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.