Archive for September, 2023

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OVHcloud Adds Cutting-edge GPUs Helping Organisations to Power AI’s Most Demanding Workloads

Posted in Commentary with tags on September 28, 2023 by itnerd

OVHcloud, the European Cloud leader and a part of the NVIDIA Partner Network continues to develop its portfolio of AI solutions, today adding new NVIDIA GPU product offerings that form an integral part of its strategic vision for artificial intelligence. Acknowledging the tremendous impact AI will have in the years to come, OVHcloud is on a mission to help customers grow their businesses, uniting an ecosystem through innovative, easy and affordable AI solutions, featuring transparent, ethical and open models that preserve data privacy.

With over 20 years of expertise in infrastructure, through a unique vertically integrated industrial model, OVHcloud is designing AI-enabled infrastructures, which include new best-of-breed NVIDIA H100 and A100 Tensor Core GPUs. Customers will be able to choose from many options to power their most ambitious machine learning workloads, including large language models.

Adding to critically acclaimed options already offered at a competitive price with older generation NVIDIA V100 and NVIDIA V100S GPUs, the Group today announced new offerings based on the following GPUs: NVIDIA H100, NVIDIA A100, NVIDIA L40S and NVIDIA L4, with effective deployment ramping up in the coming weeks.


New GPU instances with NVIDIA A100 for deep learning training and inference 

New NVIDIA A100 80GB powered GPU instances are immediately available and let AI specialists run complex projects on highly specialized NVIDIA Tensor Cores. With exceptional abilities in deep learning training, A100 is also ideally suited to run inference thanks to various optimizations in tackling those workloads, including LLM-related projects. High-performance computing is another playing field where the A100 GPU instances help unlock the next-generation of discoveries, through advanced simulations, thanks to double-precision compute and high-bandwidth memory.

A100-based public cloud instances can be configured as A100-180 with 1x A100, 15 vCore and 180GB of RAM, A100-360 with 2x A100, 30 vCore and 360GB of RAM and A100-720 with 4x A100, 60 vCore and 720GB of RAM.


New GPU instances with NVIDIA H100 for deep learning training

OVHcloud is also announcing upcoming H100-based GPU instances built around NVIDIA’s latest accelerator with a compute power starting at 26 petaFLOPS (FP64) per PCIe GPU. Purpose-built for the most demanding AI models, the NVIDIA H100 is the de facto choice for innovation in AI, whether accelerating LLMs with its Transformer Engine, or creating generative AI applications.

For the most demanding use cases, such as extreme fine-tuning and training, the Group will offer NVIDIA H100 SXM-based solutions. With 67 TFlops of FP64 compute power and a higher GPU bandwidth, this select offering will showcase the full power of the NVIDIA Hopper GPU architecture. 

New GPU instances and bare-metal servers with NVIDIA L4 and L40S

The Group also today unveiled GPU instances featuring NVIDIA L4 GPUs with 24GB of memory. The L4, based on the NVIDIA Ada Lovelace GPU architecture, is a universal GPU for every workload with enhanced AI and video capabilities. It provides efficient compute resources for graphics, simulation, data science and data analytics.

The NVIDIA L40S GPU with 48GB of memory is also joining the Group’s GPU instances. NVIDIA L40S benefits from fourth-generation Tensor Cores and FP8 Transformer Engine providing robust performance for AI workloads both in training and inferencing.

These GPUs will be available through public cloud instances as well as in dedicated bare-metal servers with L4 in SCALE-GPU and L40S in HGR-AI.

Establishing a foundation to supercharge customer AI journeys

Thanks to an unprecedented choice of NVIDIA GPU architectures, OVHcloud now delivers an AI-designed infrastructure for AI engineers, researchers, data scientists and data practitioners that can leverage the elasticity of the cloud to support their needs from training to running inference.

Furthermore, OVHcloud will gradually add NVIDIA H100 and A100 options to its set of comprehensive AI PaaS solutions designed to accompany the data life cycle: AI Notebooks, AI Training and AI Deploy. OVHcloud AI solutions act as a complete set of tools that are easy to use, and designed to explore data, train models and serve them into production.

Executing on a strong dedicated AI roadmap, OVHcloud is set to announce in the weeks to come a wave of AI innovations designed to further help its customers in navigating this new paradigm.

Pricing & availability

GPU instances based on NVIDIA A100 are available now on public cloud starting at 2,75 EUR per hour for A100-180, 5,50 EUR per hour for A100-360 and 11 EUR per hour for A100-720. Managed AI solutions based on A100 will be available later at 3 EUR per hour. NVIDIA H100 PCIe-based instances in the public cloud universe will launch later this fall with pre-reservation starting now. Customers interested in upcoming NVIDIA H100 SXM offers can apply for a personalized quote.

NVIDIA L4 and L40S GPU instances will be available in October. New bare-metal servers featuring NVIDIA L4 and L40S GPUs are expected to launch this fall.

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Elon Musk Fires Twitter’s Entire “Election Integrity Team”…. Showing That He Has No Integrity

Posted in Commentary with tags on September 28, 2023 by itnerd

News broke late last night that Elon Musk clearly has zero integrity by firing Twitters “Election Integrity Team”. And this has been confirmed by Elon himself:

So let’s think about this. We’re heading into the 2024 elections with no protections on Twitter from nation states running disinformation campaigns on Twitter. And Elon thinks that this is a good idea. I think this illustrates that Elon is not an honest broker. Far from it in fact. And this highlights the fact (again) that nobody should spend any time on Twitter.

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75% of Companies Struggling with IT Operational Challenges in a Hybrid World: HP

Posted in Commentary with tags on September 28, 2023 by itnerd

HP Inc. today announced the findings of a new commissioned study, conducted by Forrester Consulting, highlighting the need for companies to adopt always-on endpoint management to cater for increasingly dispersed global workforces.

72% of companies surveyed currently have a hybrid working model, with 75% of respondents reporting that the shift to remote and hybrid working models has magnified IT operational challenges. 

Forrester Consulting’s survey of 312 IT and Security Decision makers shows that companies are struggling to balance asset management, user experience assurance, and risk management. 

Key findings in the 2023 study, “Mastering Endpoint Security In A Hybrid World” include:

  • The top challenges companies face when managing remote endpoints are ensuring data security (60%); keeping software on remote devices up to date (55%); and maximizing the accuracy of asset databases (55%). 
  • Just 42% of companies perform firmware updates annually, 23% update every two years or less, and 12% only update “when essential” – putting firms at risk of security vulnerabilities and compatibility issues.
  • Two-thirds (67%) of respondents say ensuring secure and continuous communication with remote endpoints is a major concern for their company’s IT department. 
  • IT is having to rely on subpar protection, with 50% citing inadequate endpoint security solutions as an obstacle to addressing security and management challenges. Meanwhile, 54% believe full-disk encryption provides substantial protection for endpoints but acknowledge it can be insufficient. For example, if the attacker has physical access to the device.

Always-on connectivity is the lynchpin of comprehensive endpoint management

In considering how these challenges may be overcome, 75% of respondents believe improved endpoint management would have a positive impact on overall business operations and efficiency.

Companies cited a need for more efficient endpoint software tracking and management (48%). To achieve this, respondents want device backup and restore capabilities (55%), automation of device recovery processes (47%), BIOS update deployment (46%), and device location tracking (46%).

To enhance remote endpoint security and management, 82% of respondents are also considering investment in solutions that can geo-locate, lock, and erase PCs remotely.

For example, HP Wolf’s Protect and Trace utilizes HP Wolf Connect to perform these functions on a PC even when it’s turned off or disconnected from the Internet.

About the research

This study, commissioned by HP and carried out by Forrester, surveyed 312 IT and security decision makers at companies with 500 or more employees across multiple industries in NA, EMEA and APJ. The study began in March 2023 and was completed in September 2023.

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Ransomware Takes Out One Of The UK’s Largest Logistics Firms

Posted in Commentary on September 28, 2023 by itnerd

KNP Logistics, one of the UK’s largest privately owned logistics groups has declared bankruptcy, blaming a June ransomware attack and potentially leaving 730 employees without jobs. According to administrators, the “major ransomware attack” impacted necessary systems, processes and financial information, and, consequently, adversely affected the financial position of the Group which left them unable to secure critical funding to recover.

  • “Against a backdrop of challenging market conditions and without being able to secure urgent investment due to the attack, the business was unable to continue. We will support all affected staff through this difficult time,” said Raj Mittal, the joint administrator who is handling the insolvency process for FRP Advisory.

After KNP was added to the Akira ransomware list of victims in June, Avast publicly released a decryptor for the Akira ransomware in July. It is not known whether KLP Logistics used the decryptor or if KLP had contacted law enforcement or an external incident response company following the ransomware attack.

Stephen Gates, Principal Security SME, Horizon3.ai:

   “Ransomware attackers are now putting all organizations in the ransomware crosshairs primarily for three reasons:

  1. Ransomware attackers are being emboldened to perform more attacks since they are rarely arrested and/or prosecuted for such crimes.
  2. Ransomware attackers know that many organizations are highly likely to pay the ransom to keep critical systems, technologies, and networks online.
  3. Too many organizations are actively paying the demands of attackers, further incentivizing new actors to use this extremely profitable attack vector at everyone else’s cost.

   “The most effective way to defeat ransomware attacks is to continuously assess your own infrastructure, find the attack paths an attacker would take, and then fix those issues and validate that your fixes defeated the discovered attack paths. Once complete, you rinse and repeat the process regularly to discover new attack paths. No other defensive or offensive method of reducing the risk of a successful ransomware attack against your organization will be as successful as the method explained here.”

If you needed one more reason to take ransomware seriously, this is it. This business was taken out by ransomware. And if you don’t have your house in order, you can be next. Consider this situation a case study in what could happen to you.

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LinkedIn Top Startups 2023: 15 Canadian companies on the rise

Posted in Commentary with tags on September 27, 2023 by itnerd

Today, LinkedIn released the 2023 Canadian Top Startups List, featuring the 15 emerging companies attracting attention and top talent in 2023.  

Grounded in unique LinkedIn data, Top Startups is an annual ranking of the young, emerging companies attracting professionals who want to work there. The list reveals the companies that are forward-thinking and innovative around the future of work. These growing startups are successfully navigating through the current world of work at a time where there is economic uncertainty.  

LinkedIn’s methodology is based on growth and demand. The data to rank startups on the list is based on four pillars that are synonymous with successful startups:  

  • Employment growth
  • Engagement
  • Job interest and attraction of top talent

This year, LinkedIn adjusted their eligibility requirements, lowering the age criteria to five years or younger in order to feature more companies in their earlier, venture stages of growth. 

2023 Top Startups Canada List  

  1. Neo Financial  
  2. Float  
  3. Cohere 
  4. Fable 
  5. ODAIA  
  6. Felix  
  7. AltaML 
  8. PurposeMed 
  9. Novisto  
  10. Vessi  
  11. Conquest Planning  
  12. Summit Nanotech  
  13. Sanctuary AI  
  14. Makeship  
  15. nesto 

Methodology  

LinkedIn measures startups based on four pillars: employment growth, engagement, job interest and attraction of top talent. Employment growth is measured as percentage headcount increase over methodology time frame, which must be a minimum of 10%. Engagement looks at non-employee views and follows of the company’s LinkedIn page, as well as how many non-employees are viewing employees at that startup. Job interest counts rate at which people are viewing and applying to jobs at the company, including both paid and unpaid postings. Attraction of top talent measures how many employees the startup has recruited away from any global LinkedIn Top Company, as a percentage of the startup’s total workforce. Data is normalized across all eligible startups. The methodology time frame is July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2023.  

To be eligible, companies must be fully independent, privately held, have 50 or more full-time employees, be 5 years old or younger and be headquartered in the country on whose list they appear. We exclude all staffing firms, think tanks, venture capital firms, law firms, management and IT consulting firms, nonprofits and philanthropy, accelerators and government-owned entities. Startups who have laid off 20% or more of their workforce based on corporate announcements or public, reliable sources between July 1, 2022 and the list launch, are not eligible. These decisions are made by the LinkedIn News team based on company statements and/or reputable news outlets. 

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Guest Post: Oppenheimer and Indian films lead August internet trends

Posted in Commentary with tags on September 27, 2023 by itnerd

The internet continues to evolve, and new trends emerge each month. In August 2023, Wikipedia pageview data provided insight into some of the hottest online trends.

According to the data presented by the Atlas VPN, the Oppenheimer film, an Indian movie “Gadar 2”, and Cleopatra were the most visited Wikipedia pages in August. Besides these, YouTube and Barbie’s film were also some of the most viewed pages. Throughout August, Wikipedia pages were visited nearly 7.8 billion times.

The biopic about J. Robert Oppenheimer starring Cillian Murphy generated nearly 7 million views on its Wikipedia page. In addition, the page about Oppenheimer, the person, ranked fifth on this list with 5.3 million views.

August was a hot month for Indian films. A highly visited page, with 6.6 million views, was the Indian action film “Gadar 2” released on August 11. It is the seventh highest-grossing Hindi film of all time. One more Indian film, “Jailer,” ranked seventh with 4.6 million views on Wikipedia.

Cleopatra ranks third on the most visited page list with 6.1 million views. YouTube’s Wikipedia page was visited 6 million times. Barbie’s live-action film drove nearly 5 million views to the Wikipedia page. U.S. presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, though lesser known, drew significant attention with 4.4 million clicks on his Wikipedia page.

Now one of the more funny entries on this list is the 2017 film “XXX: Return of Xander Cage” with 4.1 million views. Though there recently were some speculations about a fourth movie in the series, we believe that this interest comes from people searching for adult movies, but coming across the film’s Wikipedia page.

Cybersecurity writer at Atlas VPN, Vilius Kardelis, shares his thoughts on internet trends:

“In a media landscape where attention spans are short, the August 2023 Wikipedia data provides a snapshot into what held the internet’s focus, even for just a brief moment. For now, these pages offer a window into the culture and curiosities that defined the internet experience last month.”

To read the full article, head over to:

https://atlasvpn.com/blog/oppenheimer-and-indian-films-lead-august-internet-trends

oppenheimer-and-indian-films-lead-august-internet-trends

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Nikon Canada announces the NIKKOR Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena

Posted in Commentary with tags on September 27, 2023 by itnerd

Today Nikon Canada Inc. announced the release of the NIKKOR Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena, an impressively unique lens for Nikon Z series mirrorless cameras. This new mid-telephoto prime lens bestows astonishingly high resolution, edge-to-edge brightness, incredible sharpness and spectacularly dramatic bokeh, all while elevating the threshold of what’s possible with optical technology. 

The name “Plena” is derived from the Latin term plenum, which denotes the state of a space being completely full. This name was chosen to reflect the lens’s ability to fulfill the user’s creative vision with superior light gathering capability, beautiful, well-rounded bokeh and outstanding sharpness and clarity throughout the frame. Following in the footsteps of the NIKKOR Z 58mm f/0.95 S Noct, this distinctively brilliant portrait prime is only the second Nikon lens to be granted a dedicated name, with the hope that it will be highly regarded by users for many years to come.

This truly special optic is engineered with a focus on superior peripheral illumination, which is the ability to deliver the maximum amount of light to the far edges of the frame. The result is abundant brightness from edge-to-edge, with clear, bright subject distinction throughout. The combination of brightness, bokeh quality and extreme sharpness makes for vibrant images with a mystical pop of three dimensionality. The NIKKOR Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena is part of the S-Line1and takes advantage of the Z mount system’s large-diameter mount, which unlocks further possibilities of lens design, as well as the potential for light gathering. 

In addition to enhanced brightness, the optical formula and larger rear element helps to realize beautiful, well-rounded bokeh throughout the entire frame, even from maximum aperture. The NIKKOR Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena also affords users outstanding sharpness and clarity, regardless of the shooting distance with a close minimum focusing distance of only 0.82 m/2.69 ft. This enables a fantastic dreamlike expression that combines delicate textures and beautiful bokeh in portraits, landscapes and more. 

The lens’s luxurious exterior design is intended to match its superior optical performance. Along with the adoption of metal components, the lens features an engraved “Plena” logo similar to the cursive font and yellow colour of the Noct logo. Additional features include a fully weather-sealed body for durability and the addition of two L-Fn buttons for customization. 

Primary Features of the NIKKOR Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena

  • Beautiful, well-rounded bokeh is achieved throughout the entire frame, while supporting a fast f/1.8 maximum aperture. 
  • Eleven-blade diaphragm and larger rear element contribute to exceptionally circular bokeh for dreamlike expression that accentuates the three-dimensionality of the subject with smooth gradation. 
  • The large amount of peripheral light at the f/1.8 maximum aperture ensures a consistently bright image all the way to the extreme corners of the frame for a sense of transparency and brilliance in images.
  • The outstanding sharpness and clarity, characteristic of S-Line lenses, enables rendering of the finest textures in hair and skin tones, while excellent point-light reproduction capabilities achieve brilliant night and urban landscape imagery. 
  • A multi-focusing system uses stepping motors (STMs) for fast, accurate and quiet autofocus drive for still images and video.
  • In addition to Meso Amorphous Coat, the most effective anti-reflection coating in Nikon history that prevents reflections regardless of the direction from which light enters the lens, Nikon’s original ARNEO Coat is also used to effectively reduce instances of ghosting and flaring.
  • Optical construction consists of 16 elements in 14 groups, with four ED elements, one aspherical element and one SR lens element. 
  • A design that takes video recording into consideration with quiet operation and stable exposure.
  • The lens body features two lens Fn buttons, to which a wide variety of functions can be assigned. One is positioned on the top of the lens enabling smooth adjustment of settings even when shooting in vertical orientation.
  • The versatile 82mm filter attachment size enables the use of various lens filters designed to satisfy users’ creative intent.
  • Designed to achieve superior dust and drip-resistant performance2. 
  • Well balanced with a dimension of 3.9″x 5.5″, and a weight of 2.2 lbs /995 g. 

Price and Availability

The new NIKKOR Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena will be available in late October for a manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) of $3,399.95. For more information about the latest Nikon products, including the vast collection of NIKKOR Z lenses and the entire line of Z series cameras, please visit www.nikon.ca

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CISA Releases Supply Chain Risk Management Hardware Bill of Materials 

Posted in Commentary with tags on September 27, 2023 by itnerd

The CISA has released a Hardware Bill of Materials Framework (HBOM) for Supply Chain Risk Management. The Framework was developed by the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Supply Chain Risk Management (SCRM) Task Force.  

“The HBOM Framework offers a consistent and repeatable way for vendors and purchasers to communicate about hardware components, enabling effective risk assessment and mitigation in the supply chain. With standardized naming, comprehensive information, and clear guidance, organizations can safeguard against economic and security risks, enhancing overall resilience,” said CISA National Risk Management Center Assistant Director and ICT SCRM Task Force Co-Chair Mona Harrington.

Key components:  

  • Provides a range of potential use cases that purchasers may have for HBOMs, based on the nature of the risk the purchaser seeks to evaluate.
  • Sets forth a format that can be used to ensure consistency across HBOMs and to increase the ease with which HBOMs can be produced and used.
  • Provides a taxonomy of component/input attributes that, depending on the use for which the purchaser intends to use an HBOM

“This methodology gives organizations a useful tool to evaluate supply chain risks with a consistent and predictable structure for a variety of use cases” said John Miller, Senior Vice President of Policy and General Counsel at Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) and ICT SCRM Task Force Co-Chair.

Stephen Gates, Principal Security SME, Horizon3.ai had this to say:

   Like the SBOM initiative mentioned in the May 2021 Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity, the HBOM initiative makes a great deal of sense. Knowing what hardware and software components are inside of a product should help improve security in the supply chains we all rely upon. However, another movement that seems to be gaining steam is in the area of continuous security assessments for those who supply software, hardware, parts, and components that upstream entities rely upon – especially in terms of critical infrastructure.

   “For example, software and/or hardware manufacturers who are part of a supply chain and sell components to upstream entities will soon be asked to provide proof of continuous security assessments used as an indicator of just how secure their operations really are. Meaning, if you want to sell hardware and/or software to upstream buyers, you will soon be asked to prove your levels of security, and the only way to economically do that is to perform continuous security self-assessments.

   “The yearly checkbox penetration test so many have grown accustom too won’t cut the mustard any longer. They are only a snapshot in time, they often don’t tell the whole story, and they are cost prohibitive. Organizations who supply components upstream must find affordable ways of continuously assessing themselves and providing assessment reports to their buyers. Buyers must ensure they can mitigate any risk that could be transferred to them, hence the reason for wanting proof of supplier security levels.

   “The best way to continuously assess the security of a suppliers’ operations is to employ autonomous penetration testing technologies that can continuously assess and report on the security of the suppliers’ operations at any given moment in time. This will likely become the norm and not the acceptation moving forward.”

Like the SBOM this is a good move by the CISA. Because everything that we can all do to identify threats, be they hardware or software, is worth it to reduce an organization’s attack surface. This is one initiative that I can get behind.

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Rogers Has Had A Multi-Day Outage In East Toronto…. But It’s Not Their Fault

Posted in Commentary with tags on September 26, 2023 by itnerd

If you live in any of these areas in Toronto:

  • Thorncliffe
  • Upper Beaches
  • Don Mills 

Then you’re into day 2 of a Rogers outage. That means that all of these Rogers services are not working for you:

  • TV
  • Internet
  • Home Phone
  • Rogers Ignite Internet
  • Rogers Ignite TV

According to this document, someone other than Rogers cut a cable that took out all the services for all of the people in the above areas. Which sucks for those people. But to Roger’s credit, they are offering a three day credit to those affected. But that isn’t stopping people from blaming Rogers based on browsing the Internet and social media.

News flash: Even though Rogers isn’t known for its stability since the epic outage, this isn’t their fault. So they deserve a free pass this time around. Key words: This time around.

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Twitter Is The Biggest Source Of Disinformation According To The EU

Posted in Commentary with tags on September 26, 2023 by itnerd

It will come to the surprise to nobody that the EU has called out Twitter (I refuse to call it “X”) for being the biggest source of disinformation:

A top European Union official said Tuesday that the social network X, formerly known as Twitter, is the biggest source of fake news and urged owner Elon Musk to comply with the bloc’s laws aimed at combating disinformation. 

Ahead of upcoming elections, Google, TikTok, Microsoft and Meta also have more to do to tackle disinformation, much of it coming from Russia, which is using social media to wage a “war of ideas” against democracy, European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova said. 

Moscow’s disinformation operation “is a multimillion-euro weapon of mass manipulation aimed both internally at the Russians as well as at Europeans and the rest of the world,” she said at a press briefing in Brussels. 

With elections scheduled in Slovakia and Poland in the coming weeks and a bloc-wide vote next year, big online platforms must address the risk of online meddling, she said. 

The Kremlin and other malicious actors “will try to use the design features of the platforms to manipulate,” Jourova said.

She was providing an update on the 27-nation EU’s 2022 Code of Practice on Disinformation. Google, TikTok, Microsoft and Facebook and Instagram parent Meta signed up to the voluntary code last year, but Twitter dropped out after Musk bought the platform. 

X is “the platform with the largest ratio of mis- or disinformation posts,” Jourova said. 

An email to the company’s press team seeking comment resulted in an automatically generated reply that said, “Busy now, please check back later.”

At this point, it’s pretty clear that Elon doesn’t care about playing things straight up. And it highlights the fact that Twitter isn’t a place that you should spend any time if you want your social media experience to be free of hate and disinformation. But the real question is how long will it take before the EU or someone else smacks Elon silly? He really needs to be held accountable for this. Sooner rather than later.

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