# Dan Brown on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire"



## Anthony (Oct 7, 2009)

Considering how many cubers on this forum pogobat's videos have taught (whether or not we like his method), I figure this is worth posting.

Best of luck, Dan.

What do you guys think.. Will he win a million dollars?


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## teller (Oct 7, 2009)

That's easy. "No, he will not win."


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## Tim Major (Oct 7, 2009)

I wish I didn't learn off him, but still, most people who learn to solve a 3x3, don't go on to be speed cubers, or even cubers. I think his tutorial is very good for people who just want to solve the cube, as he explains everything very simply.

He won't win a million bucks, 'cause he's too stupid. jks.


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## Faz (Oct 7, 2009)

ZB_FTW!!! said:


> I think his tutorial is very good for people who just want to solve the cube, as he explains everything very simply.



LMAO, he rushes through everything and it is very hard to understand if you have no knowledge of the cube.


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## Andreaillest (Oct 7, 2009)

Best of luck to Dan!
I never will understand the hate he recieves from some cubers. His method may not be "fast" but he taught A LOT of people how to solve it. Me included. That is the goal of the video. Teaching you "how to solve" not "how to solve fast." If his tutorial was so "bad" then I guess he wouldn't have gotten so many views. I for one understood his tutorial and am here because of that. It's ok to not like the method, but to hate Dan himself is unreasonable. Well that's my two cents.


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## Tim Major (Oct 7, 2009)

fazrulz said:


> ZB_FTW!!! said:
> 
> 
> > I think his tutorial is very good for people who just want to solve the cube, as he explains everything very simply.
> ...


I only watched the second part of his tutorial, because I could already make the first two layers, because some people at my school told me to make the cross, put in the corners and then the edges, and I worked it out intuitively, so I only needed his help for the final layer. I never got into spamming R' U' R U like everyone else who learnt of him, as I only watched part 2.
I found it very simple.


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## V-te (Oct 7, 2009)

I learned from him. Here I am learning full OLL and 3LLL and a 28 sec average and a PB of 22.34 secs. Lol. Unnecessary info, but it shows you that it's all in will. I had patience and determination and that's why I'm intermediate (I will never consider myself an expert until I get sub 10). Many of my friends, who learned the same method, but not from him, quit; they didn't have the patience to continue to speedcubing. 

On Topic: Good luck dan, and thank you for giving me my first real hobby.


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## Faz (Oct 7, 2009)

Yes, I also learnt from him  Took me a few days to solve it.


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## Tim Major (Oct 7, 2009)

fazrulz said:


> Yes, I also learnt from him  Took me a few days to solve it.



25 minutes for me. The first time I screwed up the last step of R' D' R D(took about 15 mins for that attempt, so the second solve took 10 mins, and it worked the second time. I memorised all the algorithms that day.

Edit: Anyway Feliks, at the last meetup you came to, you said you learnt off badmephisto when I asked you to do a beginners solve using pogobat's tutorial.


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## andatude (Oct 7, 2009)

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO DANNNNNNNNNNN!


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## DavidWoner (Oct 7, 2009)

He will win $64,000.


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## Faz (Oct 7, 2009)

ZB_FTW!!! said:


> fazrulz said:
> 
> 
> > Yes, I also learnt from him  Took me a few days to solve it.
> ...



Err, no?

I said something like "I can't remember the method.


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## LNZ (Oct 7, 2009)

Dan Brown's (aka Pogobat) Youtube videos taught me how to solve a 4x4 cube. For that I'm very greatful to him. With that money he's going to win, he can now affoard the very best cubes and puzzles money can buy.


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## AvGalen (Oct 7, 2009)

His method is indeed bad as a speedsolving method BUT
His way of explaining and his slow turning actually works for many people (I have been told this personally by someone that I taught a speedcubing method afterwards)

Just be happy for him and hope he will win


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## guitardude7241 (Oct 7, 2009)

I learned from his tutorial, and the transition from his method to Fridrich wasn't too hard for me. I would've liked it to be easier(who wouldn't?), but it really wasn't a hassle.


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## Tyson (Oct 7, 2009)

He will win ~$103,000. Or whatever the EV of the game is.


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## Muesli (Oct 7, 2009)

I wish him the best of luck, but if they mention "how brilliant he is at the Rubik's cube and how he has taught the world" I may have to swim across the atlantic to throttle him.

In a nice way, of course.


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## (X) (Oct 7, 2009)

I hope he'll do a cube solve at the show. They'll probably start him at the LL or somthing though


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## Nukoca (Oct 7, 2009)

I BELEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEIVE!!


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## qqwref (Oct 7, 2009)

Tyson said:


> He will win ~$103,000. Or whatever the EV of the game is.



I don't think you can calculate the expected value of a trivia game, because it is essentially a game of chance where the probabilities are completely different for each person who tries it. There is no way to know what is asked or to catalog what individual contestants know, so you can't even determine the probability of someone getting a given question right. Sure, you could try by taking the raw mean of all winnings on the show, but different people have different types of knowledge so that number would be meaningless as a predictor.


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## anythingtwisty (Oct 7, 2009)

What really makes me mad is the fact that he appears to take all the credit for this method. I recently received a solution booklet, packaged with a storebought, that had the same method, down to every last move, and it said the method was copyright Dan Knights. In no part of Dan Brown's video does he give any acknowledgement to this simple fact.


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## piemaster (Oct 7, 2009)

If he did a cube solve and stuff, then it would be a HUGE thing for the cubing community, just think how many new cubers we would have...


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## rjohnson_8ball (Oct 7, 2009)

I wonder if the TV show actually intended to reach Dan Brown, famous author of "The Da Vinci Code".


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## vrumanuk (Oct 7, 2009)

I wish him the best of luck.


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## JTW2007 (Oct 8, 2009)

anythingtwisty said:


> I recently received a solution booklet, packaged with a storebought, that had the same method, down to every last move, and it said the method was copyright Dan Knights.



If I recall correctly (maybe Pat can offer more insight into this), that solution was devised by Dan Knights, but the Rubik's company went against a previous deal they had with Dan and used the solution anyway. With regards to Dan Brown:

I never really cared much for the guy. My only real response to this thread would be, "Okay."


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## daniel0731ex (Oct 8, 2009)

his method isn't that bad, actuaclly, it's just the libricating with vaseline part that causes the hatres toward him.

also, he regarded OLL as "extremely long algorithms that takes very long time to memorize." wtf






BTW:



"_Brown did not figure out his own method of solving the Rubik's cube. In fact, he just looked at the instructions included with the popular puzzle cube. He stated this in a television interview he did for his local news network. Regardless, the beginner method that he taught is sometimes called the Dan Brown Method_." - wikipedia. 


(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Brown_(YouTube))


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## DAE_JA_VOO (Oct 9, 2009)

I learned from his videos too. I thought they were great and very easy to follow. After watching Badmephisto's new video though, I wish I hadn't learned from Dan.

And no, he won't win.


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## Ranzha (Oct 10, 2009)

He won't win the million.
He's a 19-year-old YouTubing college student. How could he pull this off?
At least I predict he'll get over 25K.
No doubts.

Goon luck to you, Dan!

Also, I learned from him too in January 2009. It's very simple and easy to use, but I think he should have gone a little more in-depth about things, such as giving examples.
Even so, I watch his vlogs, I watched DBU, and without his tutorial, I would not be as accomplished as I am now without him. Nevertheless, RobH0629's is better, no doubt.
That is all.


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## ~Phoenix Death~ (Dec 30, 2009)

Dan will make at least...50k. He's smart...in some way.


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## Dene (Dec 30, 2009)

I'm assuming this has long since happened; does anyone know the result.

Also, can I ask, on the US version of the show do you have fastest finger first, or what? Judging from your posts, you all make it sound as if he will definitely get to the hotseat. I've only ever really watched the British version, so my immediate reaction was "he won't even get to the hotseat in the first place >_>"


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## Edmund (Dec 30, 2009)

Yeah there is fastest finger (or at least there was back when Regis did it).


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## CitricAcid (Dec 30, 2009)

wOOt Dan!

I love his new style of videos. 

He's a very good teacher. 

However, not good for someone who wants to be fast.

Which, probably 95% of people who want to solve the Cube don't want to be fast.. lol


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## Quaddro (Dec 30, 2009)

They do want to be fast, but they don't want to spend effort for it.

I learned from him, and I think his tutorials are kind of good if you don't want to get good at it, but I think Badmephisto deserves a lot of the pride he gets. I wish I would have learned from him. Yet, Pogobat is good to introduce people to speedcubing, and by that I mean that if he hadn't made his videos, I wouldn't end up being able to solve it, even more, solve it faster than 25 seconds. People just wouldn't stumble upon his video accidentaly.


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## chris410 (Dec 30, 2009)

I hope he does well, I stumbled upon his video which prompted me to buy a cube...about a week later, I got bored with it and stopped. Well, after a few weeks I began to look into the more advanced ways to solve the cube and found badmephisto's videos. From there I learned F2L and 2-Look OLL/PLL however, never focused on times until I came across this site. Now, I have to break bad habits and work on specific areas such as the cross/F2L...once those improve off to full PLL then perhaps full OLL depending on what time I have. I am happy to say that between badmephisto's videos and the advice here on the forum and from certain members, I've gone from 1:40's as of 12/15 (date I started writing times down) to upper 50's for averages and a best of 44 seconds. Nothing spectacular however, goes to show that his videos have gotten some into cubing, what a person will do from there in terms of learning the more advanced methods really comes down to their interest. Not sure if his newer videos mention anything about the advanced methods but, it would help those who learn the beginner method and get bored with it.


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## Mike Hughey (Dec 30, 2009)

Dene said:


> I'm assuming this has long since happened; does anyone know the result.
> 
> Also, can I ask, on the US version of the show do you have fastest finger first, or what? Judging from your posts, you all make it sound as if he will definitely get to the hotseat. I've only ever really watched the British version, so my immediate reaction was "he won't even get to the hotseat in the first place >_>"



It appears he really did go on - here's a post from his Twitter:


> # Opened today's mail-got a hand written note from Meredith Vieira thanking me for going on Millionaire! She's just as nice as she seems. 9:23 PM Oct 22nd from TwitterBerry



So it appears he went on the show. It was supposed to air sometime in January 2010, so I guess he's still not allowed to tell anyone how he did. (Not even whether he got to the hotseat, I'm guessing.)


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## NimbleFingers (Jan 3, 2010)

*I hate gravedigging, but here's my response....*

With Meredith, they got rid of the fastest finger, all you have to do to appear on the show is register to audition, and pretty much anyone with a little bit of charisma makes the show. BS, just IMO. I used to be a big fan of the show, back when I was 9, Regis was on, and Millionaire used to be wildly popular. But now, I don't really watch it even when it's on, and I'm home from school. The show's been going downhill ever since they got rid of the fastest finger, and it's filled with a lot of idiots. I have problems with Meredith too. It's not that she's bad, just not as good as Regis. The last time I watched it, some idiot waited yill the last three seconds to guess on a $300 question (pointless), didn't bother using a lifeline, panicked and chose the wrong answer. It deserves a :fp But it will be interesting to see Dan, and best of luck to him. After all, he did get me into cubing, well, until I saw badmephsito's tutorial . And if you're still reading, sorry for the long post haha


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## moogra (Jan 4, 2010)

NimbleFingers said:


> The last time I watched it, some idiot waited yill the last three seconds to guess on a $300 question (pointless), didn't bother using a lifeline, panicked and chose the wrong answer.



I've seen more than one person miss on the first question, but to be honest, I don't know every single one of the first questions either. 20% of the time, I would also miss.


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## reThinking the Cube (Jan 4, 2010)

Wouldn't it appear totally fixed to have Dan Brown be given a personal invitation to appear on the show, _Who Wants to be a Millionaire _, and then actually win the $1,000,000? 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_$64,000_Question

I'm not so sure that the producers of this TV show have Dan's best interest at heart.

Prediction: 1st or 2nd question (that would be considered very easy for most, but something Dan knows nothing about), will knock him out. 

EDIT: If I was him, I would REALLY book up on everything that had to do with the Rubik's Cube. If he missed a question like that, it would be very damaging to his reputation. Just another angle to watch out for.

This whole thing smells like a big pile of banana scented caviar to me.


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## ~Phoenix Death~ (Jan 4, 2010)

Dan was awesome.
I should have switched to Fridrich earlier though. Damn it. I kept wondering 2 things
1)Is the Vaseline really helping?
2)Why do I keep getting sub-1 minute?!?!?
And I usually have fast instincts too. And I stunk at memorizing algorithms.


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## Dene (Jan 4, 2010)

So then, they got rid of fastest finger first? That is a shame. The NZ version doesn't have it. The NZ version is also possibly the worst gameshow in history, which strongly contrasts with the British version, which is without a doubt the best gameshow in history.


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## MTGjumper (Jan 5, 2010)

Dene said:


> So then, they got rid of fastest finger first? That is a shame. The NZ version doesn't have it. The NZ version is also possibly the worst gameshow in history, which strongly contrasts with the British version, which is without a doubt the best gameshow in history.




Really? It used to be mandatory viewing on Saturday nights (like, 10 years ago) but now, from what I've seen, they've altered it and it's not as good.


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## AndyRoo789 (Jan 14, 2010)

Update


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## ChrisBird (Jan 14, 2010)

He won about 1000 at most =p


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## Faz (Jan 22, 2010)

He won 5000.


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## richardzhang (Jan 22, 2010)

fazrulz said:


> He won 5000.


Was tht a guess?


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## Faz (Jan 22, 2010)

no.


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## richardzhang (Jan 22, 2010)

fazrulz said:


> no.


K, how did you know?


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## Faz (Jan 22, 2010)




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## Muesli (Jan 22, 2010)

What?! Since when was there a 15 second time limit!!!


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## GermanCube (Jan 22, 2010)

Musli4brekkies said:


> What?! Since when was there a 15 second time limit!!!



This is weird!

In Germany we don't have a time limit - but the show looks exactly the same, as it would take place in the same studio


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## reThinking the Cube (Jan 22, 2010)

In pre-testing, only 3% got the correct answer. He wasn't suppossed to get that question right!


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## Lucas Garron (Jan 22, 2010)

Musli4brekkies said:


> What?! Since when was there a 15 second time limit!!!


Yeah, I was also surprised. The slow deliberation was part of the appeal of the show!

(Doesn't this mean they have to write more questions now?)

Anyhow, he really is a nice guy. If only he cared more about accuracy in his presentation of cubing, he'd be an appreciable asset to cubing...


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## reThinking the Cube (Jan 22, 2010)

Lucas Garron said:


> Musli4brekkies said:
> 
> 
> > What?! Since when was there a 15 second time limit!!!
> ...




OMG - Lucas! I fell off my chair and hurt my head! You beast.


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## reThinking the Cube (Jan 22, 2010)

Quaddro said:


> They do want to be fast, but they don't want to spend effort for it.
> 
> I learned from him, and I think his tutorials are kind of good if you don't want to get good at it, but I think Badmephisto deserves a lot of the pride he gets. I wish I would have learned from him. Yet, Pogobat is good to introduce people to speedcubing, and by that I mean that if he hadn't made his videos, I wouldn't end up being able to solve it, even more, solve it faster than 25 seconds. People just wouldn't stumble upon his video accidentaly.



I wan't to say alot here,but maybe just +1 would do.


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## MichaelP. (Jan 22, 2010)

I learnt from the little folding packet that comes with the cube. 

Nice job Dan, though, I was stumped on the disney ride question.


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## eastamazonantidote (Jan 22, 2010)

Too bad, Dan. Still, 5000 dollars isn't shabby.


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## Lucas Garron (Jan 22, 2010)

reThinking the Cube said:


> Lucas Garron said:
> 
> 
> > Musli4brekkies said:
> ...


Huh?

By the way, Musli4brekkies, the 15 second time limit on inspection has been around since 1982.


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## Muesli (Jan 22, 2010)

Lucas Garron said:


> reThinking the Cube said:
> 
> 
> > Lucas Garron said:
> ...


There (to my knowledge) has never been a time limit on the original, UK version of the show.

EDIT: But you're on about cubing. I feel a bit dumb now.


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## Stefan (Jan 22, 2010)

reThinking the Cube said:


> In pre-testing, *only 3% got the correct answer*. He wasn't suppossed to get that question right!



How do you know? And shouldn't even blind guessing result in 25%? Didn't look like a trick question to me, so 3% sounds unbelievable.


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## deadalnix (Jan 22, 2010)

Anyway, the question was really easy. Maybe because I'm french xD But this is a dumb question anyway. Aïoli is what it is, not ketchump, mayonese or whatever. This question is more revelant about US culture than french food.

I'm also very surprised of the 3% of good answer. This is simply unreallistic considering there are only 3 answers.


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## EmersonHerrmann (Jan 22, 2010)

FIRST THEY TAKE AWAY REGIS AND THEN THEY ADD A 15 SECOND TIME LIMIT, WHAT THE HELL?!!?


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## PHPJaguar (Jan 22, 2010)

Don Brown will be on the air in less than 5 minutes: http://www.wbal.com/listen/player.asp
Found out from his Twitter.

Edit: You have to use Mozilla Firefox, or IE, or IE Tab in Chrome.
Edit2: It's over. Did ANYONE get to listen?


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## Dene (Jan 22, 2010)

lol at the current US version of the show. What a joke, they ruined it almost as bad as the NZ version. Time limit? Lol. CATEGORIES?? LOLASAURUS. 

May as well put it out there that I knew all the answers up until the one he got wrong. Personally, I guessed Mayonnaise. 

Also, what's up with "ask the expert"?? Screw that. I wanna phone a friend, fags.


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## *LukeMayn* (Jan 23, 2010)

WTF???

They shouldn't only have 15 seconds... Try over 9000 seriously :/
I feel sorry for Dan. It was strange I barely knew any of the rest but I knew that question perfectly  I buy it all the time xD


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## Ranzha (Jan 23, 2010)

Even as he wanted to play conservatively, his hot-seat intuition kept him from using two lifelines on a lower-value question.

The new US version is completely skewed. I still have CD-ROMs of the original game when I was five and six years of age, and that is the reality of WWTBAM--three lifelines, fifteen random questions, Regis "the man" Philbin, and better, easier-to-follow money values. Meredith Vieira is a good host, but when ABC cut the prime-time show, nothing was the same. It died down, came back after 7 years of being dead with Regis as the host for the 10th anniversary, and then died again.
Personally, I think that kids liked this show because of the suspense of a game show XD. I loved this.

I don't personally enjoy having a time limit on the questions. Even so, the time limits ensure that the running time is kept under control, but 15 seconds per question up to the (what was originally the $1K question) $5K question is a bit pushing it.


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