Echo Binary

I realized that there are so many things in the IT industry that are intentionally left in gray areas. That includes list of clients, systems infrastructure, softwares, and other technologies. That’s not new. Everyone who have taken economics 101 should know that trade secrets are very important to have an edge to competitors and protect the company from prying eyes. It’s also discussed in professional ethics. However, having just exposed myself to the real working environment, I just realized how serious IT companies are in hiding secrets. I’m talking about IT companies in the Philippines in general but this should apply to all companies.

One thing that strikes me is the 10 things that companies should be monitoring in the web as suggested by Pronet Advertising. What disturbs me are #6, #7 and #8 in the list. Others are pretty obvious. This should be a warning to all employees out there who leak information about their company’s secrets carelessly.

Pronet mentioned about the industry “hang outs” which includes blogs, message boards and review sites. Be aware that popular message boards like pinoyexchange.com, tipidpc.com and MMORPG forums are most probably included in A-list of industry hang-outs in the Philippines.

Employee blogs are probably monitored by employers as well. If you are not aware, some people are sued because of what they type in their blogs. Scary? Not really. Just be sure to double check that all your statements are not libelous. If you want to be extra careful, do not even mention anything work-related in your blog at all especially if it is too sensitive to be published in web, let alone in your personal blog. IMHO, these things are better left in your conventional [paper] diary, not blog.

Social network is both a blessing and a curse. For instance, any member of friendster.com and myspace.com could easily search members of the entire social network. Companies can easily track your profile and conversations with other people. When you leave comments to other people’s blog you sometime leave a link to your personal blog. That’s aweful if the company can aggregate these information and found out that you are leaking out company secrets that are not meant to be revealed. Call me paranoid but these are all possible.

If there’s anything you can do to totally conceal your identity in the internet, then do not create a personal blog to hide yourself in the obscurity. Do not reveal your name easily. Do not give out personal information in the public. Plain and simple. I can continue discussing the probability that some companies are monitoring their employees’ activities but there are so many things you can do in the internet that these companies are probably not aware of your activities yet. However, they may find out your blunder in the end and you might lose your job.

You can argue that these are all invasion of privacy. However, the moment you use the internet, privacy becomes a gray matter as well. To avoid any repercussions, be discreet and professional in the web. Know your limitation and use your knowledge wisely.

I always thought that crop circles are fake. They are created by humans — NOT aliens!

A team of Firefox fans made a good example on how crop circles are made. From planning to execution, the Firefox Crop Circle team even spent a great deal of time documenting the process on creating the crop circle just like any good open source project.

And the result is awesome…

It’s actually my first time reading about the process of creating crop circle and I’m not surprised that it needs a lot of teamwork to complete.

For the complete details of the Firefox Crop Circle project, click here.

I got my first job. I think it suits my desire to learn SAP R/3 and its related technologies. I will start my job as a regular employee (yup, no probation period) effectively on September 1, 2006. So, the “salary discussion” interview I was expecting was not a salary discussion at all. It’s already a job offer. I consider myself lucky because I was recruited after only one (1) interview. Some people get 2 - 3 interviews and does not get any job offer in the end. I won’t discuss any details how I got an offer, blah blah and so on and so forth. You know, everything else is confidential. I will start my first job immediately on the 1st of September, right after my graduation march on the 31st of August. Sounds fun. Carpediem!

This week, I had several interviews and what really challenged me were behavior-based interviews. One stupid answer could ruin all your good points. The interviewer would throw a lot of questions to you in order to analyze your background and tendencies to behave in work environment. The questions were designed to know how you have behaved in your past experiences and activities, so you ought to know what you did in college if you are a fresh grad, or what you have contributed in your present or previous company if you’re an experienced applicant.

According to my father, who took several behavior-based test and interviews before, behavior-based interviews is based on the principle that people hardly change — Old habits die hard. From what I understood, the point of the test is to know how you have behaved in the past to tell the recruiter how you will act in the future. For example, if you answered consistently with positive leadership contribution in group work and projects, then it tells the recruiter that you have a potential to be a good manager. If you tend to be uncooperative, or you consistently prefer being a lone-wolf, it tells the recruiter that you are not suited for team projects. However, I do not know exactly what happens to those people with inconsistent behavior.

Probing questions can also be hypothetical. The interviewer can give you a situation or scenario which you have to answer honestly based on your own values and character.

If I only knew this earlier I could have answered the chain of question given to me with more ease. I had interviews without saying “aaah’s” and “uhmm’s” but during this particular interview, I mumbled a bit. I think I was able to pull through anyway. I do not know whether my next interview is still behavior-based… what scares me is the topic: salary discussion. (Baka dito nila malalaman kung sino yung mukhang pera… hehe)

Time to reflect about myself until monday…

“Watch your thoughts. They become words. Watch your words. They become deeds. Watch your deeds. They become habits. Watch your habits. They become character. Character is everything.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you are a blogger, you probably want to read your friends’ entries and put some comments in their entries, or perhaps spy on their entries and see if they have some interesting topic. I tried to hop from one blog to another, but it is just very inconvenient. Visiting 10 - 15 blogs each day is quite troublesome. I try my best to blog-hop once in a while but I really can’t visit all of my friends’ blogs. Worse, I forget their blog address or I do not remember to use my bookmarks, especially when I have so many things occupying my mind. The only practical way to “visit” all of my friends’ blog everyday is via RSS (Really Simple Syndication). I get an overview of what they have added in their blogs every time I open my favorite RSS reader or AJAX desktop / homepage.

Below is a screenshot of Netvibes. It’s my prefered AJAX desktop / homepage because it is very easy to use and it has growing numbers of developers creating and updating modules each week. I have added my friends’ blogs here so that anywhere I go as long as I have internet access, I can check their entries in one location. It’s very convenient and gives me more presence in their blogs.

The idea is simple. You treat their blogs as “news” source. Using RSS, you can easily syndicate their entries and digest them like any other RSS entries.

Now it’s more fun to read other people’s blog.

P.S.
If you are my friend and would like to update me with your latest blog address, please contact me immediately. Thanks!

Links:
Netvibes
Technorati Tags: netvibes, blogs, rss, ajax, friends