IN THIS ISSUE:

The Gateway MiCTA Mall Is Up and Running

Videoconference Directory Information Request

Treasury Announces End to Long-Distance Telephone Excise Tax

A note from Jan Harper, of Michigan Nonprofit Association

DC Legislative Update

Measure your eLearning Success: Desire2Learn's New Teaching and Learning Tools webinar

Attention Teachers and Educators: Here are 4 great opportunities to receive equipment and financial based grants!

Welcome to New Members

Tech Talk

The MiCTA Gateway Mall Is Up and Running

MiCTA is pleased to unveil the Gateway MiCTA Mall. The mall is actually a website that features MICTA pricing on hundreds of Gateway products including notebooks, desktops, all in ones, and many accessories and peripherals. The MiCTA Mall is available to all MiCTA members; you can get to the mall by clicking this link to the Gateway vendor page. Once there you will be prompted for the MiCTA user name and password and then you're in. Make sure to check there today for great pricing and an incredible deal on both the M255 Notebook and the E2600D Desktop Computer. For more information on this new site feel free to get in touch with any of the following contacts.

Matthew Barry
MiCTA Account Representative
Gateway
(800) 846-2042 Ext. 25373
matthew.barry@gateway.com

Jerry Hartman
Director of Operations
MiCTA
1-888-870-8677
ghartman@mictaservice.com

Videoconference Directory Information Request

Several MiCTA members have requested a Videoconferencing Directory to be posted on MiCTA's web-site under the Members Home page.

Specific information to be posted should include, at the minimum, Contact information, Equipment type (i.e. CODEC), Network, connectivity, and availability. Published costs would be optional.

Some members have this information posted on their Web site. For example, Van Buren ISD can be found at http://www.vbisd.org/techserv/DistLearn/Charges.htm

Information for Washington State University can be found at http://www.whets.wsu.edu/articles/articles.aspx?id=59

Please submit your information (hyperlink to details or contact name and phone number) to videodir@micta.org

Your participation and information is greatly appreciated.

Treasury Announces End to Long-Distance Telephone Excise Tax

WASHINGTON, DC - The U.S. Treasury Department today announced it is conceding the legal dispute over the federal excise tax on long-distance telephone service. The Department of Justice will no longer pursue litigation and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will issue refunds of tax on long-distance service for the past three years. Taxpayers will be able to apply for refunds on their 2006 tax forms, to be filed in 2007.

Treasury Secretary John Snow states, "Today is a good day for American taxpayers; it marks the beginning of the end of an outdated, antiquated tax that has survived a century beyond its original purpose, and by now should have been ancient history.

"The Federal Appeals courts have spoken across the board. It's time to `disconnect' this tax and put it on the permanent `do not call' list.

"In addition to ending the litigation, I would like to call on Congress to terminate the remainder of this antique tax by repealing the excise tax on local service as well."

Key Facts Regarding Tax Refunds:

No immediate action is required by taxpayers.

Refunds will be a part of 2006 tax returns filed in 2007.

Refund claims will cover all excise tax paid on long-distance service over the last three years (time allowed given statute of limitations). Interest will be paid on refunds.

The IRS is working on a simplified method for individuals to use to claim a refund on their 2006 tax returns.

Refunds will not include tax paid on local telephone service, which was not involved in the litigation.

Originally established in 1898 as a "luxury" tax on wealthy Americans who owned telephones, the federal excise tax on telephone calls is not compatible with today's modern information-age society.

A note from Jan Harper, of Michigan Nonprofit Association on behalf of Rob Moerland of Porter Hills Retirement.

May 25, 2006

MiCTA has been partnering with Michigan Nonprofit Association since 1999 giving each member, regardless of size, the opportunity to engage in many cost savings programs that could not be realized without the collective power of MiCTA's many members. 

We rely on MiCTA's national RFP process to give us the best possible pricing from their vendors and appreciate that these vendors follow through on all their services regardless of size of the organization or the number of services provided. 

I would endorse any MiCTA program as a good buy for any MNA member.

If you have questions, feel free to contact me at 888-242-7075.

Sincerely,

Jan Harper
Director of Member Services

DC Legislative Update

Jeanne Jansenius - University of the South - jjanseni@sewanee.edu For More In-Depth Coverage of Legislative & Regulatory Issues: ACUTA members may read about the latest developments in telecommunications and Internet-related issues in the most recent Legislative and Regulatory Update, an electronic newsletter prepared monthly by Wiley Rein & Fielding. Access this newsletter at http://www.acuta.org/relation/DownloadFile.cfm?docNum=309

Welcome, Jeanne Jansenius

This month begins a new era in the "D C Update" column as Jeanne Jansenius takes over for Whitney Johnson, who retired after 12 years. As director of telecommunications and technology infrastructure services at the University of the South, the former ACUTA president will continue the tradition of researching current legislative and regulatory issues and commenting from the campus perspective.

 Welcome, Jeanne - another great ACUTA volunteer!

"Gobbledygook"
Sounds like something right out of a Harry Potter movie but was used to describe the FCC arguments in the CALEA case by Judge H. Edwards, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Judge Edwards used the term "gobbledygook" when the FCC Associate General Counsel J. Lewis attempted to argue the agency's decision on the recent CALEA order. For those who have been keeping up with the CALEA issue, the FCC retained May 14, 2007 date to comply with the CALEA requirements. Details of how university private networks will be required to comply are still pending and will continue to evolve over the next several months. In addition, the Commission has stated that "trusted third parties" may help in meeting the CALEA requirements of our private networks. For a detailed summary of the COMMUNICATIONS ASSISTANCE FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ACT AND BROADBAND ACCESS AND SERVICES ET DOCKET NO. 04-295 RM-10865, prepared by Wiley Rein & Fielding LLP, refer to http://www.acuta.org/index.cfm?1493 .

Are Your Phone Records Really Private?
Privacy and the sale of phone records continues to be an issue. The USA Today reported on May 11 that AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc., and BellSouth Corp., had turned over to the National Security Agency (NSA) calling records of millions of Americans shortly after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack. BellSouth and Verizon have denied turning over customer phone records to NSA. AT&T declined to comment, as did Sprint Nextel. (Washington Post, May 17, 2006)

Also according to  Telecommunications Report (TR 5/15/06) , the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has filed complaints in federal courts in five states against five Internet-based operations. The FTC has requested the court to permanently halt the sale of phone records and turn over any monies collected from the sale of such records. TR also noted that the FCC and Congress are taking steps to crack down on the sale of mobile phone records. On April 25, 2006, the House unanimously passed the Telephone Records and Privacy Protection Act of 2006 in response to this very serious issue.

VoIP Vulnerabilities
In addition, for those of us who are deploying or have thought about deploying VoIP, there are now more than 30 VoIP-related vulnerabilities identified on the National Vulnerability Database ( http://nvd.nist.gov/ ). You might want to check these out to make sure you are not providing a loophole in your network.

Junk Fax Regulation
Amendments were approved by the FCC in April on Junk Fax Regulations. The amendment defines the permitted fax advertisement rules. Several steps were noted: Senders must obtain the fax number directly from the recipient to ensure that the recipient has approved the sending of the advertisement. Senders are also required to provide "Clear and Conspicuous" notice on the cover sheet or on the first pages that clearly denotes how the recipient can opt out of future fax transmissions. Nonprofit trade association and small businesses were not exempt from these rules. TR stated that "the Government Accounting office released a report showing a 20-fold increase in junk fax complaints over the last five years."

Interoperability
Homeland Security continues to be blasted for their slow efforts to improve public safety interoperability. With hurricane season just around the corner, the First Response Coalition feels that hurricane-prone states are "dangerously unprepared." They attribute this to "insufficient funding and a lack of coordination at all levels of government which plague efforts to establish meaningful communications interoperability...despite numerous tragedies and national attention to interoperability problems, many first responders in the hurricane states are no closer to achieving interoperability." In addition, the 737-page Senate report was released on May 2, 2006, blasting the federal government's response. The report stated that the National Communications System (NCS) "failed to develop plans to support first responder communications, access the damage to the communications system, and maintain awareness of the federal government's available communications assets." (TR, 5/15/6)

Are Mobile Phones Dangerous?
Mobile Phones continue to be noted as a danger to consumers. Some people have termed this as Inattention Blindness. Considering 1 in 10 drivers at any given daylight moment is using a mobile phone, handheld mobile devices have been cited as one of the major distraction devices for drivers and are one of the leading causes of vehicle mishaps. In a 100-car study, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in cooperation with the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, found that out of a total of 241 drivers, tracking about 2 million miles and 42,300 hours of driving, there were 82 crashes, 761 near misses and 8,295 critical incidents in which a driver had to take corrective measures...the most common distraction was found to be wireless devices. You might want to check local and state laws before taking that long drive across the countryside with your cell phone in hand.

Federal Excise Tax Gone
According to USA Today, the U.S. Treasury Department announced 5/25/06 that it would no longer collect the 3% federal excise tax that was imposed to pay for the Spanish-American war some 108 years ago. Several federal courts had ruled that this tax is illegal. "Phone companies and cellular carriers must stop billing for the tax August 1. Individuals and businesses can file for refunds next year on their 2006 tax returns for excise taxes paid on long-distance calls since 3/1/03." (USA Today, 5/26/2006)

FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin has been nominated by President Bush to serve a second five year term. Martin, who has been an FCC commissioner since 2001, replaced Michael Powell as chairman. Chairman Martin stated, "I look forward to working with the administration, Congress, my fellow Commissioners, and the talented staff at the FCC to provide all Americans with the services and opportunities offered by the best communications system in the world today." (TR, 5/1/06)

The Telecom Manager's Voice Report identified Cuba as one of the TOP 5 Hot Spots for fraud. Other areas to watch are Pakistan, the Philippines, India, and Bangladesh, of which ninety-five percent originates in the Philippines.

Measure your eLearning Success: Desire2Learn's New Teaching and Learning Tools webinar

Join Ken Chapman, Product Manager at Desire2Learn, on June 21 st , 2006 or June 28 th , 2006 at 2:00pm EST for an exclusive webinar event, Measure Your eLearning Success: Desire2Learn's New Teaching and Learning Tools . This exclusive webinar event will provide you with an overview of the exciting new tools available in Desire2Learn's Learning Environment 8.1 and Learning Repository 3.5.

Register for this exclusive webinar at http://www.Desire2Learn.com or email us at webinars06@Desire2Learn.com . To learn more about these exciting new products visit www.Desire2Learn.com .

Registration is required for this event. The first five people to sign up will receive a free Desire2Learn gift bag! The names of all webinar participants will be entered in a draw to win a fee prize .

Attention Teachers and Educators: Here are 4 great opportunities to receive equipment and financial based grants!

$1.5M to improve media services for students with disabilities
Grant Title : Technology and Media Services for Individuals with Disabilities
Organization : U.S. Department of Education
Eligibility: State and local educational agencies
Value: $1,500,000
Deadline : June 12, 2006

This program seeks to improve results for children with disabilities by promoting the development, demonstration, and use of technology, aims to support education media services activities designed to be of educational value in the classroom setting to children with disabilities, and provides support for captioning and video description that is appropriate for use in the classroom setting.

Contact:   http://www.ed.gov/legislation/FedRegister/announcements/2

$100,000 in college scholarships for math and science projects
Grant Title : 2006-07 Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology
Organization : Siemens Foundation
Eligibility: Students
Value: College scholarships ranging from $1,000-$100,000;
Deadline : October 2, 2006

The Siemens Competition is a signature program of the Siemens Foundation, which distributes nearly $2 million annually to promote math and science education in the United States. The competition is administered by the College Board. Students may enter as individuals or as members of a team. Entries are judged at the regional level in November by scientists and faculty at six research universities: Carnegie Mellon University; Georgia Institute of Technology; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Stanford University; University of Notre Dame; and The University of Texas at Austin. The Siemens Competition attracts entries from high school science and math students nationwide.

Contact:   http://www.siemens-foundation.org/competition/2006Registr

$8M to improve teacher and principal effectiveness
Grant Title : Teacher Incentive Fund
Organization : U.S. Department of Education
Eligibility: Local educational agencies
Value: 10-15 awards; average estimated award is $8,000,00
Deadline : June 15, 2006

The Teacher Incentive Fund supports programs that develop and implement performance-based teacher and principal compensation systems in high-need schools. The fund's specific goals include improving student achievement by increasing teacher and principal effectiveness, reforming teacher and principal compensation systems so that they are rewarded for increases in student achievement, increasing the number of effective teachers teaching poor, minority, and disadvantaged students in hard-to-staff subjects, and creating sustainable performance-based compensation systems.

Contact:   http://www.ed.gov/legislation/FedRegister/announcements/2

More than $2,000 in projectors and USB flash drives
Grant Title : Education Projectors.com Giveaway
Organization : EducationProjectors.com
Eligibility: Educators
Value: Equipment worth more than $2,000
Deadline : June 15, 2006

Audio-visual technology, such as projectors, can help teachers save time planning lessons and can increase students' interest and retention. Prizes include a Hitachi CP-X250 XGA Resolution data/video projector, and 100 winners will receive a 64MB USB flash drive.

Contact:   http://www.educationprojectors.com

Welcome New Members

Bay Area Catholic Schools
Chartiers Valley School District
Cimarron Municipal Schools
Columbia County Public Hospital District
MultiCare Health System
National Federation of the Blind
Pacific Coast High School
Pioneer ETTC
Texas A&M University-Commerce
The Henry Ford (Museum, Greenfield Village)
Trinity Health
University of Maryland Eastern Shore
YMCA of Greater Grand Rapids

TECH TALK
Kevin Tanzillo - Dux PR - kevin@duxpr.com

VoIP Implementation? - "The Survey Says..."

The Providence seminars back in early April, with Voice over IP implementations as one of their key topics, seemed just the right place to conduct a survey about VoIP migration. Part of ACUTA's motivation for taking these surveys at each major gathering is to provide material for news announcements, to keep this superb organization in the media spotlight. But the surveys also provide a window into what ACUTA member schools are doing, for the sake of internal enlightenment.

So we thought we'd peel back the layers of the survey onion for you, some seven weeks ahead of the annual ACUTA conference in San Diego, where one of the four topical modules is "Managing the Evolution to VoIP." Talk about timely!

First, let's take a quick look at the big-picture findings of the survey. While our sample was small, there's no reason to believe it wasn't representative of the world at large - and if so, a little under half (43 percent) of North American colleges and universities have migrated to VoIP. That seemed a little low, but then the hype of technology is always well ahead of its actual implementation. Of those who haven't yet migrated, 70 percent say they are planning to, over the next six months to three years.

Among the migrators, almost all say that VoIP coverage on their campus is 25 percent or less. They are a generally happy group, with the grades they assigned to their networks averaging out to a solid B. What they like are the improved end-user features, cost savings, and overall network efficiency. What they worry about most are security, quality of service, emergency 911 issues, and management.

Among the non-migrators and yet-to-be-migrators, a few of the survey respondents provided brief explanations of why they are in wait-and-see mode. "Our vendor is moving in that direction, and we will slowly migrate when it makes sense," said one. "It hasn't been made a priority of upper management, and there is no budget," said another. "We just purchased a new PBX in 2003," was another comment. (On that one, we refer you to the column on Pseudowire that appeared in this space in December 2004, talking about the technology that lets legacy PBXs and other equipment communicate over converged networks. You can migrate to VoIP without a legacy PBX holding you back.)

Interestingly, the reasons that the yet-to-be-migrators gave for wanting to move eventually to VoIP mirrored pretty closely the benefits that the migrators say they are seeing since they moved: overall network efficiency, improved end user features, and cost savings.

In the survey, we couldn't find any relationship between the use of VoIP and whether the college or university was large or small or public or private. But then, "we" are a journalism school graduate and you know how newspaper guys can be when it comes to statistics.

Bottom line: It's always interesting to find out what your fellow ACUTA members are doing and how, regardless of whether it validates your beliefs and opinions or blows them out of the water. Remember that when they ask those of you who are at the annual conference in San Diego to fill out one of these survey forms.

Kevin Tanzillo writes for DUX Public Relations . He has been kind enough to share his work with MiCTA and ACUTA eNews. If there are specific topics you would like to see covered in the next Tech Talk, please let him know via e-mail at kevin@duxpr.com .

Make sure to check out this month's "Vendor Corner" from Angel Learning, Brodart, Desire2Learn, Gateway, Tech Depot, Sprint, and UCompass.com

ANGEL Learning Management Suite Wins SIIA Codie Award for Best Postsecondary Course Management Solution

Award recognizes best-of-the-best in the software and information industries.

Indianapolis, Ind. - May 19, 2006 - ANGEL ® Learning, recognized innovator of enterprise e-learning software and services, today announced that its flagship product the ANGEL Learning Management Suite has won the 2006 Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) Codie Award for Best Postsecondary Course or Content Management Solution. The award recognizes ANGEL Learning's "outstanding achievement and vision in education technology."

"Our industry competes energetically for the Codie award, and it's a real honor to be chosen as the Best Course Management System," said Christopher Clapp,

President and CEO, ANGEL Learning.  "This is a confirmation for us that our focus on creating an exceptional educational experience differentiates ANGEL in a compelling way."

The ANGEL LMS balance of easy-to-use features with powerful capabilities is unique in the industry. In ANGEL, this exclusive symmetry of simplicity and power turns data into results by automating data analysis and giving instructors numerous ways to respond automatically; personalizes learning with ease; and continues the ANGEL tradition of openness to evolve with technology and enable nearly unlimited creativity in course development.

"The 21st Annual Codie Awards continue our tradition of celebrating the best products in the software and information industry." said Ken Wasch, President of SIIA. "Being a winner among so many fine nominees is a solid achievement."

About ANGEL Learning

ANGEL Learning, Inc. develops and markets enterprise e-learning software.  Our flagship products are the ANGEL Learning Management Suite and the ANGEL ePortfolio system.  Our products have been honed by use - with millions of students and instructors served from K to corporate.  We enjoy a reputation for creating products with exceptional ease of use, excellent vision into learner progress, and for keeping our commitments.  Having emerged from the academy ourselves, our core values reflect those of our customers well.  ANGEL world headquarters is in Indianapolis, Indiana.  To learn more about simply powerful ANGEL LMS, visit us at www.angellearning.com

Nancy Schmutzler
(317) 333-7332
nancys@angellearning.com

Laminating Systems - 20% Off!

Brodart has the latest state-of-the-art laminators from 3MT, GBC ® , MultiSeal T and LEDCO T . Choose from heat-free laminating systems, heat-seal pouch laminators and film roll laminators. Brodart has powerful laminators designed for professional use along with easy-to-use low-maintenance laminators that are perfect for classrooms, offices and libraries. Be sure to check out the special features, too, like photo-quality technology, safety shields and laminator cabinets.

See the complete line of laminators on pages 367 to 370 in our 2006 catalog, or go online at www.shopbrodart.com .

For more information on products and services for MiCTA members from Brodart:

Call: 1-800-233-8467 ext. 4338
Click: www.shopbrodart.com/pricing/micta/
Fax: 1-800-578-1064
E-Mail: supplies.quotes@brodart.com

Desire2Learn unveils 2 new eLearning solutions

Kitchener - Waterloo, ON, Canada, June 5, 2006 - Desire2Learn Inc., a world-leading provider of mission-critical enterprise eLearning systems, today unveiled the latest version of their eLearning Suite including: Learning Environment 8.1, Learning Repository 3.5, and LiveRoom 4.0. With these new releases, Desire2Learn provides the solutions for clients to meet their increasing need to measure and assess organizational effectiveness, and for innovative new technology to structure the assessment and evaluation of learners. This is made possible by a comprehensive set of reporting and competency tracking tools. In addition, clients will gain significant time savings as a result of new features that enable quicker course development, greater collaboration, and content sharing. Click this link to read the press release in its entirety.

Gateway E2600D Desktop Price Comparison         List Price     1,256.99 MICTA Price     1,098.48 Gateway Special Price     999.00         MICTA pricing represents 12% savings off of list price, act now and take advantage of Gateway Special Pricing and save over 20% on your next desktop computer

.  FPD1765 17" Black LCD Analog/Digital Flat Panel Display

.  512MB 533MHz PC4200 DDR2 SDRAM (2-256MB modules)

.  40GB 7200rpm Serial ATA hard drive w/ 2MB cache

.  48x/32x/48x CD-RW/DVD combo drive

.  Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 631 with HT Technology (3.00 GHz, 800MHz FSB, 2M cache)

.  Internal Speaker

.  Gateway Basic 104+ Keyboard

.  Two-Button PS/2 Wheel Mouse

.  3.5" 1.44MB diskette drive

.  ATI® Xpress 200 Motherboard w/ 10/100/1000 (Gigabit) LAN

.  6-Bay Micro-BTX Desktop Case with 305-Watt Power Supply

.  E-Series 2600 Dvrs & Apps CD Backup Media

.  Intel® LANDesk Client Manager V.8.1 DWL

.  Symantec Client Security 3.0 90-day complimentary subscription

.  Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional Media

.  Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional Edition (SP2)

.  Desktop Value Plus Service Plan -- 4 year part/labor/NBD on-site/4 year technical support

Gateway M255 Notebook Price Comparison         List Price     1,657.99 MICTA Price     1,537.27 Gateway Special Price     1,299.00         MICTA pricing represents 7% savings off of list price, act now and take advantage of Gateway Special Pricing and save over 21% on your next notebook computer

Specifications:

Intel® CoreT Duo Processor T2300 (1.66 GHz, 667MHz FSB, 2MB L2 Cache)2

Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional (SP2) w/ XP Professional Backup CD

Microsoft® Works 8.51

$135 instant savings (reflected in price, limited time promotion)

512MB 533MHz DDR2 SDRAM (2-256MB modules)

60GB 5400rpm Serial ATA hard drive3

6-in-1 media card reader (Memory Stick®, Memory Stick Pro®, MultiMediaCardT, Secure DigitalT, Mini Secure Digital®, RS-MultiMediaCardT)

Modular 24x/10x/24x CD-RW / 8x DVD combo

One type II PC card slot

(4) USB 2.0, VGA, S-Video (TV Out), IEEE 1394 (FireWire), SmartCard reader

14.1" WXGA TFT Active Matrix (1280 x 800 max. resolution)

Full-Size Keyboard and EZ Pad® Pointing Device

Integrated sound and stereo speakers, headphone/speaker jack, and mic jacks

Primary 6-cell Lithium ion battery with AC pack and 1 yr. limited battery warranty5

Integrated Broadcom® 10/100/1000 Ethernet Adapter

Integrated Intel® 802.11a/b/g wireless networking card

This month's vendor specials from Sprint feature some great products for people on the move. Whether you need internet access for your laptop computer or a smart phone to keep track of everything, Sprint's got you covered. But don't wait -offers are good through the month of June and late into the month of July! Call your Sprint Representative today-

Jeff Muglia

Phone: 248 204 0930

jeffrey.t.muglia@sprint.com

Click any of the following links to check out Sprint products for people on the move.

Sprint PCS Smart Devices and Connection Card 60 day guarantee

Sprint PCS Connection Card products and plans

Do more with a Blackberry 7130e

Get the whole picture with a Treo 700p by Palm

Introducing Location Based Learning

'Location-Based Learning' is a new concept in Educator that lets you tie activities and resources to specific locations on the Planet Earth. This is accomplished with a new feature in Educator that lets you easily insert Google Maps into ANY part of your Educator classrooms. For more information on the exciting new product please click this link or call Amber Logan, Director of Business Development, at 850-297-1800 ext.210..

Just For Fun

What is the only tree naturally found in the Mojave Desert?

1. Redwood
2. Palm
3. Joshua
4. None - only the cactus

What was the first motel and casino built on the Las Vegas strip?

1. El Rancho
2. Hotel Thunderbird
3. The Flamingo
4. The Tropicana

In which city was the first circus in the United States?

1. New York
2. Washington D.C.
3. Boston
4. Philadelphia

Cedar Point is an amusement park in Sandusky, OH with many of the world's tallest and fastest roller coasters. Millennium Force, one of their largest, has the world's steepest non-inversion banked turn on a roller coaster at how many degrees?

1. 112 degrees
2. 132 degrees
3. 92 degrees
4. 122 degrees

For answers to "Just for Fun", please visit the Members' homepage.

PREVIOUS MICTA ALERTS

• May 2006

• April 2006

• March 2006

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