Converting VectorDrawable to SVG

If you need to edit your VectorDrawable icon and prefer using Inkscape for the task, you will first need to convert your icon to SVG format. Luckily, there is a Python script that willconvert VectorDrawable to SVG. [archive]

 

Weather Forecast USA for Android (postmortem, archival or something else?)

I recently made the decision to open-source my very first Android app, Weather Forecast USA, which I originally published in 2009. Over its lifetime, the app achieved over 10,000 downloads and generated mind-blowing $385 USD in ad revenue. The number of active users peaked in January 2014, with a total of 5,688. Currently, the app only has 8 active users. We can pronounce it abandoned, even by me.

Honestly, I never expected to be able to compete with the teams of developers behind today's top weather apps while also satisfying my curiosity and making other apps. Deleting all my work would still be painful. That's why I have decided to keep it alive in some other form.

You can find the source code for Weather Forecast USA on GitHub:
https://github.com/vbresan/WeatherForecastUSA

Since 2009, the Android platform has undergone considerable changes. Although the app's source code is working, it does produce many deprecation warnings, and some aspects were not designed in the best possible way. Nonetheless, I welcome any contributions or feedback from the community, and I hope that others will find the code useful for their own development projects.

Let's keep the spirit of innovation and collaboration alive in the world of app development! [I told ChatGPT to proofread my text, I love the last spark it added here!]

Active devices

Ad revenue

Font Awesome

Releases:

Font Awesome 4.7.0 [archive]
Font Awesome 6.4.0 web [archive]

Font Awesome 6.4.0 web down arrows:

regular/circle-down.svg
solid/angle-down.svg
solid/angles-down.svg
solid/arrow-down-long.svg
solid/arrow-down.svg
solid/caret-down.svg
solid/chevron-down.svg
solid/circle-arrow-down.svg
solid/circle-chevron-down.svg
solid/circle-down.svg
solid/down-long.svg
solid/sort-down.svg

Exploration Fawcett - nul aspera terrent

Movie and book recommendation ...

Percy Fawcett, real life Indiana Jones, disappeared in a jungle about 100 years ago. If you liked those movies, perhaps you'll like The Lost City of Z, a biographical movie that portrays him. Or, even better, read a book named "Exploration Fawcett" that is a collection of his diaries and letters. Affiliate link to the book:

 

After the first two chapters I wanted to drop the book. Drop it and go straight to Amazon.

It's shocking how brutal the world was there only about hundred years ago, in many ways not much different from Pizarro's time. One gold was replaced with other - rubber, but the exploitation of indigenous people, slavery and genocide remained much the same.

Exploration Fawcett book online.
Lost in the Amazon: The Enigma of Col. Percy Fawcett documentary (use US VPN if you can't see it). The documentary is from year 2011. Sad to see that what once was a jungle now is all cleared for soy crops. The last known Fawcett's location is now reachable - by car.

Total weight of humans, wildlife and domesticated animals

You think that this is a planet of the humans? Counting by the biomass, it's not. This is a planet of the cattle. ≈390 MT comparing to ≈420 MT. And all those wild mammals - their total weight is less than 10% of 'humanity's'. And about 10% of their weight from 10,000 years ago. We are turning this planet into a big cattle farm.

Guardian article:

https://www.theguardian.com/.../a-wake-up-call-total... [archive]

 

Scientific paper:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10013851/ [archive]

 

Google Play Store User Comments Hall of Fame!

 

Using ChatGPT to write a landing page copy

Use it only as a template, as there is a lot of generic content created.

'Stolen' from Hacker news post. [archive]

Write landing page copy using the '6 W's' framework to convert leads into customers. Identify [ideal customer persona] as the target audience, clearly describe our [product/service] and what it does, highlight any time-sensitive aspects of our offer or the problem it solves, specify where the product or service can be purchased or used, clearly explain the benefits and value of our [product/service], and explain how the product or service works and how the customer can obtain it. Include variables such as [product/service], [unique selling point], and [desired action].

Example input [archive]:

 Example output [archive]:

 

How to set up reddit keyword alarms

1. Go to the subreddit of your choice, for example r/Entrepreneur
2. In the search bar, enter the keywords you are interested in, for example
   "invoicing" AND "as a service"
3. Modify the URL of the search result page by inserting .rss between the last slash and question mark. For example, change
   https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/search/?q=
   to
   https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/search/.rss?q=
   Keep the rest of the URL unchanged.
4. Copy the new URL and subscribe to it in your favorite RSS reader.
   

That would be it! Posts with relevant keywords will keep popping in.