[Mi 3 General] sivabommakanti:
Ivan, or more popularly known as 秋叶随风, is a super fan / guru that has help beloved MIUI fans around the world by developing customised ROMs.

When the MIUI news team first broke news about the upcoming interview

with Ivan, our ever enthusiastic fans responded with over 100+ burning

questions for dear Ivan in our fan poll!

Despite churning out amazing works that are used by MIUI fans all around

the globe, Ivan keeps a surprisingly low profile, and trying to befriend him

on QQ is no easy feat; His one and only friend request question requires

you to know his boss’s phone number before you can gain acceptance as his

friend!

Of course, the MIUI news team spares no efforts in reaching out to Ivan

for the ever curious MIUI fans, and here’s the much-awaited interview with

some of the interesting fan questions, complete with a real snapshot of

what Ivan looks like!

Question 1 : Tell us 4 interesting facts about

yourself!

I’m actually a staff of Xiaomi and a big loyal fan of MIUI!

Nobody calls me by my real name at work - Instead, everyone prefers to

call me by my nickname, “秋大”

I used to be a developer for iOS and webkit, the open source web browser

engine that's used by Safari, Dashboard, Mail, and many other OS X

applications

I’m a novice in swimming, having just picked up the skill last year; To be

honest, my swimming can’t even rival that of the kids that I see in the pool!

Question 2: What do you actually do in Xiaomi and

how long have you been working there?

I started working for Xiaomi last year and is currently involved in Linux

server and configuration management and technical support. My main duty

is to ensure that my fellow colleagues can work or laze happily! Occasionally,

I dabble in MIUI system upgrades, memory optimization, stable ROMs

upgrades as well as updating the Android version to allow my colleagues to

test out Google’s latest features.

Question 3: How did you learn to customise ROMs

and can you teach other aspiring fans how to go about

doing it too and what is required to get started?

When I first came into contact with Android phones, the phone

manufacturers integrated the phones with too much bloatware that made the

user experience abysmal. Hence i decided to try my hand at customising the

ROM by myself, purely out of interest! I am actually self-taught, and

personally i think this is one area that is very difficult to teach.

For aspiring fans that would like to go down this path to customise their own

ROM, my advice would be to first familiarise yourself with Java, C, C++

and Linux, as well as shell kernel script writing. A good way to get started is

to follow what others have done in customising the ROM, by basing it on

their git log to understand the logic behind the tweaking. Of course, the

prerequisites are that you have plenty of time, and a relatively good

computer with fast internet speed.

Question 4: What features are you planning to add

to your latest customised ROM?

It may surprise you, but i do not like adding new functionalities. If you want

to, you don’t have to do it yourself, but use the ready solutions out there

like CyanogenMod, Paranoid Android, AOKP, etc.

Question 5: What device are you using now and why?

I am currently using two phones; an iPhone 5, and Mi2. I love my Mi2

primarily because i find the size perfect, and the hardware is not outdated,

and best of all, i can customise it everyday! :)

Question 6: How long does it take for you to work

on each ROM?

From conceptualisation till its actual run takes around 1 week, but it could

take 1 to 2 months to correct for all the bugs and stabilise the system. If i

am lucky, I could update and release a more stable version in 1 - 2 weeks.

Question 7: Do you actually earn anything from

doing this?

I pursue and customise ROMs out of my pure personal interest and passion

to share what I love with fellow MIUI fans, and I do not earn a single cent

out of this. Of course, more money is always good, but personally my

opinion is that if one were to pursue this out of monetary interest, it would

defeat the purpose of doing this in the first place.

Question 8: What was the first ROM you made and

what was the motivation behind it?

I first customised the ROM for my Huawei C8500/U8150. Back then,

the phones is packed with more customised softwares. I had the idea of

customising it for my phone for a very simple reason; the touch points for

the phone weren’t many at the point in time, and i decided to tweak the

kernel source to add two more touch points and that’s how I got started!

After that, I got hooked on customising and the rest is history.

***** TOP FAN. QUESTION *****

(from [MENTION=4728656]ej8989[/MENTION] -> We see you have great potential as paparazzi! Care to join the

MIUI News Team? :))))

Question 9: Are you dating someone within the

MIUI community?

My interactions with fellow colleagues hardly extend beyond our professional

working relationship, and the majority of the fans are guys! No girl would

want to date a code geek anyway, so… to put it simply, no.

Source : MIUI forum

en.miui.com/thread-48984-1-1.html

Hope all of you enjoyed. (Nothing talked about sources makes me sad).