Software Development Coming to North College Hill

2010 PMI Agile Development Day July 23
Registration is now open!

Join the Southwest Ohio Chapter of the Project Management Institute for a day of professional development focused on agile project management tools and techniques.

Friday, July 23
Clovernook Country Club
2035 W. Galbraith Road, Cincinnati, Ohio 45239

8:30 – 9:00 a.m. Registration, Breakfast and Opening Remarks

9:00 – 10:15 a.m. Agile Retrospective Discussion
Strategic Data Systems (SDS) established the Agile Development Center (ADC) in 2003 and has been evolving its agile practices ever since to maximize results. Join us for a candid and informative discussion around that journey. The discussion will feature an overview of the Agile project process highlighting key lessons, real-world results, specific tools, and take-away’s you can utilize to enhance your agile efforts—whether you’re just getting started or are an experienced agile pro.

Coffee Break & Conversations

10:30 –11:45 a.m. Agile Working Sessions (3)
Three 20-minute interactive sessions led by TeamAgility Specialists for hands- on learning about Agile practices
- User stories
- Estimating
- Stand-up Meetings

11:45 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. Lunch/Panel Discussion
How to Bring Agile into your Organization
Hear from directors at leading, local companies who have introduced Agile to their organizations; get advice on how to get started and learn tips to try/mistakes to avoid in making your team more agile.

1:00 - 6:00 p.m Golf
Fees: Morning Sessions - $55; Morning Sessions + Golf - $105

This event offers 4 Professional Development Units.

To register: http://www.pmi-swohio-chapter.org/index.php/registrations.html

The Housing Bubble is Back

3 bed/2.5 bath/1,842 sqft/54 year old home in Cincinnati's College Hill Neighborhood going for $199k
3 bed/4.0 bath/2,913 sqft/50 year old home in the same neighborhood for $296k
3 bed/3.0 bath/2,200 sqft/54 year old home in Wyoming, OH for $340k
3 bed/2.0 bath/1,515 sqft/55 year old home in Wyoming, OH for $195k

These homes are not worth their listing prices. What should we do about it? Are the new mortgage lending laws strong enough to prevent another collapse if these homes sell anywhere near their listing prices?

How to Root the Cincinnati Bell Blaze

(Also known as Commtiva Z71, Vibo A688, Orange Boston, Apanda A60, Wellcom A88, Muchtel A1, Chinavision Excalibur)

I'm not responsible for anything that goes wrong if you do this. You follow these instructions at your own risk.

1. Copy RUT folder from the faux CDROM that shows up when you plug in your phone in Windows to somewhere on your hard drive. These are the drivers you'll need for the following steps. Alternatively, here are the 32-bit Windows drivers and here are the 64-bit Windows drivers (thanks hillgr).
2. Download GoRoot.zip.
3. Unplug your phone from your computer and power off. Hold down both volume up and down keys and while holding them down press and release the power button. Keep holding the buttons down until you see the black Foxconn FTM screen.
4. Now that the phone is in the bootloader ("FTM mode"), plug it back into your computer. The new hardware installation wizard should appear. Select the option to choose the location of the driver files. Choose the option to instruct Windows where to search for drivers, then either key in the path or use the browse button to navigate to the location where you copied the RUT folder from step one. If Windows asks for permission to install unsigned/unverified drivers, select Yes. A series of devices will be installed.
5. When all the devices are installed, open a command prompt by pressing Win+R and typing "cmd". In the command prompt navigate to the location where your GoRoot.zip files were unpacked to (e.g. if you unpacked to C:\ then type cd \). Type goroot.bat and wait for the commands to complete. After they are completed you have root access.
6. Test your root access by downloading MarketEnabler and using it to change your Market region to T-Mobile (USA). This will let you download apps that Cincinnati Bell advertises but are normally unavailable on the Cincinnati Bell Market. If you need to switch back to the Cincinnati Bell market region for some reason, the code is 31042.

Thanks to GridLock, hillgr (for figuring out the up+down volume key combination for FTM mode) and belgra77 (for linking me to HTC Mania and thus this post on Forumosa). I'll post again when I get some custom ROMs working.

If you're on Linux, here's GridLock's guide to adb on Ubuntu. Basically install adb, configure for Blaze (add SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0489", MODE="0666" as well as the others listed in the guide to /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules) and grab the zip linked above for su and Superuser.apk files. The bat file just runs the following commands while in FTM:

adb shell mount -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock7 /system
adb push su /system/bin
adb shell chmod 4755 /system/bin/su
adb push Superuser.apk /system/app
adb shell reboot

Best Places to Live in Cincinnati

Using quantitative analysis, I've come up with the best places to live on the Ohio side of the Cincinnati Metro based on 2010 ratings of taxes, public schools, and crime. I might add some qualitative analysis down the road.

1. Indian Hill
2. Madeira SD
3. Maineville (Warren Co.)
4. Montgomery
5. Wyoming
6. North College Hill
7. Wyoming SD
8. Cheviot   
9. Lincoln Heights
10. Mt. Healthy

View the full list to see the calculations and how where you live scored. Tax rates assume standard 50k/100k income/home value.

Update: Madeira SD had wrong score, fixed 6/23.