To flash is to re-write new data over existing data. It's kind of like flashing the BIOS in a computer's motherboard.
Clockword becomes an avenue for people who develop roms (think of them as alternative operating systems based off the same android OS but with their personal touches or the removal of certain carrier forced software like bing on the fascinate instead of google maps etc) to get their work into one convenient area. It becomes a secondary way to backup your device as it is and restore at a later point or try out new roms. If you find the phone works for you, stick with what you have, most of the people who get into tinkering with their phones is because they are wanting to achieve something else/more out of their device.
ODIN is a utility that flashes tar file images onto the device to modify it in some way, or also to restore it to factory in some cases. Again i refer to flashing a bios of a motherboard, if you have ever had to flash the bios of your motherboard it is similar in essence.
ADB is a command that is included with the android SDK. It basically creates an interface and avenue for people to modify the contents of their phones just like you did. ADB is simply the command that initiates the communication between the two. When you do an adb shell during your rooting process you are basically connecting directly into the phone and working on the phone itself. If you were to boot a linux computer and open terminal you would be looking at a very similar screen. It's like opening a dos box directly on your phone.What are the exact workings of the adb? I used it in a step-by-step guide to rooting my phone, but besides that...that's as far as my knowledge goes on that topic.
It's almost a miracle that I've been able to root my phone, download terminal emulator, titanium backup, OCLF, and busybox installer.
Oh, and quite frankly there has been alot of controversy over TouchWiz...but hell my phone didn't even come with TouchWiz!
Thanks for the help
Also you have at some point or another had touchwiz on your phone, if you bought your fascinate from verizon brand new then yyou didn't boot that phone up for the first time without using touchwiz. Touchwiz is the interface of the phone that samsung wrote for their android phones.
Those are the basics that i have gotten over time and from spending a lot of time on the IRC channel with the incredibly smart, nice, and overly patient to a fault devs that have worked on this phone since it's launch. I understand you are admitting to being a noob, and while that is commendable the key thing to remember is we all started there, but you really need to do research by searching through the various forums and reading, re-reading, then checking other forums to make sure you are reading the steps and outcomes properly. A lot of people come in every day asking a lot of the same questions which is why people want you to use the search function of the forums. It isn't based off hostility, it is because they have answered the same questions day in and day out since the beginning because people don't search for the answers themselves. I didn't know what adb was a year ago. I had a genuine interest in wanting to see what else my phone could do, so i googled, and searched forums and this forum was my home with my original droid for a year and then my d2 for another month until i switched to the fascinate. My honest advice to you is if you are just looking for a backup, rooting a titanium backup is prime. You can stop there. If you have a bigger interest in learning more about your phone, by all means do, but do it via searching before just posting questions that have possibly been asked a lot of times prior. Again please take no part of my post as hostile, i'm just trying to help paint the picture.
lol and since Adrynalyne replied, CTP