I saw this for the first time and totally impressed :)
Nov 10, 2009
Nov 9, 2009
Curiosity!
Once there was a partial flyover collapse due to heavy rain in the city where i lived. It was very near to my place and everyday i commute through that road. And this flyover was getting constructed in that road.(supposed to be the longest in the city)
Thanks to the high curiosity level, Human and I went by walk to see the damaged part on our way from dinner.
Apparently quite a few seem to have caught up with high curiosity and the whole place was jam packed already. :)
Today, when i read this post,"Let's go and see the burning station", i couldn't stop my grinning thinking about the above incident.
It is nice to see the curiosity (or craziness due to stupidity) gene in the finnish world as well. :)
Thanks to the high curiosity level, Human and I went by walk to see the damaged part on our way from dinner.
Apparently quite a few seem to have caught up with high curiosity and the whole place was jam packed already. :)
Today, when i read this post,"Let's go and see the burning station", i couldn't stop my grinning thinking about the above incident.
It is nice to see the curiosity (or craziness due to stupidity) gene in the finnish world as well. :)
Oct 31, 2009
25 random things
A few months ago, one of my friends tagged me to reply to a set of questions. I had typed a part of the reply, but never published it.
I am quite uncomfortable in answering a specific set of questions, as it always seems to contain one question or the other which i am not interested in answering.
However when Sophi tagged me, the tagging was only for 25 random things about a blogger. And i like this more than the questions.
So, i have decided to write 25 random things about me.
And nothing seems to be random with me. I have mentally started planning as maybe i should have categories like family, school, work and stuff each covering specific number. But i try not to stick to that plan.
1. I write in left hand and feel happy when people express their surprise as how my parents have never forced me to change to right hand writing. :)
2. I was a dairymilk addict and used to eat a medium bar at one shot.
3. Over the last 2 years, i have rarely had even a half bar of chocolate at one shot and probably had dairymilk twice or thrice. Now, i have shifted to Dairy milk lite if at all i feel like eating chocolate :)
4. I am a sambar addict and always have idli as side dish for sambar :)
5. I am truly proud of my native place although i wonder whether i'll go back and settle there before old age.
6. My father managed to pay my 12th standard school fee one day late after the last day due to typical middle class financial struggle. And I stood outside the classroom for one morning period till he paid and i got the receipt. One of my humiliating moments. Probably, this is one of the reasons why i topped the school and got a seat in merit :)
7. During my 10th marksheet distribution, I was crying so uncontrollably while sitting inside the class. My class teacher was distributing the marksheets roll number wise and parents were waiting outside. My father had concluded that probably i failed in one subject. But i was crying because i was only school second. Later when he saw my mark sheet, he gave me a crazy look and said,"i don't understand why you are crying?" :)
8. Once i attended an interview in another city in India. I liked the interviewing manager a lot. After the interview (i was selected), while waiting for my car pickup near the assistant's desk, i saw the list of phone numbers of the employees. I actually sneaked and memorized the manager's number :) I was pretty confident to call him later and probably propose anonymously :) But, the crush waned away within a week. Human thought i was crazy. And i think this is my highest level of craziness act till date.
9. I used to go to school by walk along with a school senior who was my neighbor. One day while coming back alone from school, a guy approached me and handed a letter to be passed on to my senior. I thought he was giving it to me. When i told this to my brother, he was ROFL.
10. In school, for computer subject alone we had a male teacher whom i hated to the core. One day, during his period, he started blasting me as how irresponsible a student i am and how i am going to fare in exams and future and blah, blah. I was just staring at my notebook till he finished his 10 mins lecture. Then i sat down and giggled along with my friend who was sitting next to me. I think this is the only time i was scolded in the class and i showed such a callous attitude. :)
11. I used to love Maggi ketchup glass bottles and used to carry water to school in that along with my lunch box. Once during 8th standard, when the bottle rolled on the floor and made noise, my history teacher asked the person who was still living in stone age to stand up. The whole class giggled to the glory while i was blushing away. That was the last day for glass bottles in my lunch pack.
12. It is almost impossible for me to like girls who croon and swoon over even small things. :)
13. I dread the day when i will no longer be a 20 something person. Although, one of my buddy advises that it's time to embrace the fact that i am getting older. ( and not a benjamin button :))
14. I regret not giving Indian Civil Services Examination.
15. I actually wanted to become an Aeronautical engineer in Indian Airforce.
16. I was so crazy about driving in US that i used to go for a long drive while listening to all classical music cds, rented free from the library, while eating the baskin robbins ice cream.
17. I got fined around $270 in US for overspeeding. And we ended up splitting it among the 4 car passengers :)
18. I am not crazy of stuffed toys although nowadays i seem to collect for their variety.
19. I once carried a big teddy bear wrapped in a cover as a hand carrying luggage from Miami, US via Frankfurt to Bangalore, India. This is the only teddy bear i have ever fallen love with. :) And it costed just $3 after a huge discount during after thanksgiving sales.
20. I can almost never take a bite of any food without mentally thinking about the calorie content.
21. Thanks to my first company, i had chances to travel in Business class overseas. I used to sleep through the whole trip and my Infy friend concluded that i was a waste fellow as i never tried the best in class red wine which they served.
22. It is almost impossible for me to dance. :) Yes, during final year of college days, all my hostelmates tried their level best to make me dance. My hands and legs just don't move.
23. I learnt bharatanatyam for 8 months in my 7th standard and discontinued it.
24. I stood and watched the complete US F1 race live in the circuit out of sheer excitement, while my friend was bored to death hearing the car noise continously and was trying to cheer himself up with hot dogs and beers :)
25. Two of my goals, MBA and target weight, are yet to be achieved. :)
Too many "I"s :)
Now comes the pass the baton phase. I donot want to mention this as tagging, as it seems to put an indirect responsibility on the tagged people. However, i would be interested in knowing 25 random things about TheChef, Vikram, charlie|thotti, Postman, Human and amruth by name anonymous :)
I am quite uncomfortable in answering a specific set of questions, as it always seems to contain one question or the other which i am not interested in answering.
However when Sophi tagged me, the tagging was only for 25 random things about a blogger. And i like this more than the questions.
So, i have decided to write 25 random things about me.
And nothing seems to be random with me. I have mentally started planning as maybe i should have categories like family, school, work and stuff each covering specific number. But i try not to stick to that plan.
1. I write in left hand and feel happy when people express their surprise as how my parents have never forced me to change to right hand writing. :)
2. I was a dairymilk addict and used to eat a medium bar at one shot.
3. Over the last 2 years, i have rarely had even a half bar of chocolate at one shot and probably had dairymilk twice or thrice. Now, i have shifted to Dairy milk lite if at all i feel like eating chocolate :)
4. I am a sambar addict and always have idli as side dish for sambar :)
5. I am truly proud of my native place although i wonder whether i'll go back and settle there before old age.
6. My father managed to pay my 12th standard school fee one day late after the last day due to typical middle class financial struggle. And I stood outside the classroom for one morning period till he paid and i got the receipt. One of my humiliating moments. Probably, this is one of the reasons why i topped the school and got a seat in merit :)
7. During my 10th marksheet distribution, I was crying so uncontrollably while sitting inside the class. My class teacher was distributing the marksheets roll number wise and parents were waiting outside. My father had concluded that probably i failed in one subject. But i was crying because i was only school second. Later when he saw my mark sheet, he gave me a crazy look and said,"i don't understand why you are crying?" :)
8. Once i attended an interview in another city in India. I liked the interviewing manager a lot. After the interview (i was selected), while waiting for my car pickup near the assistant's desk, i saw the list of phone numbers of the employees. I actually sneaked and memorized the manager's number :) I was pretty confident to call him later and probably propose anonymously :) But, the crush waned away within a week. Human thought i was crazy. And i think this is my highest level of craziness act till date.
9. I used to go to school by walk along with a school senior who was my neighbor. One day while coming back alone from school, a guy approached me and handed a letter to be passed on to my senior. I thought he was giving it to me. When i told this to my brother, he was ROFL.
10. In school, for computer subject alone we had a male teacher whom i hated to the core. One day, during his period, he started blasting me as how irresponsible a student i am and how i am going to fare in exams and future and blah, blah. I was just staring at my notebook till he finished his 10 mins lecture. Then i sat down and giggled along with my friend who was sitting next to me. I think this is the only time i was scolded in the class and i showed such a callous attitude. :)
11. I used to love Maggi ketchup glass bottles and used to carry water to school in that along with my lunch box. Once during 8th standard, when the bottle rolled on the floor and made noise, my history teacher asked the person who was still living in stone age to stand up. The whole class giggled to the glory while i was blushing away. That was the last day for glass bottles in my lunch pack.
12. It is almost impossible for me to like girls who croon and swoon over even small things. :)
13. I dread the day when i will no longer be a 20 something person. Although, one of my buddy advises that it's time to embrace the fact that i am getting older. ( and not a benjamin button :))
14. I regret not giving Indian Civil Services Examination.
15. I actually wanted to become an Aeronautical engineer in Indian Airforce.
16. I was so crazy about driving in US that i used to go for a long drive while listening to all classical music cds, rented free from the library, while eating the baskin robbins ice cream.
17. I got fined around $270 in US for overspeeding. And we ended up splitting it among the 4 car passengers :)
18. I am not crazy of stuffed toys although nowadays i seem to collect for their variety.
19. I once carried a big teddy bear wrapped in a cover as a hand carrying luggage from Miami, US via Frankfurt to Bangalore, India. This is the only teddy bear i have ever fallen love with. :) And it costed just $3 after a huge discount during after thanksgiving sales.
20. I can almost never take a bite of any food without mentally thinking about the calorie content.
21. Thanks to my first company, i had chances to travel in Business class overseas. I used to sleep through the whole trip and my Infy friend concluded that i was a waste fellow as i never tried the best in class red wine which they served.
22. It is almost impossible for me to dance. :) Yes, during final year of college days, all my hostelmates tried their level best to make me dance. My hands and legs just don't move.
23. I learnt bharatanatyam for 8 months in my 7th standard and discontinued it.
24. I stood and watched the complete US F1 race live in the circuit out of sheer excitement, while my friend was bored to death hearing the car noise continously and was trying to cheer himself up with hot dogs and beers :)
25. Two of my goals, MBA and target weight, are yet to be achieved. :)
Too many "I"s :)
Now comes the pass the baton phase. I donot want to mention this as tagging, as it seems to put an indirect responsibility on the tagged people. However, i would be interested in knowing 25 random things about TheChef, Vikram, charlie|thotti, Postman, Human and amruth by name anonymous :)
Oct 22, 2009
Cloning future European citizens?
I was reading this article about coverage of Far right groups by media in their corresponding countries.
One common theme among all the groups seems to be anti-immigration.
This brings to my mind the general reasoning given as why immigration is good for EU Countries and why it needs to be encouraged.
The main reason given is the aging EU Population and the expectation that skillful immigrants will make EU their home and thus help the country by paying more taxes.
This made me wonder, what if EU Countries start opting for mass cloning to generate future citizens.
In this way, there is no issues related immigrants cultural assimilation, they can create the best of the individuals as their citizens.
No, i am not suggesting that Cloning is the best way forward. Infact, i am completely against it. Mainly because, then the overflowing millions Asians, who are on the verge of jumping ship to EU given a chance, will end up burdening their home countries. :) And already there is a 6 billion population in a planet where the ideal population should have been some where around 3-4 billion based on the planet's natural resources.
But i wonder, Is this Cloning idea going to be one of the future plans of these Far right groups? Or nobody has gone to this extreme level of hatred?
Just a thought. :)
One common theme among all the groups seems to be anti-immigration.
This brings to my mind the general reasoning given as why immigration is good for EU Countries and why it needs to be encouraged.
The main reason given is the aging EU Population and the expectation that skillful immigrants will make EU their home and thus help the country by paying more taxes.
This made me wonder, what if EU Countries start opting for mass cloning to generate future citizens.
In this way, there is no issues related immigrants cultural assimilation, they can create the best of the individuals as their citizens.
No, i am not suggesting that Cloning is the best way forward. Infact, i am completely against it. Mainly because, then the overflowing millions Asians, who are on the verge of jumping ship to EU given a chance, will end up burdening their home countries. :) And already there is a 6 billion population in a planet where the ideal population should have been some where around 3-4 billion based on the planet's natural resources.
But i wonder, Is this Cloning idea going to be one of the future plans of these Far right groups? Or nobody has gone to this extreme level of hatred?
Just a thought. :)
Oct 21, 2009
Google maps & SMS
Quite funny and scary :)
And honestly, this is just a sure shot possible usecase in the near future :)
All the other three are also quite ok...
And honestly, this is just a sure shot possible usecase in the near future :)
All the other three are also quite ok...
Oct 15, 2009
The slides
As part of the 3 applications, i have written in total 7 essays and created 1 Powerpoint presentation of 4 slides.
Eventhough, i was impressed with the essays, my best is the Powerpoint presentation. And it was the one which took the least time.
The concept was great..i got it in the first few minutes after waking up in the morning last week. And concluded it with the complete theme while returning home in the cab. Once the concept and theme were finalized, it took a total of 8hours in 2 sittings to complete the slides.
And till now, 2 people have said,"wow" and one has said,"great".
Sadly, today, after my brother viewed it in his system, he called up telling that he is seeing alignment issues. He sees the problem in MS Office 2003. Infact, yesterday one person pointed the same while viewing it in OpenOffice in Linux system. But i don't see these issues in my MS Office 2003 version. So does one of my other friend in Windows.
Now,i am kicking myself for not converting it into pdf and uploading it. I could've done it.
Wonder what version of MS Office Adcom has and how it's going to be in their printout :(
All happiness of creating a great slides is totally muted now :(
Eventhough, i was impressed with the essays, my best is the Powerpoint presentation. And it was the one which took the least time.
The concept was great..i got it in the first few minutes after waking up in the morning last week. And concluded it with the complete theme while returning home in the cab. Once the concept and theme were finalized, it took a total of 8hours in 2 sittings to complete the slides.
And till now, 2 people have said,"wow" and one has said,"great".
Sadly, today, after my brother viewed it in his system, he called up telling that he is seeing alignment issues. He sees the problem in MS Office 2003. Infact, yesterday one person pointed the same while viewing it in OpenOffice in Linux system. But i don't see these issues in my MS Office 2003 version. So does one of my other friend in Windows.
Now,i am kicking myself for not converting it into pdf and uploading it. I could've done it.
Wonder what version of MS Office Adcom has and how it's going to be in their printout :(
All happiness of creating a great slides is totally muted now :(
Oct 14, 2009
So the Waiting Period starts...
And don't know whether the wait is going to conclude with good news or bad news.
Guess, one day or the other, the cat has to be out of the bag...
Quite a lot has happened over the 2 last months. Today when i saw the committed work schedule in office, i was shocked to see the gap in my current status and targeted status. I was so immersed in this personal activity that i had been quite slow on the professional front. Now the work deadline for 1st week of November looks totally scary...Guess, it's time for the night out days to be back!!
Atlast, this year i decided to take a plunge and apply to B-schools. Yes, again :) But to a different set of schools...to THE BEST (and right fit) ones, according to me :)
When i conveyed this decision to my brother, he commented, "I really need to appreciate you. No matter, how many times you fall, you still haven't stopped knocking the MBA Door. :) "
Ofcourse, i pointed out, quite promptly, that everytime my goal bar has only raised.
Eventhough, i told the above line smilingly, i was totally skeptical at heart as whether i am in a bubble without knowing the reality.
Apart from this, i am totally skeptical as how economy is going to be in 2012...no idea as how to finance the MBA...ofcourse, student loan is there. But it looks scary. No idea as how life is going to be impacted because of this decision.
Inspite of all these skepticisms, i decided to apply it first. Let me get an admit first. Then tackle the other problems one by one. Now, this might sound as if i am postponing major problems to a later stage...and maybe these problems might make my decision useless.
I don't think so or I am not 100% convinced with that conclusion. All the other problems are not solvable. If there is one thing which i have learned in life till now, it is the realization that 100% planning of perfect situation just doesn't work out. It's only scrum way of life better nowadays.
Taking all the problems at one shot makes one end up in a loop leading nowhere. So, for a change, let me worry about one problem at a time. :) (Ofcourse, this doesn't mean i forgot the other problems or i don't worry about it at times :))
So, with this conclusion, i started the app process. And honestly, it was a real eye opener. It was truly an experience of self reflection, as mentioned by Rose Martinelli.
At times, it made me proud to realize the achievements in life. At other times, it made me regret for not doing many things which were always close to my heart. It made me realize my short term goal, long term goal, gaps to be overcome to achieve the same. It made me understand what i truly am, what i want to do in life and ofcourse why and how MBA will help for this.
Initially when i started writing the essays, i was thinking as what the Admission team expects in my essays. And it is my opinion that they expect a Young CEO of Bleeding edge tech firm, graduated from IIT-D, who has also started an NGO to uplift millions of people, who has travelled to majority of the world countries and can converse in 8 different languages. Or maybe a hotshot Consultant/ future I-Banker aspirant with an undergrad degree from Stanford and Masters from Harvard.
And this totally depressed me out.
But then, one fine day, i realized that even those guys will have equal competitors among the applicants. For every hotshot consultant applying, even if his/her colleague will be applying.
So, ideally, everyone has competition in one's range.
The only point to be realized is how unique i am.
This realization helped me to write what i think is unique about me from my learnings, goals and aspirations.
Having said that, i am scared that my GMAT score isn't that great. It's on the lower side when compared to the flock of Indian applicants. But then, i can't do anything. I wrote again on Oct 1st and didn't improve it.
So the only best shot is to try to present me as an individual and my attributes to the fullest extent in the essays.
I guess i have tried to do the same. Having clicked the submit button, the waiting period starts...
And the schools for which i have applied are Chicago Booth GSB, Columbia Business School and London Business School.
When i asked in one forum for my profile evaluation, a person replied that all the above schools are stretch for me as my profile isn't that unique. But then, people like me seem to have some kind of sadistic pleasure in torturing oneself by targetting the top amidst all the cribbings and moanings in trying to achieve the same. Maybe, there is a better word for the previous sentence and it's probably ambitous :)
Having said that, i did evaluate as how different i am from the huge Indian applicant pool. I think there are a few brownie points in my favour. Now, are those brownie points combined with my essays enough to convince the adcom to send me an interview invite and then admit me? Time will tell.
And Interestingly today, i started doing a Math of one kind.
If we take Chicago Booth, i remember reading somewhere that they get around 3000+ Applications for a year. And roughly one third of that is received in R1, which puts the number to 1000. Lets assume that 10% of the applications are incomplete from essays perspective. Now the final number is 900 valid applications for R1.
The number of individuals in Admission committee is 9.
This implies every individual might end up reading 100 applications.
They start this process a week before the deadline(Oct-7) and continue for another 2 weeks.
This puts 15 days of active reading of applications.
So an adcom member might end up reading 6-7 applications per day.
And this might actually imply i get a maximum of 30-40mts of precious time to create an impression. And i remember my alumni friend mentioning that every application gets read only once and a decision to send an interview invite is made after the read. Only in a few exceptional cases, an application gets read twice.
Is this the reality? Or does the filtering happen based on some predefined criteria?
Obviously, there will be some set of predefined criteria based on which the members will evaluate the application while reading.
Here runs my wild imagination creating all possible permutations and combinations of those criteria and how my application stacks against that...
And, it's just ain't that a happy imagination at the moment, although at times, i seem to be overly confident :)
Hope work fills my mind completely that i won't have time to spend in this kind of imagination each day...:)
Guess, one day or the other, the cat has to be out of the bag...
Quite a lot has happened over the 2 last months. Today when i saw the committed work schedule in office, i was shocked to see the gap in my current status and targeted status. I was so immersed in this personal activity that i had been quite slow on the professional front. Now the work deadline for 1st week of November looks totally scary...Guess, it's time for the night out days to be back!!
Atlast, this year i decided to take a plunge and apply to B-schools. Yes, again :) But to a different set of schools...to THE BEST (and right fit) ones, according to me :)
When i conveyed this decision to my brother, he commented, "I really need to appreciate you. No matter, how many times you fall, you still haven't stopped knocking the MBA Door. :) "
Ofcourse, i pointed out, quite promptly, that everytime my goal bar has only raised.
Eventhough, i told the above line smilingly, i was totally skeptical at heart as whether i am in a bubble without knowing the reality.
Apart from this, i am totally skeptical as how economy is going to be in 2012...no idea as how to finance the MBA...ofcourse, student loan is there. But it looks scary. No idea as how life is going to be impacted because of this decision.
Inspite of all these skepticisms, i decided to apply it first. Let me get an admit first. Then tackle the other problems one by one. Now, this might sound as if i am postponing major problems to a later stage...and maybe these problems might make my decision useless.
I don't think so or I am not 100% convinced with that conclusion. All the other problems are not solvable. If there is one thing which i have learned in life till now, it is the realization that 100% planning of perfect situation just doesn't work out. It's only scrum way of life better nowadays.
Taking all the problems at one shot makes one end up in a loop leading nowhere. So, for a change, let me worry about one problem at a time. :) (Ofcourse, this doesn't mean i forgot the other problems or i don't worry about it at times :))
So, with this conclusion, i started the app process. And honestly, it was a real eye opener. It was truly an experience of self reflection, as mentioned by Rose Martinelli.
At times, it made me proud to realize the achievements in life. At other times, it made me regret for not doing many things which were always close to my heart. It made me realize my short term goal, long term goal, gaps to be overcome to achieve the same. It made me understand what i truly am, what i want to do in life and ofcourse why and how MBA will help for this.
Initially when i started writing the essays, i was thinking as what the Admission team expects in my essays. And it is my opinion that they expect a Young CEO of Bleeding edge tech firm, graduated from IIT-D, who has also started an NGO to uplift millions of people, who has travelled to majority of the world countries and can converse in 8 different languages. Or maybe a hotshot Consultant/ future I-Banker aspirant with an undergrad degree from Stanford and Masters from Harvard.
And this totally depressed me out.
But then, one fine day, i realized that even those guys will have equal competitors among the applicants. For every hotshot consultant applying, even if his/her colleague will be applying.
So, ideally, everyone has competition in one's range.
The only point to be realized is how unique i am.
This realization helped me to write what i think is unique about me from my learnings, goals and aspirations.
Having said that, i am scared that my GMAT score isn't that great. It's on the lower side when compared to the flock of Indian applicants. But then, i can't do anything. I wrote again on Oct 1st and didn't improve it.
So the only best shot is to try to present me as an individual and my attributes to the fullest extent in the essays.
I guess i have tried to do the same. Having clicked the submit button, the waiting period starts...
And the schools for which i have applied are Chicago Booth GSB, Columbia Business School and London Business School.
When i asked in one forum for my profile evaluation, a person replied that all the above schools are stretch for me as my profile isn't that unique. But then, people like me seem to have some kind of sadistic pleasure in torturing oneself by targetting the top amidst all the cribbings and moanings in trying to achieve the same. Maybe, there is a better word for the previous sentence and it's probably ambitous :)
Having said that, i did evaluate as how different i am from the huge Indian applicant pool. I think there are a few brownie points in my favour. Now, are those brownie points combined with my essays enough to convince the adcom to send me an interview invite and then admit me? Time will tell.
And Interestingly today, i started doing a Math of one kind.
If we take Chicago Booth, i remember reading somewhere that they get around 3000+ Applications for a year. And roughly one third of that is received in R1, which puts the number to 1000. Lets assume that 10% of the applications are incomplete from essays perspective. Now the final number is 900 valid applications for R1.
The number of individuals in Admission committee is 9.
This implies every individual might end up reading 100 applications.
They start this process a week before the deadline(Oct-7) and continue for another 2 weeks.
This puts 15 days of active reading of applications.
So an adcom member might end up reading 6-7 applications per day.
And this might actually imply i get a maximum of 30-40mts of precious time to create an impression. And i remember my alumni friend mentioning that every application gets read only once and a decision to send an interview invite is made after the read. Only in a few exceptional cases, an application gets read twice.
Is this the reality? Or does the filtering happen based on some predefined criteria?
Obviously, there will be some set of predefined criteria based on which the members will evaluate the application while reading.
Here runs my wild imagination creating all possible permutations and combinations of those criteria and how my application stacks against that...
And, it's just ain't that a happy imagination at the moment, although at times, i seem to be overly confident :)
Hope work fills my mind completely that i won't have time to spend in this kind of imagination each day...:)
Fun Theory
From Volkswagen :)
Check this site for upcoming experiments.
Btw, i couldn't imagine how it will sound in a busy Indian Railway station like Chennai or others... probably might not sound much fun though.
Anyways, we don't have escalators there yet. ;)
Check this site for upcoming experiments.
Btw, i couldn't imagine how it will sound in a busy Indian Railway station like Chennai or others... probably might not sound much fun though.
Anyways, we don't have escalators there yet. ;)
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