i would like to know if there are any devs out there who would mind maybe sending me any links that would better inform me as to how all this stuff works. i am intrigued with all the stuff you guys come out with and would love to be enlightened a little more on how it is put together. basically i want most of the things im reading about to make more sense to me.
I am not sure what kind of information you're looking for exactly. Your question is rather vague. However, here is an overall generic reply without further details to go on.
http://google.com
that's how i learn. seriously. if you want someone to hold your hand through it, go buy a book on software development or make friends with someone locally that's a computer scientist (or related field) and buy them some beers. If you're more interested in the theming of things, that doesn't take quite as to figure out, but would require some basic design knowlege or sources on how to aquire things if you cant design them. There's quite a few books out for android alone now if you look on amazon. I know o'reilly makes a good one.
I really dont think someone giving you a few quick links will get you very far from my own experience of teaching others. I've tutored a friend on software development and it can be a slow painful process to relate it to someone that has little to no background at first until it starts to "click" (some people it just never clicks because well, not everyone is cut out to do this stuff). After about a year, they finally had a decent grasp on how to develop, but it's something that takes years to really say "you're good" at it (unless you just make doing basic hacking and not really adding to things, that can be accomplished quicker).
Software development and hacking of already made software is something you generally learn best by experience (your own experience more so than others). Short of that, formal courses taught by a decent professor at a university will lay a foundation, but doesn't mean much if you do not add to it with your own bricks.
This is really overall a question you should ask in the general XDA forums or go to somewhere like stackoverflow.com (or their more mobile focused site, http://android.stackexchange.com/) and look for people who have already asked similar questions there. Have you tried to at least do a basic google search for something like android tutorials? If you cant show a little motivation and inspiration on your own, don't hold your breath for someone wanting to mentor you for free since no one wants to explicitly tell you everything all the time, it gets kind of annoying to have to lay things out always when common sense should at least take over sometimes. I know that last statement sounded a little harsh and blunt (and dont take it personally, I just want you to be realistic about it), but it's pretty true.
I think it's great you want to learn and are willing, but I don't think the answers you want can be answered in a thread discussion alone. Your best bet if you cant search for relevant information on the web on your own is to get start by buying a book as I mentioned or take some courses at a university or community college just on basic programming (language and os [so long as it's something linux/unix] doesn't matter so much as just getting the info). If you're too young for college courses, see if your schoool as an AP computer science course or something similar. I don't think anyone who is doing actual development on android got their start on android alone (by development I mean actually writing code, not theming or ripping a few small things out of already made code). It comes from building up and relating basic computer science concepts you carry over.
If you want to build applications for android and hack around on applications already made, learn Java.
If you want to learn how android os works and mod, develop and patch it, learn c and c++.
If you want to mod themes and make your own. Learn how to use a graphic design app like gimp, photoshop, etc and learn the structure of xml documents.
There are other languages that work on android as well (as well as web applications which language no longer matters), but those work on every android enabled device without addons/overhead.
In short though, there are no quick answers and no encompassing solution and any books you see that say "learn x in 24 hours or whatever" are full of s*it.
yareally said:
I am not sure what kind of information you're looking for exactly. Your question is rather vague. However, here is an overall generic reply without further details to go on.
http://google.com
that's how i learn. seriously. if you want someone to hold your hand through it, go buy a book on software development or make friends with someone locally that's a computer scientist (or related field) and buy them some beers. If you're more interested in the theming of things, that doesn't take quite as to figure out, but would require some basic design knowlege or sources on how to aquire things if you cant design them. There's quite a few books out for android alone now if you look on amazon. I know o'reilly makes a good one.
I really dont think someone giving you a few quick links will get you very far from my own experience of teaching others. I've tutored a friend on software development and it can be a slow painful process to relate it to someone that has little to no background at first until it starts to "click" (some people it just never clicks because well, not everyone is cut out to do this stuff). After about a year, they finally had a decent grasp on how to develop, but it's something that takes years to really say "you're good" at it (unless you just make doing basic hacking and not really adding to things, that can be accomplished quicker).
Software development and hacking of already made software is something you generally learn best by experience (your own experience more so than others). Short of that, formal courses taught by a decent professor at a university will lay a foundation, but doesn't mean much if you do not add to it with your own bricks.
This is really overall a question you should ask in the general XDA forums or go to somewhere like stackoverflow.com (or their more mobile focused site, http://android.stackexchange.com/) and look for people who have already asked similar questions there. Have you tried to at least do a basic google search for something like android tutorials? If you cant show a little motivation and inspiration on your own, don't hold your breath for someone wanting to mentor you for free since no one wants to explicitly tell you everything all the time, it gets kind of annoying to have to lay things out always when common sense should at least take over sometimes. I know that last statement sounded a little harsh and blunt (and dont take it personally, I just want you to be realistic about it), but it's pretty true.
I think it's great you want to learn and are willing, but I don't think the answers you want can be answered in a thread discussion alone. Your best bet if you cant search for relevant information on the web on your own is to get start by buying a book as I mentioned or take some courses at a university or community college just on basic programming (language and os [so long as it's something linux/unix] doesn't matter so much as just getting the info). If you're too young for college courses, see if your schoool as an AP computer science course or something similar. I don't think anyone who is doing actual development on android got their start on android alone (by development I mean actually writing code, not theming or ripping a few small things out of already made code). It comes from building up and relating basic computer science concepts you carry over.
If you want to build applications for android and hack around on applications already made, learn Java.
If you want to learn how android os works and mod, develop and patch it, learn c and c++.
If you want to mod themes and make your own. Learn how to use a graphic design app like gimp, photoshop, etc and learn the structure of xml documents.
There are other languages that work on android as well (as well as web applications which language no longer matters), but those work on every android enabled device without addons/overhead.
In short though, there are no quick answers and no encompassing solution and any books you see that say "learn x in 24 hours or whatever" are full of s*it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
very detailed answer, refered him to google like everyone else would have but done in a great way
Thanks
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA Premium App
Hello, xda community! My name is Jerome, and I have a pretty important favor to ask. Working in an english class in my college, I was asked to do a paper on a community and also have an interview for information. Going to this site for years, I decided to cover phone and tablet communities like this one, since it would be a paper I enjoy reading. However, I still need an interview for the paper, so I kindly ask if someone in this amazing forum who has done work in the field of phone hacking to answer some pretty simple questions (Don't worry, they're not extremely intrusive, and I don't need your real name).
1. How long have you been a part of this forum?
2. What devices have you tinkered with in the past (keep it within phones and tablets please)?
3. What device do you prefer (blackberry, apple, android, windows phone, etc)
4. Is making things like roms and kernels difficult? What are some challenges that you face?
5. Do you recommend everyone hack their devices?
6. What are the benefits of modding a device?
7. What got you into modding devices?
8. Because most of the modding content you do would sort of have to be free, what do you do as your profession (if you have one)?
I apologize ahead of time if I am breaking some sort of rule, but I would really like to hear an expert's response, not just for my paper, but simply because I am interested in this type of thing. If you could answer all those questions (and don't be afraid to give more detail, this is a 5 page paper), I would be extremely thankful. Thank you so much for your time!!!
Bump
Sir, be advised...Thank You
http://forum.xda-developers.com/announcement.php?a=81
16. Bumping Threads (posting simply to force a thread to the top of the thread queue)
Do not "bump" a thread more than once per 24 hours.
I don't consider myself an expert, far from that...
But I do realize how difficult an interview could be to a student, so I'll help you out on this one
megavoltaic said:
1. How long have you been a part of this forum?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My join date as per my profile is 18th Nov 2011, but I had been lurking around from two months back...
I had no need to join before that...
2. What devices have you tinkered with in the past (keep it within phones and tablets please)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I personally own only a Samsung Galaxy Fit s5670, and a cheap chinese Android MID m799ca...
I have quite some knowledge for my phone, but I'll just be starting off for the tablet after my exams get over (around 2weeks from now)
I had played around with my father's Acer Liquid Metal...
I also have helped out a few friends get their Androids rooted, which include a HTC Desire Z, Samsung Galaxy Mini s5570, Ace s5830 & Young s5360...
I've also done a few phone firmware upgrades, though restricted myself to official methods...
I also occasionally help out my real life friends with low-level unrooted tinkering around...
Also jailbroken an iPhone 4...
3. What device do you prefer (blackberry, apple, android, windows phone, etc)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm pretty open in this regard...
While my loyalties rest with Android, I'm quite attracted towards a little unconventional OS's like Meego and WebOS...
I absolutrly loved Meego, everything feels natural in it...too bad Nokia abandoned ship...
Depending on my need and situation, I'm not averse to using even iOS and Blackberry...
But I like the freedom of Android over all others...
4. Is making things like roms and kernels difficult? What are some challenges that you face?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Personally for me, rom and kernel development is difficult because most of the time I'm away from home and only have my mobile with me...
And with rom development, I mean true development, like building from source and contributing back...
I have had a few attempts at kang-ROM's and cooked ROM's, and a theme or two, but I wasn't satisfied with the result so I haven't shared it...
If I can't use it personally, its pointless sharing it...
On the point of view of an Android newbie, Rom and kernel development certainly has a learning curve...
Some may find it pretty steep, some may find it easy...it all depends on the resources at hand, and the persons willpower to learn...
But this shouldn't come as a surprise, as every technical field has a learning curve...
5. Do you recommend everyone hack their devices?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Difficult question...
While I would recommend everyone to hack their devices, I certainly don't want everyone to do it...
Because "hacking" a device requires technical skills, but those technical skills are not present in everyone...
Infact, I would go on and even say that 15% of the public on XDA shouldn't have modded any part of their device...they certainly aren't worth the trouble they create...
6. What are the benefits of modding a device?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very device specific question, but the general answer that I could give is that modding a device allows you do things that your manufacturer or carrier didn't want you to do or thought your device is not capable of doing...
Basically freeing restrictions which are not required...
7. What got you into modding devices?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I always was interested in electronics...
When I got my first Android, it had plenty of problems in it that I wasn't aware of before buying the phone...
So I searched around for possible solutions, landed up here and got interested in how things work...
8. Because most of the modding content you do would sort of have to be free, what do you do as your profession (if you have one)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm a student
Pursuing my Bachelor's Degree in Commerce, along with a professional degree in Chartered Accountancy...
Stark contrast to the motive and resources of this forum
Any more questions, shoot! :beer:
- Via xda premium
Thank you so much for your input! The assignment is due literally 5 hours from now, and I was about to fake an interview. You have no idea how handy you came in. Again, Thanks!!!! :laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh:
I'll throw my two cents on the at&t jelly bean update.
As some of you can see, I've been on these forums for a VERY long time. I've seen the forums go from basically an HTC win-mo board to the amazing place it has become today. Sadly, it seems like people seem to come here to whine more then to either innovate or at least take control of their devices.
Yes it's frustrating that AT&T hasn't released the jelly bean update for our device considering the update has been out for nearly 5 months now. But at the same time, this is XD-freaking-A! Where if you want anything on your device (short of Google wallet apparently), you cane make it happen. Root your phone, unlock your bootloader, and enjoy your phone as you want to.
I remember when people wouldn't bat an eye to dropping $600-$800 on a HTC TyTn II and it would come with 850/1900 HSPA so you didn't have to get stuck with ATT's crap and terrible support.
Lets get back to enjoying our device, and if that means going the Nexus device and/or unlocked device route, so be it. Don't let the carriers control you.
The lesson as always: less whining, more hacking!!
Sent from my HTC One X using xda app-developers app
Funny, I was just thinking along similar lines today. This board has changed a whole lot in the time I've been here. I also joined during the WinMo days, back with the TyTn II (AT&T Tilt). In those days, folks with smartphones were mostly early adopters. Sure, XDA existed long before that time, and there were even earlier adopters, by far. But back in 2007, smartphones and especially moddiing them were the realm of tech geeks only.
The smartphone world has now exploded and become mainstream. The demographic of people that visit this site is now very different. Lots of n00bs asking for one-click root solutions and video tutorials, instead of just reading and doing. A lot more n00bs asking the same questions over and over, without bothering to do any research. And asking for help without providing any background information. I remember the days when nobody would even help you, if you didn't have your carrier, phone version, firmware version, and radio listed in your signature.
So my specific peeve is a bit different (less about the whining, and more about users not wanting to learn and research). But the basic premise is the same: the user base here has changed a whole lot over time.
Hmm I'm not sure I follow Ya about people whining , we get sometimes a bunch of people who don't follow instructions or read any previous posts but it seems its just the normal new user issues until they get broke in. The hoxl community in my opinion is the best group around in xda. With s off and our awesome choices in many android based versions it seems any update from carriers would be a severe downgrade and at this point serves us no purpose. I guess to make long story short I'm not really sure what the point of this thread is ( no offense meant)
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium
DESERT.TECH said:
Hmm I'm not sure I follow Ya about people whining
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The OP may (or may not) have had this particular thread in mind: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2167162
That's just one guy. But there is always a surprising number of people on here, waiting around for official OTAs, afraid to root/BL unlock their phones, etc.
Lol Ya that was a good example
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium
Think this board's bad? should have seen the hp touchpad section right before it died. There's a new thread/post asking for someone to port win7 and win8 almost every day, and it's never going to happen lol.
Back in the day people who bought smartphones were geeks and tech heads, plus this site was mainly HTC devices WinMo devices. Now almost everyone has a smartphone so you get a lot of annoying people on here.
Ha! As bad as this place can get with noobishness, the iOS jailbreak community is worse because the barriers to entry are a lot lower. Pretty much everything is one-click once the exploits are found, and there's no division by handset like there is with Android. Bricking is next to impossible because you can easily recover and go back to stock through iTunes.
I haven't been at xda all that long, but I was into jailbreaking from when the 3G was released, which was mid-2008. Back then, it was only hardcore geeks and most people didn't even realize jailbreaking existed or had only the vaguest understanding of what it was. When I came over the divide last year, it had gotten so bad people thought you could jailbreak over wifi because iTunes does most things over wifi now. You would go through ten posts trying to help someone only to discover they didn't even have their iPhone plugged into their freaking computer. Plus you would have people showing up for the express purpose of arguing that you shouldn't jailbreak and that all of us were going to jail.
Everyone and their mom has a smartphone now. That statement applies to me as my mom has a Galaxy Note 2. The only thing I ever seen her do with it is look up celebrities net worth on google now :laugh:. I have never understood why would there be anyone here waiting for AT&T to release their JB Sense ROM when we have had it here for over 2 months. I'm here because I want to get the absolute best out of my phone that the purely stock experience cannot match.
NJGSII said:
Everyone and their mom has a smartphone now. That statement applies to me as my mom has a Galaxy Note 2. The only thing I ever seen her do with it is look up celebrities net worth on google now :laugh:. I have never understood why would there be anyone here waiting for AT&T to release their JB Sense ROM when we have had it here for over 2 months. I'm here because I want to get the absolute best out of my phone that the purely stock experience cannot match.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Everyone and their mom has a smartphone, but not everyone and their mom comes here and talks about flashing ROMs. I expect stupidity in the forums as a whole from outsiders who just come here from a Google search, but people in the ROM threads are just as lazy and entitled. ROM threads are nearly impossible to keep up with because they're 1000 pages long and 980 of those pages are repeat questions. I'm new here so maybe that's the way it's always been but it's frustrating to say the least. If I don't come here for one day, I have 30 pages to catch up with on the single ROM I actually follow.
When I first bought my phone a good six months ago, coming from 3gs, All I did was troll up until now. The first thing I found was the thread to unlock, supercid and , root my phone, for att 2.20. I found two threads that would do it, the all-one-tool kit, and the x-factor exploit. I decided to go with the x-factor instead of the all in one because i wouldn't learn anything with the tool-kit. After that I ran into the problem of no rom, recovery, and an un-mountable sdcard. I did a quick search about the un-mountable sdcard in our forums here and found the Team Nocturnal SD Fix for evita. Once that was done i had a working sd card, trwp recovery but still no rom. So i did another search and found one of the best informational posts ever, Gunnyman's quick and dirty adb/fastboot primer this got me on track to start pushing rom zips to my sdcard without having a bootable rom and also told me that i had to fastboot flash boot boot.img every time I installed a new rom hboot 1.14+. And I still haven't had to ask any question on how to do something because guaranteed 100% that someone else has asked that very same question you just have to read and read some more, the only way someone hasn't asked your question is if you've been doing your own mod work that nobody else has seen.
I'm nowhere near as active as I used to be. Cooking your own winmo roms was fun in those days. But that was in College and at att when I actually had time to learn that stuff. Generally if you follow instructions to a T, you will be fine.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda app-developers app
I hate people who jailbreak at my school. Why? Because I'm the kid they b**** to about EVERYTHING. How do you jailbreak? Where did you download it? How do I install stuff? How do I get everything free? OH EM GEE MY PHONE KEEPS RESTARTING WHAT DO I DO?! JAILBREAKING SUCKS ITS ALL YOUR FAULT! To this I reply with "Google it you d*** a**" This being my first smartphone, I have used every peice of it. I have a girl who bought a gs3 and has yet to figure out how to put apps in folders. I can say, without a doubt in my mind. That I am the only kid in my grade with common sense for technology. I'm only in 8th grade so I pray it gets better in highschool.
-Sugardaddy Duncan
When did xda become so safe?
When did the scene become a joke?
The kids who used to live for custom and root
Now want their OTA and officials
Cursing and flipping n00bs are not allowed,
In fact let's keep dev only talk levels down
Must separate the church and skate!
When did xda become so safe?
I know it wasn't Turge or h8rift,
Who put up the barricades
Like a stake in the heart,
Somehow we got driven apart
Arrow44 said:
I hate people who jailbreak at my school. Why? Because I'm the kid they b**** to about EVERYTHING. How do you jailbreak? Where did you download it? How do I install stuff? How do I get everything free? OH EM GEE MY PHONE KEEPS RESTARTING WHAT DO I DO?! JAILBREAKING SUCKS ITS ALL YOUR FAULT! To this I reply with "Google it you d*** a**" This being my first smartphone, I have used every peice of it. I have a girl who bought a gs3 and has yet to figure out how to put apps in folders. I can say, without a doubt in my mind. That I am the only kid in my grade with common sense for technology. I'm only in 8th grade so I pray it gets better in highschool.
-Sugardaddy Duncan
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's really interesting. I always assumed kids growing up these days (God I sound old) would be friggin' wizards of technology having grown up with it since birth. But maybe the opposite is true : where my first computer required a lot of WORK to do anything with (custom boot disks to run DOOM and whatnot), nowadays everything just "works" so kids will be proficient on the basics but absolutely clueless on anything beyond that because they never HAD to do it...?
thebobmannh said:
That's really interesting. I always assumed kids growing up these days (God I sound old) would be friggin' wizards of technology having grown up with it since birth. But maybe the opposite is true : where my first computer required a lot of WORK to do anything with (custom boot disks to run DOOM and whatnot), nowadays everything just "works" so kids will be proficient on the basics but absolutely clueless on anything beyond that because they never HAD to do it...?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Literally 98% of my school has iPhone's and they're all dumb ass Isheep..it's embarassing to listen to some of their conversations sometimes.. it ashames me that I go to the sane school as them
thebobmannh said:
That's really interesting. I always assumed kids growing up these days (God I sound old) would be friggin' wizards of technology having grown up with it since birth. But maybe the opposite is true : where my first computer required a lot of WORK to do anything with (custom boot disks to run DOOM and whatnot), nowadays everything just "works" so kids will be proficient on the basics but absolutely clueless on anything beyond that because they never HAD to do it...?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As the father of three school-age boys, I can tell you that in some ways, not a whole lot has changed. The baseline has moved, but the divisions are the same. Everyone has a phone and a computer, but there are still big differences in how much they care about them.
The average kids (the same crowd who wouldn't touch a computer when I was their age) are uninterested in the guts and only know the basics of how to use them. And there is still the geek crowd who wants to know everything and play around with it.
thebobmannh said:
That's really interesting. I always assumed kids growing up these days (God I sound old) would be friggin' wizards of technology having grown up with it since birth. But maybe the opposite is true : where my first computer required a lot of WORK to do anything with (custom boot disks to run DOOM and whatnot), nowadays everything just "works" so kids will be proficient on the basics but absolutely clueless on anything beyond that because they never HAD to do it...?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is true. I graduated highschool in 2007 to give you some perspective. The student body of my school was a little under 1000 for each grade. Of this, there were 15 of us "computer guys". Nobody else knew anything, nobody else cared.
I feel like I'm getting old, watching everyone around me. I'm a senior in college now, getting a bachelor's degree in telecommunications & systems administration. You'd be suprised to hear that most of my classmates know relatively little about computers, especially at a lower level. Hell, one of my friends who just scored a great job at target corperate IT didn't know what a CSV file was until I scolded him yesterday. Kids these days are stupid.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium
ECEXCURSION said:
This is true. I graduated highschool in 2007 to give you some perspective. The student body of my school was a little under 1000 for each grade. Of this, there were 15 of us "computer guys". Nobody else knew anything, nobody else cared.
I feel like I'm getting old, watching everyone around me. I'm a senior in college now, getting a bachelor's degree in telecommunications & systems administration. You'd be suprised to hear that most of my classmates know relatively little about computers, especially at a lower level. Hell, one of my friends who just scored a great job at target corperate IT didn't know what a CSV file was until I scolded him yesterday. Kids these days are stupid.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess I get not knowing the innards /lower level stuff, but you'd think general USAGE would at least be second nature by now.
It's like with cars. Almost everyone knows how to drive and uses a car daily, but only a small percentage can fix them or understand how they work.
Most people, young and old, don't know/don't care about how computers and phones work.
Over the past year, I've seen many people making mention of how XDA has helped them make advancements in their careers/lives.
This thread is dedicated to all people and their stories. Please invite others, to tell their story.
Please ponder, then offer some insight to the following:
Who was your biggest influence, in the way of Android?
What are you doing now, since XDA-Developers and Android have opened your eyes to new opportunities?
When did you decide, "it's time to make a go of this"
Where do you feel Android can take you?
For the "die hard" in the crowd Can you recall a time without XDA? (must put thinking cap on)
TonyStark said:
Over the past year, I've seen many people making mention of how XDA has helped them make advancements in their careers.
This thread is dedicated to those people and their stories.
What progression have you made since you joined XDA.
Please anser with the following:
Who was your biggest influence
What have you done, since your influence has been clarified
When did you decide, "it's time to make a career of this"s
Where do you feel this can take you
Why this one is up to you because I say, why ask why
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Honestly, Mr. Stark, you were my biggest influence. When I first joined XDA I was a raging nOOb. I created posts that were way out of place and not thought out. You were my first contact with a moderator. You gave me guidance and pointed me in the proper direction. Thank you.
Since going in that direction, I developed a love for this community and the talented people within. I had such admiration for the developers, the recognized contributors, the themers, the modders and all of the administration. I have grown as a user and now I am working to give back to the community that has given me so much knowledge. I am working towards becoming a recognized contributor as we speak.
I realized it was time to make a career out of this when 1) an excellent opportunity arose. And 2) when I realized how much joy and satisfaction I get out of helping people. Also, how much passion and enthusiasm I have for technology.
I feel that I have an excellent opportunity now, to possibly be a manager or maybe someday an owner of a repair facility, dedicated to mobile technologies.
Again, I have so much passion for everything about technology, especially Android. I am still working to learn how to develop applications, and now I have the opportunity to learn how to fix the hardware as well. XDA, in my opinion, is the sole reason why my passion sprouted, grew, and blossomed. This community is so unique and diverse. There have been many other people here that have inspired me, @Magnum_Enforcer @Captain_Throwback @BD619 @rootSU @simms22 are just a few of the many, many wonderful and talented people within this community. Many thanks to them and the rest of you.
[No message]
@jcase thank you so much for sharing that story! Without the work you've done, nothing I've ever done, in my time here, would have been possible. So many thanks to you!
Who is IAmTheOneTheyCallNeo?
Where to begin? ... I'm going to take all your questions and combine them into a really, long, TL/DR worthy post mmmk? thnx.
I certainly haven't advanced into a career from my experience and participation with XDA. However, I have definitely made a hobby and place for myself here and it all started back in the day (which was a Wednesday by the way).
I had finally upgraded my and the wife's devices to a "smart" phone. We were no longer part of the dumb phone crowd anymore so it was time to grow up.
She had a Droid Eris, and I the amazing Droid Incredible. Although the phone was cool and visually appealing, I felt it was lacking something.. It wasn't as fast as I wanted. In my mind, you should be able to press a button and BAM, you're there. So I began looking on-line for ways to make the device faster.
I started out by visiting the different threads for my device and gained an understanding for what rooting a phone means and how one goes about doing it and what SuperUser is for, etc.
After a few scared posts to test the public forum waters, I through bit lip achieed my first root. I thenk joined the rom flashing community jumping from rom to rom trying to find the best one for myself. This carried on for a bit.
At some point, I decided that I wanted to take the stock rom, and cater it to my specific needs and desires instead of flashing other people's roms. I started using titanium backup to freeze or remove apps because I wanted my rooted stock rom to be debloated. Through a grueling process of trial and error on every file, I found what breaks when what is removed and documented it on paper.
Once I was comfortable and familiar with what each apk file did (or didn't do if removed) I moved on to modifying them directly through the rom zip file on my computer with 7zip. This opened up a new world of hurt because now I was exposed to libs, drivers, audio files, xmls, docs, etc. So that took a long time opening things up and trying to understand what they did. At one point it was a brain overload and I almost gave up interest because it was just too much.
One day, I learned how to change lock screen unlock rings and how changing the pngs can change the image and I began learning what images were called on when what gets pressed or moved on the screen. I was fairly decent with photoshop and offered my services in a thread talking about lock rings. Another XDA member requested I modify a TRON disc to be his lock ring which was coincidental as that was the exact thing I wanted to do to mine! I soon became friends with XDA member (My first buddy on XDA) @synisterwolf and we teamed up in our own HTC Incredible thread (or Rezound.. I actually forget which device we started all this on) making built to order lockscreen rings for people. That was a big hit and we started moving into some other theme type elements like changing the blue navigation chevron in maps to spaceships or tron cycles, etc.
Taking a step into the theme world however meant that I would need to learn how to decompile and recompile apks so I began my learning process in that. To my dismay, a decompiled apk (down to smalli) is incredibly full of stuff I had not even imagined and to this day I still have issues understanding most of it. I did however manage to change smalli in my code, line for line, from a different device to my Rezound which succeeded in giving me the first 5-point AOSP lock system which at the time, wasn't available to the device.
Learning later to make changes in the res and res/values folder taught me how to theme system level elements to the apks and what they did in rom.
I also did a lot of internet searching on how to make roms faster and came up with all kinds of build.prop edits or files you can add into the rom and I experimented a lot.
At one point, I took notice of a talented individual name @chad0989, who together with another talented member @tiny4579 worked on advancements to roms and a kernel which included a voltage modifying app titled Incredikernel. This app (if kernel permitted) allowed you to undervolt each frequency voltage value in an effort to improve rom performance, or save on battery. Now, Chad had his own custom flashable voltage presets that ranged from certain levels to most extreme but I felt the extreme could go a little further. So what I did was Lock my phone at each possible frequency (both min and max) and under as much heavy load as I could put it under, modified down the voltage value just 1 step above what would cause the phone to lock. I spent hours forcing my phone to ride just 1 frequency at a time and placing it under major load just so I can get the lowest possible minimum values. When I was done, it was completely stable and far below what I had imagined. I shared the modified values with Chad and everyone else interested.
I finally came to a point in my android fun where I wanted to share with the public a stock sense rom that I'd personally modified for myself to what I felt was best suited for performance and battery with as little bloat as possible.
I soon came to find out however that I would have to come up with my own files without using files from other individuals so I couldn't just go out and ask somebody for their stock base to use...
Thus, I was lead by someone to the DSIXDA Kitchen by XDA Developer @dsixda. I found out through some friends that you could take the Official RUU for your device and run it through this "kitchen". The kitchen would then decrypt it, deodex it, generate a manifest, and an updater script for you! It was amazing. For such a noob like myself, this was gold.
The learning curve with the kitchen if you've never used it takes time. It forced me to have to fully understand adb which also required me to learn about having the have the latest android tools and sdk. I also inevitably found out that I needed the appropriate java on my pc to make everything work (this includes decompiling and recompiling stuff too). Trying to get the kitchen set up and learning how to use it was frustrating for me at first, but I eventually got there.
After I had what I felt was officially mine to distribute, I used all those small skills I'd acquired to date and with the help of questions being answered by others who'd released roms, I released my first Sense rom (for the HTC Rezound) and called it NeoMAX.
At this time however, I wasn't too confident about myself and was afraid I'd remove stuff people need so I left a lot of things in to keep people happy. The rom however was a big hit for the device.
Over time I gained some guts about me and "took it to the next level" and modified NeoMAX in a way that I personally felt a rom should be for best performance and battery life and released ADRENALINE which was completely debloated and became the smallest sense rom available (which was apparently a big deal for a device with little memory). People loved it.
I then had a moment where I went crazy with it all and released two more roms similar to ADRENALINE only this time they were "De-Sensed" roms in which I tried to make them as close to AOSP as possible. "Simplistic" was the sense-free version of NeoMAX and Injection was the sense-free version of ADRENALINE.
So now I had 4 roms and felt everyone was waiting for the next big thing.
Chad at one point however, broke the ice and got a working AOSP rom for the HTC Rezound which I'd never run on any device before. I'm not sure if any of you have ever had the Rezound before but even running my fastest rom at the time, it was nothing in comparison to AOSP.
I ran AOSP for the first time and was blown away at home fast it was in comparison to Sense and I soon became a strict AOSP follower after that.
I wanted to release my own AOSP rom but learned that I would have to learn how to compile code from source in order to have my own and at the time, I knew absolutely nothing about linux. I was a born Windows user and had never touched linux.
So I had a crash course with my buddy PonsAsinorem and he mentored me for some time in hopes that I would take over and maintain his CyanogenMod project but it was too much for me to handle at the time. I literally had headaches trying to understand any of what he was trying to teach me. Kinda like when you get a new job and the first day, you're blown away by all the stuff you need to learn.
Some time later another friend of mine @mbobino helped me to figure out how to set up a build environment with java and toolchains and walked me through to my first rom compile of CyanogenMod.
Not wanting to release a stock AOSP rom though, I soon learned that, like smalli in Sense, you could modify the source code to add or change things in the rom. Not being a code pioneer, I learned of a huge pool of "cherry-picks" by others more knowledgeable than I that you could look through and drop into your work. All I had to do was walk the custom code isles and cherry pick all the cool features I wanted!
So I had a huge page of cherry-picks and learned how to pull them. Unfortunately, I soon found out that you couldn't just simply pull everything in and expect them all to play nicely... Especially if one pick modifies the same files of another and that second pick assumes the file being changed was unmodified.. This forced me to have to understand how the changes work and I had to learn what needed to be "fixed" in order for all my changes to work together.
I did a lot of growing up with aosp fixing merge/cherry pick errors and trying to fix compiler errors as well. It was no quick process and took me nearly a year to gain a full understanding of how to do it with minimal effort.
I stayed in the AOSP game for the duration of my influence on the Rezound device. I released roms based off of CM, PAC, and AOKP and made many more friends like @apophis9283, @brenuga, @bunchies, @dmeadows013, @Flyhalf205, @Hanger84, @kkozma, @localceleb, @Miss Dragon, @red3razor, @REV3NT3CH, @shrike1978, @Sirknifealot, @Snuzzo, @TheBr0ken, @usagi-pire, @wildstang83, and @XRaptor29. I was even the first at one point to get either PAC or AOKP working on one of the new android platforms for the device.
At some point I was nominated for Recognized Contributor, which made me more proud to be a member of XDA. I can't remember who it was who nominated me at the time, but thank you again.
I soon found out that you could modify build flags for rom opimization on system level and read through a fat GNU page listing all the possible build flags you could use. I did my best to learn (or understand for that matter) what flags I'd want to use and how to add them in and what they broke if used (like using a compiler flag for thumb flags at -O3 broke Camera Viewfinder on screen for the Rezound).
After learning compiler flags I began learning toolchains and got into the whole Linaro and SaberMod chains game. At one point, not knowing any better, I forked SaberMod toolchains over to my github and renamed them Linaro
I was approached later that night through hangouts by the creator of the chains @sparksco which was something like "Hey.. You forked my toolchain and called it Linaro.. It's not Linaro dude" lol. I got to know this developer over time and he helped me a lot with understanding how toolchains worked and the compiler flags I was new at. People who knew of him referred to him as the "toolchain god" so it was good for me to learn from him (even if he didn't want to be a teacher at the time ).
At some point I got frustrated with having to modify a ton of things every time you wanted to change a chain though. I found that a certain tolchain may work best for kernel but another worked best for rom so I wanted to use two separate chains. Following a similar example by another dev, I created what's known as the GCC FREEDOM initiative (which I'm proud to say many rom teams use and still use today). As a matter of fact, sparksco has continued to improve on the initiative and continues to improve and update it.
I soon noticed that people began writing articles about my work on other Android Forums and I seized that opportunity to apply for Recognized Developer and got it.
I then spent my time mentoring other potentials (many of whom are now XDA Developers or Recognized Contributors) teaching them how to build and diagnose problems, theme stuff, etc. This kept me sharp and I also learned a few things from each of them as well as they learned things along the way that I had missed. I gained rapport with many of them and the android community and we all helped each other out when there were issues. This, in my opinion, is what android should be about.
To this day I'm still learning from others who have been in longer and are more knowledgeable than I. Github was no walk in the park to learn and I still struggle with it from time to time. In fact, there was a time Chad had mentioned that Github was harder to learn than android.. I still agree with that statement.
For a few months, my friends wildstang and tonystark kept nudging me to apply for Forum Moderator. They told me I had what it takes to be a mod for XDA, so finally I applied (not really expecting anything and half interested). However, once I received word several months later that I'd made "The Final Cut", I yearned for the position lol. I soon after became mod, and have built up friendships with many of them over time. It truly is like a family and we work together to ensure that XDA remains a peaceful place where Android Enthusiasts can come and enjoy sharing their works, ideas, and conversations with Android.
One day I finally purchased my HTC One Max (at the constant heckling of my close friend Flyhalf205 with promises of ruling the galaxy and stuff), I fell back in love with HTC Sense. He told me he would win me back over to Sense and although I told him it wasn't possible, it happened. I realized that my love for AOSP was strictly due to the fact that it made the device fast and now it no longer mattered.
I finished out the Rezound with my signature rom "TACHYON" which I could boast was the fastest rom for the device to date, and left (might still be).
Once on the Max, I realized a freedom I hadn't felt since the HTC Incredible days.. I was just a device owner. Very few people knew who I was on the Max. I was no longer stressed about pushing roms to the public or fixing aosp builds or helping others with their problems. It was then that I found out that I was completely burnt out and almost left android development for good.
One day, for myself only, I took it back to the beginning and went with Adrenaline again only this time, I applied all my accumulated knowledge to that point to make it something much more special. I learned through a friend @[email protected] how to theme the SystemUI and create my own themes in the built in theme chooser which I surprisingly liked more than doing roms I liked it so much that I did 33 themes which may seem excessive to many, however I like options. After Flyhalf hounded me for months to release the rom, I finally did.
I stayed on the Max for maybe 6 months and my friend @dottat was generous enough to gift me with a htc m8.
I have been on the M8 now for maybe half a year and it's been fabulous. I had intentions of releasing so many roms and cool things but in the end, I only released a single ADRENALINE rom, which I'm ok with.
I actually had every intention to stay on the M8 through the middle of 2016 as my contract wouldn't be eligible for an upgrade until that time. However, through the generous efforts of my very own HTC USA Moderator team, I came to own a HTC One m9 as of today Thank you guys for that :good::highfive:
Long story short, there is not just 1 person who has made an influence on me here. It is through the efforts of several people, whether intentional or not, that I am where I am today..
I came here as a troll, looking for fun, and found a home.
Love you guys,
-Neo
ΠΣΘ said:
Some time later another friend of mine @mbobino helped me to figure out how to set up a build environment with java and toolchains and walked me through to my first rom compile of CyanogenMod.
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You mean I get my own line in your autobiography?!?!? Wow... makes me miss this place. Maybe I should come back and start down this rabbit hole again.
What a tough thread. How can you put so much influence into a single post? Maybe I should just take the next 3 posts and put Reserved in them for later use.
It is really hard to say who is/was my biggest influence on the site, as I have interacted with so many people over the past 4.5 years. I would have to say that I have a freakish memory and if I have ever talked or interacted with you and you have not changed your UserName, I will remember who you are and most of the time what we talked about. This is what makes it so hard to pinpoint anyone person or even people. I'm not a Developer, Themer or even a hacker that some of the above and I am sure below posters are. I can hold my own in all of those realms, but anyone of you can code circles around me. What I do consider myself is that I am a person who is cut from the same cloth as most of the Users on this site. With that being said, I do have a soft spot for the Users on this site. We have all been in Panic Mode when we got into a bootloop and didn't know how to get out. Or flashed some Mod and forgot to Nand beforehand. There is no denying it, that sucks.
When I first came to XDA, I was looking for a simple function called Root. Back then, when you searched for Root, most of the things that came up in le Goog's page were relevant to Jailbreaks and iOS. Android was a baby and I was tasting the sweet flavor of Éclair at the time. This was before Froyo and the Apps2SD, so we had 128mb of /system and 128mb of /data which filled up really, really fast. I needed to be able to install some more apps at the time (that were mostly junk apps, but I didn't know any better then) and the phone just couldn't hold it. I still remember the beads of sweat as the pooled up on my neck when I ran my first -sh command. It almost worked, but failed and I had to restore back to a stock.sbf (it was a Motorola XT720). You live and you learn, I guess. Looking around, trying to figure out how to do all this I came across the OT section (specifically the Off-Topic: Image Thread). This was where I first came in contact with a few Mods and some really cool Users. To this day, I still interact with many of them and look to some of them as true friends.
That phone borked and I got a SGS1/Vibrant and started to learn the Samsung eco-system. I met a group of Devs and testers in there and started contributing where I could. This went on for about a year, which is like an eon in internet time. There was a kerfuffle where AOKP had left the site and moved to Rootz and many of those guys who came to be my friends, left XDA. I stayed and blended my posts between both sites. Some of them came back and some didn't, but I am still in contact with many of them daily, even so much as a few minutes ago. We have seen births, deaths, marriages starting and ending, good times and bad, but we always know where we met and keep that as a foundation of our friendships.
I've met several people from the site IRL, talked to some on the phone, sent devices/products to their home addresses and have even had to Infract one. This bodes to what I do on this site and I take it very seriously. Many Users and FSMs alike know that I am brutally honest and I always will be. When I am wrong, I admit it. When I am right, I don't pound it in your face. This isn't something that I generally state in public on-site, so if you have every interacted with me, then you'd know that I speak the truth. It isn't because I have some power trip, it's because that was the way I was raised and the way I raise my own kids.
Honesty and Integrity first. As long as you have those, your word is your oath.
With that being said, I don't work in Android or tech, but I have applied many of the attributes that I have gained on-site into my everyday dealings with personnel and management. I employ the same honesty on-site that I do off-site and if anything, that is what XDA's biggest influence is for me. I only hope that the way that I interact with Devs and Users on-site will transfer to the ways that they help/post/work/...with others.
Who was your biggest influence
Every person that I interact with or even simply read their posts.
What are you doing now, since XDA has opened your eyes to new opportunities
Living the dream
When did you decide, "it's time to make a go of this"
Join Date: 17th November 2010
Where do you feel this can take you
To the moon, Alice. To the moon.
Perhaps I have no business posting here, as I'm no developer, but I feel my career has certainly been improved/inspired by XDA.
I was first promoted at work and had a basic cell phone on my company's business account. I then asked my boss if I could purchase my own smartphone, if I could activate it on our business account, which he approved.
I went with a Blackberry 7130E that I purchased used. I moved to Curve, then the Storm and Storm 2 phones and liked the touchscreens vs. the "hard" keyboards. I was soured on iPhones due to my dislike for Apple. (I have worked in IT for the better part of 18 years, and most of that was Microsoft and Linux stuff, so I had to be anti-Apple, lol) so naturally the choice was either Windows Mobile (at the time) or Android... Android had more choices and was sort of just up-and-coming at the time, so I decided on a Motorola Droid X... Slowly but surely, more people at my company started getting Smartphones, and I became the resident "expert" on tech support for them. As a result, I was given account management access for our VZW Business account. I transitioned roles within my company (less direct IT work, more "business operations" work), and I was made a SPOC for our VZW account.
I was never much of a programmer, and my Linux knowledge has waned, so I wasn't going to be much help as a Dev. I was able to offer support and help to the Devs though... file hosting, offering to lend my devices (since it didn't matter if my phone was bricked--I'd just get a new one!), or just being a glorified cheerleader.
TonyStark said:
Who was your biggest influence
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Starting out, I worked a lot with @dhemke17 as he did Dev work on the Incredible 2 (I believe)... He tried to incorporate some of my suggestions on his ROM and I also gave him File Hosting for mirroring of his files. Almost all of the people I've communicated with on XDA have been overwhelmingly awesome, both in public threads and PMs. @jcase and his team have impressed/inspired me with their ability to get things done on HTC devices, @ΠΣΘ reached out to me not so long ago and we've hit it off pretty well (if I say so myself)--yet another "grassroots" guy that just loves interacting with fellow smartphone enthusiasts. I know I'm probably missing a lot of others, but honestly it's tough to differentiate with all of the acquaintances I've made over the years.
What are you doing now, since XDA has opened your eyes to new opportunities
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I'm managing my company's Cell phone plan(s). I help out co-workers if they are having issues with their phones (yes, even iPhones). I feel like I've been given a lot more responsibility and been able to influence my boss and co-workers, fueled by my thirst for knowledge of all things smartphones.
When did you decide, "it's time to make a go of this"
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Well, in regard to my becoming a SPOC, it was a natural progression. I was helping out so many people with their phone issues, my superiors recognized it was a natural fit. The silver lining was that I was getting burnt out in my previous role and welcomed the change--I am now relatively stress-free and loving my job.
Where do you feel this can take you
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In talking to @ΠΣΘ and others, I may find it interesting to learn more about being a Dev. I know I love flashing custom ROMs and gain knowledge from this community each and every day. If I do decide to make a go of it, if nothing else I have something that I could do if my current career path leads me astray.
WorldOfJohnboy said:
Perhaps I have no business posting here, as I'm no developer, but I feel my career has certainly been improved/inspired by XDA.
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On the contrary, this is what we all want to see mate:good:
You and everyone that shares their story, are the core of what makes XDA great
We all are, what makes XDA Family:good:
Thank you all for sharing these stories. The amount of inspiration I feel, is overwhelming. It's comforting to know that these "strange" desires I have, in regards to all things Android, are echoed so loudly amongst this community. I truly feel like I'm at home here.
Wow, reading these impressive story`s here definately proves that passion and perseverense does make a difference and can change someones life.
I`am by all means not a developer or even working as a phone/pc/it professsional but just a enthousiast who likes to tinker with phones. Started as a `noob` and as i steadily gained knowledge by reading and trying i assisted other users to solve their problems regarding rooting, flashing, mods etc etc. I enjoy it very much andhelping with other users issues also makes me better too imo.
Who was your biggest influence
My biggest influence are all the motivated and willing users that like to help others without beeing/becoming sarcastic or condescending. One person specificaly i`d like to mention is @malybru for his help and beeing an inspiration, but there are so many good people here and i can`t mention them all but i owe you all of you my gratitude.
What are you doing now, since XDA has opened your eyes to new opportunities
Still the same proffesion which i love.
When did you decide, "it's time to make a go of this"
Joined XDA in 2010
Where do you feel this can take you
To the poorhouse as i frequently sell my phone and buy a newer device
This is a wonderful forum and has potential for anyone. It might not always connect to a career, but the fact we are here reading shows our interest. I love that almost any issue is solvable if you search the boards. I have been helped so much here and hope I have helped others. My wife just got a LG G2 and I had no clue how that worked, a quick hop over to the forum and all was answered (only a few questions I had). A nice guy over there even shared his rom with me, which was great. I have done a little building, but I am still a novice. I do know all I need to get better is readily available here. Having a baby, studying a post grad cert, and working have kind of got in the way.
Who was your biggest influence?
The people who said, "Read more. Use the search function." or said, "."
What are you doing now, since XDA has opened your eyes to new opportunities?
Use mobile tech in my daily life. Use it to solve problems, be more efficient and it's a great hobby.
When did you decide, "it's time to make a go of this"?
Just after I learned how to flash my Blackjack SCH-M450. God, I just found my first post as koe1974 from 2007!
Where do you feel this can take you?
To infinity and beyond!
Oh this is gonna take me a while, been on here since 2008 but joined 2009. So many influences and friends made....
I'll be back lol
Been here since 2011.
Learned how to root my n7000 banger, install Linux, compile and not ask idiotic questions (Google is your friend).
Learned it's best to stick to G+ and stay away from XDA because reasons.
In comparison to others, my story is boring as hell, but prepare for TL/DR.
I got my first phone in 1999? where the cell phones in Poland actually started to appear. I was using random feature phones until 2011, when my best friend @Anomalious got the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10. He was so amazed by Android, that I decided to pick the only smartphone I could afford - the Xperia X8. I made a call to my carrier, placed an order and got my shiny little beauty couple of days later.
I never actually thought that I will become a moderator. For over 20 years I lived in a small village (200 people) in one of the poorest regions in Poland. Needless to say that we earn only $3/h, which is a silly amount for a country in the heart of Europe and a member of European Union. Oh well, we have to live with that. When I joined the XDA, I could barely speak English (well, I still do). I was looking for a custom ROM that is faster than SE stock firmware. I joined the community, became the part of it and realized that Android is my hobby and I would love to know it more.
I started with translations, as I hated that my favorite custom ROM was partially translated to Polish. I downloaded the source and wanted to see how this thing work. I started my first build and failed miserably after 10 seconds. At this point XDA wasn't full of guides of almost everything, so I had to look for answers on my own. After a week or two I managed to compile a part of the ROM with my own translations. That was fun, so I joined the dev team, where I could talk with amazing people.
Who was your biggest influence
@doixanh. This chap is not only one of the Asian magicians that do wonders with code, but also a great pal to hang out with. His wisdom, enthusiasm and sense of humor are absolutely amazing!
What are you doing now, since XDA has opened your eyes to new opportunities
I write about tech. Over 10 years ago I made a mistake of my life and didn't chose the computer science as my studies subject. I went for journalism instead and I partially regret it. It's fun, but creating own apps and games would be much more fun. Maybe I will learn to code properly in the future. I need a motivation though :silly:
When did you decide, "it's time to make a go of this"
Almost instantly when I got my X8. It was almost unusable with the 2.1 firmware prepared by Sony Ericsson. Luckily Sony is so much different and makes better ROMs.
Where do you feel this can take you
Hopefully XDA will help me to find some good and interesting job. Right now I feel that reality hits me hard (bro) and I can't fulfill my ambitions. Nobody wants to give me a chance, which is sad and I have to live with it.
ΠΣΘ said:
One day, I learned how to change lock screen unlock rings and how changing the pngs can change the image and I began learning what images were called on when what gets pressed or moved on the screen. I was fairly decent with photoshop and offered my services in a thread talking about lock rings. Another XDA member requested I modify a TRON disc to be his lock ring which was coincidental as that was the exact thing I wanted to do to mine! I soon became friends with XDA member (My first buddy on XDA) @synisterwolf and we teamed up in our own HTC Incredible thread (or Rezound.. I actually forget which device we started all this on) making built to order lockscreen rings for people. That was a big hit and we started moving into some other theme type elements like changing the blue navigation chevron in maps to spaceships or tron cycles, etc.
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the feels. <3 it was, in fact, the HTC Incredible that we started with. stuck together for the rezound. I still have the USS Enterprise Google MAPS apk somewhere.
@TonyStark pinged me to add my story..
My IT background goes something like this. I bought my first real PC in about 1998 and just sat it for hours trying to figure it out. I have never been on course or anything like that but it appears I am a pretty good problem finder / solver. If I cant find the answer google is always the way to go. I was once told I had to teach an IT class for one year (I am a maths teacher) because I was good with troubleshooting the departments PC. I got fed up of just telling the kids to google their problems because that all I would do... but that's another story.
So I upgraded to SE X10i back in about 2010 when I was playing a lot FB poker (I don't trust myself playing with real money, yet!) and I was so frustrated that I couldn't play poker on the phone. I really wondered what the point of having a smartphone that could browse the internet was if you couldn't browse the internet.
Anyway, I soon realised I needed to get Java installed on the phone and to do that I needed root. I have never heard of this before but after a LOT and a LOT of reading I was ready to try and root it. It was a really bad hack as I remember, you had to download an official FTF from Sony servers and then cancel it at exactly 98% complete so you could replace a file. I was so nervous that I would brick it....
Since then I have spent time learning about how to improve my phone. I am no serious coder at all, but I pick things up and am fairly good at helping new people to the scene and quite a good troublesooter of problems.
Who was your biggest influence.
@DooMLoRD helped me out when I started playing around with kernels
What are you doing now, since XDA has opened your eyes to new opportunities
Currently I do not even have root on my Z3. I have some apps like sky sports that wont work with it, but I am still keen on keeping up with the latest stuff
When did you decide, "it's time to make a go of this"
XDA just gradually took over, I am on here most days and my laptop is always on with XDA open.
Where do you feel this can take you
Hopefully I can start an extracurricular class at school, helping young kids get into Android or just into coding anyway at all. I will still have to learn a lot myself, but the joy is in the journey
I want to play along and this is how i started this additional with XDA
My first "smartphone" was the BlackBerry Storm. This was the stepping stone to my adventure. I met @sk8erwitskil IRL and he introduced me to the world of Linux. Showing me his Samsung phone and how he was able to modify it and at that moment i wanted to do the same. (cool kid syndrome) This lead me to buy the HTC Incredible and a group of friends, that although i have never met, they would end up changing everything for me.
I first started using METAMorph to do low level png and color thememing of apps and CM. I was bad at photoshop and would only know how to replace pngs from ones i found online. that was until i met @ΠΣΘ (formally known as IAmTheOneTheyCallNeo) I had an idea to change the lock screen rings to something more fun. I started to send PM's like a mad man requesting everything i could think of and he delivered no problem. ( i think he told me to stop using XDA pms and gave me his gtalk) Now i know our parents told us to not trust strangers online but it felt right, and who can really say no to free candy??
With Neo and I working together we were like a T-Rex with arm extension grabber things.. UNSTOPPABLE. We quickly found out how demanding the work was and not once did it feel like a chore or a job but a hobby that would push us to do great things. Not to long after we started to theme apps. Changing out the chevrons in Google MAPS for iconic spaceships and tiny cars. Our personal cars at that. He was the man that did all the photoshop and i was the one figuring out how to not break the APKs. Fast forward a year. We started to crave more. Working with an app was fun but it was time to learn how to do it the correct way. Que APKTOOL. The learning curve that is modifying an APK from scratch instead of inserting a picture was like night and day. It was a struggle, this was a new challenge that we were determined to figure out. (7Zip warrior FTW)
Enter @fernando sor, @Stoney 666, and the rest of the BAD SEED CUSTOM family. I remember staying up late asking questions on how to theme a rom. With every question i asked them two, three more would come to mind. I was so sure they would have blocked all communications with me from all the questions i had. But like a champ they were on point and ready to help this noob. Every time something new showed up on XDA i had to get it to work on the device i was on at the time. Animations in the notification screen, taking the honeycomb lock screen animation and making it work on ICS, changing the whole OS to a two tone theme. i really liked the blue and black. this would be a start to my first CM theme for the themer system.
Not to long after i met @Pons and @wildstang83. They were the ones making cool roms for the incredible. Pons did some incredible patch work for CM and stang was all about the Sense roms. this inspired me to start making my own roms. But i could never find the time to get it all working and eventually put a stop to it all. At this time i was dealing with incredible amount of depression. My personal life took a dump and i thought i was down for the count. The thought of modifying anything in android was the last thought on my mind.
It was a bad time. I felt nothing was going right and that i didn't even want to live. having 90% of my paycheck go to bills, and rent. Having to skip a meal or two so my dog and cat would have food. burned out and had enough. i tried to take my own life. i was ready to go and meet my creator and that was that. These strangers i never met in real life fought harder for me than i did myself, they manage to track me down some how and get me the help i needed. People that i have never met or didn't even know where i lived were able to call police and services and find me and saved me when i needed it the most. During my stay at the hospital, little did i know i had a lot of people trying to make sure i was okay. My phone died due to the fact there were so many phone calls, notifications, Gtalk, twitter, XDA pms. It was through these wonderful people that i am still here today. We would talk via Gtalk, IRC, Chat rooms, phone calls, text, every electronic means of communications you can think of. They cared so much about me it was a different feeling. Like there was some Good out there in the world and i could finally see it.
Today, I am a lot better. I found help with my depression and anxiety, I'm doing a lot better for myself and i have some incredible friends I've made here on xda. I was able to work with some of the greatest developers of the incredible, rezound, Inc 4g, and now the M7. (im an htc whore?) Although i dont do much now i am always learning from the wonderful devs here. I was able to get my laptop to build CM from source. I learned how to use Linux, how to write in java and how to edit smali. i know how to set paths in windows(like a boss), how to decompile a jar, apk, how to split a ramdisk, how to test OTG all thanks to the wonderful "strangers" I've met online. Thank you XDA for this wonderful place that has made me who i am.
The crackflasher, tweaker (not meth), the themer, the modifier, the one with a million questions that i know where i can get my answers. The one that will help anyone in need, like so many others did for me.
thank you everyone,
SynisterWolf
Thanks for sharing the lovely stories. Neo.. I remember the good old time.