/notch/status/24199937822564352

      Some kind of phone.

      • reply
        January 9, 2011 2:02 PM

        Of course it's not Minecraft, it's that game he was working on for Ludum Dare 19. He's been working on it in his spare time, or something.

        • reply
          January 9, 2011 7:32 PM

          lol, what a shitty programmer. Rage can run on the iPhone with a better FPS than that!

    • reply
      January 9, 2011 2:18 PM

      All the servers are empty :(

      • reply
        January 9, 2011 2:24 PM

        I'll get back on a server if you wanna play. Which one do you prefer?

    • reply
      January 9, 2011 6:59 PM

      [deleted]

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        January 9, 2011 7:30 PM

        I love those retards.

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        January 9, 2011 7:45 PM

        BEST. SERVER. EVER!!!

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        January 9, 2011 8:04 PM

        Sigh, its like my job is too easy now!

      • reply
        January 9, 2011 8:04 PM

        Heh, nice!

        You didn't run them out of town for good, did you? No fun if we don't have someone to kill!

        • reply
          January 9, 2011 8:36 PM

          we can just bump the thread on the MC Forums and get new ones. :D

          • reply
            January 9, 2011 9:04 PM

            Heh, nice.

            I've been on a major break this week, for no specific reason. Just watching for interesting updates and stuff, just haven't felt like playing...until tonight, maybe!

            I should register on the MC forums and post sometimes, but the moderation there is horrible. Cesspit sometimes.

        • reply
          January 9, 2011 9:30 PM

          [deleted]

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      January 9, 2011 8:14 PM

      MAZE status: borderlands works perfectly! i can create a zone and remove build/break/litter from that zone. i just made a jail cell and tested it.

      • reply
        January 9, 2011 9:05 PM

        That's really cool, now you can plan out things and really make the maze tough.

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        January 9, 2011 10:07 PM

        you should test it on King :P

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      January 9, 2011 10:37 PM

      Damn, someone poured lava into my base, right down the staircase :(

      Had to tunnel out.

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