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I'm back 2006-11-12
I think that last thing working in the server finally died, so i
scrapped it and were on a new box now, and once again were wireless.
Office 2007
Pretty neat, difficult to adapt, while the new office has a number of
functional improvements they are difficult to appreciate alongside the
new interface, my first impression, was that the buttons were to large,
and that i missed the text menu drop downs, however, my first use wasn't
practical, when you need to do something, its much quicker to click on
the menu category, and then the button. Microsoft has been
training us for years to recognize the same icons, it was a bit
frustrating to find the save as button, there is a lack of redundancy
that we are all used to. The user must conform to the graphical
interface, there is not longer a choice to use the buttons, or the
menu's. They are one in the same.
Notice how the office button in the upper left intrudes on what used to be reserved as useless space, that 30 pixel tall bar on the top of your screen that doesn't do anything, yes, look UP !. There is your save, print, undo, reload and office button. The office button provides more options for managing your files. Including a redundant save button, probably the only redundant button in the program.
Windows Mobile And my 416 MHZ Cell Phone.:
So I've recently learned a new OS, fun fun, of course its a limited
operating system. Mostly limited by storage memory, my cell phone
has a 411 MHZ processor, and 64 MB or RAM (wow) that's twice the speed
of my third computer. In fact,
my
first PC was, an AT&T PC 6700, 4.7 mhz Processor, the next was a 32
mhz windows 95 pc, the third a 180 MHz windows 98 pc. The fourth
was a 533 mhz Celeron, the 5th, and my current, a 1.2 GHz AMD, i am
holding out for quad core processors so that my 6th PC can be about 12
GHZ.
So basically, the point of all this is that I have in my pocket, the
equivalent of a state of the art desktop from 10 years ago, and so, i'm
left wondering if 10 years from now, ill have in my pocket, a device
equivalent to a 12 GHZ computer. Imaging the mobile
applications...
Train
Woo WOo
Ok, so here's about what i had in mind for the train phot, still looking
! I', trying to find a lower angle, and the camera rotated to the
left to catch more of the cargo, i want the tracks to exit the lower
right corner of the image, and the tunnel to begin on the left most
display, slightly truncated. I might have to fly out west to get
this one... :) this one caught my eye because its exactly what i want,
except that id rather have the tracks curve towards the camera (so they
exit lower), this is a picture of a model train also.
Carpet:
Have you ever bought carpet? I remember once when i was a preteen,
my parents put white carpet in the family room, i dont know how its
still white, must be
magic. Anyways, i thought i wanted white carpet when i started
remodeling the front bedroom, this pics are still on my camera, it has
light green walls, ill get the pics online soon, it will be project 19,
i changed the ceiling to 9 feet from 7, which is pretty nice, thats
where my computers headed, it'l be the most awesomo office.
So anyways, carpet is expensive !, i've installed carpet, in 4-5 rooms
before, no big deal, but it is a super pain and i dont really care to do
it again so soon after the rental house. What bugs me is that
lowes charges literally 2-300$ for the installation, but i've seen it
done (by the pro's) and they are in and out in less than an hour.
The way i see it, 45$ for transit + 60$ per hour for 2 eployee's = 165$
for 1 room (installation only), add that to the actual cost of the
carpet, say 250$, and you at the 400$ mark. Well at lowes is was
600$ ! wow, and the "Carpet Expert" helping me didnt even know that 5'9"
reads 5 feet AND 9 inches, not 59 inches... Geez, i would expect an
expert to know that. The bottom line was that i had to think about
it, so i drove up preston until i saw a carpet warehouse.... that didn't
take long, and i had the carpet i wanted, installed, for 400$.
Thats more like it !.
New Hobby
In light of my new hobby collecting neat images, ive decided to go ahead
and build up a nice little archive of wall papers, so on the list of
images i need to find at 3840 pixels wide are... These are all
very tought to find, so it might take a while...
More Wallpaper
So I was pretty hyped that I found the planet (Earth), so i started
looking for another wallpaper, the one of a pretty girl (appropriately)
laying down to stretch across both my monitors at home, well, i didn't
find exactly what i was looking for (Resolution wise), but i did find
something better, a website with tons of pictures, many of which are
1920 x 1280, which can easily be converted to 2560x1024 by cropping and
adding black side bars, well, wow, i give you, mandy moore.
.jpg)
Cool Wallpaper
So I've always thought it would be neat to have a cool wall paper of
earths horizon viewed from orbit, i had spent a number of nights
searching for such a wall paper with no luck, however i did stumble onto
nasa's photo archives and a search, so i searched for earth and horizon
and found the following image, at an incredibly ridiculous 6817x6817
resolution.
The
original picture came from
here
So I shrunk the image (Proportionally) to the width of 2 and 3 monitors, and then cropped a vertical section out to make some cool wall papers, here they are !
2560 wide, 2 monitors at 1280x1024
3840x1024, 3 monitors at 1280x1024
New PC, New PC !
So im thinking new PC, this one is 6 years old, so in accordance
with moores law
ill see a 4 times increase in speed. Except of course that when i
bought this PC, i didn't buy the fastest, so i'm actually looking at
about 8x increase in performance.
| HP Model | m7560y |
| Proccessor | Intel(R) Pentium(R) D 940 (3.2GHz, 4MB,800MHz FSB) |
| 2nd Proccessor? | Nope |
| Ram | 2GB DDR2-667MHz dual channel SDRAM (2x1024) |
| HD Size | 160GB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s & NCQ Hard Drive |
| Video Card 1 | GeForce 7600 GS, TV-Out and 2 DVI |
| Wireless | Yes |
| Tuner Card | Yes |
My space woes
I really don't see what the hype is, so i created a myspace account,
added some bulleted lists for fun, and in general became really annoyed
with the lack of a decent search, poor formatting, and annoying adds.
How can this possibly be anything to get excited about? Even the
forums are full of posts from 12 year olds (no pun intended). Its
just plain worthless IMO, but if you want to see my awesome profile, and
my 3 cool friends just type in my human name and have a look.
History Channel?
I think these guys are confused, they have show after show about the
search for Atlantis, but then another show talking about how the story
of Atlantis originated, and that it was rooted in ancient Egyptian
writings which have have found that talk of a city "Crete", the
definition of the Egyptian word keptchu? Ok, well they seem so
certain of each theory, yet fail to mention each other during the
programming.
I'm seeing the same contradictions when watching shows about scientific knowledge, lots of speculation, little fact, and little room for variance from the speculation. It would appear that the scientific community is starting to speculate primarily for entertainment. Maybe we haven't really learned anything since the great explorations in the middle of the 1900's
I'm still here !
Stepping out of the 2nd story window onto the slightly downward
sloping porch roof seems to be a simple task, i had done so several
times that day is i worked steadily towards replacing the 2nd floor
windows on the front of house. This time was different, this time
i lost my step, and this time i jumped towards the edge on one foot to
regain my balance. Of course that didnt work so i went to plan B
and fell down, rolled once and started to slide, i came to a stop as by
back side faced the edge over the front steps and railing, the stop was
abupt and i stretched out my arm while mindfully flexing my legs and
torso stiff to keep myself in the current position. One more inch,
had i not been in the right mind set, be it this or that i feel very
lucky to be in the condition to sit here and type this, had i gone over
at that location my legs would have hit the railing, then my head, the
steps. So later that night i went to kroger and bought some
victory food, twizlers, ice cream, milk and cookies, olives mmmm... and
some other random stuff, in addition to some drywall ive been spending
most of my free time pigging out and catching up on some much needed
television. I seem to have forgotten i had one, but i found it in
the back living room. I also saw a commercial, which is both funny
and terrible. Its for a travel website, its hmmm well see for
yourself.
So anyways, the websites been down for a while, it was making an awfull noise, and well, i lost another hard drive :) This pattern is starting to get expensive. That time it was the website, so i had to load a backup and try it again. Having lost 4 drives this year... (wow), im about to give up on a separate server, my personal PC, knock on plastic, has been running like a champ for a long time, so when by purchase a new PC after the office upstairs (previously mentioned windows...) is finished ill probably do some shifting around again.
Pics
Contrary to what some people will tell you, trust your instinct, and
10,000 other people who have done it and bragged about it in the links
below (several posts ago). Stick as many video cards as you like
in your PC. Then get on Ebay and start buysing monitors.
Windows will provide the means to create huge desktops, at work I’m
running 3840 x 1024. That’s enough desktop space for a life size image
of a
big blimpie.
The machine in this picture has:
(1) 128 MB AGP - PNY nVidia GeForce FX 5700 LE, with dual outputs. ($130)
(1) 256 MB PCI - PNY nVidia GeForce FX 5200 PCI card with dual outputs. ($70)
(3) 19” Dell Model # E193FP.
Same Night
Ok, Google Stinks to... I just want to know what episode of south-park
had the phrase "Kyle, Everyone knows you have to spend about 8 bucks to
have a good time", but this couldn't find it. "South Park" +"To
Have A Good Time" -"want to have" -"Love to have" -"how to have" +$8.00.
So what is the difference between $8.00 and 8 Bucks, NOTHIN'. I'm
in over my head.
PS I tired 7 Bucks too...
I Tunes [Rocks]... A Few Suggestions
Well, Before that, ..bought my first 6 songs tonight, at a ridicules
1$ each. Of course those 6 songs have been on repeat for about 45
minutes, and "everyone knows you have to spent about 8$ to have a good
time", so "There You Go" Napter, "I miss you so, It seems like
forever since you've been gone, Just come back home"
-Burgers and Ribs.
r Extend Window Handles (Track That Drag): If I’m listening to a preview and browse to another page, I don’t want the song to stop, if it sucks that bad ill hit the stop button, or suffer for being that silly idiot that doesn’t know how (he’ll learn). Track the cursor, and wait until it clicks on an ‘object’ identified as a link to a new tune. It’s a super DRAG to have to cut off your ‘tunes’ and wait on the internet to catch up, that kills my buzz, and makes me want to sleep. Zzzzz Yes, Sleep…. Zzzz Boring…. Waiting on Whatever…. Waiting…. Funn…. Waiting…. How is that Good?
r Artist First. I should have the ability to organize my play list however I want to, “artist first.” VIA Drag and Drop.
r Maybe an ‘After Hours’ Link. It’s so tough to find Chubby Checker when I want to do the limbo…
r If im in the ITunes Player, and the song changes, the selected index in the list view doesn’t. I suggest a DataGridView. The Little Speaker icon, just doesn’t do it…
r Include a method for others to post suggestions. Big Companies like to make that tough because they are omnipotent. As the first hit you could bargain with I-tunes, Omnipotent Larry ! I would suggest a newspaper, or reputable Blog article prior to making demands.
r The GUI is brilliant, however, the ghost image of a drag cant by used to re-order the playlist. Most disappointing.
3840x1024...
6 years ago I wondered why in the world there would be two outputs
on a monitor, without noticing a video card i had purchased had two
heads. Eventually the card ended up in my server (where it still
is now), About 6 inches away from your pointer. Kind of makes you
wonder how all that works. To make a long story short, when I
built my new PC at work 2 years ago, again I found myself with 2
outputs, only this time there happened to be two monitors sitting on my
desk... Hey, Why Not? And guess what? It worked ! One
was a CRT and the other a Flat Panel. Both 19's. 6 Months
later I bought a second 19" flat panel. Because the difference in
size, and Resolution was driving me nuts. Well, Today, I am insane
I know, I now have the 3rd flat panel sitting in my bedroom to take into
work tomorrow. Its hard for someone to understand who has a single
display how multi-monitor computing is an advantage, you just have to
try it, and you'll never go back, I only have a single at home, but I AM
keeping an eye on eBay for a clone to the dinosaur I'm typing this on.
At work I usually have 5-10 windows / applications running, keeping a
few within view at the same time is essential. Because I'm using
all of them at the same time. I've spent all night looking
around for cool wall papers (that I wont see because ill be working :)
At least when I leave my office ill return to a nice picture. There are
some tools for 3 monitor setups (Triple Head), and a few great resources
I found, that id like to post, so without further adieu here they are !
I found a number of people who use this software recommend it
http://www.realtimesoft.com/ultramon/overview/
Reference By...
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000012.html
3 Head Compatibility Tables, Over 10000 Searchable Configurations.
This website also has a gallery, i suggest searching in decending order
by number of monitors, as does the link above. The first image is
a guy with 12 monitors. *Daddy*, Wonder what he's watching...
http://www.realtimesoft.com/multimon/search.asp
3 Head Wall Paper.
Random Few
http://xxlwallpapers.com/
http://www.deviantart.com/view/17039606/
http://www.deviantart.com/view/9614707/
http://www.deviantart.com/view/17039529/
http://www.deviantart.com/view/15898662/
http://www.deviantart.com/view/8382127/
http://www.deviantart.com/view/9196276/
http://www.deviantart.com/view/9705914/
http://www.deviantart.com/view/9835855/
A Number of Excelent Images:
Http://jd-dch.com/gallery/categories.php?cat_id=58&sessionid=612d3a9546a9000510ea29bd5a01d32b
http://www16.brinkster.com/salvage/misc4/garret-in-woods/garret-in-woods_3840x1024.jpg
Blogs are always negative...
So is this entry :). Of course, I am writing because i'm hoping
that my troubles are through. I've had PC troubles lately, the
first bout happened when i lost another drive in my server, this time a
part of the mirror this page sits on. That's not supposed to
happen, so i guess buying two of each drive payed of, because of my 2
mirrors, a drive in each has now failed. I no longer have a mirror
on my server, instead im using my last remaining local mirror to backup
live content, and have backed up static content to a super large
320 GB drive in a
USB eclosure, which
is stored offsite. That should guard against minor
asteroid impacts,
Fire, And
Burglars. Anyways, that was a few weeks ago, ive got that
problem solved, of course don't use server 2003 to manage your mirrors.
They wont let you break an array without deleting one of the drives,
Errg, of course there's no good way to tell which drive is bad, so its a
50-50 guess. Warning VS Error. Hmmm.... Hope they got
it right, well they did. Delete the one that says ERROR. I
tried it with both drives dis-connected but, you cant delete something
that doesn't exist. After that, i spent a few days at work
updating the last program written in vb 4.0, i am very proud of the
result, because it works very very well, and is ages ahead of the old
interface. It was my first application that interfaces with our
companies main database, the ultimate goal is to create an excel object
that can be pasted into a CAD drawing, well... Just turns out that the
software runs well on pc's with xpPRO, Office (2003/2002), I've
tried office 95 object libraries with no luck. Just doesn't work.
Dang. I really cant fix it, which is extremely frustrating, so i
moved onto another cool application to interface with the company
database to find parts based on description, show other details, and
allow users to drag and drop PDF drawings, AutoCAD drawings, and even 3d
inventor assemblies into whatever. It all works great, I wrote the
application in about 6 hours !. Which includes a really cool GUI
as a bonus. During lunch the IT guys changed out a network cable
which apparently killed the motherboard on our largest file server.
Shit. On top of all that insight BB decided to change out servers
this week (I hate Servers) and
not
tell anyone, ok, so they did tell everyone, but what I don't
understand, is why is it necessary to cut everyone off, and why are they
being
un-ethical about it. they have absolutely no intention of
offering a refund, hopefully WHAS 11
will file a class action suit to force refunds, because while I was
without internet (which is bad enough...) something else happened....
...Intermission.... For
6 months i have been receiving an email:
Note that auto renew is set to on, also note that when my credit card expired I DID in fact update the billing info from my ISP, unfortunately only DNS management was updated, not the domain, and not my email. One would think my account would be linked across all 3, after all, they are on the same account. On Derby Day (May 6th), when I was really really, ...not paying attention, and having received 6 of these emails already ...I failed to notice the 3 letter difference in the email. (Circled in Red)
Then, while my internet was out, I received a message that was quite different:...
Of course i could not act on it (No Internet => Thus No Email), so my account was deactivated. So as of right now, you cant read this because my website is busted, and I can't email you about it because my outgoing mail is fudged up as well. I think im gonna play around on ebay now. Take care.
Ouch 2:
2 More times, well the 3rd time i got out of the way. I guess i
need to adjust my style and expect it to happen every time.
Ouch:
"Quit screwin' around" I just saw the south park episode about the
giant
4th of july snake, and the woodshop teacher. "Quit Screwin
Around", well that's not exactly what Mr Davis said, but was close
enough. When bobby tried to cut of his finger, i realized you must
be an idiot to get hurt in a woodshop. Well... I'm an idiot.
I recently purchased a 1.75 HP table saw, a big change over the saw my
father passed down, it said 'motorized' on the front, it just couldn't
motor through a 2x4 long ways. This one treated random scrap
differently, mostly throwing it with enough force to spin me in a
circle, and continue to hit a metal cabinet 15 feet away and put a dent
in the board. My arm was sore for 4-5 days after that. So, I
have a new found respect for the tools I've been acquiring lately...
Models ROCS.
So I've been building model for my company, i designed the first, which
was built by a very talented individual in our shop, his name escapes me
at the moment. Since then, two more, and it looks like a plethora
in the future. The 3rd model, an exact 1/10 replica of my first
big project (below) Is now finished, and im feeling a bit on top
of things as far as plastic. Next on the list, plastic cyclone,
made out of PTEG plastic, i read on "Clear Vue Cyclones" page, that they
made their equipment from PTEG.. I found out else where that it
could be cold formed. Of course i called bullshit and bought some,
it yields... Neat stuff, and just like i already knew from clear
vue, its abrasion resistant, and mostly static free. However, if
you think your rolling it around a drum to make something round, think
again. This stuff is very SPRINGY, its yield point requires
incredibly high deflections, or, as i suspect, a little pressure and
heat. A gently warmed rolling machine should form the stuff
nicely, (i'm gonna buy one...) so if you want a plastic cyclone,
visit clear vue.
Super Rare:
On the order of that, these are super rare... (Essential Mixes)
05/14/1995 Tong live from the ministry of sound
01/1/1996 DJ Tinman
01/28/1996 (Tong), Bleasdale & Boy George
07/28/1996 (Sasha & Tong) & Rampling live from phoenix festival
12/22/1996 Jeremy Healy*** (Does not start with Michael Jackson) Check
tracklisting.
***Oakenfold Goa 1994 set was broadcast instead of Jeremy Healy.
So Its not really rare, it just didn't happen.
Old Stuff,
I cleaned out the garage, ...Found a 61 ford F-150, two old
refrigerators, and 6 stoves, one from the 70's, 4 from the 50's and 1
that was much older. I'm guessing that its from 1920, which is
basically just a gut feeling, I'm about to look around on the internet
and see who wants it.
Rental Available,
I'm posting pictures here of my new rental house which I am immediately offering to friends and family at the discount rate. This house is insulated, need I say more? Here are pix.
Update, Its been about two weeks....
I was treated like a thief at the PNC Bank on Preston highway, I had barely begun explaining the problem before I was accused of falsifying the transactions shown on the quicken printout It was a classic case of too much CSI.
Next, on Christmas eve I visited my home town of the east end, where I was treated respectfully, and refunded the overage charges on principal, not scrutiny. ...Well principal, along with a look at my average balance and account history, so you could say it was a PNC business decision, which I happen to agree with. Just goes to show that when reading reviews for products and services on the web, always ask the question "Could this bad experience have been the result of the interaction with a single employee?"
Update on Bank Issue
Well, I've spent an hour this morning looking through the paper
statements and have discovered what appears to be the source of the
error. I am paid bi-monthly on exactly the same day every month,
unless that day is a Sunday or Saturday in which case I am paid 1 or 2
days ahead of time. There is a period of about 2 months where my
deposits suddenly change from a description containing a unique number,
to a generic deposit description which contains no information useful
for discerning one transaction to the next. Other than the dates,
which... are wrong. The deposit payments from my employer in
quicken are shown at odd dates, when assigning them to real dates over
the course of a month I discovered that PNC reported to quicken 1 extra
paycheck, which did not actually exist. This was somewhat
believable in that they were evenly spaced out over the 2 months.
Likewise my employer changed companies with which they do direct deposit
around the same time. My theory is that somehow the dates of these
deposits in the quicken download file were lost, and replaced with an
even spread of dates. The problem was that the last date which was
assumed unknown overlapped with an actual payment and so all payments
were pushed back 3*N days which caused an overlap in reported paychecks,
and thus quicken to display an extra paycheck which led to a negative
*Real* balance and overdraft charges. I'll post the actual answer
(Assuming they will cooperate), or ill post how happy I am to switch my
business and personal accounts to another bank.
Tonight I'm mostly furious,
I just found out that my quicken checking balance and actual bank
balance are off by exactly 1 paycheck. And within the past week
*supposedly* I've bounced 2 payments, and have continual overdraft
charges. Its not entirely the banks fault, I mean after all they
are only showing me the last 3 months of electronic statements, ill have
to dig up the old paper copies to figure exactly who screwed up:
The Old Farts at PNC bank that don't know what a computer is, or the
booger brains at quicken that spend to much time creating rounded forms
and pretty graphics instead of functional software.
Additionally, and worth noting, quicken has stated within their
program:
Notice they actually send you a bill if their software messes up, also they charge you if their data files become corrupt and you loose your data. Quicken doesn't want the general public to know this before buying their product. That's why this Q&A is imbedded in the application, and i had to include a screen shot because even CRTL-C is disabled in this apparent text window. I was much better off using a spreadsheet, after probing tech support for both PNC and quicken for a few days I plan on reverting to a spreadsheet like I used to use. Of course that's assuming I can find a way to export the quicken data to a spreadsheet, as of yet I haven't figured out how to do that. So I may just live like a bum on cash for about a month to let things balance out. Quicken is a virus for all I'm concerned.
This Old House Part II
I enjoy messing around with old houses enough I guess I went
and bought the one next door. Complete with a 61 Ford F150 in the
garage that my dad has fixed his eyes on. It'd be neat to get it
running and drive around. Its totally a work truck however, with a
6 banger and 8 foot bed, spot light on the side, and dented up roof it
would take a bit more work then I care to ever put into a car
again. Ill be making a website
for the new house eventually, with pics and details on the work that i
did to it. Mostly cosmetic, however there were some major repairs.
I needed to replace most of the drain lines for the second floor because
they were leaking onto the first floor bath. Aside from that, new
floors for the first floor of the house, new kitchen cabinets, and i
needed to replace the plaster and lathing in the kitchen and bathroom
with nice new drywall. All the fixtures etc were replaced, and
finally i chose some modern paint colors, painting each room a different
color, while keeping the molding white in all rooms.
Today's Blog Entry
I learned something about 4/0 wire, its stiffer than
the interest rate on my 1st rental property. I spent a good deal
of the evening restling the dragon through the thick wall conduit into
my household, leaving a set of whiskers sticking out the side of the
house. after pulling two of them, the third posed a problem, the
solution to the problem? ...created a another, which stripped the
insulation off the third... Geez. Funny thing about all
this, is that my intuition told me there was a problem. So I spent
25$ worth of cable and 4 hours of brutal labor + Dinner for Roommates,
on a hunch which paid of. The cable sheath was compromised.
Ill be picking up some 2/0 wire (smaller since copper is a better
conductor) soon, however for now i'm on hold until the afore mentioned
rental house is taken care of.
Blog Date: sometime before the next one.
So I was asked about this website, I was delighted in stating
that I don't really know what I'm doing and that I created this thing in
less than an hour, having the server at my house helps out alot however.
I open this webpage like most people open up a word doc. So a
scheduled task of this with front page, could have a editorial screen
ready for myself to 'blogeraergggggg" or however that funny name came to
be. Eventually I'll conform to the commercially available (and
free) software, until then this will have to do.
Blog Entry, Sometime before now.
Maybe ill make a blog so I can write about what's
exciting, and also what is not exciting. On the order of not
exciting, id like to mention that my websites been down for several
weeks now because of a combination hard drive failure AND wireless
network card failure. That's right boys and girls, snowxninja.com
is no longer wireless (you probably didn't know...), we're on a good old
fashioned Ethernet connection. I've had the wireless card for the
server about 2 months, I suspect the wireless card was shutting down
when the PC's screen saver is on, or something of that nature. Its
probably most likely because nothing seems to run well on server 2003
regardless of what the product designers think. I'll most likely
be placing the wireless card into my own PC, someday...
Stardate 2309410-8120348123-48123-091238408
OK, so ive noticed for a while that images taken with my awesome HP
Photosmart 850 Camera, arent that awesome. For a $$$ 4 MP camera,
I really expected better.
Check out this image. Drag another window over top of the
2x4's on the left, and then the right side of the window. Notice
how the curve in opposite directions. Thats not because my house
is shaped like a fish bowl, in fact the 2x4's are straight to within
1/4" The 2.5" 's of distortion is somewhat disturbing. While
it doesnt degrade the quality of the image (for the most part) it sure
makes difficult for taking measurments from photographs.
My plans for this website are as follows:
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