Lee.org

A year ago a friend told me that he liked and enjoyed the science of CSI Miami. I then watched a random episode (CSI Miami 425) and took notes…

CSI Miami 425

The scene opens. Several Hispanic men are relaxing outdoors. A man walks up with a machine gun with a 40 round magazine. He kills everyone with 80 rounds without reloading

While investigating the murders a few minutes later, “Jessop” a Miami police officer working with CSI sees a note sticking out of a partially open door. Without gloves, dusting for prints, photographing the scene or looking carefully at it, he takes the note out of the door, inadvertently setting off a grenade. Some time later, a CSI lady (wearing gloves and being far more careful) investigates the now-dead officer’s body….

Two CSI people talking a minute later, “I see guns [in the victims’ hands]. Why didn’t they fight back?”
“It was probably a surprise attack. Besides, [picking up a spent 7.62 mm cartridge] I don’t think a 9 mil would have worked against these.”
Huh? 9mm bullets do a perfectly fine job of killing people, thank you very much.

They found a guy with TNT on his hands at an airport with a fictitious scanner. It sniffed the amient air around the person. Actual machines use a swab from a person or object. (update: such machines are made. I learned something from CSI: Miami)

Horatio interviewed a suspect. Horatio is CSI but only a police officer would interrogate him.

“The marks on the casing were made by a Russian-made Grinkov”
A Grinkov is a Russian Olympic skater, not a rifle.
Though in my search for Russian dancers, I found a very interesting site on rifle forensics (http://www.firearmsid.com) (Update 10-18-09 John points out that a Krinkov is a real gun, see below!)

They tracked the bad guy “Diego” by the GPS in his phone. Horatio needed to call Diego to get a trace and then loses the trace when Diego hangs up. In fact, they didn’t need to keep Diego on the line; they could track him as long as his cell phone is turned on. Here is such a service in England (http://www.world-tracker.com/) A free service like this doesn’t exist in the US but the tech does.

They found shrink wrap that was previously wrapped around a box approximately 2′ x 2′ x 6′. Knowing that it was from a bad guy’s house that was an arms dealer, they made the (obvious(???)) conclusion that it had previously held a hand-held surface-to-air missile. Horatio must be a super-duper genius.

Realizing this, Horatio instantly realized that the only thing the bad guy might do with such a weapon is shoot down the next plane the bad guy spotted taking off from Miami airport. So Horatio jumps in his truck and drives directly to the only obvious spot where a person might shoot down a plane from (???). They confront one another and Horatio saves the day.

It appears that the statisticians at California Pacific Medical Center are wrong. And they will continue to be wrong. The hospital system will lose money and reputation and because of it. Risk-wise, the procedure they are going to disallow should only be discontinued in a hospital that is dangerously understaffed. Note the word “dangerously”; lots of hospitals are “understaffed”, but this (shouldn’t) be their situation.

A protest march walked past my window a few minutes ago with signs reading “Got VBAC?” I was curious and found out that the local hospital, St. Lukes, which just joined CPMC is changing their policy on VBAC in August. They will now completely disallow the procedure.

Read the SFWeekly article, on both pages and especially the comments after the article

And go ahead and google for “VBAC“. You’ll find lots of information, feelings and statistics. Just about all of it says that it is a safe method of delivery as long as the hospital maintains an appropriate reserve staff for the 5 in 1000 chance of a critical emergency.

Here are the (very useful) comments from the article. It includes recommendations as to other places in the city where you should have your baby instead:

Continue reading ‘St Lukes stops doing VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean)’ »

I got this compliment about my website recently from a new friend:

I’ve been checking out Lee,org’s site, and it’s quite extensive. That’s one reason it’s taken this long to get this note off. I go to the site, am immediately intrigued/diverted/meander a while, and then run out’a time, or lose focus.

Everybody knows that the AR-15 isn’t legal to own in California because it’s a scary “assault rifle”. Well, California Rifles has a redesign that makes it legal for all us California tree huggers to shoot this beautiful rifle again.

Previously, the only way to get around this problem was to make an AR-15 with a non-removable (10 round) magazine. That’s just stup^H^H^H^Hsilly, opening up the rifle and reloading the magazine from the inside.

Of course, most of the major brands of AR-15 lower receivers are specifically blacklisted. But there are many brands of lower receiver that aren’t on the blacklist.

The upshot is: the only things the “assault weapons ban” has done for California is to

• bar the more established companies from providing lower receivers (the rest of the rifle isn’t on the banned list)
• make people spend an extra $200 on a funny (cool?) looking aftermarket stock.

And in any case, the Kel-Tec SU-16CA is a fine gun. It’s California legal right out of the box, fires the same 5.56mm round and has a techy-cool look to it. (though it bothers me that the 2 magazines in the stock are held in with a poor friction-fit; he could have designed something more reliable)

I welcome you to read the many good comments below on the subject. Some offer other very good solutions to the California assault rifle problem.

Dear folks at Kelloggs,

My girlfriend and I tried your new Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Pop Tarts today and we have to say that they didn’t taste the way we thought they should. If anything, the “cookie” tasted like a sugar cookie and not chocolate chip cookie dough. I would have expected a thicker, chewier, more varied filling instead of a smooth, consistent, and slightly slimy (after heating) filling.

We hope you use these suggestions to make the Pop Tart world a better Pop Tart world.

(and it wouldn’t hurt if you maybe sent us some coupons to replace these disappointing Pop Tarts)

Thank you very much

Johnson’s Arkansas Barbeque


2646 San Bruno Ave
San Francisco, CA   94134
415-467-7655

Really good barbeque!

Commands for Windows XP

The command line isn’t dead! I compiled these commands from all over. Use them well.

Windows XP Recovery Console
The only 2 really useful things you can do with it are:
fixboot – might magically fix the boot record
fixmbr – might magically fix the mbr
———–

chkdsk c: /v /r /x Take a long time to look at C:\ and fix errors

compmgmt.msc   disk management in XP

net use
Find out what file shares and stuff you have open. Lots of bells and whistles on this command

bootcfg
View your boot loader settings, such as your default OS and selection timeout, as well as your boot entries and load options.

defrag
You probably already guessed that this defrags your hard drive.

diskpart
Manages your disk partitions. After you type “diskpart” into your command prompt, your prompt will become “DISKPART.” Type a question mark to get a list of possible arguments. Type exit to leave diskpart.

driverquery
Will get you a nice list of your drivers and their properties.

fsutil
This is a handy command. You can do everything from managing your hardlinks to querying the free space in a volume. Type “fsutil” into your command prompt, and you’ll see a list of options. I choose “fsinfo” from the list, so I type “fsutil fsinfo” into the prompt. Now I get even more options, but I choose drives by typing “fsutil fsinfo drives.” It’s fun, it’s easy, and you’ll get the hang of it. Explore this utility. There are a lot of cool features and hidden twists.

getmac
This gets the MAC (Media Access Control) address.

gpresult
Get the RSoP, user settings, and computer group policy settings.

helpctr
Starts the Help and Support Center.

ipseccmd
Configures Internet protocol security (IPSec) policies in the directory service or in a local or remote Registry. Ipseccmd is a command-line version of the IP Security Policies Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in.

netsh
A network configuration tool. Type “netsh” to enter the tool, or “netsh /?” to learn more about it. To exit this tool, type “exit” at the “netsh>” prompt.

openfiles
Allows an administrator to display or disconnect open files in XP professional. Type “openfiles /?” for a list of possible parameters.

pagefileconfig
Displays and configures the paging file Virtual Memory settings of a system.

prncnfg
Configures or displays configuration information about a printer.

prnjobs
Pauses, resumes, cancels, and lists print jobs.

recover
This command attempts to recover readable information from a damaged disk. Type “recover” to get the syntax.

reg
The console registry tool. Get syntax help when you type “reg” into the prompt. You can export the registry, copy, restore, compare, and more.

schtasks
The administrator can schedule, run, change, or delete tasks on a local or remote machine. Type “schtasks /?” without the quotes for a list of options.

sfc
The system file checker scans protected system files and replaces the ones you (or your applications) hacked beyond repair with the real, official Microsoft versions. Type “sfc” into the command prompt to get a list of options. Sometimes this will magically fix oddly broken copmuters

shutdown
You can shut down or restart your own computer, or an administrator can shut down or restart a remote computer. Type “shutdown” into your command prompt to see a list of possible arguments.

systeminfo
Basic system configuration information, such as the system type, the processor type, your time zone, your virtual memory settings, and much more.

tasklist
Want to know what’s going on behind the scenes? Type “tasklist” into the command prompt, and get a list of current processes.

taskkill
Now that you know what’s going on behind the scenes, maybe you want to shut a few of these extraneous tasks down. That’s where taskkill comes in. Type “taskkill /?” for a quick lesson in the syntax of the command, then shut down all those random processes. I just killed my MS messenger by typing “taskkill /PID 1680.” I got the PID from running tasklist, above.

typeperf
Writes performance-counter data to the command window or to a supported log file format.

run “defrag.exe c:” as a scheduled task in Control Panel

netstat

ipconfig

services.msc

msconfig

ntbackup

nslookup

bootcfg

applications

anasil – sniffer
EtherDetect – sniffer
dsniff-1.8-win32-static – sniffer including mail password sniffer
cloneCD – CD copier

http://www.ntfs.com – all about the NTFS file system
http://www.active-undelete.com/ – recover deleted files from NTFS
http://www.file-recovery.net/ – another undelete program
http://www.partition-recovery.com/ – undelete a partition

password hacking:
– SAMInside and lots more from http://www.insidepro.com
– http://www.elcomsoft.com

http://www.insecure.org/tools.html

Recover information from physically destroyed hard drives http://www.drivesavers.com (use my Reseller Code, “DS14221” for a big discount from them)

Strega Nona Meets Her Match by Tomie dePaola

Wherein Strega Nona defeats her business competition by sending in a saboteur.

I was researching books that I might give to my niece and I came across this gem.

Strega Nona is a traditional healer in a little town in Calabria. Her friend Strega Amelia is a healer from over the mountain. Strega Amelia comes for a visit and sees what a good business Strega Nona has in the town and decides to compete with her. Strega Amelia says, “I see she still uses the old-fashioned ways too. Hmm, I’ll have to think about this.” Strega Amelia goes home and returns a week later, setting up her shop. She offers modern, effective remedies and “free sweets and coffee with every visit.”

Strega Amelia is an instant hit! After a few weeks, everyone in the town has realized that Strega Amelia supplies better products and services than Strega Nona and Stella Nona’s tired old business has dried up completely.

So what does Strega Nona do? She gets her helper, Big Anthony to infiltrate Strega Amelia’s company. Then, when Amelia is away on business, Big Anthony finds his moment and sabotages Amelia’s corporate image. At the height of his attack, he “forgets” how to operate the headache relieving machine and almost kills the mayor.

Strega Amelia returns the next day only to be run out of town. Strega Nona works her magic one last time and makes sure her fingerprints aren’t on the crime.

And everyone lives happily ever after. (?!?!?!) Yes, it really plays out like that. This book sends a very bad message.

In the next Strega Nona book she gets even with her mean neighbor by framing her for a felony. Then Strega Nona orders a hit on the mayor. Hilarity ensues!

Useful information if you own an AprilAire 2400 whole house air cleaner:

The OEM filter (model 401) for the AprilAire 2400 is a MERV 8 (via since it mentions “70% of 3 micron particles”)

(more info about MERV ratings) (image via)

You can get filters that catch smaller sizes but they get expensive. For example, the best, a MERV 16 filter costs about $120 instead of the regular $25. Also, I think higher MERV ratings require a more powerful blower (see the image and mention of “Final pressure”) and/or it will wear out your existing blower faster.

Everyone (except Julia) smokes in my parents’ house. They use standard filters and I’ve noticed that all my clothes smell of smoke after I’ve been there for a couple days. I’ll try getting a MERV 11 filter for a while and we’ll see how it goes.

Another reason Microsoft Exchange sucks:

I asked my company’s IT guy…
>> Do you know how I can allow my Windows and Exchange passwords can be different?
(backstory: when I set the differently, I would get my email only like once a week… the stars would have to align or something. Maybe the data had to flow just right over the VPN or something)

He found an email from a Microsoft Tech saying, in essence that no, your Exchange password can’t be different from your Windows login password.

From: Eriq Neale [MSFT] – view profile
Date: Sat, May 15 2004 10:46 am
Email: a-er…@online.microsoft.com (Eriq Neale [MSFT])
Groups: microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs
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| Hi,
|
| We just created several new users and want to have the users change their
email – not Windows logon – password from either OWA or from Outlook.
|
| Can someone explain how that can be done.
|
| Thanks!
| alex

Hey Alex.

Unfortunately, you cannot have a separate e-mail password that is different
from the Windows password. Exchange 2000/2003 relies on Active Directory
for user authentication for e-mail clients. This is the same place where
Windows logon authentication is performed as well. This is different than
the behavior in Exchange 5.5, when Exchange maintained its own
username/password database.

Eriq Neale
Microsoft Corporation

Get Secure! – www.microsoft.com/security

I find his .sig to be particularly funny. Now, my work Exchange password (which is difficult for me to change) is tied to my Windows logon password on my laptop. My laptop logon password is loosely tied to my home computer because it is a nice convenience when the passwords are the same, then I don’t have to type my username/login when I want to view shared files. Arg!

And what if I wanted to be on 2 Exchange servers at once? I would have to tell one of them, “Could you please change my Exchange password to xxxxx? I want it to be the same as the password on the other system. Thanks.”