Cross Posted: Exchange Online/Office 365: How do you query what types of email attachments are being received by your organization for past 30 days.
What is the KQL/Purview query for this.
Example Results: PDF - 320 DOCX - 189 DOC - 172

Exchange Online/Office 365: How do you query what types of email attachments are being received by your organization for past 30 days.
What is the KQL/Purview query for this.
Example Results: PDF - 320 DOCX - 189 DOC - 172

A year ago I bought 2 pieces from a gallery after being persuaded by a salesman working for the gallery. He sold them as an investment opportunity with guaranteed high returns. I admit I was naive and in hindsight, I would have done more research before spending the amount I did. A salesman selling art pieces is obviously a red flag! Anyway, both pieces remain in the gallery’s storage. My post from here on is about one of the pieces only.
Before I bought the piece I asked the salesman from the gallery over WhatsApp what proof of authenticity existed. He replied that in addition to the COA from the gallery, I would receive the original bill of sale between the previous collector and the first owner (the BOS). This reassured me so I signed their DocuSign contract and paid for the piece.
The gallery emailed me their COA in PDF format but no BOS from the previous collector. Over the past year, I made multiple inquiries about the BOS and asked for a refund as they couldn’t produce it and they repeatedly told me it was on its way. Finally last week someone from the gallery sent me a PDF file as an email attachment which he said was the BOS. There is only one signature on it - that of the previous collector. There are black blocks over where the original price and the address of the first owner would be as if those details have been redacted. At first glance, I assumed he’d sent me a scanned copy of the BOS and made some edits to the file to redact the details. So I emailed him back, said thanks, and asked if the physical BOS was in their storage. He replied no, that was with the previous collector’s accountants and what he sent me was what the collector sent them. Then I noticed when I zoomed in on the PDF the signature became more and more blurred while the rest of the text remained sharp. I realised the PDF file isn’t a scanned copy of a real document, nor a digital document with an e-signature. It’s a mock-up made with a composite of text, black blocks, and an image of the signature, created seemingly to give the appearance of a signed BOS with some details redacted. Even if someone scanned the real BOS and then edited it to add the redactions, the text would blur as well as the signature when zoomed in. When I uploaded the file to an online EXIF viewer the metadata showed it was created with a software application that is used to create and edit graphical designs and was exported to PDF format 2 minutes before he emailed it to me. Now as far as I can tell, there can only be two explanations for this. The first one is the collector who sold the works to the gallery created the mock-up himself, sent the pdf file to the gallery, someone at the gallery opened it in the design application, saved a new copy on their computer, and then emailed the copy to me. The other explanation is someone at the gallery created the mock-up of the BOS themselves and then emailed it to me.
So the outcome for me is it's clear I won’t be getting the BOS and what I have is worth a fraction of what I paid. The artist produced multiple similar pieces and the ones without provenance sell on eBay for around a quarter of the price. The WhatsApp chats with the salesman where he repeatedly told me before and after I signed the DocuSign I would receive the BOS will be backed up on my iCloud but the BOS isn’t mentioned in the DocuSign. I’m hoping with all of the above I’ll be able to get a refund on this. I may still buy art in the future but only when I have enough knowledge about what I’m doing.
Glad for any advice or similar experiences. Thanks.

Hello everyone,
For anyone that is familiar with the coolant vacuum fillers you can buy at harbor freight, amazon etc, can you advice if and how someone might use one if they did not have an air compressor? Can i potentially use a tire or bike pump? The harbor freight device has a 1/4" threaded hole and a supplied quick connect attachment for an air hose. I think i can buy a 1/4" threaded to schrader valve connection. Would that conceivably work?
link to HF test and refill kit manual: https://manuals.harborfreight.com/manuals/64000-64999/64985.pdf

Hello!
I’m applying for apartments but need an offer letter from Panda. I’ve worked there for about a week, so I don’t have any pay stubs to show proof of income. I got an offer email, but no attached PDF with an actual letter. Is there a way to get an offer letter without asking the GM to send me one?

https://cases.stretto.com/public/x247/12208/PLEADINGS/1220805132480000000094.pdf
Found the file. Click "Attachments" in Adobe Acrobat PDF Viewer to download the MP3.

So nios ke sr sec course mein chemistry syllabus mein kuch confusion hai, online pdf mein alag hai aur book mein alag. I am using website so can't attach pics, but yea

[English follows]
Bonjour à tous,
Je pose cette question par ma curiosité concernant les aspects legals, et pour ma propre connaissance des lois. J'explique l'histoire et la situation:
Il y a quelques semaines un des mes collègues, un nouvel arrivant, occupait une location à courte terme pour une période de deux semaines pendant qu'il se trouve un moyen de se loger pour le long terme. Il avait pris service d'un courtier pour facitier sa recherche.
Il a specifié au courtier, une semaine avant la fin de sa location à courte terme, le condo qu'il préfèrait le plus parmi les visites effectués avec le courtier. Il a attendu une réponse de courtier pour quatres jours, mais silence totale. Avec moins de trois nuits avant la fin de sa location à courte terme, il a cherché d'autres options, et a déposé une demande pour un autre condo qui convenait à ses besoins (pas de signatures, promesses, ou bails. juste une demande)
Le même jour, le courtier lui a dit qu'il allait « faire un offre » et lui a demandé de signer ce genre de document (promesse de location). Il l'a signé comme c'était pas un bail final, mais selon le courtier, c'était qu'un offre. Le soir, il a été approuvé pour l'autre condo aussi. Tout ça parce qu'il ne restait que deux nuits avant la fin de sa location temporaire.
Quand il a dit au courtier qu'il va préférer l'autre logement, le courtier s'est mis en colère et lui a dit que l'offre est accepté et le proprietaire peut le poursuivre legalement s'il refuse de signer un bail. Pour éviter les troubles, il a dû decider de refuser le condo pour lequel il avait déposé une demande, puisque aucun document n'a pas été signé à ce côté.
Le jour après, l'entreprise qui gère le condo qu'il a refusé lui a dit qu'une promesse de location, comme il a signé n'est pas un document juridiquement contraignant, et c'est seulement le cas avec un bail officiel, mentionnant que le courtier n'est pas honnête avec lui comme il était nouvel arrivant. Ils lui ont demandé de leur rappeller s'il changait d'avis. Pourtant il a pris décision d'éviter les troubles legales potentielles.
Qui a raison dans ce cas ? Merci d'ajouter d'autres infos pertinentes.
Hello everyone,
I am asking this question out of curiosity concerning legal aspects and for my own knowledge of the laws. I will explain the history and the situation:
A few weeks ago, one of my colleagues, newly arrived in the country, was staying at a short-term rental for a period of two weeks while he was looking for long-term accommodation. He used a broker to facilitate his search. He specified to the broker, a week before the end of his short-term rental, the condo he preferred the most out of the broker's visits. He waited for a response from the broker for four days, but there was complete silence. With less than three nights before the end of his short-term rental, he looked for other options and applied for another condo that suited his needs (no signatures, promises, or leases, just an application).
On the same day, the broker told him that he was going to "make an offer" and asked him to sign this kind of a document (promise to lease). He signed it because it was not a final lease but, according to the broker, just an offer. In the evening, he was also approved for the other condo he applied for. All this because he had just two nights before he had to quit his temporary stay.
When he told the broker that he would prefer the other place, the broker was enraged and told him that the offer was accepted and the owner would sue him if he refused to sign a lease. To avoid trouble, he decided to refuse the condo he applied for since no document had been signed on that side.
The next day, the company managing the condo he refused told him that a promise to lease, like the one he signed, is not a legally binding document, and that this is only the case with an official lease, mentioning that the broker was not honest with him as he is new here. They asked him to call them back if he changed his mind. However, he decided to avoid potential legal trouble.
Who is right here? Please feel free to add other relevant information.

1. For tiktok suspensions I got a fool proof method downloaded and I acutally used it a week ago flawlessly after being suspensed a day after running first ads. When you get suspensed open a ticket fill out info and write this: Dear TikTok Support, My account has been suspended, and I'm eager to resolve this swiftly. I'm ready to provide any ID verification needed. Please advise on next steps. I greatly appreciate your time. Thank you.
2. Then they will send message saying you are permenently suspensed and can't do nothing about it, you then and attach to the ticket a Picture of PDF of any identification document or card + another pdf of your bank statement (important) and then write this:Hi, thank you for taking your time to address my concerns. My account has been suspended after my first day of running ads. I have read every policy and cannot pinpoint what may have caused the suspension and am worried. I would greatly appreciate a review and/or an explanation so that I can do better by Tiktok's standards. Thank you. I have also provided ID verification (My driver's license) And an account statement from my personal bank to further prove I want to do right and use your wonderful platform I was unfortunately suspended from. Thank you again.
3. Every reply takes about 7 hours so you're 100% guaranteed to be unsuspended after this Unless youre doing some shady stuff
4. Also they don't ask for any documents or anything they just suspend you and tell you its final but copy paste this message and provide the 2 documents and you're golden

Hi all,
I'm doing text classification using a transformer model. When you attach statistical information about the customer (e.g., age, gender, location, previous preferences...) to the document, the f1 score improves compared to a baseline of classifying the document on its own.
However, when you use all the statistical indicators, the results get worse. Does anyone know why this could be happening? I thought about multicollinearity but it's not a problem for deep learning frameworks according to this paper because NNs are overparametrized and the model capacity can account for these effects.
PS: I've checked for methodological issues and run multi-seed tests to discard random param init biases, the results are the same.

Email template for the Governor’s Cabinet and the Legislature below.
Yes, it is long, but it captures a lot of our frustrations.
This subreddit has over 38,000 people. If even 1,000 people emailed all of these folks from Governor’s Cabinet, the Legislature, and Other State Leaders, they will definitely take notice.
THIS IS OUR MOMENT.
There are areas in this email template for you to customize, so please read through it.
I highly recommend Hotmail or Yahoomail. If you use Gmail, you may need to click “Tab” multiple times when entering in so many emails.
You may also wish to send a copy to your own manager, section chief, branch chief, Dept. Director, etc.
Guidelines:

1. USE BCC (not in the “To” or “CC” section.
2. REMAIN RESPECTFUL.
3. OPTICS MATTER. Do not make us look bad in any way.

[dana.williamson@gov.ca.gov](mailto:dana.williamson@gov.ca.gov); [jason.elliott@gov.ca.gov](mailto:jason.elliott@gov.ca.gov); [Ann.Patterson@gov.ca.gov](mailto:Ann.Patterson@gov.ca.gov); [claire.cullis@gov.ca.gov](mailto:claire.cullis@gov.ca.gov); [senator.mcguire@sen.ca.gov](mailto:senator.mcguire@sen.ca.gov); [senator.gonzalez@sen.ca.gov](mailto:senator.gonzalez@sen.ca.gov); [senator.ashby@sen.ca.gov](mailto:senator.ashby@sen.ca.gov); [senator.wahab@sen.ca.gov](mailto:senator.wahab@sen.ca.gov); [senator.cortese@sen.ca.gov](mailto:senator.cortese@sen.ca.gov); [assemblymember.rendon@assembly.ca.gov](mailto:assemblymember.rendon@assembly.ca.gov); [assemblymember.ting@assembly.ca.gov](mailto:assemblymember.ting@assembly.ca.gov); [Wesley.Opp@asm.ca.gov](mailto:Wesley.Opp@asm.ca.gov); [Alexis.Foley@asm.ca.gov](mailto:Alexis.Foley@asm.ca.gov); [tram.truong@asm.ca.gov](mailto:tram.truong@asm.ca.gov); [assemblymember.rivas@assembly.ca.gov](mailto:assemblymember.rivas@assembly.ca.gov); [assemblymember.wood@assembly.ca.gov](mailto:assemblymember.wood@assembly.ca.gov); [Lien.Yee@asm.ca.gov](mailto:Lien.Yee@asm.ca.gov); [assemblymember.kalra@assembly.ca.gov](mailto:assemblymember.kalra@assembly.ca.gov); [assemblymember.mckinnor@assembly.ca.gov](mailto:assemblymember.mckinnor@assembly.ca.gov); [assemblymember.weber@assembly.ca.gov](mailto:assemblymember.weber@assembly.ca.gov); [Marcie.Frost@calpers.ca.gov](mailto:Marcie.Frost@calpers.ca.gov); [Kim.Johnson@dss.ca.gov](mailto:Kim.Johnson@dss.ca.gov); [Monica.Erickson@calhr.ca.gov](mailto:Monica.Erickson@calhr.ca.gov); [Eraina.Ortega@calhr.ca.gov](mailto:Eraina.Ortega@calhr.ca.gov); [amy.tong@govops.ca.gov](mailto:amy.tong@govops.ca.gov); [Miriam.Ingenito@govops.ca.gov](mailto:Miriam.Ingenito@govops.ca.gov); [Justyn.Howard@govops.ca.gov](mailto:Justyn.Howard@govops.ca.gov); [james.regan@govops.ca.gov](mailto:james.regan@govops.ca.gov); [Joe.Stephenshaw@dof.ca.gov](mailto:Joe.Stephenshaw@dof.ca.gov); [Erika.Li@dof.ca.gov](mailto:Erika.Li@dof.ca.gov); [Nancy.Farias@edd.ca.gov](mailto:Nancy.Farias@edd.ca.gov); [malia.cohen@sco.ca.gov](mailto:malia.cohen@sco.ca.gov); [tthurmond@cde.ca.gov](mailto:tthurmond@cde.ca.gov); [fiona.ma@treasurer.ca.gov](mailto:fiona.ma@treasurer.ca.gov); [mark.Ghaly@chhs.ca.gov](mailto:mark.Ghaly@chhs.ca.gov); [tomas.aragon@cdph.ca.gov](mailto:tomas.aragon@cdph.ca.gov); [yana.garcia@calepa.ca.gov](mailto:yana.garcia@calepa.ca.gov); [tomiquia.Moss@bcsh.ca.gov](mailto:tomiquia.Moss@bcsh.ca.gov); [stewart.knox@labor.ca.gov](mailto:stewart.knox@labor.ca.gov); [wade.crowfoot@resources.ca.gov](mailto:wade.crowfoot@resources.ca.gov); [jenn.eckerle@resources.ca.gov](mailto:jenn.eckerle@resources.ca.gov); [Mark.Tollefson@calsta.ca.gov](mailto:Mark.Tollefson@calsta.ca.gov); [karen.ross@cdfa.ca.gov](mailto:karen.ross@cdfa.ca.gov); [jeffrey.marino@innovation.ca.gov](mailto:jeffrey.marino@innovation.ca.gov); [notices@seiu1000.org](mailto:notices@seiu1000.org); [caps@capsscientists.org](mailto:caps@capsscientists.org); [pecg@pecg.org](mailto:pecg@pecg.org); [info@calattorneys.org](mailto:info@calattorneys.org)
Dear California State Leaders,
I write to you today as a voter, taxpayer, constituent, and as a State of California employee. My ________years of dedicated work serves Californians every day because my role focuses on supporting _________.
I want to share my personal story and provide some facts and data about the Governor’s new June 17 RTO (Return to Office) arbitrary mandate. This mandate will cost taxpayers more during this budget deficit crisis and it is a poorly thought-out, one-size-fits-all, chaotic approach. According to the survey data from 110 State Departments, telework was a huge success for recruitment, productivity, morale, collaboration, and decreasing office space. This chaotic, mandatory, arbitrary RTO simply creates a long list of unnecessary problems. For all of the reasons outlined in this email, I strongly support Assemblyman Josh Hoover’s audit request.
My message is simple: Encourage the Governor to rescind the June 17 arbitrary RTO mandate. The decision for the frequency that employees should all meet in-person and collaborate should rest with those closest and most familiar with the work: individual Unit Managers. These managers know the true collaboration, mentorship, and operational needs of their individual teams. Individual Unit Managers should be allowed to make decisions on accordingly to carry out the Department’s goals and mission. This is the bottoms-up approach that balances the needs of both the employer and employees. The Governor’s mandate and top-down approach fails to acknowledge the many financial and environmental repercussions to not only its own employees, but also to the State of California.
I want to share my personal story as a working class, public servant. With high inflation, I simply cannot afford to shoulder the cost of commuting, which averages $8,466 annually.. According to this 2023 LAO (Legislative Analyst Office) report, for most employees, our State provided wages have consistently been lower than the inflation rate, year-after-year, since 1999, constantly eroding our purchasing power. Other employees have it worse, such as scientists who have had their salaries be frozen for 4 years since 2020 as CalHR has refused to budge on reaching a contract. Purchasing power is a key metric since a $50,000 salary in 2024 buys far less than in 1999. This 2023 UC Berkeley Labor Center report confirmed that “State workers struggle to make ends meet throughout California.” Even the 2023 California State Auditor reports “that hiring and retaining qualified IT staff is the greatest challenge that they [State Departments] currently face.”
If the State is unwilling to provide market wages that keep up with inflation, the state can recruit and retain employees by improving working conditions, such as telework. Being allowed to telework 5 days a week has helped stretch my limited dollars, especially in this inflationary period. This arbitrary RTO mandate is effectively yet another pay cut for me that I simply cannot afford.
Personally, having the opportunity to telework 5 days a week has dramatically improved my quality of life by:
#############################################################
Tell them why the RTO issue is important to you, your family member and your community.
IF YOU DISCUSS CHILD CARE, ONLY TALK ABOUT THE HOURS BEFORE AND AFTER WORK. DO NOT DISCUSS CHILD CARE DURING YOUR REGULAR 8-5 JOB.
###########################################################

1. I have saved ____ hours on my roundtrip commute per week. This has allowed me to reinvest that time toward _____. [helping my kids with their homework, taking care of elderly relatives ]
2. I have saved $___ on commuting costs, which has helped me better afford ___ for me and my family. This has been especially helpful because high inflation has negatively affected me by _____.
3. By teleworking, I am reducing my environmental impact and contribution to climate change, which is _____
4. I have a physical disability and telework is more accommodating than using public transportation, etc. (Feel free to expand on it)
5. I do not live in an area with access to efficient public transportation, so teleworking helps by _____
6. For childcare during before and after work hours, it would cost me ________.

The State will incur many financial and environmental costs:

1. If even 33%, or 73,086 out of the 221,474 State employees use the monthly maximum IRS public transportation benefit,) that would cost the State $276.3 million every single year.
2. State Departments already spend $600 million per year on rent. Many State Departments also simply do not have enough office space for all of their employees currently. There is nowhere near enough quiet conference room space for employees to hold confidential meetings with stakeholders. Will these departments sign new leases for office space?
3. State Departments will be forced to buy many millions of dollars worth of additional office equipment for employees to effectively carry out their jobs including additional webcams, headsets, keyboards, standard office supplies, etc.
4. Pursuant to the reasonable accommodation process for employees with verified medical needs, State Departments will need to purchase other expensive equipment, including but not limited to specialized chairs and stand up desks.
   
   1. It is important to note that many employees have already invested their own money into equipping their own home office that best meets their needs. It is not simply not possible to ask an employee to bring in their own large equipment from home to the office and back, so the State Departments would incur these additional purchases.
5. State Departments will be spending much more in maintenance costs for elevators, bathroom repairs, printer repairs, electricity, water, gas, and other utilities.
   
6. State telework has also eliminated nearly 400,000 metric tons of carbon emissions. Mandating RTO will needlessly cause more carbon emissions, which directly runs counter to the Governor’s own words for his trip to the Vatican: “global temperatures [are] hurtling towards alarming new heights, the stakes could not be higher. There is no greater authority than moral authority — and the Pope’s leadership on the climate crisis inspires us all to push further and faster.”
   

The arbitrary mandatory RTO causes chaos among State Departments:
Across various departments, it’s common knowledge that a sizable number of executive-level leaders do not reside near Sacramento and instead live in other regions in California, such as the Bay Area and Southern California.

1. The next logical question is, will the state offer these executive-level leaders special exemptions and privileges not available to rank and file staff and risk the hypocrisy that undermines the Governor’s stated policy for more “collaboration?” This creates another “rules for thee, but not for me” situation.
2. Or will the State risk losing these executive-level leaders en masse across numerous departments, undermining policy and program implementation?
3. For Departments considering exempting those who live over 50 miles away, it also destroys employee morale. For example, a 20 year veteran staff member with technical expertise may be forced to commute and come into the office twice a week to train a newer employee over Microsoft Teams or Zoom simply because they live in Los Angeles. This naturally breeds frustration and resentment.
4. For exempted employees who live over 50 miles away, some Departments are creating policies that their 5 day remote status only applies to their currently held position, so these employees are “forever stuck” and cannot promote upward, even if they have the expertise the Department needs.
5. The State is starting to open itself up to lawsuits as some Departments are already denying reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities.
6. Being able to recruit employees from areas other than Sacramento helps ensure Departments get perspectives from different counties all across the State. People from rural, suburban, and urban areas all have different experiences and to best serve ALL Californians, we need a geographically diverse workforce.
7. As previously stated, many Departments already do not have the office space or needed equipment for all of their employees. With RTO, new equipment will be needed and purchasing equipment notoriously takes a long time. These factors, combined with many departments trying to implement a hoteling system, will ultimately result in a extremely chaotic return-to-the-office and tank productivity. Many Departments have held Q&A sessions and time and time again, HR offices have been unable to answer basic questions about RTO logistics.

Some state employees have discussed that this is their number one quality-of-life issue and may galvanize them to start engaging with media contacts and spread the hypocrisy on social media. Their goal is to highlight the glaring mismatch and hypocrisy between CA’s proud public policies and the actual reality of choices being made by this Administration. Quite frankly, I fear that this may hurt the Governor and other State Leaders in the future. By unilaterally imposing an arbitrary RTO mandate across the board, the Administration is actively choosing to make working class public servant’s lives worse off, so I understand my colleague’s sentiments.
As MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow recently stated to her own bosses, “Hearing legitimate criticism, responding to it and correcting course. Not digging in, not blaming others. Take a minute, acknowledge that maybe it wasn’t the right call. It is a sign of strength, not weakness, to acknowledge when you are wrong.”
To reiterate, my request is simple: Encourage the Governor to rescind the arbitrary, mandatory, one-size-fits-all, chaotic RTO mandate. Allow individual Unit Managers the flexibility to enact telework policies that best meet their team’s needs to effectively carry out the Department’s mission. They are the ones closest to the work and the ones most knowledgable about what the team needs to succeed.
I respectfully request a response within ten business days.
Respectfully yours,
_________

Recently I’ve been getting a lot of spam email that’s addressed to email addresses that only existed for the purpose of setting up user accounts on my DiskStation, and which would have never been seen outside of Synology DSM. These were receive-only aliases to my main email address (which is managed on a server I control and there’s no specific registration of these aliases that could have leaked), and there’s no way that they would have ever been visible to anyone outside of my NAS, unless DSM was cataloging them and making them available to Synology.
The spam emails are mostly purchase order scams of the “see attached pdf” type, and definitely nothing legitimate from Synology.
Has anyone else been seeing this happen? What other personal information is being gathered by Synology and potentially leaked in a data breach?
EDIT: I just went back in my mailserver logs and it looks like the first of these mails came back in August 2020. So if there was a breach it wasn't anything recent.

I am creating an app that uses GPT-4 to analyze pdfs. I used ConvertAPI to convert the pages into images but am stuck on an issue.
The ChatGPT API needs separate image_url objects in order to attach it to your message.
So depending on the amount of pages the PDF has I need to add a separate JSON object to attatch the pages.
How would I do this? Is there such thing as dynamic APIs where I can change the JSON of the call depending on a variable or something?
How would you do it?

i wanted to create bluetooth speaker, the problem is that i have ordered battery charging IC with TP4056 chip that has overdischarge protection, so i guess what is happening is that XY-P15 (bluetooth board) is taking as much current as it can when i switch it on, for now i bypass this by plugging in a charger and after i power on speaker board it can work seamlessly without external power
https://www.maritex.com.pl/product/attachment/91261/8205A.pdf
https://hmsemi.com/downfile/DW01A.PDF so i found out that this chip (on charging IC board) was used for protection, idk how to read this datasheet, there is a lot of information in here
https://imgur.com/a/5BYCFUV here i draw a schematics how i connected this boards
step up converter used is MT3608
edit: do i just short out out+ with bat+ and bat- with out-?
edit2: i just removed this dual mosfet and DW01A and shorted out- and bat- now it is working but i do not know if it is gonna charge and show blue light when it is done charging

Financial Overview:

• 📉 Revenue for Q4 FY24 at ₹14,078 crore, down 15% YoY
• 📉 Full-year FY24 revenue at ₹43,098 crore, down 20% YoY
• 📉 Q4 Contribution Profit at ₹4,142 crore, a 27% decrease YoY
• 📉 EBITDA for Q4 at ₹1,933 crore, down 36% YoY; FY24 EBITDA at ₹5,515 crore, a 51% decrease
• 📉 Q4 Net Profit at ₹40 crore, a 95% reduction YoY; FY24 shows a net loss of ₹1,200 crore

Performance Metrics:

• 📉 Contribution Margin in Q4 FY24 at 29.4% (-500 bps YoY)
• 📉 EBITDA Margin in Q4 at 13.7% (-458 bps)
• 📉 FY24 EBITDA Margin at 12.8% (-807 bps YoY)

Regional Performance:

• 📉 Latin America FY24 revenue at ₹17,254 crore, down 21% YoY
• 📈 Europe Q4 performance up 10% YoY
• 📈 Rest of the World Q4 up 21%; Full-year up 9%
• 📉 North America FY24 down 55% YoY
• 📉 India FY24 revenue at ₹5,503 crore, down 16% YoY

Debt and Structural Changes:

• 🔄 FY24 ending net debt at $2.66 billion, a YoY increase of $602 million
• 💼 Adjusted net debt reduction by approximately $1.1 billion from Dec'23 through improved capital management

Upcoming Events:

• 📅 Capital Markets Day on 13th May 2024; presentation via webcast

Strategic Highlights:

• ✨ Strong performance from differentiated and sustainable portfolio
• 📉 Reduced SG&A expenses by 17% YoY in Q4
• ⬆️ Advanta seed platform reports significant growth

This summary was generated using sherl0ckai.
Source: https://www.bseindia.com/xml-data/corpfiling/AttachLive/8e040859-fc76-4fc4-abb3-9df3a6dc3f85.pdf

A few days ago, I received a file from a journalist friend who teaches at a private university in Montevideo. I known this person for years now and the exchange with her on our countless bar nights basically made me want to try to study journalism. After I started my career we became even closer and we shared concerns about the evolution of information, social media and the infamous cerebral callosity we acquired to endure the tragedy.
My friend, let's call her Valeria, was part of a public competition to accompany a minor scientific expedition to the Uruguayan Antarctic base. Her thesis was about investigating how information reception behaves in remote and isolated areas.
I barely read it , but basically tries to show that information circulates and is received in a particular way in these circumstances by a group of unfamiliar people living under extreme climatic and isolation conditions, having as an example, life in submarines and in military bases in Siberia. The Antarctic base gave her the chance to observe some of her postulates up close.
Finally, she was chosen and traveled with this scientific group in a commercial flight Montevideo - Santiago de Chile to later arrive at Punta Arenas and fly to the Antarctic base.
The last communication I had with her before she sent me the almost 90 photographic captures of the Journal, was on March 15, 2024.
We talked over the phone about how the weather was in Montevideo, that it does not stop raining and the cars are practically floating on the streets. She told me that the transport that was going to take them back was having mechanical problems and they would probably have to order spare parts for the plane from Punta Arenas. Then She told me that it is freaking cold down there and his colleagues are all very boring. Nobody has whisky for the evenings. We laughed about that part because I told her to bring at least one bottle of Grappa in her purse.
Before saying goodbye, she told me they had spotted some old metal structures south of the base. The soldiers told her that it was safe to go near that part so she was going to explore them. It wasn't there when they first arrived and that the recent and atypical heat wave probably must have exposed it. I told her to be careful and we said goodbyes.
Three days later I received an email. “Valeria shared a file with you.” As I start to see what it was about she calls me.
“Mauro? MAURO!, can you hear me?” She said in a nervous and excited voice.
“I can barely hear you, what happened?”I asked half asleep, while still lying on my bed.
“Listen to me carefully, don't talk, just listen” I could tell by her agitation that she was walking fast or maybe running. The creaking footsteps in the snow could be heard in the background. in the distance, a catastrophe-type siren was blaring.
“Are you alright? What happened? What's that noise?” I said, now sitting on the edge of my bed.
“I sent you a file. Transfer it to a flash drive, delete history and reset your cell phone, the computer and your email address. I'll explain everything later, it'll be worth it.”
“What? What are you talking about Vale?, what for? Tell me what's going on - I started to yell at her, in slide panic.
“Listen, I found something that is not supposed to exist. In the diary he explains everything. I'm going back to the base, I think someone is following me, I set off an alarm or something. Save that file for me until I get there and remember that... “
There were two loud booms and the sound of water invading the transmission. A choked bubbling and cracking sound reminded me of ice collapsing. My friend had fallen into the water, in Antarctica.
“HEY, are you OK?! What happened?!” - I kept screaming hysterically until the call was cut off.
I looked at my cell phone for a second. My hands were shaking, I tried calling several times but the phone went dead. I looked at the compressed file. I jumped up and ran to the dining room furniture, frantically looking for a white flash drive that had to be in a drawer somewhere. I couldn't find it, so I went back to my desk. I pulled the drawer so hard that it came off the rail and fell to the floor. I started to dig through my belongings on the floor, coins, papers, cards, nothing.
I thought, I struggled to remember where I had fucking put it. Finally I saw my backpack peeking out from behind the desk chair, I jumped on it and in the second small pocket from the inside, there was a cheap white 16G flash drive. I put it in the pc, downloaded the file directly there, took it out and fabric restored the entire system on the computer. I do the same with my cell phone as Valeria said.
At the time I didn't even question if those measures really prevented me from being tracked, and the idea that that was the reason made panic run through my body like lightning. Sitting on the floor of my room next to the mess, my body was numb with tension. After a few seconds, I rebooted my cell phone to try to call Lucia, her sister.
“Hello?”
“Lucia, it's that you? I think something bad happened to Vale, I hear her over the phone as if she fell into the water, and some rumbling. I don't know what I heard, I think she got into some trouble or some place she shouldn't have been - I realized that I was mumble and not saying anything clear. For some reason, I didn't mention the file.
“It can't be Mauro, I just spoke to her on the phone. She was at the airport in Santiago de Chile at the boarding lounge, we talked for about half an hour, she told me she was bringing a fancy bourbon to share and…”
I stopped listening, it didn't make sense, how could it be? what the fuck is going on!
“Mauro, are you ok? Is something wrong? it's too early, are you sure you didn't dream it?”
“Did you talk to her? half an hour ago? But...,” I exclaimed without being able to hide my confusion.
“Are you... sure it was her?”
“Yes, of course you moron, it's my sister! Did you smoke pot again on an empty stomach?”
“No, you're right, nevermind, thanks Lucia, talk to you soon.” I ended the call without letting her say goodbye.
Had I dreamt about it? I erased everything now, how will I know if I dreamt it? I hesitated absurdly.
This is surreal, I thought to myself as I looked at the flash drive in my hand. I refocused my attention and went to the attic looking for my brother's old laptop he left me before going to live in Spain. It was practically useless, but it was enough to see the file. I turned it on, waited for the decrepit Windows XP to load, and put the flashdisk in, opened the compressed folder and found two files.
“LabNotes.pdf”
“PersonalDiary.pdf”
I decided to open the journal first. From what I interpreted from the loading order of the screenshots, after reading it, I opened the image of the last page.
I transcribe as is.
Day 243 of the 2nd mission 10: 40 am. March 12, 2019.
I am the head researcher of the Psychological Area at the UN Antarctic base; I'm currently assigned to Project Sisyphus categorized as the highest classified rank.
This is going to sound crazy, but the person living with my family is my clone.
It still surprises me when I say it out loud, but after being able to replicate the brain-muscular history (a perfect copy of our memory) of any person and having mastered replicating every cell of our bodies at any age, it was only a matter of time before the development of social biotechnology would emerge. Now and by worldwide agreement, as a complete secret.
There is absolutely no shame or a shred of ethics in what we do, there is no longer any constraint on what we can do to the subjects for the sake of research. That haunts me every day.
It all went to shit so fast, I doubt anyone will come to our rescue. The protocol says so, the base in the face of an imminent security risk will erase itself. The structure was designed to collapse methodically following a protocol of incineration and sinking. The immediate perimeter has underwater mines that make the ice collapse almost imperceptibly, but deadly to anyone who tries to leave.
No one can escape from the base, neither the research staff nor the subjects. Our place in the world is already taken.
I only hope that this journal along with my lab notes will be found at some point. I managed to construct a small insulating gasket for it so I trust it will survive in case this part of the building collapses as well.
Please use this data to let the world know what happened here and don't let perversity define us once again.
To my family: I love you and miss you every minute.
B.
At the exact moment I ended the reading I received a video call that made me jump with fright, it is...
Valeria.
With my pulse shaking, I answered the call.
“Hi you! The flight was delayed, can you believe it? This one is absolutely in my top three, worst trips of my life. I'm really hungry and everything is so expensive here. What are you up to? Tell me something, please, I'm soooo bored!”
I looked at her with confusion and I couldn't manage to pronounce words. When I was about to modulate an answer she interrupted me.
“What's the matter Mauro?, are you on pause? Is the signal OK? HELLO! Can you hear me? Can you see me?” She started to walk through the boarding lounge looking for better signal
“Yes yes, Valeria I can hear you.”
She laughed and looked at me with a face between sensual and serious, and continued.
“Do you miss me?” while raising the phone jokingly as she typically does in her selfie pose.
“Valeria, don't you remember calling me earlier today?”
“I? called you? Nop. Why? Ah! By the way, did you know there are penguins in Tierra del Fuego? I would have liked to go and see them.” She continued his verbose conversation in a carefree tone, with her typical hand gestures and playing with his hair.
“Well, at last!” She interrupted herself and shouted, jumping up from her chair.
“We are being called to board, see you in a couple hours!” She said goodbye with a smiling sonority, and began to walk towards the boarding gate.
But at the last second, before ending the call, her gesture changed. She looked directly at the camera with a hardened and emotionless face and almost mechanically, she whispered.
“(I'm going to retrieve that diary).”
My stomach dropped to the floor and I could feel as if my blood was running cold with fear. I could not shake the awful and eerie feeling that this person, who was returning, whom I had never in my life called by her full name, was not my friend.
So, the next couple of hours I put everything in to transcribe the rest of important passages of the diary. Something was compelling me to do it, i can't explain it, Some mix between moral duty, and morbid curiosity. Here is my selection of it.
Lab notes. day 96 of 1st mission 08:00 am December 22, 2016.
Subject JON X012:
First physical assessments: Normal, alert and inquisitive, exhibits some alteration to screens.
We place 100 cc of sedative in room air. The subject attentively follows the narrative of scenario B5 “The last mission”.
The subject responds positively to the premises of the story, where he is asked to address an audience threatened by a natural disaster, convincing them to choose a certain path out of the city.
He offers to collaborate but fails to articulate the message with the power to overcome the simulation.
We resort to pouring 125cc of concentrated Psilocybin into the air as stipulated in the protocol sheet.
The vocal frequency and body language reading receptors in the observation room are activated. The subject manages to formulate a series of premises articulately and with discursive power, circulating around the observation room.
Successful reaction.
We move on to the next stage.
Case is filed under the label “Jobs Project.”
Diary entry: Day 96 of the 1st mission 21:30 pm. December 22, 2016.
Today they transferred subject JON X0012 for psychological evaluation, several in the lab were very anxious about this arrival. I was never the religious type, but I can understand why. Truth be told,
I always imagined Jesus would be taller.
*********
Day 106 of the 1st mission 08:00 am January 02, 2017
Today we received a new lab assistant for the night shift. Much needed as I was covering these shifts myself and am really burned out. The underground operates at full power at those hours, the hum of the machinery becomes unbearable. This must be why the rooms have an insulating structure.
********
Day 112 of the 1st mission 19:00 pm January 08, 2017.
The new integration is not very bright. He labeled the transcripts wrong again yesterday and doesn't seem to fully understand the importance of these. I'm going to have to go through the whole method with him again. I don't have much patience lately, it's not his fault, he seems like a nice guy and it's real that I need a second of confidence. Better train him from now on. Maybe start a sketch of a short explanatory document.
*******
Small introductory guide.
When the subjects conclude the incubation and breeding process (pages 19 to 52 of the manual), that is to say, that they have at least remembered speech and with it, depending on the time in which they lived, reading and writing, they generally begin to perceive themselves. Just before situational curiosity is when the psychology department comes into action. Either to run the “stand by” simulation or the main tests.
In each subject's file is the target of their cloning, the era in which they lived, and the recommended scenarios to trigger the desired response. If the file has X amount on the cover, this corresponds to the generation of the subject, whether it is the first or 10th time it is incubated.
Generally, it takes between 2 and 5 attempts to generate the correct simulation, and administer the appropriate drugs.
It took 5 attempts to come up with the correct amount of methamphetamine that subject AH X005 (Hitler) needed to function in the scenario, as the correct amount bordered on overdose.
Simulations are much easier since the implementation of multisensor AI. We managed to generate almost any scenario including temperature, smells, lights and sounds. We tried not to use familiar ones, as human smells are impossible to replicate. We found this out in a complicated way. We tried to recreate a conversation between RR subject X003 (Reagan) and his mother, but he recognized the fakery by the absence of body odor. His mind collapsed and we had to move him to the Underground. The people in Area C (Private Clients) almost lost a very large Chinese account.
After calibrating the subject, we ran both psychological and behavioral tests, scanned retinas, analyzed blood, as well as vocal and body language. But what has really yielded surprising results are the free interviews. It is amazing what some minds are capable of with the right environmental and chemical stimulation. That's why transcription is vital (!!)
Our area develops BC (Behavioral Algorithms) which are then bought by the private sector, and some government agencies.
To give you some examples: Twitter was an idea of subject JO X008 (Orwell).
Bots in social media and the use of big data was an idea of JG X002 (Goebbels) and KM X014`s worst nightmare (Marx) was bought by Amazon.
It is an arduous process and the success rate is low, but when we achieve the goal per subject, well, these results are a mein part of the latest revolutions of mankind.
So follow the lab rules, never refer to subjects by their actual historical name, and always remember, they are assets, not people.
***********
Day 117 of the 1st mission 16:30 am January 12, 2017.
Today is a rest day all over area D. I miss many things from the old world that I thought I would never miss, taking a bus, standing in line with strangers, and today I miss Sundays. We only have one on the month. So as usual we gather in the rest area to listen to a liberated jukebox that tries to lighten the mood. I know, right? Why I wrote about this “Saturday” photocopy, well besides the same nostalgic drunks, I was approached by a person I didn't recognize.
From what I understood he was a rehabilitated alcoholic, maybe that's why I didn't see him on “Saturdays”. He must be in his 50's, he was portly and wore thick black-rimmed glasses, he seemed to have a slight limp, I noticed it when he went to refill my beer.
I am a very reserved person and find it hard to talk to people. Truth be told, I've lost the desire to talk to people here. What can you actualy fucking talk about here, if it's not about the same thing. Everything revolves around work and some inter-area gossip, which never escalates much.
But yesterday was Clara's birthday and to hide the remorse and sadness of only having shared with her the first 3 years of her life, I had a few too many beers.
We chatted about banal aspects of life in isolation, and the things we miss. For him it was going to the stadium to watch soccer with his grandchildren. I think it was loneliness and nostalgia that brought us together that night.
His name was Sigfried, I don't know if I spelled it right, but it was clearly Nordic, i notice because of some of the words he mixed up with English. He works as the underground level security manager. We all know that it is one of the most restricted areas and what we have learned in these almost 10 years in the project, is that the more restricted, the less questions you should ask.
But that day, I think I felt the urge to hurt myself, to go off the rails, so I asked what we all suspected but no one knew for sure. I asked about the blenders. I wish I hadn't.
************
Day 126 of the 1st mission 08:00 am January 21, 2017.
I almost can't express how furious I am today, but I'm going to try because if I don't, I'm going to punch the new assistant in the face. He has nothing to do with this, he's just mildly irritating.
Anyway, in Genetic Mapping or area A, they approved the incubation of another Anomaly. It seems to be an express request from a major shareholder and there is not much to say. Anomalies are very risky to reproduce, nature is wise, and for some reason it placed them in history moments where they had their limitations.
It seems that after the crisis of 2010 with “The Russian Devil” it is no longer scary enough. New school morons... If they had been there they wouldn't even dare to think about it. I AM FURIOUS.
The arguments are that this case lived longer, that the clone would be in his 70s, and that he possessed noticeably more “civilized” traits. As if the court of the last Zar had not been somewhat civilized.
Personally I think this is a big mistake. Since the discovery that some people possess unknown DNA components and with the 2010 background, they should draw the line. There are certain things, still beyond our ability to understand. But it is delusional of me to think that there are limits, someday the absence of them will consume us all.
************
Lab notes day 142 of 1st mission 08:00 am February 06, 2017.
Final free interview with JON subject X012
Scenario B-24 or “The Dinner Party” Result: Normal.
Notes: Subject is grateful, positive, docile and hopeful for the future. Offers to cook next time by asking for spices and ingredients of typical Hindu dishes.
The subject is directed to the Underground area.
Attached audio for transcription.
Case is filed under the label “Jobs Project”.
**********
Day 142 of the 1st mission 21:00 pm February 06, 2017.
Today was the last session with subject JON X012, I managed to extract the last retinal and body language readings, as usual before sending them to Underground level. We ran the dinner scenario, the truth is that is one of the best simulations we have achieved. The subjects are relaxed resulting in the best free interview environment. This one was no exception, I must say I understand the charm of the “messiah” turned out to be quite an entertaining subject. I hope his next generation will be similar.
**********
Day 152 of the 1st mission 19:00 pm February 16, 2017.
I was tasked with the continuous monitoring of subject NT X004. I am not at all happy with this transfer. First of all, I know nothing about area B of engineering and technology. Secondly, I still think this is a really bad idea.
One of the laboratories has been set up with the essential simulation equipment and personnel. Tomorrow we start with the calibration.
**********
Lab notes day 153 of the 1st mission 08:00 am February 17, 2017.
First interview with subject NT X004, we run simulation scenario 54-A, “Signal from another planet.”
Subject is observed to be receptive at first but quickly changes to paranoid. We administer 300cc of MDMA via air, according to protocol.
We introduce the reconstructed figure of a colleague in a cry for help speech.
The Subject laughs and doesn't believe a word, we move to a physical approach plane,
I volunteer myself with a room operator from the engineering area, we show him unfinished plans of an experimental vacuum propulsion engine.
He laughs again and tells us that we are not who we say we are.
We administer 50cc of DMT and move on to the next scenario.
From the screen an astronaut with non-human features sends a distress signal and intergalactic coordinates.
The subject looks thoughtful, reassesses, picks up the blueprints and begins to shout out values and what appears to be mathematical and physical formulas.
Air is charged with percentages of absolute sedation.
Audio recording is attached.
It is filed under the name “Project SpaceX.”
**********
Day 153 of the 1st mission 21:00 pm February 17, 2017.
I'm not sure what happened today, this is the first time in 10 years that a subject overcame the deception of 3 simulations. We had to place absolute sedation in the air, as risky as we know it is. I recommended that we restart the process from scratch, but it was a resounding no, the client is in a hurry.
I need to get more involved in this case to recalibrate the subject. I don't know if I want to. The words before full sedation still resonate with me. “are you still using DC current? interesting...”
**********
Day 154 of the 1st mission 21:00 pm February 18, 2017.
Something happened, I don't quite know what. The rooms have an emergency lockdown active. Outside hear security personnel mobilizing. I tried the intercom but it didn't work. The insulation prevents my screams from being heard from the outside. If this goes on another day I'm going to break the lock. I'm going to set my backpack to the bare minimum.
**********
Day 157 of the 1st mission 21:00 pm February 21, 2017.
Yesterday I heard explosions in the B area. I couldn't take it anymore and broke the lock. Whatever it was I had to go out and see. The corridors were dark, and the underground buzzer went on, at least that worked.
I went right to the north staircase, down the 4 floors in near darkness, the power was failing. The entrance to the underground area was barricaded but I managed to see a figure peeking out from inside as they felt me making noises.
It was Sigfried, he pointed me in the doors direction and I entered through a heavily armored side door. I was surprised by the immensity of this section, it encompassed a large hall below almost all the sectors of the base. In front of us there were 4 large industrial pipes with switches and multiple smaller pipes coming out of their bases. These were repeated like mosaics throughout the area until they disappeared into the distance in the darkness.
Leaning against one of them were 3 officers in formerly white coats and a nearly dead guard bloodied on the floor. Poor guy, his legs were crushed with his flesh in the open. He was lying in a pool of his own blood.
He had a blank stare and was panting, it seemed from the pale of his skin, that his fate was imminent. My asthma began to pound in my chest sharply, so I reached into my bag looking for my inhaler. I told them between visible gasps of bad breath to please tell me what's happened.
One of the doctors had a badge from area B and another from area E which corresponds to bio-armamentistics. The latter burst into tears and said “We deserve it, every one of us, we deserve it”.
I knew the other guy, he is an engineer in area B. I could hear him babbling almost nonsensically about, as why they never thought about it, an issue with electrical power.
He looked at me carefully as if recognizing me and grabbed me tightly by my jacket pulling me close to his face transformed for the panic.
“He let them out, all of them!” but not only that, no no no no... he told them the truth. Nikola fucking Tesla hacked us and told them the truth.”
He began to laugh frantically with a face of absurdity until he burst into a choked cry. At that moment everything went dark. The emergency lights activated, and from far away and getting closer, along with the emergency sirens that began to sound, we heard a large mass of people screaming and running through the corridors outside.
Sigfried looked at me as they started to pound on the shielded door and said.
“We're fucked.”
**************
Day xx of the second mission, month xx of 2017
“()The industrial sounds of spinning blades, the cries for mercy followed by the thunderous, liquid crack, down that big pipe, into the green barrels, with the Monsanto logo, dripped down one side an elongated drop of pink paste ending in the letter E on the chemical label. FERTILIZER.”
**********
After finishing the transcription, my whole body began to want to flee, the walls of my house were tinged with a faint blue light as the cloudy dusk came through the window, the lights turned off by my abstraction at the computer gave way to the dark corridors that began to feel alien. As I gently closed the pc my ears began to ring as if under pressure, my breathing became more present and the vibration of my cell phone interrupted my trance.
A call from the office. It was to tell me that I had a vacation week pending, that by schedule, I had to take it starting today.
Sons of bitches, now they even choose your time off - I thought at first, but at the same time I found the voice on the phone very strange, and to tell the truth, the procedure itself.
The anger turned into confusion that only added to the paranoia. The sounds in the street began to seem erratic, a chaotic and strangely familiar feeling came over me. My senses seemed increasingly acute, and they screamed:
Go away.
I grabbed the old laptop, the flash drive and headed for the bus station. The short trip from my house seemed like a long journey. People on the street looked at me with strange faces, the cell phone kept ringing with unknown numbers on the screen and a strange idea began to formulate in my head that whispered “Them, Valeria is one of Them”.
Already on the platforms I rummaged through my backpack where I confirmed that I had the key to the family beach house in San Luis, 60 km to the east of Montevideo. I turned off my cell phone, got on a bus heading to another and much far away town called Treinta y Tres. Sat near the last seat and slipped my cell phone in my front pocket of the seat in front of me, got off and commented to the driver with a clueless face, “I got confused, I'm going to the coast”.
I almost jumped onto the steps of the correct bus to where I was heading, unable to avoid the gazes of the passengers questioning me for the last minute drop in. I sat in my numbered seat and defragmented in dissociation, trying to understand what I was doing, I was running away, but from what?
The images of the last transcriptions were engraved in my mind, the last paragraph was repeated over and over again making me shake my head from time to time trying to get them away from my thoughts. The road was dark and I lost track of time, the digital clock within sight of the passengers jingling since we left, reading 10:40.
“San Luis Station!” - I heard the guard's shout in low volume.
I staggered to my feet, hurried to get off and with the same impulse I entered the dirt roads.
I zig-zagged through the dark, cold and silent beach town. The moonless night and the smell of the sea calmed me.
When I turned the corner to the gabled beach house of my family, on the steps of the front door lit by a white light, was her. Sitting, waiting for me. I stopped dead in my tracks and a chilling vertigo ran down my torso to my throat. We looked at each other for a short two seconds, until she stopped and started walking in sliding steps towards me, smiling and playing with her hands, crossing and uncrossing her arms. The growing sound of the wind through the trees covered us.
“Darling, how are you? How nice is the summer house, I don't think we ever came here, did we? Is it the one your grandmother left you?”
I felt the adrenaline rushing through my bloodstream, how could such a familiar attitude from such a familiar person transmit such panic to me? I had to answer something.
“Yes, this is it. I came to clear my head for a while, they gave me a few days at work and I wanted to take advantage of it.” I tried to excuse myself with failed dissimulation, since I stuttered in the middle of the words.
“Yes, I know! We arranged it with them, so you can be more relaxed and as a gesture for taking care of the file. Ah! and another thing. I think someone stole your cell phone at the bus station.” She looked at me with a smart-ass smile.
“Anyway, don't worry, they already found it on a bus on the way to “Treinta y tres”. You can get it back later.”
At this point I opened my mouth to ask for explanations, but as terrified as I was I only mumbled a “thank you”.
All this dialogue let us half a body length away, Valeria looked at me now a little more serious and stood at my side. She took my arm petrified and I could feel how a strong smell of neutral soap invaded me, as if she had rubbed herself in it too much.
“Shall we go inside? it's getting cold,” She said, finishing the sentence with a sweet gesture of pleading.
“Emm, shure.” I said.
My trembling hands managed to hit the lock on the 3rd attempt, we entered, turned on the lights and from his backpack she took out a red wine. Our favorite.
“Bring me some glasses, Mauro”. - She said to me as she sat down on the armchair against the window overlooking the gentle hills outside.
She poured wine until he almost filled the ex-cottage cheese glass, looked at me and in a toast gesture said.
“To... Dr. B?”
I slid a little smile and raised my eyebrows. Then I took half a glass in one sip.
“Well!” - She exclaimed, leaning over and resting the glass on the coffee table, and continued.
"You must be very confused, I understand, I saw it many times, the mind trying to adapt to a new, unsuspected reality and in your case all at once. It is not easy. First, make sure that no one is going to hurt you or anyone you know, second, what you read in that file, as you may have noticed, is not intended for public knowledge. Also to tell you”. I couldn't take the stress anymore, I exploded.
“You're not Vale. Who are you?! You're almost identical, but....”
“Ah yes, that one it's a tricky one to explain. Let's try, let's see:
“I'm a version of Valeria that she accidentally gendered when entered the lab. In one of the incubation rooms she touched a scan button that photographs her mind for 48 hours. It contains a micro needle that took her blood and thus generated me.”
“The thing is that we were in a situation of self-destruction of the systems, and that part of the programming code of the protocol was also copied in Valeria's mind.”
“And Valeria? She 's... dead?”
“Well, yes and no. If she tried to leave the base she's probably dead. if she's still there, she's probably frozen to death or killed by the cleanup command, but basically, if I'm here, she's not anymore.”
the coldness with which she answered me made me lose the little calm I had, I got up from the armchair and started to back away with my hands on my head, I couldn't stop repeating,
“this can't be happening, this can't be happening”.
“Hey! Mauro, calm down, it's going to be alright. I'm Valeria too. In every way, I'm still your friend, I know who you are and everything we went through, really, it's me, and when I finish managing the leak, the code, it won't work anymore, it will be erased from my mind and I'll be me. So don't worry. You only have to give me the flash disc and this issue ends here. We go back to normal life and nobody will know about anything.
“I'm not going to pretend that my friend didn't die! Alone, fucking freezing to death, I'm not going to let you take her place, I'm not going to let you!” - She interrupted me.
“Mauro, listen to me” - She came closer to me and grabbed my hands, her big, lined eyes looking at me with sweetness, like so many times before.
“I AM Valeria, I have the same fingerprints, the same blood, the same DNA, the same memories, the same scars, absolutely everything. Are you going to tell my mother that I died? to my sister? Are you going to report me? Nobody is going to believe you at all. If anyone even wants to believe you, how would you prove it? I am an exact copy”. - she told me, smiling with real sweetness and empathy.
I could only cry, for my friend, for the helplessness of the conclusion that she was right. I collapsed on the couch, and watched as the hills swayed in the night.
“Let's have the last glass and I'm leaving.”- she said to me.
“After I give you this, and that part of you disappears, will you remember that you are not... really Valeria?
“No, there is already a simulation on pause about Valeria's last week, she won't remember anything about this situation when she wakes up, because the memory is simply overwritten.”
“So I'm going to be the only one to know about this?”
“Take it as a gift Mauro, a glimpse behind the veil. And if you keep it that way, everything will be fine” - The threatening tone was soft but evident.
“Okay, hand me your PC and the flash drive.”
I looked at her evaluating all possible actions and if this decision was the right one, she stretched out her hand and smiled sympathetically. I gave her the old computer and the black 16G flash drive with the file. She inserted it, typed mechanically fast until the screen went black.
“Perfect, That would be all - She took out the flash drive, threw it on the floor and stepped on it violently with the heel of her shoe, put on his backpack and headed for the door.
“Stop,” I said.
“The things that Dr. B wrote... about the underground…
“Yes, they are true, it was the only way to be self-sustainable and to be able to isolate the complex from the rest of the world. Even the most morally flexible scientists would question the work if they knew where the subjects ended up, and what we were doing with their bodies... Anyway, I'm going home, Lucia called me 5 times already. Talk to you tomorrow.
“Love you,.” - She smiled at me and closed the door behind her. I felt a car slowly drive away from the house.
From my pocket I took out the white flash drive and looked at it. Now I had a decision to make.

I tried to import a pdf score on the https://musescore.com/import to convert it into a musescore file but it doesn't seem to work for this particular pdf. I tried uploading another pdf and the website has queued my upload and got the results in a few minutes.
here is the pdf link
tell me if u can't open the link

For those who are unaware, there was a very recent change (January 1, 2024) in the residency requirements for foreign Taiwanese nationals - people with Taiwanese parent(s). For these people, Taiwan has what is called a National Without Household Registration (NWOHR) Passport. It is green and looks like a normal Taiwan passport, but it doesn’t convey full citizenship rights as it didn’t include residency and household registration. (I posted mine here in the passport sub).
Prior to this year, in order for someone with a NWOHR passport to qualify as a full citizen, they had to first live in Taiwan for 366 days in a row without leaving the country (there were some other options that allowed you to leave for short times involving 2 and 5 years, but also quite impossible for most, unless you were in Covid lockdown or found a job in Taiwan.)
But earlier this year, Taiwan’s government removed this requirement for NWOHR passport holders who had at least one parent with household registration at the time of their birth. Hence, to get your own household residency and full citizenship, you no longer have to live in Taiwan for a year without leaving. You can just go to Taiwan, spend a few weeks there and complete the application process to obtain residency and a National ID, and become a full citizen of Taiwan. Taiwan will also allow you to keep your other citizenship (as long as they allow dual citizenship with Taiwan, which the U.S. does).
I kept really detailed notes and will post below some tips from my experience. The most important one is that what was formerly known as the TARC is now folded into the 定居證 (permanent resident certificate). So you just skip having to live in Taiwan for a year but provide almost the exact same documents as the old TARC for your 定居證.
There is a process listed here which says that you can start the permanent residency certificate from outside Taiwan to shorten your time in Taiwan by just exchanging your permit in 3 days. However, when I spoke to people at TECO a few months ago, and then more recently immigration in Taipei, they said I had to start the process in Taiwan. A friend’s parents in Taiwan also called immigration the other day and they told them the same thing. So not sure how one would go about the shortened process that is in on their website. But if anyone has successfully done the shortened process themselves, please post and let us know how you were able to get it done since it would cut the process by 1.5 weeks and help out a lot of folks who can’t spend 2-3 weeks in Taiwan.
This older post in this sub covers military conscription and also has many previous links about what to do if you are male and 18-36 written by FewSandwich6. (This was not applicable for me).
This very helpful post here contains a list of definitions for commonly used terms in Chinese and English that are often used in this process, written by HongKonger85. There is also an image of a 定居證 (Permanent Residency Certificate) after immigration has issued it to you, and this is what you need to swap for household registration (covered in Part 2 below).
My detailed notes for folks are as follows. Part 1 based on my experience getting my NWOHR passport, and Part 2 getting residency, my National ID, and full citizenship in Taiwan. Some info repeats what has already been mentioned in previous threads, with the difference being the new 2024 rule change. There are probably other ways to get this process done, but just sharing my own recent experience to help others looking to do this now.
In all, I am so glad I did this. I travel a lot to Taiwan to see friends and family but do not work there, so there were minor inconveniences in not having residency. My NWOHR passport was fairly useless in Taiwan, but once I got my 身分證, I can now do things like open a bank account, get a permanent cell phone number, qualify for health insurance (after waiting 6 months), and vote in Taiwan elections. I also have a second passport to travel with if there is a country more hostile to the U.S.. Doing this will also allow any future children of mine to qualify for Taiwanese citizenship if they choose to at some point in their lives. I could also consider retiring in Taiwan or taking a gap year from work in the U.S. and still have health insurance. The total costs from start to finish ran me about $550 (excluding the costs for my trip to Taiwan).
Happy to answer any questions for folks about the process. Cheers! Hopefully my notes below are helpful.
Please note that this was written in May 2024, so things may change over time. Also, there are parts where different forms, documents, or processes may be acceptable instead of what I did, so what I outline here might not be the only possible process.
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Part 1. Getting the NWOHR Passport:

If you do not have any Taiwanese passport start here. If you already have the NWOHR passport then skip to Part 2 (converting the passport to residency under the new 2024 laws).
The first step is to get what they call a NWOHR (National Without Household Registration) passport. This part is actually not done in Taiwan at all, and are issued by what are de-facto embassies, which in the U.S. are called the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office (TECO). There are 12 in the US and the U.S. National Office TECRO based in DC. (Other countries have a similar versions of this like the TRO in the UK).
I was told to use the TECO office closest to where you were born and/or where your parents were married. Luckily, this was the same office - the LA branch. If it happens that you were born closer to a different one than where your parents were married, call them and ask what they recommend. One reason for this is that it makes it easier to authenticate documents that the office is familiar with, which tend to be in the areas around it.
So what is authentication? This is a process that involves notarization where someone essentially authenticates your documents and verifies that they are real. For example, you bring a copy of your official birth certificate to TECO, then the TECO office will go through the process of contacting the relevant authorities where you were born to verify that this document is indeed real. Once TECO deems it authentic, they authenticate and notarize that document for you. You need to have this done for your passport application documents.
Here is what you need to submit to your local TECO for the NWOHR passport (these guidelines are from the TECO LA Office). TECO needs to first authenticate your birth certificate and parent’s marriage license. Then they use these for the NWOHR passport application. Documents cost $15 each to authenticate. The passport application for a 10-year passport is $45.
I highly advise you make an appointment with TECO. They even advise you to book two back-to-back appointments if you need both authentication and passport services done - which is what you need to do anyway. They cut off the number of walks ins per day (in LA it was 35 max walk ins).
The authentication of documents are usually done in a few weeks and your passport around 8-10 weeks. LA TECO gave me a pick up date and a receipt (save this to give them when you pick things up). If all goes well, you should have your NWOHR passport in about 2 months! If there are any issues, like inconsistent spelling of names between documents, and something is rejected, TECO will let you know and you will have to get the docs amended before your passport can be issued.
This whole process is done outside of Taiwan. Once you get your NWOHR passport, there is no time limit to complete Part 2 in Taiwan (though if your NWOHR passport expires after 10 years, you do need to renew it).
Congrats! You now have your NWOHR passport and can continue to Part 2 whenever you are ready.

Part 2. Getting household registration, your National ID with full citizenship rights, and converting your NWOHR Passport to a NWHR Passport to finish the process.

There are now two more things you need. A health check and an FBI background check (or other relevant agency of your country; apologies that this is U.S. focused). You will also need to figure out your household registration in Taiwan (more on that later). The FBI background check took about 4-6 weeks to get, and you need to have this authenticated and notarized by TECRO. This was done outside of Taiwan while I was still in the U.S. The FBI check result is valid for one year, while the health check is only valid for 3 months, so plan accordingly.
(I chose to get the health check later in Taiwan since I did not know how to go about getting an acceptable health check done in the U.S. and also did not want to bother having the results translated into Chinese. Doing it in Taiwan also ensured my health check wouldn’t be rejected, delaying my application.)
FBI Background Check
For the FBI check, there are two steps here and it’s kind of confusing.
The first is initiating an FBI background check for yourself through the online request form on the FBI site and getting a secure link and pin. (FBI emails this to you). Get your fingerprints done at a verified USPS, it's super quick and easy. Once your background check is complete and you get your electronic results, you forward that email with the PDF directly to TECRO. The website is not super clear so I emailed them for clarification and they wrote back to me more detailed instructions after I had received the completed PDF of my background check. What they said in their email:
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For authentication of electronic FBI Report, there are 2 steps:
Step 1:
Please forward the digital FBI Report (.pdf format) and the email of pin number (under FBI email account) to our consular email at [consul.tecro@mofa.gov.tw](mailto:consul.tecro@mofa.gov.tw) directly.
Step 2:
Meanwhile, please prepare and mail the relevant documents listed below to our office for further proceeding:
* fill out the application form for authentication as attached
* a copy of the applicant's passport (including Taiwan passport if have)
* print out the FBI Report and the email of pin number for crossing reference
** For overseas Applicants:
* a US bank draft (美金匯票) $15 in Taiwan local banks with payable to TECRO
* a prepaid shipping label from FedEx or USL or DHL (for mailing the authenticated document back to you)
** For domestic Applicants:
* authentication fee: USD 15 (either money order or casher's check with payable to TECRO)
* a stamped self-addressed return envelope (to mail the authenticated documents back to you)
Also, please allow additional time for mail delivery. Thanks
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In about 4 weeks or so, TECRO will mail you back a physical copy of your TECRO authenticated FBI background check using the self-addressed stamped envelope you sent them. Now that you have your FBI background check, you have one year to get your citizenship done in Taiwan before it expires.
Chinese Translation and Authentication/Notarization of your documents:
For this next part of the process, you need to get all your docs that were submitted for your NWOHR passport and the FBI background check translated and authenticated into Chinese. People on the internet mention that you can do this yourself. I recommend hiring professionals here who know what they are doing and also do the notarizing since you don’t want the translation of your documents to be rejected by immigration, wasting time and money. The docs also need to be formatted in a certain way. Given this, I went with a place in Taipei that charged about 6200 NT (~$200 US) for doing all my docs (background check, birth certificate, and parents marriage license, with notary). I used: 口藝國際有限公司(翻譯/公證代辦) and they took a little over a week to get these translated and notarized for me. (TECO actually told me to save money and do the translation in Taiwan, since places in the LA area were quoted as more, maybe in the $300-400 range, but if others have found cheaper US or Taiwan options please let us know who you used and how much they charged).
Plan a 2-3 week vacation in Taiwan (possibly with your parent(s) whose household registration you will be joining). 2 weeks if your health check is done already and all your docs are translated and notarized, 3 weeks if you need to do a health check in Taiwan. Less than a week might be possible but unclear if anyone has successfully done the 3-day exchange version mentioned here.
Enter Taiwan with your NWOHR passport on the Taiwan resident/citizen side and make sure to get your NWOHR passport physically stamped with your entry date.
Health Check in Taiwan
For my health check, I went to MacKay Memorial Hospital, 16th floor (No.92, Sec.2, Zhongshan N. Rd., Zhongshan Dist., Taipei City). I called all the Taipei hospitals on this approved list of health check hospitals, and MacKay was the shortest guaranteed turnaround at 7 days. Walk-ins only, no appointments, - 8am-11am, 1:30-4pm M-F, and Saturday but only in the morning. Exam fee was 2050 NT, an additional 750 NT if you need a booster shot. The turnaround was 1 week and there was no way to speed this up. Bring passport, face mask (maybe not required now), and money. You can use your U.S. passport for the application and might actually be easier as they don't need stool samples for U.S. applicants. They draw some blood and take a chest x-ray.
After getting all your documents translated and authenticated, the health check, and entering Taiwan on your NWOHR passport, you can begin the 3-step process of getting your full citizenship and new NWHR passport in this order:

1. 定居證 (permanent residency certificate) ->
2. 戶口名簿 (household registration) and 身分證 (National ID) ->
3. New NWHR Passport (and leaving Taiwan on it).

1) 定居證 (Permanent Residency Certificate)
For your 定居證 (permanent residency certificate), go to a National Immigration Agency office in Taiwan with all the necessary documents that have been authenticated and translated. (I used the one in Taipei on 15 Guangzhou Rd). Once you start this part, you cannot leave Taiwan until you get your new passport, and when you next leave Taiwan, you must do so on your new NWHR passport. In your application, you need to show that you have the ability to establish household residency (easier to do if joining your parents), along with the original and one set of copies of all of your translated/notarized documents and yours and your parents' Taiwan passports. They will also ask for a photocopy of the dated entry stamp in your NWOHR passport. You will also need pictures, and the basement of the Immigration Agency has a booth where you can get 6 photos for 120 NT. Those 6 pictures should be enough for the rest of the process - just keep them with you for each step.
The permanent residency certificate process takes 7 working days, so essentially 10 days. This is the longest part. If someone has successfully done the shorter 3 day exchange, please let us know how you did this, since it would likely help out a lot of people given that this was the longest part necessary in Taiwan.
2) 戶口名簿 (Household Registration) and 身分證 (National ID)
In 10 days, once you get your 定居證 permanent residency certificate, to get your household registration you must go to the household registration office in the district you plan to register in. The easiest is to have a parent add you to theirs, but their household registration has to be current and not expired for you to be able to do this, and best updated within the past 3 months (what TECO told us). If you can’t do this, then you need to register a household yourself using a lease/other steps that you should look up how to do.
At the household registration office, you give them the 定居證 (permanent residency certificate) and other documents they need to establish your residency (parent’s household info or lease etc). Don't forget your picture. Then you get your 戶口名簿 (household registration). Also remember to get a copy of your 戶籍謄本（transcript of household registration) since you will need it in 6 months to apply for health care if you plan to do that.
Right after this, they will print out your 身分證 (National ID). You get your household registration and 身分證 the same day at the same place (took me about 1-2 hours).
At this point, you are actually considered a citizen of Taiwan. However, when you choose to leave Taiwan, you must get a NWHR Passport and leave on that passport.
3) Getting your NWHR Passport
You now need to go to BOCA to apply for the new passport. I did my household registration and national ID in the late morning, so I still had time to go to BOCA before they closed at 5pm.
Their Taipei office is near the Shandao MRT stop. Bring your national ID, NWOHR passport, 2 pictures, and cash for payment. Normally for a passport there is a 10-day turnaround at 1300 NTD. Expedited next business day service is available for an additional 900 NTD. So I paid 2200 NTD for my passport since I needed mine the next day as my trip to Taiwan was planned for exactly 3 weeks and by now, I had only 2 days left in Taiwan.
Pick up your passport the next day (and they give you your previous NWOHR passport back with the corner clipped off)! Don’t forget, when you eventually leave Taiwan, you must leave Taiwan with your new NWHR Taiwan passport but there is no deadline to leave (and I got mine stamped in case that was required, but not sure if it was or not).
CONGRATS on finishing the entire process, getting full Taiwan Citizenship/Household Residency with your National ID, and your new NWHR passport to allow you to leave Taiwan!
Health Insurance: 6 months after doing this you can qualify for NHI (and is technically mandatory). To apply, go to any district office and bring your 戶籍謄本 (transcript of household registration), National ID, and a chop stamp. (Yeah, they still use those lol). I found a chop stamp place near my household registration office that did a wood stamp for 100 NTD, and had them do multiple in case I lost one, since any duplicates have to be done at the same time for them to match. Someone else can even apply for you if you are not in Taiwan as long as they have a copy of your ID, 戶籍謄本 (transcript of household registration), and chop stamp.
If all your income is outside of Taiwan, health insurance payments should be about $25 a month. If you pay monthly, you qualify for full health benefits in Taiwan. You can also suspend your payments if you plan to leave Taiwan for more than 6 months and do not plan on using their health care system. You can also keep coverage and continue to pay into the system even when gone for long periods of time. However, don't forget that your household registration will be suspended if you are gone from Taiwan for more than 2 years, and while you can easily renew it when you come back, this will pause your health coverage.
Total Cost for Taiwan Citizenship
The total cost, was about US $75-100 for the NWOHR passport, depending on if you have to get new copies of your original birth/parental records. The cost for the Part 2 were roughly: FBI check ($32), U.S.P.S. fingerprinting ($50), Health Check ($85, mine was more than the usual $63 because I needed a booster shot for one of my MMR vaccinations), Translations and notarizations ($200), residency permit (~$30), National ID ($5), expedited passport next day ($68). So my out of pocket costs for the residency conversion in Taiwan was roughly $465 or so.
So the entire citizenship process from start to finish was about $550 USD.
You only have to do this once, and now you are a full citizen with all the rights to live and work in Taiwan and can vote! I would have never been able to do this without the new rule change, so really thankful that the process is so much easier now.
Let me know if there are any questions!
(Edits for clarification.)