Wednesday, November 30, 2022

How to get APK files from your Android phone

Make sure that you have ADB installed and phone connected via USB cable. 

The following command will list all packages that are installed on your phone:
./adb shell pm list packages

The following command will give you the path to the APK for a given package name:
./adb shell pm path your.package.name

Use the obtained path name to pull the APK file from the device:
./adb pull /directory/path/example/WantedApp.apk .

That should be it!


How to connect Nokia 6.1 phone to ADB (Android Debug Bridge)

Recently I got Nokia 6.1 android phone. ADB was not able to see it after I plugged it in via USB cable. At least not with default drivers that were installed on my Windows 7 machine. In order to make it work i needed to:

  1. Install the Google USB Driver through Android Studio's SDK Manager

  2. Edit the android_winusb.inf file:
    • Go to C:\Users\[User]\AppData\Local\Android\Sdk\extras\google\usb_driver folder
    • Find the file android_winusb.inf 
    • In both [Google.NTx86] and [Google.NTamd64] sections add the following:
      ;Nokia 6.1
      %SingleAdbInterface%    = USB_Install, USB\VID_0489&PID_C001&MI_02
      %CompositeAdbInterface% = USB_Install, USB\VID_0489&PID_C001&REV_0404&MI_02


      These values are obtained from your PC's Device Manager and they should be the same for all Nokia 6.1 devices. Once in Device Manager, Nokia 6.1 should be listed under 'Other devices'. Right-click on it, then select 'Properties'. Under 'Details' tab chose 'Hardware Ids' property.

  3.  Edit the adb_usb.ini file
    • Go to C:\Users\[User]\.android folder
    • Find the file adb_usb.ini
    • Add the line with the following content: 0x0489

  4. 'Install' drivers:
    • Go back to Device Manager and find the Nokia 6.1 there (under 'Other devices'). 
    • Right click, Update drivers and select the folder from the step 2.
     
  5. Restart the ADB

That should be it!


Monday, November 28, 2022

Challenges in Replacing Fossil Fuels with Green Energy: Mineral Shortages and Timelines

Do you know why fossil fuels will never be fully replaced with green energy at the current rate of consumption? It's because there isn't enough minerals available for renewable tech devices, not even for the first generation that is supposed to phase out the old machines. For example, we need 4.5 billion tonnes of copper, while global reserves are less than 0.9 billion tonnes (20% of our needs). The situation is even worse with lithium, as our planet only has 2.3% of what we need.

Even if we had access to the necessary minerals, it's already too late to mine them. It would take approximately 190 years to extract all the necessary copper, and around 10,000 years for lithium.

I am including the data tables in this post, which are from the presentation given by Professor Simon Michaux. I highly recommend watching it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBVmnKuBocc

In any case, we can forget about achieving 'net zero.' It simply cannot happen within the timeline we are all supposed to pledge to. This will have numerous and severe consequences, but I will stop here and allow you to contemplate the implications.




Tuesday, November 22, 2022

Growing your business - podcast summary

Listen to the complete Andrew Warner's (Mixergy) interview with Kevin Sahin, founder of ScrapingBee (from $0 to $1.5 million USD annual recurring revenue in 3 years). Archived downloadable podcast is here.

Tactics Kevin used to grow his business:

  • Learn from guys who made it. Ask them for advice.
  • Build the audience first. Your first customers will come from this group of people. Blog about the subject before building the product/service. That way you'll build the search engine ranking. 
  • Once you have enough content, write an e-book covering the subject. For help with self-publishing, see the book recommendation below.
  • Now that you have an audience and know their needs, now is the time to create the software.
  • Market it on forums (sub-reddits) that cover the subject. 
  • Be active with your customers, talk with them, discover their problems and keep on blogging about it. Creating more niche content will further improve your web page rank.
  • To get your customers on the phone - offer them a discount (for example, you can announce it via banner on the website).

Book recommendation (Amazon affiliate link):

Saturday, November 19, 2022

How to sync your website via GitHub

This 'tutorial' is for my own convenience. Whenever I am launching a new web site I tend to repeat the same procedure. It's much easier to follow it if it's written down at one place. So here it is ... (no more looking at .bash_history and browser history to figure out what I did the last time!)

I am assuming that you have just created your dummy/hello world website, perhaps even by some tool or script (e.g. cPanel's 'new python app' or something similar). The steps you need to take now are the following:

  1. Create (private) project on GitHub.
  2. Import the created project in your preferred IDE.
  3. Clean your (remote) website directory.
    Delete all empty/unused directories, if any.
  4. Transfer all remaining files to your project's directory.
    Pick your preferred method. For me the easiest is compress/download/uncompress.
  5. Add 'usual' files to .gitignore:
    e.g. project files and directories, compiled binaries, server generated temp files, etc.
  6. Add files to git index.
  7. Commit and push. 

We are done with the first part. Since we won't be doing code changes on our web server, we'll configure it in a way that it can only pull from our repository. So, on our server:

  1. Generate public/private RSA key pair:
    1. Start ssh-keygen.
    2. Enter the file name, for example your project's name.
    3. We won't need the passphrase.
  2. Add deploy key to your GitHub repository:
    Under Settings, click on Deploy keys and  copy-paste your public key there.
  3. Authenticate from your server to GitHub via SSH:
    ssh -i ~/.ssh/private_key_file -T git@github.com
  4. Since neither the repository nor our destination directory are empty, we will execute the following command sequence (in destination directory!):
    git init
    git remote add origin git@github.com:username/project.git
    git pull
    git checkout master -f
    git branch --set-upstream-to origin/master

We are done. Now we can add the following bash script for easier pulling from our web server's directory:
#! /bin/bash

eval `ssh-agent -s`
ssh-add ~/.ssh/private_key_file
git pull

That would be all!
P.S.: Don't forget to change file permissions once you sync them!

Promoting your product or service - podcast summary

My notes on Rebel Entrepreneur Podcast episode named Promote, promote, promote (interview with Jaymie Dylan). Downloadable episode is here.

If you build it, they will come no one will come. In order to grow your business you need to sell. In order to sell, you need to promote.

Reach to people you know. Reach to people you don't know but are following you on your social networks. (You might need to follow them back in order to message them directly.)

Example message:

Hello [name],

thank you for [following my channel | liking my posts]. Did you know that I am launching  [product | service] on [date]? It is [more about your product or service] and I am really [excited | nervous | ...]. It would mean so much to me if you could check it out and share it with people that you think might be interested. Here is the link ... Do you mind if I send you a reminder again on the actual launch date?

As well, reach those who have been in the same shoes before (needed to promote, launched similar product or service) and ask for advice. If you don't know such a person directly, ask a common connection for an intro.

Sales, marketing and promotion should be daily activity.  Don't do them on and off.

Don't make generic requests. Give people instructions for sharing. Describe how to share, make draft text for sharing. The more specific your request is, the easier for them is to help you - the more likely they will help you.

 

Monday, November 14, 2022

Summer of 2022 swimming

For my own record: the summer of 2022. ended two days ago. Sad to finally admit it. 🙃 That day I heard a cricket and day before I went for a swim. Sea temperature was 20°C still. To sum it all up, I swam:
 
1 × 3.5 km (that distance took me too long)
67 × 2.5 km
23 × 0.5 km (decided to shorten the distance after I came back home with purple lips - sea temperature wasn't a problem but it was hard to warm up afterwards ... and I didn't like the idea of going to the beach in socks and long sleeves).
 
Overall, 91 times (which is more than last year) and 182.5 km (which is less than last year). In my virtual voyage I swam back from Italy to Croatia. Next year I plan to reach Montenegro. 🤣
 
P.S.: If you want to lose 10 kg in two seasons and get yourself ripped, there you have a recipe. 😎



Successful presentation template - podcast summary

My takeouts from amazing Mixergy interview (from 2013) with Hugh Culver.

The website they are talking about is not alive anymore, but it has been archived. The page with useful resources (tools, videos, PDFs, book recommendations, etc.) is available here.

Hugh Culver's youtube channel is also worth checking out. It is full with short videos on speaking, presentations, business growth, etc. 

So, on presentation ...

Presentation should start with a problem

"
You have to tell the audience the problem that you know that they have. Everybody has a problem. If you’re speaking to an audience of entrepreneurs, they’ve got problems around profit, net returns, staffing, technology, overwhelm, doubt, self-confidence. [...]

They need to know in the first three minutes that you understand them. [...]

You need to start with a story or statistics or an example that makes the audience lean in and say to themselves, “Wow, he really knows me. That’s exactly what I’m going through.”

Then you tell your story

"
Then you go into your story, and your story is how you’ve been there, you’ve had that problem, and ideally the story should be from when I had it to now I don’t have it.

Ideally it should be, “I had that problem, and now I’ve come up with some insights, and I don’t have it as much anymore, so I’m not as overwhelmed. My profit is better. I’ve had these client breakthroughs. I’ve solved this issue around technology.”

Then you move into the solution overview

"
And the solutions is, first of all, “Let me give you an overview. Let me give you some context. There’s a better way to run your business. This is the way you should think about business. Here’s the metaphor. Here’s the analogy I use.” It’s an overview.

Then you go into your lessons (story - lesson - application)

"
Then you go into your lessons, and the lesson, or the points, you want to share with them would follow this formula: story, lesson, application. So you say, “Let me tell you a story.” You tell them a little vignette, a little client story, something that happened, and then you say, “This is what I learned.” That’s lesson number one. Then you say, “Here’s how you apply it. Let me give you examples.”

Now you go back to the problem

"
Now you go back to the problem. So now you mention the problem again. You remind them of why this is so important. You remind them of where they don’t want to go back to.

You give them another problem example, you challenge them to start applying the lesson and notice the difference. You talk about the first steps they need to make.

Wrap it up


Friday, November 11, 2022

Marketing strategies - podcast summary

Gee. I just listened to a podcast episode from 2010. It was a Techzing's interview with Ilya Lichtenstein from insight.io. I wonder which marketing strategies they talked about would still give results today. 

In any case, the full podcast episode is available here: TZ Interview – Ilya Lichtenstein / insight.io. Archived downloadable podcast is here. My notes and Ilya's book recommendation (kindle version is less than a $1 USD!) are following:

 

Marketing strategies

Facebook ads 

  • target people who liked competing companies and/or their product 
  • target people who liked the relevant product (e.g. android phone for android app ad)
  •  Ad image is very important
    • it draws attention to our ad (it is an ad for our ad)
    • only after image is seen the rest of ad is read, the real sale starts then - with the ad title and header
  1. discover who the competitors are
  2. bid for keywords that name and describe them and their products. You can add additional term like: review, discussion, etc.

Most likely, competitors are not bidding for their own keywords. That means that our ad might show up before organic search results.

Discover which pages send the most traffic or generate the best conversion. Contact site owners and ask for direct ad placement. It can be beneficial for both parties as Google (and their 30% fee) is avoided. This way our ad is not shown among other ads that target the same keywords, i.e. only our ad will be shown at this place.

General

Look where the competitors appear (which forums, blogs, etc.). If someone's blog post is a review of a competitors product/service, contact the blogger directly and pay him for a banner ad of your product that will show up above the review (or in a sidebar or wherever). If competitor is a big company this can generate big traffic. 

 

Book recommendation

Amazon affiliate link: