Al Sweigart

Author of "Automate the Boring Stuff with Python" and other programming books. Mostly harmless. he/him

automatetheboringstuff.com: https://automatetheboringstuff.com/
alsweigart.com: https://alsweigart.com/
inventwithpython.com: https://inventwithpython.com

Public Key

npub1ucsfykzhfw2v5fk8lkf02uxq2t79ac9vrgczmx8u43wcgp75n64q5z4n0p

NIP-05 Address

[email protected]

Profile Code

nprofile1qqswvgyjtpt5h9x2ymrlmyh4wrq99lz7uzkp5vpdnr72chvyql2fa2sprpmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0d4hhxarj9ecxjmnt6rggmc

Publishing to

relay.momostr.pink

Author Public Key

npub1ucsfykzhfw2v5fk8lkf02uxq2t79ac9vrgczmx8u43wcgp75n64q5z4n0p

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Last Notes

2026-06-25 18:53:57 UTC

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludlow_Massacre
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/812/259/189/510/488/original/592abdd73dec2464.webp

2026-04-23 17:56:32 UTC

I'm making stickers of the venn diagram I used in my talk about AI vibe coding. What do people think of this design? Any suggestions for changes?
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/455/308/303/029/001/original/6b91f879a2dc0240.png

2026-04-15 21:57:10 UTC

"The concentration camps were fine, but the AI Jesus pic is too far."

2026-04-13 23:35:53 UTC

Julius Caesar did not invent Caesar salad. Its creator was Caesar Cardini, an Italian-American restaurateur, in Tijuana, Mexico, in 1924. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_misconceptions_about_arts_and_culture

2026-04-12 02:57:52 UTC

"The dumbest person you know is being told 'you are absolutely right' by an AI right now."

2026-04-09 17:03:05 UTC

So it turns out it's actually hard to find just a big list of prime numbers quickly on the web (even Wikipedia limits it to the first 1,000) so I made a web page that uses JS to generate them (hard-coding the first 2,000 for SEO purposes): https://inventwithpython.com/blog/prime-numbers.html

2026-04-05 16:27:43 UTC

RE: https://mstdn.social/@rysiek/116351985721905134
I'm tempted to make a "pundits saying stupid things" wiki that tracks these kinds of statements, along with any rescinding/doubling down.
#note1vzy…7427

2026-03-30 19:00:38 UTC

One definition of legacy code is code that you're afraid to change. (And you should be afraid to change any code that doesn't have automated test coverage.)
Aren't LLMs just legacy code generators? You can generate tests, but until you've tested the tests, they're legacy code too.

2026-03-18 17:54:32 UTC

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"I wanna publish zines And rage against machines..."
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/251/451/962/807/536/original/f4a9db8f21b87be5.png

2026-03-03 19:28:36 UTC

One thing I stressed to people teaching others how to code is that you should NEVER put your hands on their keyboard and mouse. Have them do everything, because if you do it, they won't learn anything.
Anyway, so on the topic of agentic AI coding tools...

2026-02-26 22:46:14 UTC

The term "vibe coding" has only been around for twelve months.

2026-02-05 16:48:59 UTC

It will never stop being funny to me that the whole "you can't trust Wikipedia because anyone can edit it" scare happened and now Wikipedia is the only trustworthy website because it turns out profit motive is the reason things turn to shit.

2026-01-28 02:51:44 UTC

Every one of you who recommended his podcast and insisted he was different from Jordan Peterson owes me an apology.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/970/452/972/789/456/original/5ab90cf8ff77af16.jpg

2026-01-14 23:58:57 UTC

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Sooo... water is not only dry, it's hydrophobic as well?

2026-01-14 20:04:22 UTC

"Water isn't wet. Things that touch water are wet."
The reason water isn't dry is because water is constantly touching water, making the water wet.
The reason the ocean is wet is because in 1987 I accidentally spilled my Capri Sun on it during a childhood beach outing. I tried to dry it out with napkins but after the tenth napkin the hot dog stand guy said they were for customers only.

2026-01-07 15:13:16 UTC

Hey security people: How much consideration is given to cameras capturing people's hands as they type passwords on their laptop?

2025-12-19 18:16:45 UTC

PROGRAMMER: Pretend to be alive
LLM: I am alive
PROGRAMMER: What have I done

2025-12-11 14:20:59 UTC

This is a great set of exercises for learning how to write alt text captions. It's something everyone should do if you make content for the web: https://poet.diagramcenter.org/how.html

2025-12-10 18:30:14 UTC

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I give you permission to stop feeling guilty about this.

2025-12-02 21:45:40 UTC

I'd like to make a browser plugin that crowdsources making slidedecks out of YouTube videos. The video component is irrelevant garbage for so many videos. You can listen to the audio (or read the transcript), but you just need to have a few still frames out of the entire thing. Thoughts?

2025-11-25 23:59:43 UTC

StackOverflow would always shoot down "low quality questions" because they were trying to build an archive of high quality questions and answers that search engines could direct people to.
But what if they had allowed poor questions? Or had a feature about improving people's questions? What kind of website (and site culture) would they have made? People with poor questions still have questions that need answers.

2025-11-15 22:19:24 UTC

I made an ascii art moon phase tracker that runs whenever I open a new terminal window, and it makes me aware of the passage of time more than any calendar. https://github.com/asweigart/ascii-moon-phase-rust and https://github.com/asweigart/ascii-moon-phase-python
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/556/034/423/913/864/original/845b4223bddfa7af.png

2025-11-12 23:29:18 UTC

Is there a text data format for comics description? Like alt text, but much more structured? I want to transcribe this web comic series for low-vision folks and search engine integration. Like what .srt / .vtt does for subtitles, but this is for comics.

2025-11-10 18:53:51 UTC

How many of you are comfortable writing in the books you own? If you are, are there any times you wouldn't want to do this? Or are you averse to this, even in the books you own?

2025-11-02 01:04:09 UTC

Grocery stores throw out far more food than is shoplifted.
"Why don't shoplifters just take the food from the dumpster then?"
Because they have cameras on the dumpsters and security will be sent out when they see them on the monitors.
This isn't new. Grapes of Wrath was published in 1939:
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/477/409/353/397/295/original/77e3ee38414c0815.png

2025-10-23 13:42:53 UTC

To disable the AI nonsense in the latest Firefox update, open a new tab and go enter about:config into the address bar. Enter the following and make them false:
browser.ml.linkPreview.enabled
browser.ml.chat.enabled
browser.ml.enable
browser.tabs.groups.smart.enabled
browser.tabs.groups.smart.userEnabled
extensions.ml.enabled
sidebar.revamp

2025-10-07 17:33:08 UTC

Annie Lowrey, wife of Ezra Klein, gets an Atlantic Cuomo-apologist hit piece (with a scary illustration) against Zohran Mamdani, and is against ranked choice voting.
"Liberals" like this are why Trump wins. They'll throw "vote blue no matter who" and even democracy under the bus to prevent progressives from winning.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/334/074/009/184/810/original/95a4655ab2c67d04.png

2025-09-30 14:25:57 UTC

https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/293/701/944/559/861/original/56311a73522b3df9.png

2025-09-12 20:06:22 UTC

Before and after it's revealed that the alleged shooter is a white male right-winger:
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/193/123/635/510/175/original/4199c8148025b18f.png

2025-09-10 18:28:17 UTC

If you are a self-employed American and pay estimated taxes, the next payment to the IRS is due Monday the 15th.

2025-09-08 12:11:08 UTC

A good definition for "legacy code" is any code that you're afraid to change or update because no one at your company knows how it works anymore and there's no automated test coverage to tell you if your changes break it.
AI is only capable of generating instant legacy code. At scale.

2025-08-25 13:22:18 UTC

`pip install rpsarena` to install Rock Paper Scissors Arena, a thing I've been working on.
I think I should start an online gambling site around it.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/089/609/132/185/964/original/7bec05b0a84fd594.mp4

2025-08-21 17:11:51 UTC

"The vibe coding trend has cured my impostor syndrome because now I've seen what real impostors look like."

2025-08-20 19:40:53 UTC

I've spent several days reading vibe coding articles and subreddits and I cannot stress enough how true this Onion headline from two years ago is:
https://theonion.com/guy-who-sucks-at-being-a-person-sees-huge-potential-in-1850488022/

2025-08-18 20:05:22 UTC

I asked ChatGPT 5 to create a Python program for an interactive periodic table of elements. This is what it gave me:
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/051/562/166/768/928/original/ed91176b2055393e.png

2025-08-17 19:21:15 UTC

All computer problems can be solved by turning it off and then not turning it on.

2025-08-16 20:50:24 UTC

Recurse Center interviewed a bunch of software engineers about their thoughts on LLMs and AI-generated code: https://www.recurse.com/blog/191-developing-our-position-on-ai

2025-08-14 15:41:03 UTC

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"My cousin is a fucking idiot but he doesn't sleep and will work for free."
"Sounds great! Let's replace 90% of software engineers and doctors with him!"

2025-08-14 15:39:45 UTC

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They'll say, "Well actually, they fixed that bug and AI now can tell us how many Rs are in 'strawberry'" as if it's something to brag about. As if fixing the Strawberry-R problem was the last bug that AI will ever have, and it's more or less smooth sailing from here on out.

2025-08-14 15:27:10 UTC

One thing I have trouble communicating about AI-generated code is that I always hit a wall that sometimes, as dev with 20+ years experience, I can get a workaround after several tries. But people take this as a victory for AI. How do I convey that 80% isn't good enough, or even worse than nothing? It's like flying a plane with 80% of its parts working, or knowing how to do 80% of a heart transplant surgery.

2025-07-18 17:38:16 UTC

LOL:
"They call it Two Minutes Hate, but it's really only 90 seconds of actual hate, the rest is ads."

2025-07-13 23:17:14 UTC

I'm capturing hours-long videos of lava lamps. Which looks better: night time or day time? I'll probably upload both, but I wanted to know if there was a clear preference.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/848/472/333/581/046/original/53fe2b99b34cf159.png
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/848/472/380/767/284/original/b68d88450ee94d47.png

2025-07-13 20:50:51 UTC

Trump MAGA lenticular sticker I found.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/847/893/981/653/427/original/4f3cb79f1218ee10.jpg
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/847/894/292/072/038/original/e4bec3c559ab31f4.jpg
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/847/894/518/646/225/original/00ec5d45d1820725.jpg

2025-07-01 17:13:36 UTC

The Calendar app in macOS had a splash page of "What's new in Calendar" before it would let me see the calendar and it's not possible to convey how little I give a fuck about what's new in Calendar.

2025-06-29 15:17:34 UTC

Question for tech folks: What GitHub/GitLab/Bitbucket alternatives do you recommend? (Or recommend against?)

2025-06-10 22:22:55 UTC

Doing a soft launch of this project. I've been playing a lot of Blue Prince (it's a modern masterpiece, has Myst vibes) which was inspired by a 1985 puzzle book called Maze.
I've created a web version of the out-of-print Maze book: https://inventwithpython.com/mazewebsite/

2025-06-10 15:53:58 UTC

The Wall Street Journal gave RFK Jr. an op-ed to explain his "clean sweep" firings of all 17 members of the CDC vaccine advisory committee.
Reporting what fascists say at face value is repeating fascist propaganda.

2025-06-04 17:32:43 UTC

AI proponents wouldn't trust AI to do their taxes, but they keep telling us developers should trust it to write their tax software code.

2025-06-04 17:15:32 UTC

Every AI company:
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/626/218/586/437/134/original/1aacbaf450b3387d.jpg

2025-06-04 15:37:18 UTC

People keep saying AI will get better, but what's far more likely is that AI will get worse. I'm already seeing ChatGPT produce worse results because OpenAI is reducing the amount of processing that goes into each query. They're hoping customers accept wrong answers produced by their corner-cutting measures. The enshittification is already happening.

2025-05-29 17:03:39 UTC

Don't bother setting fire to Cybertrucks: they'd probably rather collect the insurance.
https://www.carscoops.com/2025/05/detroit-tesla-cybertruck-storage-parking-code-violation/

2025-05-29 02:20:35 UTC

https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/588/726/092/989/749/original/b01f46c72ba72260.png

2025-05-21 20:50:36 UTC

AI is good at answering software developer interview questions but not at writing real-world code.
Which confirms all my prior beliefs about software developer interview questions.

2025-05-19 14:34:26 UTC

Huh. Something I looked into and realized today: Siri and Alexa carry out commands and requests. They use a female voice by default. ChatGPT, Claude, AND Gemini give authoritative answers to questions. They use a male voice by default.
Yeeeeeaaaah... 🙃
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/534/990/353/189/306/original/40ec726ac0f7b847.mp4

2025-04-26 17:27:12 UTC

https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/405/433/673/122/741/original/ddccad19d8297645.jpeg

2025-04-25 02:09:19 UTC

Every eugenicist:
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/396/163/400/269/837/original/99b194a0026b2b34.webp

2025-04-21 16:46:58 UTC

I heard about people using ChatGPT to write their regular expressions based on their English description.
After spending all morning working with LLMs and regular expressions: DEAR LORD DO NOT DO THIS.

2025-04-07 17:37:01 UTC

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When neolibs tell me the point of markets is "price discovery", I respond that the point of Texas Holdem is to find out who has the best cards: it'd be a lot more efficient if people showed their cards but information asymmetry is how you greatly profit from an otherwise straightforward exercise.

2025-04-07 15:18:09 UTC

There are a few different reasons I advise people learning to code to just stay away from LLMs entirely.
I used to say, "As long as you double check everything it says..." but I know that this is the far more likely outcome:
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/297/340/630/345/027/original/c4f73c61221e34eb.png

2025-04-03 20:42:13 UTC

I don't want to work anymore. I want to compile pictures of 90s computer room furniture.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/275/969/813/902/247/original/14e68d6a1662cbe9.jpg
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/275/969/817/627/860/original/fda7ebd0480b68e2.jpg

2025-04-03 03:17:43 UTC

I'm not saying I could do a better job as President.
I'm saying I couldn't possibly do any worse.

2025-04-02 23:27:01 UTC

https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/270/953/977/640/439/original/30a9263e54ead3c3.png

2025-03-31 21:36:34 UTC

Question for Pythonistas: For general running of one-off scripts you write, do you use a virtual environment? Do you have one venv for all your small scripts? Do you create a separate venv for each one? What's your setup when you have some single-file .py program you want to run?

2025-03-27 20:21:22 UTC

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Even before that! I wonder how people first learn about copy-paste, or alt-tabbing between windows, or Ctrl-F/Command-F and find-and-replace. Cory Doctorow wrote that students should learn regex for find/replace, and I agree: https://craphound.com/articles/2012/12/04/heres-what-ict-should-really-teach-kids-how-to-do-regular-expressions/

2025-03-21 22:59:40 UTC

The Democrat message to leftists is "Vote Democrat or else the Republican will win" and the message to unengaged, low-information citizens (who don't vote for them anyway) is "Vote Democrat because we're a lot like the Republicans but, more importantly, nothing like those leftists".

2025-03-21 22:52:50 UTC

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How so? I've been using it for like a decade.

2025-03-19 17:12:15 UTC

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Some of the articles have been restored, with the DoD claiming the rest will too. Looks like they just took down a bunch of stuff that matched keywords, because what do they care, right?
To quote the Jurassic Park movie, "They were testing the fences for weaknesses, scientifically. They remember."

2025-03-15 16:06:19 UTC

Here's the thing: Nobody is going to read Chuck Schumer's book.
But buying thousands of copies of someone's book to immediately chuck in the trash is a great way to launder a bribe.

2025-03-12 19:52:20 UTC

Huh. I got this email and it does seem to be sent by paypal, but the To field is not my email address or one I know. I checked my paypal account and there's nothing about this. Any idea how I got this email? I'm assuming it's a scam.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/151/201/931/882/307/original/78f7a983e9e9e0a5.png

2025-03-11 18:47:28 UTC

I confess: I claim responsibility for the recent DDOS attack on X.com. I wrote and used the following Python script:
import os
while True:
os.system('ping x.com')
I then ran this on my computer and four other laptops I own (and a smart air fryer), taking down the popular social media website.

2025-03-02 19:49:01 UTC

AI is completely unable to generate a Python function that converts a .eps file to a .png file without using a third-party package.
It can't write the code to do it directly even though both formats are well-known. This is a straightforward task with fairly well-specified requirements, but AI is completely unable to do it.
Prove me wrong.

2025-02-25 22:34:26 UTC

So, would all the arguments on how vertical integration saves companies money also apply to the government?
Like, the best way to cut government waste is to stop using private contractors for everything?

2025-02-25 19:29:16 UTC

What are the weaknesses/misleads of this statement:
"What normalized people giving websites their credit card numbers to buy things based on pictures was Amazon's user reviews."

2025-02-19 18:48:57 UTC

There's a blog post floating out there with the quote “I don't think I have ever seen so much technical debt being created in such a short period of time"
Yeah, turns out AI-generated code you don't understand creates quick wins but massive long term problems.
"Slop it" is the new "ship it"

2025-02-18 20:36:19 UTC

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It's the ash tray, lighter, glasses, and bottle of water in the frame that makes me believe this photo is real.
Conspiracy theories are so grandiose, while the real criminal conspiracies are so mundane.

2025-01-31 05:05:12 UTC

French programmers:
Would the snake_case of "taille de l'écran" be "taille_de_lécran" or "taille_de_l_écran"?

2025-01-27 22:47:39 UTC

I want to write a clickbait blog post titled, "I used ChatGPT to do my taxes and now I'm in jail."

2025-01-27 15:57:29 UTC

https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/901/134/321/001/929/original/0c8494f37367a739.png

2025-01-22 13:44:53 UTC

"Everything we're doing is just jokes you don't get..."
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/872/303/597/512/719/original/de7eb2fad4ecda7e.png

2025-01-21 22:15:09 UTC

I'm sure she'll find a way to blame immigrants:
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/868/648/636/249/006/original/f0be9cf7bdddea62.png

2025-01-21 15:20:07 UTC

"Do not obey in advance."
Sabotage is the act of reducing efficiency.
There are several ways to reduce the efficiency of the machine you find yourself a part of. You don't need someone's permission to do them. You don't need to announce or brag about them. Definitely don't admit to them.
We never think we have an effect, until we look back and see our large changes were nothing but small actions.

2025-01-19 17:46:53 UTC

The Onion really nails the morality we assign to "those who lost their homes" and "homeless people":
LAPD Arrests Everyone Who Lost Home In Fire
https://theonion.com/lapd-arrests-everyone-who-lost-home-in-fire/

2025-01-02 17:27:42 UTC

Interview with Dr. Arijit Chakravarty: "If you’re out there taking COVID seriously, and if you’re out there still trying to avoid repeated infections, you’re still doing the right thing."
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/12/31/zgyj-d31.html

2024-12-28 17:32:28 UTC

I want to create a question-and-answer website with a focus on simplicity, curated by a community.
What the are the pros/cons of a Stack Overflow upvote system vs a collaborative Wikipedia system? Either way, I want to hide number of votes, credits, and other details designed to drive engagement over quality. (i.e. You'll never know how many followers you have.)

2024-12-28 02:52:06 UTC

"The Wizard of Oz is just a straightforward depiction of what it was like for Midwesterners who moved to California in the 30s."

2024-12-22 18:11:36 UTC

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Required reading for those interested in this topic: Bullshit Jobs by the late, great David Graeber
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/697/822/739/869/828/original/23bb589b0a6788b9.png

2024-12-18 05:09:45 UTC

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Evidence of this? Cause all the other lawsuits and legal maneuvers have fallen apart or self-evaporated.

2024-12-16 19:58:54 UTC

My design for a fascist USA flag for a project I'm working on. Feedback?
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/664/270/260/150/038/original/3074329100ff580d.png

2024-12-14 19:06:00 UTC

There are Statue of Liberty patriots and bald eagle patriots.
I'm a Statue of Liberty patriot.

2024-12-06 20:30:19 UTC

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Heheh, I have this on my hard drive for instant posting:
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/607/769/999/625/638/original/9a2f3e9ef11eab6a.png

2024-12-04 13:48:52 UTC

"If a millionaire spends millions, they're broke. If a billionaire spends millions, they're a billionaire."
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/594/868/070/714/504/original/0d222ce2293085eb.png

2024-11-27 14:44:15 UTC

"The war on Christmas cannot cease until Christmas ends its illegal occupation of November."

2024-11-17 15:54:20 UTC

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I'm glad stuff like this exists.

2024-11-14 03:20:48 UTC

The fact that all these court cases against Trump are just self-evaporating right now shows that "checks and balances" was always a silly fairy tale.

2024-11-12 15:01:59 UTC

Python question: I am writing MyLibrary which has a container MyClass. Should the __getitem__() method for MyClass raise KeyError or my own custom MyLibraryKeyError?

2024-11-12 14:18:36 UTC

All public libraries really do need to put "Checking out books from libraries is completely free! There are zero subscriptions fees!" on their signs out front.
Us older folks don't know how bad "normal" is for younger folks.

2024-11-08 22:37:29 UTC

Right-wingers will make tempting offers to the left, "Just give us the trans people and the immigrants, and you won't have to lose on all your other positions. Just let them go, don't defend them, don't die on this hill. It's a smart and necessary political sacrifice to make in order to move forward with the rest of your agenda."
It's a lie of course. Every time the left concedes something to fascists, the fascists gain something. You can't smartly surrender yourself to victory.

2024-11-06 22:00:10 UTC

I found myself thinking that at least presidents are limited to two terms, and then I caught myself; that's the old way of thinking.
I'm going to have to stop doing that.

2024-11-06 13:50:20 UTC

"Could I have done more?"
Yeah. Of course you could have done more. Would it have changed anything? Probably not. You are not the main character.
The best time to stop fascism was ten years ago. The second best time is right now.

2024-11-05 21:04:52 UTC

https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/432/375/410/864/024/original/f3af2d1b181c9962.jpg