Cool Tools: Tree

It's not often an MS-DOS application makes the cool tools list, but tree.com makes my cool tools list.

Tree gives a graphical display of directory structure in a console window enabling you to quickly understand the directory layout.

Cool Tools: Google Reader Replacement: The Old Reader

If you don't know what google reader is, read this.  If you do know what google reader is, you know it is getting decommissioned on July 1st 2013 and you're likely anxiously looking for a replacement.



If so, the old reader is a clone of google reader, which as best I can tell is almost identical to google reader, down to the keyboard shortcuts.



That's my google reader replacement - enjoy!

A leisurely stroll down the silk road.

The silk road is an online black market, a place to purchase all manner of illegal merchandise.  I was fascinated by this concept, and decided to check it out.  The most memorable parts of the silk road for me are the gambling and the great customer service.  



Most shady markets have gambling and the silk road is no exception Silk road gambling has two fascinating properties. The first is how the client can trust the vendor isn't cheating, and second is the payout.  To solve the cheating problem, your lottery ticket it your transaction ID in hex (which I assume is unpredictable) and the winning number is specified in the sale item.  For example, if your transaction ID has  last digit of  0xf or of 0xab you win. There are several "lottery vendors" with various ticket prices and payouts.  I don't know how the market settled on the expected value of the payout but in the few lottery sales items I checked out, all had an expected value of -0.03 BTC, which is a actually better than roulette's expected value of -0.05 BTC.



Even though you'd expect a black market to be shady, I've found several sales items with very strong customer focus. I assume this is based on a desire for repeat business and solid reputation.  These sales items explain not just what the product is, but what the product is not, how the vendor deals with mailing snafu's, and why each constraint is placed on the vendor.  I am so impressed I copied in the entire sales item for forged prescription pads:

This is a listing for forged prescription labels. This is a very long posting however this item is a complicated forgery and there is a lot of possibilities and uses for it so please read over the entire post before you order or message me about the item and if you are just checking this out for fun then I recommend that you also read the entire post as it will have a lot of info you will find helpful and in addition this item may indeed be the most interesting item on Silk Road and is one of the older ones as well. After you buy stuff on Silk Road you are going to need a way to carry it. So get a prescription bottle forged in case you get caught with prescription pills. If you get caught by police and cannot show you have a prescription you go to jail and get a felony charge, but with my bottles you can carry any prescription drug and even if the police stop you you won't go to jail. These are like a get out of jail free card! These are also great in case you have a drug test you need to pass you can show your employer the bottles and not get fired. You can also use these to transport your pills through an airport or train station or other transportation station. I have had many sales of these bottles. I had one buyer use them to fool U.S. Customs agents when bringing pills illegally into the country and the label passed! Another buyer had one and the police searched his house with a warrant and found the bottle and ignored it because they believed it to be real it is that good. I have had one client buy a bottle and label off of me and had me back date it to an earlier date to show to an employer when he failed a drug test and needed the bottle as evidence in a court case to argue being fired wrongfully. These are great so that you can fool family members or parents if you live with family or room mates and worry they may be nosy or argue with you using or having prescription meds illegally. These are great for dorm rooms that can be searched. If you are a dealer then you know the risks involved and these eliminate the risks. In addition if you get caught with prescription drugs without a prescription along with the felony charge and jail time you can be ordered by a judge to register as a drug offender. This is a similar thing to being a sex offender. You register and submit the same info, but instead of it being for sex related crimes it is for drug related crimes. They make you submit finger prints and tissue sample and you are in a data base along with other offenders such as drug cartel members and drug smugglers. All it takes is one pill and a district attorney can request a judge order that upon conviction or a judge can make the decision on their own to throw that in.
In addition to prescription pills these labels have an alternative use. This is a use that I invented. I have kept it secret and not disclosed it to avoid others using this tactic, but after seeing the SR community and market believe this will help me and the community in a mutual manner. Many people buy illicit drugs such as MDMA (molly), shrooms, THC and a few others all in pill form currently on SR and the street. This means they come in the form of a capsule. Many of these capsules look professional and could resemble a prescription pill. My tactic I invented was to press illicit drugs to look exactly like prescription pills with same imprint, size and color then smuggle or transport them in prescription bottles with forged labels. The same can be done if you taylor the forged prescription label to match the illicit pill. say for example you purchase MDMA capsules that are purple in color. You simply order this prescription label and we choose a drug to say it is. Such as say it is an allergy medication and put the description of the illicit pill on the bottle and description and mark it as a generic brand. The label will read that it is allergy medication and the illicit pill will match the label. This means you can now carry illicit pills without being arrested. You can even take them on vacation and still use them without having to find a local source or wait for an SR shipment to ship to where you are staying. The only downside is you obviously cannot use them to get around a drug test as drugs such as shrooms and MDMA are not prescription, but you can carry them on planes, and pass a search by police. If you get a DUI and car is searched it will remain a DUI not a DUI and felony possession charge as well. This tactic is very valuable. Imagine being able to carry shroom pills or mollys and not have to worry about being arrested. There is no way for them to expose the capsules as having illicit content inside unless they are cut open and lab tested. A preliminary field reagent test (police do not carry these and have to radio for one after holding you) will not even do much help as it will not state which drug it is but which drug it is not and a will be a long process of elimination that will ruin all the pills as each test will require one pill so it will never be done unless they have solid info that the pills are illicit. When you read and fill out the order form below if you wish to order these labels for this secondary method as opposed to the intended prescription pill method then message me and let me know so we can select which prescription we will cover it under.
Here is how it works. I have the templates for Kaiser prescription labels and blank bottles. You tell me the name you want on the bottle and the medication and boom! I customize and print you 3 prescription labels and send them to you. The reason you get three labels is each label will have a different month on it. When people have legit prescriptions they get a new bottle and label every month so it always looks new. If you have an old label and bottle with an old date it will look suspicious and like you are abusing. This way each month you can remove the old label and put on a new one.
Here is the info I will need form you:
1. Name to be put on the bottle.
2. Medication name.
3. State you are in so I can put the proper Kaiser address.
4. Description of the pill (color, imprint, shape) so I can put that on the bottles as required by law.
5. Number of pills.
*If you are ordering these to get a court charge dropped or get out of failing a drug test and these need to be backdated please include the date to put on the bottle.
These work and I have tested them before. The bar codes and QR codes on the bottle will really scan with your info showing up when scanned. You can even use a smart phone to test the bar codes and scan them with an app and you info will pop up. Proper warning labels will be on the bottle as well. You will not be able to take these to a pharmacy and try to pass them off as your name will not be in the computer, but they will keep you out of jail.
If you do not live near a Kaiser facility that is not an issue. In the United States you are allowed to go anywhere in any state and city to get you healthcare. So it theory you can be very particular and drive or fly one state away or hell across the country to get healthcare (some Americans even go to Thailand and India for healthcare), so it does not have to be local I can help you 100% if you live in the United States. Kaiser has mail order pharmacy refills and I can make the labels look like the mail order ones so if you live far away from Kaiser then it just looks like your meds were filled and mailed from a large refill distribution center. If you live outside the United States I can help 99% of the time with these labels. In contemporary time more and more people travel internationally to get healthcare. Most nations allow people to leave and travel freely and do whatever including get healthcare, so we just label these to look like foreign health care or if your country allows that you ordered your meds online and has them shipped to you. Although an international prescription label is not common it is recognized by most countries and you will be able to use these to carry your meds.
Shipments will be discrete and disguised. After your purchase I will delete the computer file of the label and destroy it along with any emails and info about this to keep it discreet and anonymous. I will ship with delivery confirmation so I will know when you get it and be able to inform you each day how close it is to arrival so there will be no wondering, worrying or waiting while pondering the idea of how much more time. You will always know for sure.
If you have any questions let me know and I will gladly work with you. My goal is customer satisfaction. I can do bulk orders that will be discounted and will always take customs orders, so if you are someone who handles large amounts of prescription pills, buys pills and always has different imprints or has a lot of pills on hand then a custom rate may benefit you.
I frequently get questions from SR users asking if they can order the listing and have each of the labels come with a different medication on each label. The answer is no I cannot do that. The reason is you would be paying the same price however I would be doing the work of multiple orders and you would essentially be paying for one order and getting multiples free. This item is based mostly on the cost of obtaining the prescription bottle and the precision labor time using multiple programs to assemble the label and obtain proper pharmacy info to put on the label so I do not offer that as an option. Plus given how truly valuable these are and what a lifesaver they can be and how they give people the freedom to carry pills anywhere they choose openly I find customers should not mind ordering multiple sets of these if they need to get them made for multiple medications.
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-IMPORTANT-
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These forged labels are not forged Rx pads. I do make and have forged prescription pads on hand, however I only sell them to select customers who I approve to have them. These prescription labels will not get you prescriptions filled at the pharmacy. In addition it is against federal law for any scheduled substance such as opiate pain medication or benzo anxiety medications to have refills, so if you walk into a pharmacy with a prescription label for a scheduled substance that has a refill on the bottle and attempt to get a refill they will instantly know it is fake. On my forged prescription labels that have barcodes on them that scan, yes the barcodes will scan and the info will read the same info that is printed on the bottle, however it will not be in the pharmacy computer system as it is a fake label. It is just like a fake ID will not be in the police computer and can only be used in select ways, these can only be used in select ways. If you walk into a pharmacy with these they will detect they are fake once they are not in the computer. A pharmacy is just as secure as a bank as they know what they have is just as valuable. They have security cameras everywhere and will get footage of your face and your license plate in the parking lot. Not to mention your credit / debit card info if you use that and when they ask for ID for the controlled substance release that many states require they will have your name and ID number. You will be arrested, you will be charged and convicted of a felony. These labels are not for average intelligence junkies to get pills cheaply. Is it not enough for you to have the privilege of SR? In addition pharmacies have computer programs that exchange info with prescribing doctors and check to ensure a prescription s legit. Medications by law must be submitted electronically or by fax in addition to whatever you walk in with. Although these labels may not get you prescriptions filled they are still very valuable for all the reasons in this listing. Being safe from failing a drug test or being arrest proof by police is a very valuable asset to have on you side and a great card to hold in your hand. The only way these will get you pills is if you take them to a new doctor that will transfer over your medication from your old fake doctor to them will get you prescriptions written legitly. Many customers have bought these and taken them to doctors and then walked out with a prescription for whatever medication was on the forged labels they bought from me. Bottom line is these will not get you a fake prescription filled as I only sell fake Rx pads to select people I choose, but will get you a new prescription from a doctor who will take you on as a new patient.
This item has the option to come paired with matching receipts. This is extra to this listing and can be found directly below this paragraph. The forged receipts match the bottle and have the same info on them. They are great to further back up the authenticity of the forged prescription labels. It shows proof of purchase and will have your name and last 4 digits of your credit card on it providing indisputable proof the prescription is legit. The forged pharmacy receipts also have many other handy uses and can be bought on their own for purposes such as creating an alibi, laundering money, getting tax deductions or using it as a doctors note to get out of other obligations. Make sure to visit that listing before you purchase this item as you may want to purchase it in addition to this item. 

If you  want to check out the silk road yourself you can find it at ilkroadvb5piz3r.tor2web.org.   If you intend to gamble or enjoy the customer focused vendors, you should use TOR to access it instead.

What do I do at work?

I work on the Windows Azure compute stack fundamentals. I'm
the lead of the performance team, which is changing focus  to developer analytics and visualizations.   Because I work low in the stack, you don't
usually see my team's work directly, although you feel our impact
every time you deploy or update your service.  Today, I'm
pleased you can get a glimpse of what my team does in Mark Russinovich 's  TechEd Talk.

The entire talk
describes the system my team optimizes. You can specifically see some of the
visualization and analytics my team developed at 1h0m when Mark visualizes the  update
domains walk, and at 1h04m when Mark shows  a hosting environment update.   My team also helps prototype new features which impact performance like the DeltaVHD feature Mark describes.

If you'd like to learn more about Windows Azure or my team, leave a comment.