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View Full Version : The insane spitfire video clip


gatt
October 27th 03, 01:33 AM
If you haven't seen this yet give it a look. It's a Spitfire practically
mowing the lawn during a wheels-up flyby at the camera. WTF?!

This is rated R for (wholly appropriate) use of strong language.

http://alexisparkinn.com/oh_my_god.htm

Jay Honeck
October 27th 03, 04:44 AM
> If you haven't seen this yet give it a look. It's a Spitfire practically
> mowing the lawn during a wheels-up flyby at the camera. WTF?!
>
> This is rated R for (wholly appropriate) use of strong language.
>
> http://alexisparkinn.com/oh_my_god.htm

Glad you like it -- I think it's the best one of the bunch! (I'll bet they
ever used that footage in the documentary they were filming -- at least not
with sound! :-)

Sorry about not being able to save the video -- I've received several
requests for instructions on how to save it. For some stupid reason, my
setting the video up on its own page seems to eliminate the ability to
"right click and save" it.

I'll be working to fix that.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Peter Duniho
October 27th 03, 06:18 AM
"Jay Honeck" > wrote in message
news:Uw0nb.38133$Tr4.79133@attbi_s03...
> Sorry about not being able to save the video -- I've received several
> requests for instructions on how to save it. For some stupid reason, my
> setting the video up on its own page seems to eliminate the ability to
> "right click and save" it.
>
> I'll be working to fix that.

Just include the full link somewhere on the page:

http://alexisparkinn.com/photogallery/Videos/ohmygodSpitfire%20pass.wmv

For that matter, anyone who wants to can use the above link to save it.

Pete

David Dyer-Bennet
October 27th 03, 06:20 AM
"Jay Honeck" > writes:

> Sorry about not being able to save the video -- I've received several
> requests for instructions on how to save it. For some stupid reason, my
> setting the video up on its own page seems to eliminate the ability to
> "right click and save" it.
>
> I'll be working to fix that.

It's because you used the "embed" tag (which is obsolete, having been
dropped from the HTML 4 specification in favor of the "object" tag),
instead of just linking to the file. I pulled the information out of
the source code, and could view (and save) the file directly just
fine:

<http://alexisparkinn.com/photogallery/Videos/Migcrash.mpg>
plays the mig crash video directly, for example.
--
David Dyer-Bennet, >, <www.dd-b.net/dd-b/>
RKBA: <noguns-nomoney.com> <www.dd-b.net/carry/>
Photos: <dd-b.lighthunters.net> Snapshots: <www.dd-b.net/dd-b/SnapshotAlbum/>
Dragaera/Steven Brust: <dragaera.info/>

Jay Honeck
October 27th 03, 03:05 PM
Thanks, guys. As always, I'm learning "on the fly" with this stuff. I'll
be making those additions shortly...

Gee, while you're at it, could you take a look at my new "floor plan
schematics" and tell me what you think? (See them at
http://alexisparkinn.com/floor_plans_&_descriptions.htm ).

Mary seems to think that they are the best thing on our site, since they
give potential guests a chance to see EXACTLY what their suite will look
like, from a "God's Eye" view. In this regard, photos of the suites don't
work as well...

I'm not done with all of them, yet (it's fairly labor intensive to measure
the suites and create the schematics) but I'm hopeful that visitors to the
site will find them useful. Certainly more useful (if perhaps not as fun!)
as our popular "Aviation Videos" page! :-)

Any suggestions are welcome, however!

Thanks...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Peter Duniho
October 27th 03, 07:26 PM
"Jay Honeck" > wrote in message
news:WC9nb.40657$Tr4.83989@attbi_s03...
> I'm not done with all of them, yet (it's fairly labor intensive to measure
> the suites and create the schematics) but I'm hopeful that visitors to the
> site will find them useful. Certainly more useful (if perhaps not as
fun!)
> as our popular "Aviation Videos" page! :-)
>
> Any suggestions are welcome, however!

The one comment I have is more of a question: when making reservations, are
guests able to guarantee a specific suite?

If not, I wouldn't bother with the floor plans, since all they do is create
expectations that may not be fulfilled. If they are able to, then
sure...having the floorplans is a nice enhancement to aid in selecting one's
suite (though I don't know if the amount of effort you put into it is worth
it :) ).

Pete

Don Tuite
October 27th 03, 08:26 PM
On Mon, 27 Oct 2003 10:26:32 -0800, "Peter Duniho"
> wrote:

>"Jay Honeck" > wrote in message
>news:WC9nb.40657$Tr4.83989@attbi_s03...
>> Any suggestions are welcome, however!
>
>The one comment I have is more of a question: when making reservations, are
>guests able to guarantee a specific suite?
>
>If not, I wouldn't bother with the floor plans, since all they do is create
>expectations that may not be fulfilled. If they are able to, then
>sure...having the floorplans is a nice enhancement to aid in selecting one's
>suite (though I don't know if the amount of effort you put into it is worth
>it :) ).

OTOH, Jay is promoting a destination, a "Honeckland in America's
Heartland." When you land there, your life is suddenly in
Technicolor. Filling the Web site with stuff means the adventure
starts before you ever leave home. (Look at that hot tub! There's
Jimmy Doolittle and the B-25s from the Tokyo raid taking off from the
deck of the USS Hornet!)

Don

gatt
October 27th 03, 08:50 PM
"Jay Honeck" > wrote in message news:Uw0nb.38133
use of strong language.
> >
> > http://alexisparkinn.com/oh_my_god.htm
>
> Glad you like it -- I think it's the best one of the bunch! (I'll bet
they
> ever used that footage in the documentary they were filming -- at least
not
> with sound! :-)

I've only watched it about a hundred times now. Let's see...ballpark
estimates would put the prop diameter at around 7', and he appears to have
been some fraction of that off the ground, GEAR UP...

Good God. I just can't imagine who would do that. Reminds me of Piece of
Cake where they're flying under the stone bridge (best flying footage in
anything I've ever watched, really.)

Do you know any details about the shoot? What airplane was it?

-c

Jay Honeck
October 27th 03, 08:56 PM
> I've only watched it about a hundred times now. Let's see...ballpark
> estimates would put the prop diameter at around 7', and he appears to have
> been some fraction of that off the ground, GEAR UP...
>
> Good God. I just can't imagine who would do that.

It really IS insane, isn't it?

That's what makes it so incredible.

Big John -- or VLenoch -- you reading this? Care to comment on this crazy
Spitfire driver's pass?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Bartscher
October 28th 03, 01:40 AM
>Glad you like it -- I think it's the best one of the bunch! (I'll bet they
>ever used that footage in the documentary they were filming -- at least not
>with sound! :-)

That is truly impressive, where did this come from? Seems to be a bit closer
than 500' from the nearest person, vehicle, or structure...

G.R. Patterson III
October 28th 03, 04:01 AM
gatt wrote:
>
> What airplane was it?

Judging from the radiators, it's a Spitfire Mk IX.

George Patterson
You can dress a hog in a tuxedo, but he still wants to roll in the mud.

Jay Honeck
October 28th 03, 06:07 AM
> The one comment I have is more of a question: when making reservations,
are
> guests able to guarantee a specific suite?

Yes!

One thing you'll find about our place -- NONE of the "normal" lodging rules
apply.

That's what happens when two pilots with no hotel background buy a small,
luxury suites inn. Stupid, crazy stuff like customer service starts to
happen! :-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jeff
October 28th 03, 08:51 AM
Hey Jay, just a heads up on using video clips.
There is a company called Acacia that claims to own the patent on recorded
streaming media.
They are asking that people pay them huge amounts of money to license their DMT
patents. How do I know about this, because we got a letter from them asking us
to pay them $10k to license their patents. They are not playing around, they
even sent these letters to universities, online radio stations and so forth.

Jeff

Jay Honeck wrote:

> > If you haven't seen this yet give it a look. It's a Spitfire practically
> > mowing the lawn during a wheels-up flyby at the camera. WTF?!
> >
> > This is rated R for (wholly appropriate) use of strong language.
> >
> > http://alexisparkinn.com/oh_my_god.htm
>
> Glad you like it -- I think it's the best one of the bunch! (I'll bet they
> ever used that footage in the documentary they were filming -- at least not
> with sound! :-)
>
> Sorry about not being able to save the video -- I've received several
> requests for instructions on how to save it. For some stupid reason, my
> setting the video up on its own page seems to eliminate the ability to
> "right click and save" it.
>
> I'll be working to fix that.
> --
> Jay Honeck
> Iowa City, IA
> Pathfinder N56993
> www.AlexisParkInn.com
> "Your Aviation Destination"

Dylan Smith
October 28th 03, 09:06 AM
On Mon, 27 Oct 2003 19:50:03 GMT, gatt > wrote:
>I've only watched it about a hundred times now. Let's see...ballpark
>estimates would put the prop diameter at around 7', and he appears to have
>been some fraction of that off the ground, GEAR UP...

If it's the video I'm thinking of, I got it a while ago, and I load it
up whenever I need a good laugh :-)

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"

Jay Honeck
October 28th 03, 03:02 PM
> There is a company called Acacia that claims to own the patent on recorded
> streaming media.
> They are asking that people pay them huge amounts of money to license
their DMT
> patents. How do I know about this, because we got a letter from them
asking us
> to pay them $10k to license their patents. They are not playing around,
they
> even sent these letters to universities, online radio stations and so
forth.

They claim a patent on ALL streaming media? Wow -- that's arrogance of
Microsoftian proportions.

Well, I suppose if they want to stop our fun, they can have a whack at me.

But they'll have to stand in line to do it. ;-)

(What's a "DMT patent"?)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Robert Moore
October 28th 03, 03:15 PM
(Bartscher) wrote
> That is truly impressive, where did this come from? Seems to be
> a bit closer than 500' from the nearest person, vehicle, or
> structure...

How about "except for takeoff or landing"? Looked to me as if he
was taking off.

Bob Moore

Corky Scott
October 28th 03, 04:54 PM
On Mon, 27 Oct 2003 19:50:03 GMT, "gatt" > wrote:

>I've only watched it about a hundred times now. Let's see...ballpark
>estimates would put the prop diameter at around 7', and he appears to have
>been some fraction of that off the ground, GEAR UP...
>
>Good God. I just can't imagine who would do that. Reminds me of Piece of
>Cake where they're flying under the stone bridge (best flying footage in
>anything I've ever watched, really.)
>
>Do you know any details about the shoot? What airplane was it?

I read an explanation in another group.

The gist is as follows: It was to be an introduction to a Discovery
program, if I remember right, and is about two years old. The
"talent" is supposed to introduce the piece and he's supposed to
finish his introduction in time for the Spitfire to zoom past.

I will extrapolate a bit and suggest that very likely the Spitfire had
run a pass or two ahead of time so that the filmers could time his
approach and work out how long the intro could be.

This could have happened at any time prior to the "talent" arriving
for his part. I say this because it seems pretty obvious that the guy
has no idea how close the pass will be.

This, again pretty obviously, is the first take.

Here's an additional detail: the pilot of the Spitfire is a guy who
flies it in shows a lot and has the reputation for flying extremely
low. If you watch the approach carefully, you'll notice that the guy
is so low, he actually has to climb a bit to clear the camera crew.
His prop disc, at one point, appears to be only about four feet above
the turf.

It was a pass in which the Spitfire circles out of camera view, and
dives down to begin the approach. He isn't taking off and climbing
out right over the crew.

Corky Scott

Sam
October 28th 03, 11:16 PM
(Corky Scott) wrote in message >...
>
> The gist is as follows: It was to be an introduction to a Discovery
> program, if I remember right, and is about two years old. The
> "talent" is supposed to introduce the piece and he's supposed to
> finish his introduction in time for the Spitfire to zoom past.
>
> <SNIP>

The announcer is Alain de Cadenet from Speed TV. They used to have
aviation programs before Fox bought the network.

Jeff
October 28th 03, 11:58 PM
Thats what their patent claims, so far, some of the biggest companies, Hustler,
wicked, Vivid, lodge net, and others, have signed their license agreement. After
our attorney reviewed the patents, we signed it also. Its no joke, they are
going after everyone, they have had the courts shut down alot of sites that
refused to pay licensing fee's.
A few places are litigating it, I am sure the out come of the trial will
invalidate the patents, but as of now, they are enforcing them.

BTW they havnt been standing in any lines, they have been pushing their way to
the front of it :)

This is the same company who in 2000, claimed they held the patent on the V-chip
technology, alot of companies paid up, a few went to court. after 2 years,
acacia lost. But as Rob Berman said in a radio interview "we made 200 million
dollars, so did we really lose"



Jay Honeck wrote:

> > There is a company called Acacia that claims to own the patent on recorded
> > streaming media.
> > They are asking that people pay them huge amounts of money to license
> their DMT
> > patents. How do I know about this, because we got a letter from them
> asking us
> > to pay them $10k to license their patents. They are not playing around,
> they
> > even sent these letters to universities, online radio stations and so
> forth.
>
> They claim a patent on ALL streaming media? Wow -- that's arrogance of
> Microsoftian proportions.
>
> Well, I suppose if they want to stop our fun, they can have a whack at me.
>
> But they'll have to stand in line to do it. ;-)
>
> (What's a "DMT patent"?)
> --
> Jay Honeck
> Iowa City, IA
> Pathfinder N56993
> www.AlexisParkInn.com
> "Your Aviation Destination"

Douglas S. Ladden
October 29th 03, 07:36 AM
Jay Honeck on 28 Oct 2003 suggested:

> (What's a "DMT patent"?)

A patent relating to "Digital Media Transmission" (DMT). Actually,
they have 5 such U.S. Patents. You can see them from here:
http://www.acaciatechnologies.com/uspatents_all.htm

--Douglas

Do What?
October 29th 03, 06:05 PM
On Tue, 28 Oct 2003 14:58:03 -0800, Jeff > wrote:

>Thats what their patent claims, so far, some of the biggest companies, Hustler,
>wicked, Vivid, lodge net, and others, have signed their license agreement. After
>our attorney reviewed the patents, we signed it also.

How long ago was this? Your attorney could have easily requested a
stay on the court date until the current lawsuit against Acacia is
settled (which will more than likley invalidate their patents).


>Its no joke, they are
>going after everyone, they have had the courts shut down alot of sites that
>refused to pay licensing fee's.

Which is misleading, and almost makes it sound like Acacia acutally
presented a case in their favor, which is not the case.
The only time Acacia has won anything in court, was when the defendant
refused to appear.... and is not "a lot" of sites, just a handful run
by a few select companies.

If their pantent held *any* weight, companies like Yahoo, MS, AOL, etc
would be the targets.

Acacia definitely seems to be pros in this area... milking a puchased
pantent for all they can before the courts deem them invalid.

Do What?
October 29th 03, 09:40 PM
On Wed, 29 Oct 2003 11:05:51 -0600, Do What? >
wrote:

>On Tue, 28 Oct 2003 14:58:03 -0800, Jeff > wrote:
>
>>Thats what their patent claims, so far, some of the biggest companies, Hustler,
>>wicked, Vivid, lodge net, and others, have signed their license agreement. After
>>our attorney reviewed the patents, we signed it also.
>
>How long ago was this? Your attorney could have easily requested a
>stay on the court date until the current lawsuit against Acacia is
>settled (which will more than likley invalidate their patents).

Just to correct myself... there is no lawsuit against Acacia, but
there are finally a group of defendants (11) that are well prepared to
challenge the Acacia claim (something that has yet to be done).

Either way, one could make a very strong case for a stay until those
play out in the courts.

Jay Honeck
October 29th 03, 11:25 PM
> http://www.acaciatechnologies.com/uspatents_all.htm

Eye...lids...heavy...

Can't...focus...

Must...sleep.....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jeff
October 30th 03, 02:51 AM
how long ago, last week was when we sent them the check.


Do What? wrote:

> If their pantent held *any* weight, companies like Yahoo, MS, AOL, etc
> would be the targets.

actually this was asked of them during a live interview, their response was the law
allows them certain latitude, they decided to go after websits because they can make
more money.
But remember they already signed lodgnet (the people who provide in-room movies to
hotels) and are trying to get money from Universities right now.

patent law suits are expensive, its not something you want to fight if you dont have
to.

Jeff
October 30th 03, 03:00 AM
actually there are law suits against acacia by a couple of different companies. Not
directly against the DMT patents, but as a result of them and ongoings around them.

There is a group (whom I know personally and recently talked to on the phone) who has
been in litigation with acacia for awhile.
This isnt a new thing, its just recently they have been really pushing their license
thing. I think they will win, there is ALOT of people helping them find prior art. We
were first "asked" to sign their license agreement 3 months ago. The company in
litigation was first "ask" to sign it last year.

Do What? wrote:

> On Wed, 29 Oct 2003 11:05:51 -0600, Do What? >
> wrote:
>
> >On Tue, 28 Oct 2003 14:58:03 -0800, Jeff > wrote:
> >
> >>Thats what their patent claims, so far, some of the biggest companies, Hustler,
> >>wicked, Vivid, lodge net, and others, have signed their license agreement. After
> >>our attorney reviewed the patents, we signed it also.
> >
> >How long ago was this? Your attorney could have easily requested a
> >stay on the court date until the current lawsuit against Acacia is
> >settled (which will more than likley invalidate their patents).
>
> Just to correct myself... there is no lawsuit against Acacia, but
> there are finally a group of defendants (11) that are well prepared to
> challenge the Acacia claim (something that has yet to be done).
>
> Either way, one could make a very strong case for a stay until those
> play out in the courts.

Do What?
October 30th 03, 04:35 AM
On Wed, 29 Oct 2003 17:51:28 -0800, Jeff > wrote:

>how long ago, last week was when we sent them the check.
>
>
>Do What? wrote:
>
>> If their pantent held *any* weight, companies like Yahoo, MS, AOL, etc
>> would be the targets.
>
>actually this was asked of them during a live interview, their response was the law
>allows them certain latitude, they decided to go after websits because they can make
>more money.

Yeah, after receiving my "notice", I've come across quite a bit of
more-than-interesting info about this whole ordeal.

One thing that really stood out was their Q3 conference call last
week.... one of the shareholder asked if there was any open
litigation. Acacia's response, "no"
Pretty bold to mislead shareholders... and while Im not securities
guru, is this not against the law?

Funny thing is, that neither my sites, nor the sites I link to violate
their patent.....

Jeff
October 30th 03, 10:26 AM
They have been sending this letter to sites that have shut down, sites that dont have
video and so on.
I may be able to direct you to alot of other information on acacia and the people who are
fighting it, but you seen to want to be anonymous on here for some reason and most of the
stuff on this I wont post to a newsgroup or on a msg board because believe it or not,
acacia reads some of it and some of it just dont need posted here.
shoot me an E-mail if you want

I just pulled this from a msg board of a guy who called them today:
-------------------------
After a 2nd phone conversation with those people, I was told the following:

Me:
Ok, now I have taken out the 23 links from my sites which led to videos. Can you send me
a letter stating that I am not infringing your so called patent?

Acacia:
No, that is not possible, you are linking to galleries which contain pictures and
banners, when those banners are clicked, they take you to sites which offer membership
for picture and video content.

Me:
You must be kidding me!!! I can't link to site or galleries with movies on it, and now
you claim I can't link to picture galleries which promote a sponsor which offers videos
and pics?????

Acacia:
That is correct.

Me:
Well, then I will put the movies links on my site and you'll see me in court.

END

Those Acacia people are incredible!!!!!

-------------------

Do What? wrote:

> On Wed, 29 Oct 2003 17:51:28 -0800, Jeff > wrote:
>
> >how long ago, last week was when we sent them the check.
> >
> >
> >Do What? wrote:
> >
> >> If their pantent held *any* weight, companies like Yahoo, MS, AOL, etc
> >> would be the targets.
> >
> >actually this was asked of them during a live interview, their response was the law
> >allows them certain latitude, they decided to go after websits because they can make
> >more money.
>
> Yeah, after receiving my "notice", I've come across quite a bit of
> more-than-interesting info about this whole ordeal.
>
> One thing that really stood out was their Q3 conference call last
> week.... one of the shareholder asked if there was any open
> litigation. Acacia's response, "no"
> Pretty bold to mislead shareholders... and while Im not securities
> guru, is this not against the law?
>
> Funny thing is, that neither my sites, nor the sites I link to violate
> their patent.....

gatt
October 31st 03, 10:30 PM
> > Good God. I just can't imagine who would do that.
>
> It really IS insane, isn't it?
>
> That's what makes it so incredible.
>
> Big John -- or VLenoch -- you reading this? Care to comment on this crazy
> Spitfire driver's pass?

Whew. For awhile there, reading the thread, I thought I must have posted to
comp.video.geeks and not rec.aviation...

:>

Anybody know about that flyby? Did he take off and retract his gear or did
he actually get down that low with his gear up?

-c

gatt
October 31st 03, 10:30 PM
"G.R. Patterson III" > wrote in message > > What
airplane was it?
>
> Judging from the radiators, it's a Spitfire Mk IX.

That's what I guessed. It matches the painting on my living room wall.

That reporter got one hell of a haircut!

-c

gatt
October 31st 03, 10:35 PM
"Corky Scott" > wrote in message

> I read an explanation in another group.

Alright! Thanks for the info, Mr. Scott!

> Here's an additional detail: the pilot of the Spitfire is a guy who
> flies it in shows a lot and has the reputation for flying extremely
> low. If you watch the approach carefully, you'll notice that the guy
> is so low, he actually has to climb a bit to clear the camera crew.
> His prop disc, at one point, appears to be only about four feet above
> the turf.

Yeah....I was looking at it frame by frame and looking at a Spit model I
had, and comparing wingspan dimensions and stuff to try to determine the
prop diameter and, thus, his "altitude."
Turns out it's difficult to find the prop diameter of a Spit if you don't
have immediate access to a bookstore.

> It was a pass in which the Spitfire circles out of camera view, and
> dives down to begin the approach. He isn't taking off and climbing
> out right over the crew.

Crazycrazy. That's Bob Hoover crazy, except Bob Hoover isn't actually
crazy.

-c

Dylan Smith
November 4th 03, 07:43 PM
On Thu, 30 Oct 2003 01:26:03 -0800, Jeff > wrote:
<snippage: patents>

Patents are becoming a real problem in the technology field. So many
patents with very little merit are being allowed to pass.

The intent of the patent system is to encourage innovation by granting
temporary monopolies. But the invention must be novel, and not obvious
to someone ordinary skilled in the art amongst other things.

The trouble is many software patents don't meet this test. This Acacia
one is just one of hundreds that are making software developers sigh
all over the world (well, all over the USA at least). Amazon, for
example, have a patent on buying stuff with one click - something
that is so obvious that many many web developers have simultaneously
and independently 'invented' it. Just Amazon patented it first, and
the patent examiners aren't sufficiently skilled (and don't have
sufficient time) to see that it's obvious to someone ordinarily
skilled in the art - or that it has prior art. Unfortunately once
a patent has been granted, it is so expensive to get it thrown out
that most companies choose to roll over like giant twinkies and
cough up the licensing money. Patents in the software world, far
from encouraging innovation, are stifling innovation. Not because
the patent laws are bad, but because the USPTO are more or less
rubber stamping obvious 'inventions'. It's virtually impossible
to write a program - even a simple shell script - without infringing
a meritless software patent.

At least the issue seems to be getting a bit of airtime outside the
software world now - and maybe some pressure will be forthcoming
to make it easier to throw out bad patents and raise the bar on
what can be patented.

Now European countries are headed down the same insane route. Let's
hope that patent offices in Europe hire people who can see obvious
things and throw them out, but I hold out very little hope indeed.

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"

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