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.

My New Toy

My new toy is a 13-inch MacBook Pro. It took me a lot of time to think over which Mac (Mac Mini, MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, or 15-inch MacBook Pro) would be my next working computer. I needed a new computer with a bigger hard drive, longer battery life, and support Intel Virtual Technology. I also needed to familiarize myself with Mac OS X as more people are using Mac OS and iOS. I would have preferred a 15-inch MacBook Pro but I did not want to overspend on a Mac product. Yes, Apple products are high quality but they are too expensive.

My first impression with my MacBook Pro: I can utilize second band 5GHz wireless network (801.11a / 801.11n). Next, it just had only one or two updates, which took a few minutes to install after I initialized the new computer. My Dell Windows 7 took an hour to update. After a system update, I installed Adobe Flash, Java Development Kit SE, LibreOffice, Android SDK, and Eclipse IDE, and Virtual Box. Last, after learning how to use the Multi-Touch track pad, I really like it.

How about the boot time? It is fast but it still cannot beat Ubuntu 11.10 running on a slower CPU, Intel Pentium Dual-Core 2.3GHz.

SQL in the City

Last Friday, I attended "SQL in the City," a free SQL training workshop held in Los Angeles, California. Unlike other free workshops or conferences that mostly about sales marketing, this workshop had a lot of useful technical sessions presented by well known gurus in SQL community. Just few days before the event, I changed my mind. I thought that I will not go since two hours driving to Los Angeles was an inconvenience.

At the event, the speaker asked us about whether we were developers, DBA, or both. I thought I was a developer; that is what I have done my whole career. Actually, I was both when I working for a small company: Developer and DBA. There were many DBA sessions I attended more than Developer sessions since they are my interesting issues.

On the way home, I was so happy that I did not skip this great event. I appreciated Red Gate provided me and others a chance to learn new things and refresh our knowledge.