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.