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Today I have a simpler video for you.

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Simple?

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On this channel?

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Sounds unpossible.

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I know right!

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But really it’s pretty simple!

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Yeah right, let’s just take a quick peek at …

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oh.
[if you're on mobile it says 9:32 because who cares about consistency across the platform?]

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I guess it is pretty simple.

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Yep, told ya so!

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I am in fact capable of making shorter videos.

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Well this gag sure isn’t helping with that.

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Indeed so let’s introduce the topic and
talk about these little cassette adapter thingies.

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If you have an older car which only has a
cassette deck but you need your sweet sweet

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AUX JACK,

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well you’ll probably have used one of
these before.

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And they’ve been around for quite a while.

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Back when a CD Walkman was the height of sophistication,

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you could modernize your car with one of these

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and be enjoying the best the world of Compact Disc has to offer.

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Ever wonder how they work?

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Only all the time!

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No!

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Stop.

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That gag is over.

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To understand how this works, we first need
to understand a bit about the technology behind

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audio tape.

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Fricken’ tapes.

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How do they work?

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Magnets!

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Magnetic tape is some pretty neat stuff, though
it’s not groovy I’ll tell you that.

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Instead it’s particular.

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Conventional type I audio tape is simply a
thin ribbon of plastic backing which has a

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bunch of finely ground-up rust smeared all
over it.

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The iron oxide particles can be magnetized
with a little help from an electromagnet.

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Inside a cassette deck (or really any tape
deck at all), a special electromagnet called

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the head makes contact with the tape as it
travels past it.

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Fun fact!

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In video tape, the heads do the traveling!

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I made a video waaaaay long ago about that
if you’re interested.

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Now, because the tape is made of fine particles,
different spots along its length can be magnetized

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to different extents.

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Think of it like a bunch of teeny tiny bits of metal that can more or less be individually magnetized.

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If you move this granular tape across the
head as it gets all electromagnety,

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you will end up with a linear representation of how
intense the magnetic field the head created

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was over time.

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Spots that were exposed to a strong field
will be strongly magnetized, and spots that

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weren’t exposed will be hardly magnetized
at all.

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Tie that magnetization level to some sort
of signal,

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like perhaps audio,

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and you will end up with that signal represented on the
tape.

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Check out this neat video from Techmoan if
you want to see what that signal actually looks like.

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The thing about electromagnets though is that
they work backwards, too!

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When a pre-recorded tape, complete with signals
already on it, is run past the same head,

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the head can detect the signal!

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The changes in the magnetic field the head
encounters as the magnetized tape travels

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past it induces a small current in its tiny
little coils.

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Even though it’s just a bunch of tiny magnetized
particles, it has the same effect as moving

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a magnet past a coil of wire and will thus
induce a current in that coil.

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This can be amplified to recreate the original
signal, and thus sound,

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that was imparted on the tape when it was recorded.

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But of course, these adapters don’t have any
tape in them.

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Wait, do they?

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No.

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No they don’t.

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So what do they have?

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Well, for a start, an absurd number of incongruous
logos that don’t belong anywhere near this thing.

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Like, these are hilarious.

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Compact Disc?

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MiniDisc?

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Pfft.

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I like that the DCC logo is on here because
you could kind of argue that it is a digital

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compact cassette so long as it’s plugged
into like a CD player or whatever.

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Anyway...

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First consider what this does.

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It needs to produce the same effect as a real
tape - so it needs to induce a current based

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on an audio signal in the playback head of
whatever cassette player you’re using it in -

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but without actual tape.

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How could you go about doing that?

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Well, remember that it’s the same head in
most cassette decks that does the recording

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as the playing back.

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The same head can be used as an electromagnet
to record onto a tape or as a pickup coil

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(or magnetic microphone if you will) to play
a tape back.

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And so, take a look at where the tape should
be and you’ll find…

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a tape head!

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A cassette adaptor like this uses a tape head
just like the one in your cassette player,

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and when it’s loaded in a cassette deck
the two heads get real personal with one another.

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The signal coming from the audio jack is pumped
into that head, which is essentially coupled

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with the other, and the end result is that
the audio signal from your phone, iPod, or whatever

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is injected right into the other
head and thus into amplification circuitry

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of the cassette deck so it can play through
your ‘96 Civic’s stereo or whatever.

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It’s that simple!

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Ah, but it’s not quite *so* simple.

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You see, many cassette decks have some sort
of auto stop feature which works by detecting

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that the supply spool has stopped.

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Since there’s no actual tape in here at
all, the supply spool wouldn’t turn on its own

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and the tape player would just… repeatedly
stop thinking it had reached the end of the tape.

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So, these usually contain a mechanism to cause
the supply spool to turn with the take-up spool

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(the latter of which is turned by the
cassette player itself)

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to prevent this from happening.

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Some models will also prevent the reels from
turning backwards, forcing an auto-reverse

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deck into the forward position and ensuring
the playback heads align with the little

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broadcast heads, if you will, of the adapter.

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And is it really so simple as a playback head
wired to an audio jack?

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Wouldn’t there need to be some sort of circuit
in there to make the signal from the audio jack…

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work?

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Well, let’s find out by taking this apart.

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It turns out that yep.

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It literally is that simple.

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Just the wires from the jack going right to
the head.

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Now, this head might be designed specifically
for this purpose, though I kinda doubt it,

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but I suppose it is possible.

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Since the same head can record and play on
a typical cassette deck,

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could this be used in reverse?

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What if I plugged this into an audio recorder,
and hit record on this guy and fed a signal into it?

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Would it be detectable by the audio recorder?

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Turns out, yes!

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Since the tape bias signal is well outside
the audible range

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it doesn’t seem to affect things too much and you do in fact get a signal

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out of the cassette adapter.
[tinny music is heard]

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While this is completely and totally useless,
it is at least mildly interesting.

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You might be surprised at the audio fidelity
these things are capable of when used in the

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more normal fashion.

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For one thing, there is no tape noise at all when
you use these.

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That hiss you hear from a tape is a result of the random structure of the magnetic particles themselves.

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You can’t get rid of it unless you use some
clever tricks like Dolby Noise Reduction,

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and even then it will still always be there
a little bit.

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But if you don’t have any tape, well there’s
no tape noise!

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Seriously, to my ears using one of these,
even a really terrible one like this, is basically

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indistinguishable from a legitimate auxiliary
input.

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It’s pretty remarkable.

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Oh and by the way, if you use these you want
to make sure Dolby noise reduction is turned

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off as otherwise you’re getting a needless
reduction in fidelity in the form of a rather

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pronounced treble cut.

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And of course, for one last fun tidbit, since
electronics keep getting smaller and cheaper

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we now have Bluetooth versions of these!

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These are actually really neat, they have
a small battery with a micro USB port to recharge it,

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and a module inside allows you to pair
your phone with it so you can play music through

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its little integrated head.

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They even give you a little microphone on
a dongle for making hands-free calls.

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I have no idea how well that part of it works
but for $15 this thing is pretty neat.

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I remember seeing in the past that someone
had put out an MP3 player inside one of these

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cassette shells complete with transport control buttons and its own headphone jack,

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giving you hipster cred when you needed it and actually being useful in older cars.

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I tried looking for it again but “cassette MP3 adapter” is a woefully unspecific term these days so…

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well it’s probably still a thing but personally these Bluetooth ones which you can find in stores now

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would be my preference as they’re actually quite capable of modernizing an otherwise old car.

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Well, that’s it!

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Can you believe it?

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A reasonably short video from Technology Connections!

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I feel like I must be dreaming.

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Anyway, time to leave you with everyone’s
favorite smooth jazz hit.

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I…

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I can’t find the boombox I wanted for this
shot so you know,

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just pretend.

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[mechanical clacking from the tape deck as music comes it quitely]

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It’s kinda loud.

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♫ simply smooth jazz ♫

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...but you need your sweet, sweet aux jack…

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mm … that didn’t go well.

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Conventional type I audio tape, which this
is not, is simply a thin ribbon of plastic

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… yeah I should get a type I tape.

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Shouldn’t I‽

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We can’t…. we can’t use this chrome
tape because you pedants would be like

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“that’s a Maxell XLII! 
That’s not type I tape!”

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so, gotta change it!

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...and talk about these little cassette adapter
thingies…

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hoo that was a bad…

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My nose itched.

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Probably a fine take.

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...range it doesn't’ seem to affect things too much and you do in fact get a signal this is really rattly

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That magnetization level to some so…

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Aagh!

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Tie!

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That was the word, tie!

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I was like “tie? That doesn't make any sense!”

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No, you wrote that word.

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I cannot tell you how relieved I was that the video actually shows as 9:31 long here in the player.

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BUT ONLY ON DESKTOP! In the video manager, mobile, (and probably on the home screen) it says it's 9:32.

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So you just can't win.

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Anyway bye.

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[this caption intentionally left blank]