[General Topics] andybones:
Thank you [MENTION=990284]TonyStark[/MENTION] for the PM to this thread!

What progression have you made since you joined XDA.

XDA has been a big part of my life since joining, over 5 years ago now. I have always been the one my in family (2 brothers) that was always interested in technology (I'd be asking for a laptop for X-Mas, while they wanted video games, etc) and taking things apart - most of time without success of putting them back together! (My Mother must have loved that!.. Not really but she has always been supportive of my tinkering..) :)

I first stumbled upon XDA-Developers.com after my first Smartphone(s).

I initially was VERY interested in the HTC Droid Eris... Although, being new to "Smart phones" and really having no idea what I was doing, I put my faith in the sales rep who convinced me to instead get the OG Moto.. Why? Because the Eris was still on Android 1.5 and Moto on Android 2.1...

After playing with the Moto for all of.. 5 hours, tops. I went back to the store, paid the $35 re-stocking fee and grabbed the HTC Droid Eris, and am very thankful I went with my gut on that. This set in stone my love for HTC.

After searching out what was essentially "better" about Android 2.1 over Android 1.5, I came across XDA for the very first time.

Within XDA, I found this thing called "root" and "SuperUser"

I had absolutely NO idea what it was, I have never really messed with my PC's or overclocked anything before. But I did see a thread about getting Android 2.1 "Early" by using root. What a mistake.. Days after I upgraded, an official release came out for Android 2.1 on the Eris, and for those of us who were impatient and un-experienced, were essentially stuck on a beta pre-release version of Android 2.1 with many bugs, with absolutely no way of getting the official release, or downgrading back to Android 1.5.

Luckily for me I had a dud in the Eris department, and was honest about my rooting with the Verizon representatives on the phone, and they decided to give me a "refurb". This was my first experience with refurbished phones. And although my over-all experience I would say has been good with them, the Eris, I had many issues. Eventually after 4 refurbed Eris' - I had read about others on XDA having success with getting a "newer" device after so many failed attempts with the refurbished phones. Each Eris had a new problem when I would receive it, maybe I am just very picky.. ok, yea I am picky, no doubt about it, lol, but I felt that a phone that was repaired, should essentially work as well or close to a new Eris. Vibration issues is one that I remember, 1 came too soft, another came WAY too hard, among other things I honestly just cannot remember. So, I decided to try my luck with getting a new HTC Device as well. HTC had my attention with their beautiful design of the phone and their amazing HTC Sense overlay - which I had loved compared to other Android variations of my time spent at the VZW stores (Blackberry was never my thing, I didn't like Blur, and was not a fan of TouchWiz) - (At the time, I later feel in love with the SG3/SG4). Being a VZW customer for quite a long time (on my Fathers account) with 4 other devices/people, with never any late payments, and me being the only one on a smart phone, I was able to talk my way into getting myself an HTC Droid Incredible - and they let me keep my Eris? That was cool - I do wish I never sold that phone.

So then began my tinkering.

As far as any career in technology or anything like that I am on here simply as a hobby - and a hobby that I love. I would absolutely love to turn my love for Android into a career, but nothing like that has happened (yet, anyway).

Please answer with the following:

Who was your biggest influence

It's really hard for me to list the number of people who have been influences to me over the years (as there are so many), but I will attempt to try and remember them all.

Being the "noob" that I was on the HTC Incredible1, I started flashing ROMs,(back on the Eris, I can only remember running into the Android 2.1 issue then getting the INC1) and never really got into custom kernels. I am a stock guy at heart and always found issues when I flashed kernels - although, looking back - I NEVER gave them a true chance. I guess I was just happy with the stock kernels, at the time. Now, we have SO many amazing kernel developers who bring us amazing improvements in speed and stability over stock.

I met MANY great people over the years of my various smartphones.

Far too many to list, but again I will try my best.

I started using other peoples stock-like ROMs and eventually began themeing them, nothing over-the-top very simple ones - like my Simple Blue theme found here for the Rezound, although I don't believe I started posting any of my work publicly until the HTC Droid Incredible 2.

I can't start a list of influences without mentioning [MENTION=2376614]jcase[/MENTION] as I wouldn't be here today without this man. His contributions to the XDA-Developers community have been immense and ground breaking to say the least.

Instantly, I was hooked.

Once I got onto the Droid Incredible, I started getting to get into "MODs" and "themeing".

I can't mention my MODs without the man who gave us "MetaMorph" - XDA very well respected member [MENTION=1335872]Stericson[/MENTION] - along with his many other contributions - for example, Busybox.

A few of my simple contributions included Simple "Rosie" MODs - HTC's then Launcher - now Prism/Blinkfeed.

I soon migrated to HTC's next big device, the Droid Incredible2. I continued posting my simple MODs. Things like "Transparent Pull Down" and I was always obsessed with Inverting themes. I hated the white. Here is a good thread that show-cases such things.

A HUGE influence in my early XDA life was then "Newtoroot" now simply, [MENTION=3579348]Newt[/MENTION]

This man always believed in me. He was always there for me when I had questions and I looked up to him very much (still do). I felt if I was going to be taking the time to make MODs, his ROM is one I wanted to post them for.

One MOD I was always crazy obsessed with was "Wake-On-Volume".

Another member is [MENTION=3317099]tommytomatoe[/MENTION] - he was/is a great guy and was always willing to help me out, thank you!

Soon after the INC2, came the very well loved "Rezound" - although many loved this device, I did not. I was more of a fan of the INC2 and felt the Rez was more of a "brick" so to speak. I eventually did come to enjoy the device as I have all my HTC devices.

On the Rezound is when I started publicly posing more of my simple MODs and themes - one theme in particular I am very proud of is this one here. This brings me to my next influence. Sir, [MENTION=2930301]fernando sor[/MENTION] and [MENTION=1913379]mcluvn[/MENTION]

These great guys are always willing to help me out. Tehir work was and is still something I always have looked up to.

I eventually began getting stuck with MODDing, I could only do so much, without editing smali, as I has zero experience with any type of coding. So you can understand how daunting smali was. This brings me to Team BAMF. One man's work on their team I especially loved was [MENTION=1589280]ihtfp69[/MENTION] and his "SkyRaider" ROMs.

Team BAMF was/is a great group of guys. Here brings me to my very first ever smali MOD, thanks to BAMF member [MENTION=2666638]erishasnobattery[/MENTION].

ihtfp69 had a MOD that I fell in love with. His VERY creative SystemUI.apk edit to HTC's Quick Settings, which IMHO HTC actually implemented into their future releases of Sense. The MOD was simple yet ingenious, "Zeus MOD", was what I called it, I am not sure if that was ever an official name or not... back when HTC had those horrendous buttons on the bottom of the pull down for "Quick Settings" and "Notifications" he coded them out and made it so you simply tap on the Carrier bar at the top - that was already their - saving space, and making it much easier. Erishasnobattery came out with his own iteration of this MOD, and here is a thread I made of his version which included "buttons" instead of the bar. I first contacted Erishasnobattery - to thank him for all his work and to eventually sneak in my question of - can I use your MOD, and not only that will you help me learn how to do it... not only was he very nice, he didn't blow me off as many other DEVs back then did. He walked me through how to edit the smali code. I was not new to editing applications with apktool, but smali I had never delved into. It took me about 3 or 4 tries before the MOD worked. He taught me how the smali code worked so to speak. I implemented the themed part but I didn't understand why nothing happened when I pressed the buttons. He explained everything to me in a way that made sense to a noob like myself. I'll never forget the excitement I felt when I first pressed that button and the MOD worked. Instantly I knew, I wanted to learn smali code. Although I am still a VERY big noob in this department, I am trying to teach myself Java and continue to learn. I continued posting my themes and MODs for all of these devices. I eventually started getting a few PM's from some wonderful people here on XDA asking me why I don't post a ROM of my own, and that they would love to try my work. I had never considered trying to build a ROM. This is when I got even more close with Mr. Newtoroot, and at the time the MikMik Team/Site. I first posted my "Bonestock" ROM for the Droid Incredible 2. A simple Stock ROM, with MODs as flashable.zips. To my surprise, it actually got used and was liked. I was very ecstatic. The next big Influence came from [MENTION=2879887]nitsuj17[/MENTION] and Team Venom on the HTC INC4G. Nitsuj17 was working with Team Venom to bring their ground breaking ROM to the Droid Incredible 4G. Although I did not contribute much, I did what I could and Justin and the Venom Team welcomed me kindly. I was very happy to be working with such a great group of talented people.

Within the community was this thing called "S-OFF" for HTC phones that we all have grown to love. I had the distinct pleasure of working with some great people, testing S-OFF for the Rezound and the INC4G with them.

I remember - I must have restarted my Rezound over 100 times with that paperclip attempting S-OFF (for those who don't remember or know what I'm talking about, watch this video). To which we discovered that my crappy 1GB SD-Card was the issue, once I exchanged that out, S-OFF came the very next try. The Inc4G was a much smoother testing experience.

The DirtyRacun and the Unlimited.IO Teams, I'd like to thank for allowing me to test for you guys, it gave me a HUGE appreciation for what you guys do and how much work goes into what you provided for us and FOR FREE!

Soon after the Rezound/INC4G, I had enough of HTC, for personal reasons, and well, I needed a change.

So, I went for the Samsung Galaxy S3 - and I am SO glad that I did. I posted my Bonestock ROM once again, not expecting much to come of it. I did still continue posting my MODs/themes for other ROMs as well while, maintaining my Bonestock ROM as I really didn't expect to get much users. To my surprise, I had a very great following/user base on both the Samsung Galaxy S3/ and the Samsung Galaxy S4 (before the S4 got locked down).

I actually still get PM's about those ROMs. Although I do not support them anymore due to no longer owning the devices, so I am not much of any help.

Back before the Samsung Galaxy S5, for whatever reason, Verizon decided that we couldn't have such great MODs that EVERY other carrier for the Samsung Galaxy S3/4 had, "Blocking Mode" and "Call/Message Block". These two MODs I spent a long time porting to Verizon, and am still very proud of accomplishing those ports. This helped me to learn smali much better and a great respect for those that do what they do with it. One user in-particular that will always stand out for me on these phones is a user that wasn't on the same carrier as myself, but was just as helpful - [MENTION=1016795]loserskater[/MENTION]. He was always so kind with his helping of smali coding and getting the tweaks to work, along with his MANY wonderful tutorials.

I certainly can't forget [MENTION=2910757]Didact74[/MENTION] however. His "Multi-MOD" was/is amazing, and he opened it freely to all who wanted to include it into their ROMs. He was also very willing to help anyone out.

Some more great people from Samsung that I met along my journey (and I'm very sorry if I am forgetting anyone here): [MENTION=4395895]BeansTown106[/MENTION], [MENTION=4538493]prdog1[/MENTION], team synergy, [MENTION=402300]amarullz[/MENTION] - Aroma!, gadget! - thanks again bro for the amazing banners for my ROMs!, [MENTION=4600715]sbreen94[/MENTION], [MENTION=1949695]jrkruse[/MENTION], [MENTION=379930]kennyglass123[/MENTION]. - I am sure I am forgetting some people and I'm very sorry.

A great DEV I looked up to and still do, during these times as he actually was a Samung/HTC user like myself is [MENTION=426561]scrosler[/MENTION] known for his amazing "Clean ROMs". I always loved providing MODs/Themes for his ROMs. They have always been top notch, to say the least.

Another great friend I met along the way was known then as "Joelz" now [MENTION=3449508]renzo.olivares[/MENTION].

While on the SG4, HTC had started its "One" line of phones like the HTC One X - which Verizon never carried, to my disappointment. So when the HTC One M7 was released, I immediately sold off my SG3/SG4 and bought the HTC One M7. I continued with my Bonestock ROM series, although not as popular as it was on Samsung. Here is when I hooked up members such as [MENTION=4457281]hawknest[/MENTION], [MENTION=2967322]buckmarble[/MENTION], [MENTION=2918354]synisterwolf[/MENTION], [MENTION=4428185]brymaster5000[/MENTION] along with many others. Next came the M8 - my current daily device, although I do have the M9 - just waiting to send it out to a friend for S-OFF. On the M8 I changed my Bonestock ROM to now "Fluent ROM". I met great friends, such as, [MENTION=3472611]dottat[/MENTION], [MENTION=4203241]ΠΣΘ[/MENTION] [MENTION=5317224]Tigerstown[/MENTION], and [MENTION=4940375]Roland_K[/MENTION] - along with others I know I am forgetting. These guys have been my go to guys for the past.. many months. [MENTION=3472611]dottat[/MENTION], even donated to me a Dell PC when he found out my HP had died on me, and was using my crappy HP Laptop. (Thanks again bro!). I look forward to continuing these great relationships onto the HTC One M9, with thanks to dottat again for pushing me to get the M9.

(I'm sure I may be missing some pieces to the puzzle here but this is what I can remember right now off the top of my head, if I can remember more I will edit the post)

What are you doing now, since XDA has opened your eyes to new opportunities

Since joining XDA, It has opened my eyes up to a whole new world. Although, only a hobby, it is one I very much love and will continue to love and contribute to until the day comes when I get burnt out. At which point I'll most likely take a break from public releases and focus more on furthering my knowledge for Android and coding. I am OCD, and I love to learn what is breaking what, and sometimes have a hard time stopping until I figure it out. I am not one to start a project and quit. Once I start something I will go at it until I get it, this is something I have learned about myself since joining this wonderful community.

When did you decide, "it's time to make a go of this"

This is answered up above. But, basically as soon as I found root on the Eris, again thanks to Mr. [MENTION=2376614]jcase[/MENTION], Hugh, [MENTION=711482]beaups[/MENTION], [MENTION=396548]LadyX[/MENTION]and the rest of the DirtyRacun, Unlimited.IO and SunShine Teams.

The support and encouragement from members here to post my own ROM for the Droid Incredible 2.

But it started long before the ROMs, with simple MODs and themeing. Basic tinkering, that lead me to where I am now.

Where do you feel this can take you

Well, this is something I can't really answer as the best things in life come when you are not looking for them!