Scrum – first impressions

At work we have a consult that helps up start up our complete rewrite of our application and we’ve been working scrum-style which I must say has been a different but interesting experience so far.

Something that seems nice is the total disconnection of hours from work, quantifying everything in points instead. I do think however that changing from the hour-frame of mind will be hard for many companies, mine will have tremendous difficulties. Both as we contract another company on an hourly fee and the fact that both sales and the owner will work against it.

I do like the organization in Scrum with tasks that are designated at the start of the (quite) short iteration (compared to how we have it now). There will be more on this as I get to work with it.

Foreseeing a comeback.

At work we’re about to start up a complete rewrite of our main product using C# and all the new methodologies and techniques and thus I’m foreseeing a comeback for this blog.

As of now we’re working up policies regarding Scrum, unit testing, building, continous integration, choice of frameworks etc etc.

I’ll start filling in this blog when I solve a problem, mostly as a place to go look for information when I need to redo it but also to possibly help others.

Hiatus

As you’ve noticed there’s been nothing new the last month or so. First there was vacation and recently I’ve gotten engrossed in tabletop wargaming. In my case it’s Privateer Press’ Warmachines/Hordes.

I’ve just started out and if it keeps my intrest I’ll likely dedicate my spare time to that.

I will come back and keep blogging but that will be in the future.

Tasker for android

I’ve been using tasker for a while now and I just love the app. I might not have used it to it’s full potential but it had made my life much easier anyway.

The idea is to automate tasks among other things. For example, I always forget to turn on GPS when using navigation tool or Google maps. In comes tasker, I just make a task where the programs that I want access to GPS turns GPS on automatically.

I also have a task where winamp automatically opens and sets media volume on the phone to a resonable level when I plug in my headphones.

There is not much that you can’t do with tasker, I’ve seen tasks that sends a text message with GPS coordinates back to the phone that sent it an SMS with a certain code and code word. One person was working on a self destruct task in case the phone was stolen. The idea was to brick the phone by smsing it a certain code.

Tasker is not very good looking or easy to start with. It definitely helps if you’ve some kind of programming experience.

I could post my tasks if there is any interest.

Flash custom rom onto ZTE Blade Android.

So, you’ve gotten your ZTE Blade and want to flash a new rom onto it? Maybe you want to get rid of bloatware, overclock your processor or just try a custom rom. Personally it was the latter two for me.

Since I couldn’t find all the information that I needed gathered in one place I decided to write a blogpost about it, mostly so I can find it quickly and easily for myself but also to benefit others.

I did this with a Gen 2 model and the information will be specific to Gen 2. It is quite possible to do this on a Gen 1 but then I can’t guarantee anything. Also, be aware that you could brick (make it into an expensive and fancy looking paper weight) your phone if anything goes wrong. If in doubt which Generation is used, consult Mr. Pigfish (can be downloaded for free on market).

Start by rooting the phone. I used z4root which was very easy to use.

Download both clockwork recovery (available on market) and the rom you want (I used Swedish Spring, can be downloaded here). Do not unpack the zip-file. Make sure that md5 sum checks out cause if it doesn’t and the downloaded rom is corrupt you’ll brick your phone.

Go into clockwork mod and flash clockwork recovery onto your phone. When it is done, turn off your phone and then start it with powerbutton and volume down both pressed. You’ll get into the clockwork recovery menu.

Choose to wipe both data and cache.
Then “install from sd card” and find the rom that you downloaded. Choose that and confirm. Wait while it flashes and after a while you’ll get a “done” message. Reboot and enjoy your new rom.

I’ve now done this multiple times and there’s no magic behind it. Just make sure that what you’re flashing is intended for your phone and that everything matches (e.g. Gen1 or Gen2 on the Blade). Also make sure to have enough power in your battery.
I always make sure to do a backup in clockwork mod in case I want to go back to the previous rom.

Right now I’m enjoying Gingerbread 2.3.4.

ZTE Blade – Budget android phone part 2

I’ve finally gotten my subscription activated and I must say that I am still very happy with the phone.

There’s not all that much to say really.
The speaker has a slight hiss but nothing that bothers me as the sound over cell network seldom is crystal clear anyway and any sound the other person is making drown out the hiss.

The proximity sensor is used only when there’s an active phone call, something I suspected but was not sure of as there’s been a few reports of proximity sensors not blanking screen.

In short; this is an amazing phone for the price tag.

Obviously battery time dropped a bit when the phone was connected and started synching on a regular scheduele. It lasts about a day but then I’ve been using the phone a lot, I expect the battery to last me longer as I’ve gotten used to the phone and when I’ve configured it the way I want.

I flashed a new ROM yesterday but that will be another blogpost.

ZTE Blade – Budget Android

After about a years worth of wanting a smart phone and about 3 months of casually looking at models I decided about a month ago that I would really get a smart phone. My old cell phone is 6 ½ years old so I figured it had served well enough and needed to be put to rest.

I started looking at the mid priced phones in the 350 Euro (~3000 Sek) but decided that I didn’t quite have that money to spend as I have to small children and my wife is currently home with the youngest. So I started looking at the low priced phones and seriously considered not bothering with it until my wife went back to work and I could start looking at the mid priced phones again.

By accident I stumbled upon the ZTE Blade, a chinese phone that quite recently came out on the market. It is cheap, I got mine for ~135 Euro (1199 Sek), but all the reviews agreed that for those money the phone delivered a lot. There was just a few things that were mentioned as downright bad. The main thing is the camera, 3.2 mp with no camera flash. The processor is a bit on the weak side aswell being only 600 MHz as compared to the “standard” right now that is 1 GHz. Then I’ve a little about smaller things but these only comes up in one or a few reviews or comments about the phone, probably a bad unit.

I decided to get a Blade and ordered one last week. I recieved it friday and now I’ve had 5 days to play with it. Sadly I haven’t been able to test it as a phone yet as I moved my phone number and Tele2 thought it resonable to take 19 days to do that. I have however played around with the phone on WiFi and I’ve gotten a feel for the phone as a device and I must say that so far I am quite satisfied.

There are only a few applications that I’ve noticed the weak processor and those are almost all games.
The camera is as bad as reviews make it out to be. If the object is still and there’s ample lightning okish pictures can be taken but if there’s low lighting or moving objects, don’t even try it.

An update will come when my SIM is activated and I can start using the phone as a phone rather than a very very weak computer.