you are here
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* ‘You are here’ poem by Olga Surawska has been translated from English using Base64 encoding system. 
This string of characters containing only a-z, A-Z, 0-9, + and / symbols may appear familiar to many because of its often use in situations requiring non-text information to be sent via a text only transmission protocol (such as e-mail). The system aims to ensure that data remains intact without modification during transport. Common digital encoding - here used in print - becomes a message itself, a familiar yet not understandable way of conveying information. Most importantly - any encoding scheme is a medium inseparably related with the message of the poem, that reads:

‘You are here
on facebook wall being the life of the party
on amazon picking more stuff you might fancy
on gmail sending auto-reply you never cancelled
on skype with your friend taking ages to answer
on google spreading and hoping for hits
- and as much as you are aware of all this
maybe you’re not yet sure what it means.’

The poem can be also translated using a Base64 encoded data into ASCII text decoder - available on-line:


__________________________TO DECODE THE POEM 

1. copy poem's code below: 

b24gZmFjZWJvb2sgd2FsbCBiZWluZyB0aGUgbGlmZSBvZiB0aGUgcGFydHkK b24gYW1hem9uIHBpY2tpbmcgbW9yZSBzdHVmZiB5b3UgbWlnaHQgZmFuY3kK b24gZ21haWwgc2VuZGluZyBhdXRvLXJlcGx5IHlvdSBuZXZlciBjYW5jZWxsZWQK b24gc2t5cGUgd2l0aCB5b3VyIGZyaWVuZCB0YWtpbmcgYWdlcyB0byBhbnN3ZXIK b24gZ29vZ2xlIHNwcmVhZGluZyBhbmQgaG9waW5nIGZvciBoaXRz 

2. open decoder (click here to enter >>>) 

3. paste code into field '6 [BASE64]' 

4. click '<DECODE>' 

note: used decoder is © property of home2.paulschou.net/tools/xlate 
any other Base64 / ANSCII decoder might also be used

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