Welcome to the very first edition of the PPCGeek Spotlight where we get enlightening perspectives and great insight from well known and well accomplished community members. In this edition, we highlight a very widely known ROM chef in the community, OMJ. Remember, this is just the beginning to several PPCG Spotlights!!
OMJ has been cooking Windows Mobile and Android ROMs for some time, and has released kitchens as well for users to customize their own OMJ roms. He is also a PPCG staff member so if you’ve been posting random questions in the Evo upgrade forums, you might know him as well.
Here’s a short bio with OMJ followed by a Q&A:
For those that didn’t already know, my name is Ken. I am 40 yrs old, married 15 yrs and have had 5 sons (3 of them still at home). I grew up in MN, joined the Army in 1989 for 3 yrs, then fell into the communications field shortly after. I have worked for various local & wireless phone companies throughout my career for the past 18 yrs.
1 ) How and when did you find PPCGeeks and begin the journey towards modifying handsets?
I first came to PPCG in 2006 when I bought my 1st PPC, the HTC Apache, but at the time the site I most frequented was PDAPhoneHome. I was using a different user name, which I imagine was deleted after not being used, lol.
2 ) When did you start cooking ROMs (and what devices) and how hard of a learning curve was it? What background did you have that helped?
I began cooking my own ROMs with the HTC Apache, this was back in the Hemi_c kitchen days. It was a little confusing at 1st, but I caught on quick enough. I work in a technical industry, so having a technical mind to understand is what helped.
3 ) How did you manage to jump that gradient from cooking ROMs from a template to making your own kitchen, porting XIP and SYS and increasing speed/stability, etc…
Well just to be clear, the kitchens I have provided were actually created by others, like bepe or Calkulin. I merely customized them to help users create the ROM they wanted. Templates are nice, but can also be restrictive. Like many chefs, I like to expand my options to further customize. There are some great minds out there that created & developed the tools we used to create ROMs, they are the ones that really deserve the credit.
4 ) When did you start cooking Android ROMs, and how hard was the transition?
I started cooking Android ROMs just before the release of EVO. Unfortunately I was unable to test these ROMs without having the device. Of course, having a HTC Android kitchen from dsixda made it fairly easy. The transition from WM was pretty smooth. Android seems to be easier to work with, but I am still learning
5 ) what are your thoughts on overclocking? Do you use OC kernels in your ROMs and do you see much of a difference as far as benchmark and performance?
I personally do not use OC kernels, there is usually a drawback when OC’ing, typically w/ loss of battery life
6 ) If/when we are able to “jailbreak” Windows Phone 7 devices, are you going to get into the WP7 cooking scene or stick with Android?
Oh I’m sure WP7 will be hacked if it hasn’t been already. At this time, I’m sticking with Android, I am really enjoying this OS, I think MS has missed the boat, and Google is taking over the world, lol.
7 ) What are your thoughts of Apple iProducts and have you ever had even a tiny itch to check out the iPhone?
As gTen would say….iPhones are evil, lol. But really, my kids both have an ipod touch which is similar to the iPhone. It’s ok, but seems to be more of a toy, I like devices that have programs/apps that closer resemble those on a pc, because it’s just like a laptop on your hip.
8 ) As a PPCG staff member and well-known chef, what is your view on the community as a whole and where do you see it heading?
Google will be taking over all forums, then I’ll be on their payroll . Our community has grown so much in the last 4 yrs it’s crazy, and I see it only growing more. The great thing about our community is the fact that people take time out of their day to help others & share their knowledge…..that’s what it’s all about.
9 ) How much work does it require to build a good ROM and update it with new features/kernels?
The initial build takes more work to perfect, updates are very easy to add. The majority of time used is for researching & troubleshooting issues.
So there you have it. Stay tuned for our next PPCG spotlight where we will gain more insight into graphics creation for taskbars and themes that we love to use so much! For now if you have any questions or comments to add, feel free. We would love to hear just how much you appreciate OMJ and his hard efforts put into PPCG and his ROM’s!
All credit goes to PPCGeeks member orangekid and the PPCG news team for this Q&A!!