IT Executive news

• Autonomous driving features in electric vehicles can save $1,800 in battery costs

  15-09-2015 23:12
  
  Increasingly available autonomous driving features that boost efficiency can add up to $1,800 in battery cost savings for long-range electric vehicles (EV), a new report finds.
  According to the report by Lux Research, multiple academic studies show that autonomous features, such as self-parking (expected as early as 2016), adaptive cruise control and highway autopilot, may boost fuel efficiency by as much as 10%, when compared with human drivers. That translates into $1,800 in battery cost savi
  
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• What CIOs can learn from Facebook's use of open source

  15-09-2015 22:47
  
  SAN JOSE — Facebook's unrelenting quest to open source all of its code and technology stacks continues. The social media juggernaut made this fact abundantly clear to the 1,800 executives and engineers who attended the company's second annual @Scale developers conference yesterday, hoping to learn from leading coders at Twitter, Google, Box, Pinterest, Microsoft and others.Jay Parikh, Facebook's vice president of global engineering and infrastructure, said the community of programmers at t
  
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• TenICT gaat ICT-platform van Warande en Antroz verzorgen

  15-09-2015 22:41
  TenICT heeft de aanbesteding voor het uitbesteden van een nieuw ICT platform gewonnen bij de onlangs gefuseerde organisaties voor ouderenzorg Warande en Antroz. De deal omvat levering, implementatie en in onderhoud nemen van een nieuwe, volledig schaalbare oplossing.De oplossing is geboren uit een ketensamenwerking... lees meer
  
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• Facebook takes Relay JavaScript framework open source

  15-09-2015 22:02
  
  Facebook this week is open-sourcing Relay, which provides data-fetching for React JavaScript applications. The move could open up new possibilities for the technology, Facebook engineers said.
  Accessible on GitHub, Relay is a JavaScript framework for developing data-driven applications with React, Facebook's JavaScript library for building user interfaces. "Relay is actually intended to build and do for data-fetching what React does for the user interface rendering," said Tom Occhino, Facebook
  
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• Encryption project issues first free SSL/TLS certificate

  15-09-2015 21:38
  A project that aims to increase the use of encryption by giving away free SSL/TLS certificates has issued its first one, marking the start of its beta program.
  The project, called Let's Encrypt, is run by the Internet Security Research Group (ISRG) and backed by Mozilla, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Cisco and Akamai, among others.
  Let's Encrypt plans to distribute free SSL/TLS (Secure Socket Layer/Transport Layer Security) certificates, which encrypt data passed between a webs
  
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• WIreless Hall of Fame inducts four

  15-09-2015 21:19
  
  The Wireless Hall of Fame has inducted four more members, including one of Nextel's co-founders.
  Nearly 50 people, from wireless technology pioneers to corporate big shots, have now entered this virtual hall orchestrated by the nonprofit Wireless History Foundation, which formed in 2008. The likes of Marty Cooper, Craig McCaw and current FCC Chair Tom Wheeler are among past inductees.
  MORE: Whirlwind tour of network & computing's top honors, awards and prizesTo read this article in ful
  
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• US Ignite shares $6M in NSF funds with cities for smart city app store

  15-09-2015 20:46
  
  Smart cities have long been a concept, but now more financial muscle is being added to bring them closer to reality.
  Cities across the country are hoping to use Internet of Things technology to find greater efficiencies in operating their transportation, water, sewer, traffic, parking and street lighting operations. Some cities are also building apps to generate revenues through wired and wireless networks, sometimes supported by online advertising.
  On Monday, US Ignite, a nonprofit group devot
  
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• Half of U.S. consumers don’t have, and don’t understand, chip cards

  15-09-2015 20:37
  
  More than half of U.S. consumers haven't received new chip-based credit or debit cards to improve security of in-store purchases, according to a new survey.
  The August survey of 5,027 Americans also found that 56% aren't even aware what a chip card is, even though the technology has been widely used in other countries for years.
  The percentage who said they hadn't received a chip card as of August totalled 54%. Banks have been mailing out the new cards with increasing frequency in the past year
  
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• PSA: Tim Cook is Stephen Colbert's Late Show guest tonight

  15-09-2015 20:30
  After surprising Apple Store employees and customers in Manhattan on Monday, Apple CEO Tim Cook continues his tour through New York with a guest spot on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Tuesday night.
  Colbert is front-loading his new show with high-profile guests, and Cook isn’t even the first big tech exec to land on the week-old program—Tesla chief Elon Musk and Uber CEO Travis Kalanick both appeared on the Late Show last week."Siri, put Apple CEO Tim Cook on my calendar for Tue
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: 6 criteria for selecting a software implementation consultant

  15-09-2015 20:30
  
  Enterprise software implementation is a big deal. Most enterprise software projects can take many person-years of effort and have a large price tag. Many companies find that they require expertise from third parties like software vendors, system integrators and subject matter experts (SMEs) to round out their team. Yet many organizations have more clearly defined selection criteria for smartphones – a small purchase – than for enterprise software. If you need a system integrator
  
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• 8 reasons not to upgrade to Apple's iPhone 6s

  15-09-2015 20:29
  
  What's so new about the new iPhones?Image by REUTERS/Beck DiefenbachApple announced drastic financial incentives for its new iPhone 6s line because the devices aren’t much of a step forward technologically. Most iPhone 6 users won’t sense a dramatic difference, and maybe none at all. It leaves Apple with not much to sell other than “new” but not noticeably “improved.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Xerox introduces printed-memory labels to fight counterfeiting

  15-09-2015 20:00
  
  Xerox today announced two new printed packaging labels that can store 36 bits on rewritable memory. The labels are aimed at combating counterfeiting and helping businesses and government better secure products as they are distributed.
  The two printed electronic labels, which Xerox is also calling "printed memory," can collect and store information about the authenticity and condition of products, storing up to 68 billion points of data, the company said.
  The labels, for example, can be used to
  
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• Chief risk and compliance officer makes rare move to CIO

  15-09-2015 19:39
  
  E. Scott Gilbert, formerly chief risk and compliance officer of Marsh & McLennan Companies, has been named CIO of the $13 billion professional services firm. In his new role, which he started last Wednesday, Gilbert will continue reporting to CEO Dan Glaser as a member of the company's executive management committee. He will also lead the company's Dublin-based innovation center.E. Scott Gilbert, CIO of Marsh & McLennan.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click her
  
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• It's the year of the Linux desktop, for Dell, in China

  15-09-2015 19:24
  
  For years, the “year of the Linux desktop” was right around the corner: Open-source software would displace Windows (or Window$), and usher in a glorious, peaceful revolution in the computing industry.If Dell is to be believed, that revolution is happening now.Dell’s head of China told The Wall Street Journal that NeoKylin Linux is shipped on 42 percent of the PCs it sells into the country, primarily for the commercial and government PCs that Dell specializes in. Hewlett-P
  
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• Microsoft's decision to pre-load Windows 10 upgrade sans consent is ill-advised

  15-09-2015 18:41
  
  Microsoft late last week backed off the claim that its pre-loading of Windows 10 on devices whose owners had not reserved the free upgrade was "an industry practice."
  When asked to cite some examples Friday, Microsoft instead issued a revised statement that omitted the phrase.
  "For those who have chosen to reserve their upgrade of Windows 10 and those that have Windows Update automatic updates enabled, we may help customers prepare their devices for Windows 10 by downloading the files necessary
  
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• Swarms of smart nano-satellites may offer global connectivity (With video)

  15-09-2015 18:16
  
  One day we may have global connectivity -- even in the remotest parts of the world -- thanks to teams of tiny, intelligent, swarming satellites called CubeSats.In an industry that doesn't like change and definitely doesn't like to rely on the latest and greatest in technology, CubeSats appear to be changing the game for the space industry.And one of the things these cube-shaped satellites could be changing in the next 10 years is how to help people in impoverished or remote parts of the world ge
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: iOS 9: How to use the Purify ad blocker

  15-09-2015 18:06
  
  One of iOS 9's most coveted features is its ability to provide ad blockers (content blockers) in mobile Safari. Purify is one of the first ad blockers for iOS 9, and it works surprisingly well to clean up the mobile Web in Safari.
  [ Related: 7 tips and tricks for iOS 9 ]
  I signed up for the Purify beta a while back, and got an email the other day inviting me to try it via the TestFlight app. So I installed TestFlight, then installed Purify on my iPhone 6 Plus. I wasn't sure how well Purify woul
  
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• BrandPost: What's Happening in the Workplace?

  15-09-2015 17:09
  As computing technologies advance, sometimes it’s easy for marketers to overstate the significance of this or that innovation. But step back and look at the larger picture of what’s happening right now: an array of new capabilities that, taken together, amount to more than just the next evolutionary baby-step, more than merely the latest iteration of what you already use. It’s an actual workplace transformation that fundamentally changes how people relate to the devices that h
  
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• Intel regrets skipping Broadwell desktop CPUs

  15-09-2015 16:33
  
  An Intel executive has admitted that the chipmaker goofed up by passing over the tower desktop PC market with its 5th-generation Broadwell processors.
  With Broadwell, Intel focused mainly on laptops, miniature desktops, and all-in-ones. This left traditional desktop users with no new socketed CPU options beyond 4th-generation Haswell, which first arrived in 2013. Although Intel finally coughed upa pair of Broadwell desktop chips this past summer, the company launched its high-end 6th-
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Cognitive technology and the automation of everything

  15-09-2015 16:25
  
  Automating key aspects of highly skilled knowledge work is primed to become one of the most disruptive forces since the Industrial Revolution. Similar to how the cotton gin revolutionized farming and production, cognitive technologies that learn, understand and process languages, patterns and images like a human are poised to transform businesses around the world.
  Fueled by changing global demographics, Big Data, analytics, cloud computing, machine learning and artificial intelligence, the auto
  
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• New CIO appointments, September 2015 edition

  15-09-2015 15:54
  
  LinkedInSummer is just about over, and the official start of fall is right around the corner. The shorter days, however, are no match for the number of new CIO appointments that took place during the last few weeks of the third quarter. And they show no signs of slowing down anytime soon.Smithfield Foods announced that Julia Anderson, former vice president of global applications at H.J. Heinz Company, is Smithfield's global CIO.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click her
  
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• Attackers can take over Cisco routers; other routers at risk, too

  15-09-2015 15:43
  
  Attackers have successfully infected Cisco routers with an attack that persists to provide a means for compromising other machines and data on the networks the routers serve, FireEye says.
  The SYNful Knock attack successfully implanted altered versions of firmware into 14 Cisco routers in India, Mexico, the Philippines and Ukraine, according to FireEye, that gives full access to the devices, and researchers expect compromised machines to show up in more places and in other brands of routers.
  SY
  
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• Secunia acquired by Flexera Software

  15-09-2015 15:00
  
  Secunia, the company specializing in software vulnerability management, has been acquired by software asset management company Flexera Software.
  The pairing of Flexera's asset discovery and management tools with Secunia's software vulnerability platform will give organizations the ability to thoroughly assess the security of applications discovered on the network, said Mark Bishof, Flexera Software's CEO.[ Deep Dive: How to rethink security for the new world of IT. | Discover how to secure your
  
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• Salesforce unveils a new CRM tool for 'relationship intelligence'

  15-09-2015 14:00
  
  Salesforce is diving deeper into what kind of customer information it can surface to help salespeople manage their relationships, with a new tool designed to bring in a richer array of data.
  "Sales reps today spend too much time managing the data inflow to their teams," said Tim Fletcher, vice president of product for SalesforceIQ. "It just needs to be there instantly."
  With that goal in mind, SalesforceIQ taps technology gained as part of the company's $390 million RelateIQ acquisition last ye
  
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• Salesforce tackles the IoT head-on with 'Thunder' and a new cloud

  15-09-2015 14:00
  
  A new cloud offering from Salesforce aims to turn the Internet of Things into the "Internet of Customers," company chairman and CEO Marc Benioff will tell an audience of thousands of customers on Tuesday.IoT Cloud, which will be unveiled at the CRM giant's annual Dreamforce conference in San Francisco, aims to connect billions of events from devices, sensors and applications with Salesforce's own software. Equipped with such information, companies can interact with their customers in new, more c
  
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• Why iPad Pro won't replace any of your current gadgets

  15-09-2015 13:54
  
  At its huge new product event last week, Apple's Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller said the forthcoming iPad Pro can "do things a notebook can't.” But can the large tablet really replace a notebook? Can it even replace an iPad Air 2?
  Schiller said the iPad Pro lets you do things you can't on a laptop or desktop PC, and as an example, he showed a demo of the iPad Pro's big touch screen being used to play a piano keyboard. (Of course, you can also do this with
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: 6 criteria for selecting a software implementation implementation consultant

  15-09-2015 13:36
  
  Enterprise software implementation is a big deal. Most enterprise software projects can take many person-years of effort and have a large price tag. Many companies find that they require expertise from third parties like software vendors, system integrators and subject matter experts (SMEs) to round out their team.Yet many organizations have more clearly defined selection criteria for smartphones – a small purchase – than for enterprise software. If you need a system integrator
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: The four walls trapping innovation in your IT organization

  15-09-2015 13:28
  
  Having worked across many IT teams and organizations, the question has often struck me of what leads groups of people working on technology initiatives to innovate. While everyone wants to talk about innovation, we as IT leaders often ignore the factors that block innovation because they are more difficult for us to effectively address. The need for IT organizations to innovate is something that has long been thought of as a ‘nice-to-have’ or a strategic goal, but digital transformat
  
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• 8 key open source software foundations (and what makes them key)

  15-09-2015 13:25
  
  It's an open source worldImage by ThinkstockOpen source software foundations are proliferating: Every month it seems that a new one is announced -- Open Contain Initiative (OCI) and Cloud Native Container Foundation (CNCF) are just two of the more recent launches.The reason for this is because the open source software movement is becoming increasingly commercialized, and commercial hardware and software vendors are increasingly likely to be involved in open source projects.To read this article i
  
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• Travel apps riddled with security flaws

  15-09-2015 13:08
  
  The top 10 travel apps in the iOS and Android app stores are all riddled with security flaws, according to a new report from Bluebox Security.
  The biggest problems include a lack of encryption for app data, insufficient protection against main-in-the-middle attacks, and leftover administration or debugging code.
  The company looked at the leading travel apps based on data from App Annie, a mobile applications analytics company, picking 10 apps that were available on both the iOS and Android plat
  
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• Kaspersky: Great product, dreadful installation/upgrade process

  15-09-2015 13:00
  
  In the earliest days of the Web, I used to urge companies to force their developers to test all their sites on the slowest dial-up connections rather than on their enterprise T3 connections. My thinking was that if developers saw things through their users’ eyes, they would be more careful about making sure their sites were fast loading. That problem has gone away, but I have a similar message today about product updates and installations: Have your developers watch ordinary people using
  
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• 7 ways social media can improve customer satisfaction

  15-09-2015 12:57
  
  As many organizations already know, social media can be a powerful customer relationship tool, driving traffic to your brand. It can also damage your brand when not used properly.“Many brands have been severely damaged by not respecting social media, either by engaging on an ad hoc basis or simply having the wrong team or individual [or strategy to] manage it,” says Mark Harrington, vice president of marketing at Clutch, a customer loyalty program provider.So how can your brand succe
  
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• Russian authority finds Google guilty of antitrust abuses

  15-09-2015 12:02
  
  Google is illegaly forcing smartphone vendors to install its apps, including the Google Play store, on Android phones, the Russian antitrust authority has ruled.Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service found that Google and the Irish subsidiary through which it contracts with customers outside the U.S. abused their market dominance.The antitrust authority opened the case in February following a complaint from Russian search engine Yandex, which also develops mobile apps and runs its own Android app
  
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• Technology that predicts your next security fail

  15-09-2015 12:00
  
  In 2013, the IRS paid out $5.8 billion in refunds for tax filings it later realized were fraudulent, according to a 2015 report by the Government Accountability Office. This news comes as no surprise to the Kentucky Department of Revenue, which is stepping up its own war against rising fraud cases with predictive analytics.
  Predictive analytics uses publicly available and privately sourced data to try to determine future actions. By analyzing what has already happened, organizations can detect
  
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• 7 reasons why users have trust issues

  15-09-2015 11:57
  
  Uneasy usersImage by Georgie PauwelsAlmost every month there are headlines splashed across the Internet indicating another business has been breached. It is no surprise then that employees are unnerved at where their information goes. According to a recent national survey by Wakefield Research, commissioned by Citrix, 69% of Americans think having their personal information stolen in their lifetime is inevitable – and 84% feel their personal information is more vulnerable than it was a yea
  
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• How to prepare your devices for iOS 9

  15-09-2015 10:34
  iOS 9 officially launches Wednesday, bringing huge changes to iPhones, iPads, and iPods. But before you rush to upgrade, take some time to get your device ready. That way, if anything goes wrong during the install process—or if you decide you hate iOS 9—you can reverse your decision without losing any important files.[ Related: 7 tips and tricks for iOS 9 ]The good news: You won’t have to delete a whole bunch of apps to get ready to upgrade. Why? The new OS will do the deleting
  
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• Alternatieve tech-troonrede: budget voor innovatie blijft achter

  15-09-2015 09:12
  Achterblijvend budget in relatie tot echte innovatie, de enorme versnelling in het Internet of Things, het gebrek aan snelle en adequate wet- en regelgeving omtrent big data en ondanks euforie ook vraagtekens bij het technische onderwijs figureerden in de Techniek Troonrede, die Martin van Pernis, president van het... lees meer
  
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• McAfee adds multi-factor authentication and cross-device support to all its 2016 antivirus security suites

  15-09-2015 06:01
  
  McAfee’s product line updates, announced Monday night, pack more than just a 2016 sticker and some security improvements. They also include some helpful features for anyone who wants to lock down their entire device ecosystem. The revamped lineup includes the usual bundles: McAfee LiveSafe, McAfee AntiVirus Plus, McAfee Internet Security, and McAfee Total Protection. 
  The new security suites now work with Intel True Key, a multi-factor authentication app for added security at logins.
  
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• We can still ‘Nail’ security in the IoT

  15-09-2015 01:55
  
  Oh, the things that we didn’t know enough to worry about five years ago: Cars that can be remotely “bricked”via computer; home automation controllers that can be compromised to distribute spam; “smart”light bulbs that can be hacked to reveal Wi-Fi passwords.
  Now that the Internet of Things (IoT) is upon us, these things have all made the headlines lately. But I’m not here to say that the IoT is a terrible idea and we all need to reject it before it destroys o
  
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• IT can score with reverse mentoring

  15-09-2015 01:54
  
  It can make a lot of sense for an IT department to get involved in reverse mentoring. By imparting knowledge about technology to senior executives who might not be very comfortable using such basic tools as email and the Internet, IT can burnish its image with people who really matter.
  Reverse mentoring programs pair younger employees with older executives in order to help the executives learn new technology, social media, current music, etc. The relevant topics are second nature to younger emp
  
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• Galaxy Note 5: A totally subjective road-warrior test

  15-09-2015 01:53
  
  To the hard-working journalist, there’s something seductive in the promise of devices like the Samsung Galaxy Note 5, just as there has been since the Apple Newton – a notebook that isn’t a notebook, one that can do other things and unite the free peoples of Middle-Earth, and so on. No one has really been able to crack the code, however.
  So I decided to take the sample Note 5 provided to Network World by Samsung to CTIA’s Super Mobility 2015 conference in Las Vegas last
  
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• Steve Jobs' legacy cited in California’s Syrian refugee debate

  15-09-2015 01:50
  
  The legacy of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs lives on in many ways, most recently in the debate over the fate of Syrian refugees.
  The California Senate unanimously approved a resolution late Friday urging the U.S. to "dramatically increase" the number of Syrian refugees allowed into the U.S.
  The push was made by state Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens), who made an impassioned speech on the state Senate floor urging the U.S. to increase the number of Syrian refugees it is accepting. "The United St
  
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• IPv6 will get a big boost from iOS 9, Facebook says

  15-09-2015 00:55
  
  Apple's iOS 9 is expected to cause a boom in the use of IPv6, which could speed up service provider networks but create a lot of work for mobile developers. 
  The new Apple mobile OS, coming out on Wednesday, will treat the new Internet Protocol as an equal to IPv4 instead of favoring the older system. That will cause iOS devices to use IPv6 much more, as long as apps, websites and carrier networks support it, according Facebook engineer Paul Saab. He led a panel discussion on IPv6 at Faceb
  
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