The Tato Series: An Interview With InsaneNemesis Of Shadow ROM

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HOWDY D-L! Hope everyone is having a great week!

So I have had the chance recently to sit down for a bit with Aaron aka “InsaneNemesis” (definitely the most brutal Dev name so far). I’ve been following him personally for a while and have passed a lot of cool stuff on to Kellex and even demanded he post this all the way back in July! He complied….

When I heard Aaron (17 year old whiz) was working on a new project I knew I just had to catch up with him and have him give me the scoop and how this young dude got into all this! I give you the 4th installment of The Tato Series!

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Tim-o-tato: Hello sir! Mind introducing yourself for anyone  who may not know you?

InsaneNemesis: Hello my name is  Aaron (InsaneNemesis) and I develop for ShadowROM. I am 17  years old and am currently a Senior in High School.

Tim-o-tato:Wow! How long have you been developing  for the community?

InsaneNemesis: About a two months…

Tim-o-tato: ShadowROM….there has been lots of talk about it. Mind letting us in on the hype? Whats it all about?

InsaneNemesis: Well it is a highly source modified CyanogenMod based beast! There are some never before seen things, some features utilizing some of the less noted parts of CyanogenMod. Billygalbreath and I both hope this is our best release and we have certainly put lots of effort in it.

Tim-o-tato: So let me get this straight: You’re a Senior in High School? And you’re building “beastly” ROM’s?!? That is not what I was doing in High School! What got you into all this?

InsaneNemesis: I’ve always liked to mess  with things and since Android is open and free I thought it would be a  good way to start. When I got the Droid back in January I was just a normal user. Didn’t know what a ROM was, and had no prior Android experience. Actually before Android I had never used Linux or even coded. I was scared to root as were a lot of people. I was un-rooting and rooting trying to decide. Then I started thinking what I could do to make my Android more likable (not that Android isn’t awesome) but I wanted something more custom. So I started with live wallpapers and moved on to themes. It wasn’t what I really wanted to do. So I decided to make the jump to full ROMs. I decided if I was going to do a ROM, I might as well start off in the right direction by building from AOSP. I met ‘billygalbreath’ and it seems we have the same views on a lot of things. So we decided to start ShadowROM! Besides 2 devs is a lot better than one. Billygalbreath is an awesome Dev. He knows a lot about stuff I’ve never learned before. And over the time I’ve worked with him and have learned more than I could ever imagine. *Woo, that was a lot*

Tim-o-tato: Well that’s great! So not just anyone can say, “Hey I wanna Dev!”. How were you able to learn the coding aspect of it? Any background in that??

InsaneNemesis: Well I am not in any respect good at coding lol. I can do the stuff that’s needed but sometimes I need help. That’s where having a team member is great! You are able to learn and help each other. It’s really not that hard to learn some java. A lot of it is close to English in androids form of GUI. Other than that you need to learn the basics and then you can use the android docs for the rest 😉

Tim-o-tato: So before you met up with Billygalbreath what were you doing ROM wise?

InsaneNemesis: Well I was working on my own ROM Insanely Clean which was going well and I had a lot of users and stuff. Then I wanted to branch out and work as a team. Me and Billygalbreath started ShadowROM and since then that’s been my first priority.

Tim-o-tato: What are a few words you would  attribute to your work with ROMs?

InsaneNemesis: Clean, fast, simple, and  unique.


Shadow on D-Incredible

Tim-o-tato: Excellent! Now we’ve mentioned your age a bit. Does any of this  sometimes get in the way of your schoolwork at all? Or social life in  general?

InsaneNemesis: Not during the summer. When school starts up I plan on studying and  doing homework then Android stuff. Then while I’m at school my laptop  will compile for me everyday at 8AM if its on and in Ubuntu.

Tim-o-tato: Haha Nice! It’s good to know we have people out there taking the time to do all this amazing work  that benefits the Android Community!
Whats the future looking like for you? Big aspirations? 🙂

InsaneNemesis: Well I want to go to college and eventually go into the field of engineering.

Tim-o-tato: Excellent! Can’t go wrong there!  Are there any other Devs you’re keeping your eye on?

InsaneNemesis: Cyanogen and his team of 300 Spartans! lol

Tim-o-tato: So do you think anything is missing then from the community?

InsaneNemesis: Not really. I think we have a solid community with lots of devoted Devs and users and it growing more and more each day 🙂
Android as an OS has gotten more user friendly every time they release a new version. The community is great but not perfect. There will always be bad apples. But other than that I think people in Androids Community help each other are devoted and are respectful to other users.

Tim-o-tato: OK, now is my time to ask you silly Q’s! My favorite part! lol

Task Killers. What are your position on them?

InsaneNemesis: Hate them. Useless. Pointless. Are we doing word association here?? lol

Tim-o-tato: But they’re the most downloaded app in the market! How can they be worthless? 😛

InsaneNemesis: Verizon tells people to get it cause it’s a good idea. I can confirm about 10 times they have told me that. I always say back, “NO IT’S NOT!”

Tim-o-tato: So, Mr. Steve Jobs personally writes you and says, “Please work for us!”. What would your honest answer be?

InsaneNemesis: No.

Tim-o-tato: Just “No”?? This is Steve Jobs we’re talking about! lol

InsaneNemesis: Yeah…..”No” lol

Tim-o-tato: You’re very well spoken. Well in closing…is there ANYTHING you wanna ask the community? Now is your chance to get some good user feedback or to see what the people want! Any Q’s for us???

InsaneNemesis: Suggestions for features is what I want people to tell me 🙂

Tim-o-tato: Is basically anything fair game?

InsaneNemesis: Sure! lol Not saying everything will be put into effect, but ideas are good!

Tim-o-tato: Well Aaron, as always it has been a serious pleasure. We all look forward to playing with Shadow. We wish you the best! Hope to see you soon in the forums!

InsaneNemesis: Yeah it’s been fun Tim! Thanks!

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It’s good to know there are people (let alone young people) who will become the “future of rock n’ roll” and carry the flag for development of things like this! A huge plus one to young people who are smarter than me! Yay!

Tim-o-tato

Stalk InsaneNemesis on their IRC Channel.
Pick up their brand new
ShadowROM HERE!
And of course…feel free to check out my band
Abriel. Like “Gabriel” without the “G”

Submit questions in the comments for our next interview with LauncherPro creator, Federico Carnales!

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