Native American Code of Ethics

1. Rise with the sun to pray. Pray alone. Pray often. The Great Spirit will listen, if you only speak.

2. Be tolerant of those who are lost on their path. Ignorance, conceit, anger, jealousy and greed stem from a lost soul. Pray that they will find guidance.

3. Search for yourself, by yourself. Do not allow others to make your path for you. It is your road, and yours alone. Others may walk it with you, but no one can walk it for you.

4. Treat the guests in your home with much consideration. Serve them the best food, give them the best bed and treat them with respect and honor.

5. Do not take what is not yours whether from a person, a community, the wilderness or from a culture. It was not earned nor given. It is not yours.

6. Respect all things that are placed upon this earth - whether it be people or plant.

7. Honor other people's thoughts, wishes and words. Never interrupt another or mock or rudely mimic them. Allow each person the right to personal expression.

8. Never speak of others in a bad way. The negative energy that you put out into the universe will multiply when it returns to you.

9. All persons make mistakes. And all mistakes can be forgiven.

10. Bad thoughts cause illness of the mind, body and spirit. Practice optimism.

11. Nature is not FOR us, it is a PART of us. They are part of your worldly family.

12. Children are the seeds of our future. Plant love in their hearts and water them with wisdom and life's lessons. When they are grown, give them space to grow.

13. Avoid hurting the hearts of others. The poison of your pain will return to you.

14. Be truthful at all times. Honesty is the test of ones will within this universe.

15. Keep yourself balanced. Your Mental self, Spiritual self, Emotional self, and Physical self - all need to be strong, pure and healthy. Work out the body to strengthen the mind. Grow rich in spirit to cure emotional ails.

16. Make conscious decisions as to who you will be and how you will react. Be responsible for your own actions.

17. Respect the privacy and personal space of others. Do not touch the personal property of others - especially sacred and religious objects. This is forbidden.

18. Be true to yourself first. You cannot nurture and help others if you cannot nurture and help yourself first.

19. Respect others religious beliefs. Do not force your belief on others.

20. Share your good fortune with others. Participate in charity.

This originally appeared in the "Inter-Tribal Times," October, 1994

Beware of SMS Spam

I got the following text message few days ago:

+15013131661: Dear BestBuy Winner #12564 ! If you Complete this Yearly questionare to get a free Ipad as a prize Thank you www.bit.ly/(UseLG1XXX)

Nothing FREE in America. So, DON'T click to get the free iPad or you will be the spam or scam victim.

Install Microsoft Visual Studio Express 2012 for Web on Windows Vista

When I attempted to install Microsoft Visual Studio Express 2012 for Web on my Windows Vista using Microsoft Web Platform 4.0, I got this message:

A little surprise, I had no issue in install Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 on Windows 7 or Windows 8.  According to http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/eng/products/compatibility, the minimum operating system can use to install Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 is Windows 7.

I have no intention to spend more money in upgrading Windows Vista to Windows 7. There is no business value in upgrading Windows Vista to Windows 7 on three years old laptop. Thus, stay with Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 for now.

Compare Files and Folders

In Linux or Mac OS/X, using diff command at the terminal.

To compare two folders:
diff -rq folder1 folder2

To compare two files:
diff file1 file2
diff 'first file' 'second file'

For more options:
diff --help

For Microsoft Windows computer, use WinMerge, an open source software, to compare and merge files and folders.

Should I provide my social security number when I apply job online?

The answer is NO.

First, I'm not sure my social security number is safe on their site. Is it a legitimate web site?

Second, it's not make sense. Any one asks his or her date the social security on first date? From application to interview and from interview to the job offer is a long and tough process. Hiring manager will interview about 1% job applicants and will extend job offer to 1 or 2 candidates among people they interviewed. I will provide my social security number only I accept the job offer and start fill out W-4 Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate and I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification forms.

Provide social security number, driver license, your home address and birth date are not guarantee you get the interview. However, you have more risks.

Thus, I follow the advise from others to enter the phrase 'Available upon job offer' or '000-00-0000' on the online application. If the validation rule is not allow me to bypass the social security number, I will not bother to apply and file a complaint to FTC. Why hiring company or recruiter talk about job requirement, experience, skills, salary, benefit, and company culture first?

Congress should make a law to prohibit company collect the social security number on job application.

Good luck with your job search.

More info:

• http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100317150012AAsb8v3
• http://humanresources.about.com/b/2012/02/06/you-want-my-social-security-number.htm 
• http://www.soyouwanna.com/apply-jobs-online-social-security-number-required-6540.html
• https://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs25-JobSeekerPriv.htm/

Available for Hire

A developer with 25 years experience in software development, mostly with small start up companies, available for hire. I love to have an opportunity to work full-time on:

1. Mobile application development using Android. 
2. Web application development using Open Sources technology: Ruby, Ruby on Rails, Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP, JavaScript, HTML, CSS ... 
3. Web application development using Microsoft technology: Classic ASP 3.0, ASP.NET, C#, IIS 7, Microsoft SQL Server 2000, 2008R2

Should Developer Tools Free?

Last week, Microsoft announced the next free version of Visual Studio 2012 (or Visual Studio 11) will not free for develop desktop applications. "To create desktop apps in Visual Studio 2012, you need to use Professional 2012 or higher." Other Express versions used to develop Metro, web or mobile applications still free. It's not a good decision. After a strong objection from developers, Microsoft reversed its early plan.

Actually, I do not care whether Microsoft provides free tools for developer or not. If I need a tool, my company will pay for that. The last time, I developed Windows desktop applications twelve years ago. After that, I spent most my time for web applications. Now, I'm learning to develop mobile application in my spare time. 

I'm enjoy to use free and open source development tools such as Eclipse IDE, MonoDevelop, gedit, Notepad++, WinMerge, Git, Apache, PHP, MySQL, Sqlite, Python, Ruby, JavaScript... for both web and mobile developments in Ubuntu Linux and Microsoft Windows environments. If I need to develop in Mac platform, I can get Xcode 4 for free from Mac App Store. 

Today, it's not make sense to charge developer or anyone interest in programming for development tools. 

Don't click on the link from any email begin with "wow this is crazy you should give it a look"

Recently I got many emails claimed from my friends, my relatives and my family. Their subject line had a simple word such as "hi", "hey", "Fwd:" or "re:". The body had only one sentence begin with these words:

"wow this is crazy you should look into this ..."

"you should check this out ..."

"this is crazy you should give it a look ..."

"check this out wow ..."

"wow this is crazy you should give it a look ..."

Since senders are in my contact list, these spams bypassed spam filter and landed in my inbox. All from Yahoo account and sent from oversea. It looked like these Yahoo emails were hacked. If you are using Yahoo, check your Sent folder to see any unauthorized emails sent out. If your Yahoo was hacked and sent the spam, you should:

1. Changed your password immediately.
2. Scan your computer for virus, trojans. For Windows computer, download Microsoft Security Essentials, a free anti-virus software from Microsoft, at http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/products/security-essentials. For Mac OS computer, download Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac Home Edition at http://www.sophos.com/en-us/products/free-tools/sophos-antivirus-for-mac-home-edition.aspx. For Ubuntu, GNU/Linux get ClamAV,  an open source (GPL) antivirus engine designed for detecting Trojans, viruses, malware and other malicious threats. 

I agreed with James Snider in his blog post:

In today’s world, you just can not click links or open files that people email you. There are no trusted people. Viruses get on their computer and they will never know it.

Not only Yahoo email users had this problem but Hotmail too. Greg Lirette detailed his experience in "Spam sent from my Hotmail account".

That why I'm using Gmail and two-step verification and separate Yahoo, Hotmail accounts for difference tasks: social, testing, mailing list subscription, registration, personal finance, professional ...

For more info:

1. Prevent Sending Spam with my Yahoo Account? (http://superuser.com/questions/413734/prevent-sending-spam-with-my-yahoo-account)
2. The Palantír byjamessnider (http://jamesbsnider.wordpress.com/2012/04/15/the-palantir-8/)
3. Yahoo! Account Help - What to do if your account is sending spam (http://help.yahoo.com/kb/index?locale=en_US&page=content&y=PROD_ACCT&id=SLN3417&impressions=false)

Do not open any attachment in email claimed from Postal Office

This morning I went to US Post Office to send back a laptop battery to the Seller. In the evening, I found an email in Junk folder with subject 'Your parcel is available for pickup‏'. I almost attempted to open it. " Something wrong with my shipping..." I thought. But, I recalled a big red box "ALERT: Customers be aware of fraudulent package delivery messages sent by email or phone." when I was at USPS.com website few minutes prior. Thus, I did not click on the attachment.

The faked email sent from:

Received: from pacifica by dime127.dizinc.com with local (Exim 4.69)
(envelope-from )
id 1SMRM5-0004tD-Qo
for user@example.com; Mon, 23 Apr 2012 18:03:34 -0400

I'm feel I'm lucky. Always be vigilant and be smart… on the Net

Google's Project Glass

I watched Google's Project Glass video few days ago. It's really interesting. But, I'm feeling overwhelmed if I wear this Google Glasses. No, I will not buy this. I don't want my stress level increase. I don't want my life ruined by technology.

“There’s more to life than increasing its speed.” - Mahatma Gandhi

Back to School

Back to school means go to class, listen to teacher, doing homework, take the quiz or test. This time I'm back to school to learn Ruby on Rails and reinforce my knowledge in Software as A Service for free. My school here is not a normal, traditional school but an online school. I work full-time to keep a roof over my head so I prefer to study part-time at my own leisure. Spending more money to get advance degree is not my goal at this time.

The online course Software Engineering for Software as a Service taught by UC Berkeley professors Armando Fox and David Patterson. Every evening and weekend, I watched the video lectures and read the Kindle version of text book "Engineering Long-Lasting Software: An Agile Approach Using SaaS and Cloud Computing". I also did homework and submitted to grade. It was fun but not easy.

I'm really enjoy this class. I'm appreciate the professors and others made this free online course available to more than sixty thousands students. Prior to this class, I'm also follow iPad and iPhone Application Development (HD) by Stanford professor Paul Hegart in iTunes. With the current technology, we can have the best education for free. Gaining a knowledge is more important than the degree or certificate. I love to learn.

We the People on WhiteHouse.gov

I'm usually never sign any online petition due to security and privacy reasons. I don't trust any petition on the internet at all. This time, I signed up with We the People on WhiteHouse.gov.

https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/

Please note the domain name WhiteHouse.GOV and the key or lock pad on the address bar when using the secured protocol (HTTPS). It authenticated the official government web site. To protect my privacy, I just stated my name and state.

Signed up with We the People on WhiteHouse.gov web site did not mean I supported all Obama policies. I support the United States constitution and our government. It means I trust our government. I believe our elected officials listen to us.

2012 New Year Resolution

A few years ago, I learned the phrase "It's complicated" from Facebook. I love these words. Life is not simple. Some problems may not be easily to solve. It's complicated.

When your computer had a problem or ran too slow, buying a new computer was not a simple solution. You need to find out where the problem is, why the problem exists and how to fix it. When you ran a report, it took long time to return the result. To make it faster, you can not simply add more memory, or change to a faster CPU. It's complicated. You need to spend time to review your code, review your SQL, and monitor performance. You need to think before you act. You cannot simply solve the issue today by leaving more issues for tomorrow.

Now, as I am getting older, I tell myself: KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid). Beginning this year, I will try to keep everything in my life and my work as simple as I can. Keep it short.