I Am A Social Scientist July 28, 2009
Posted by Spencer Stern in Sticky Posts.add a comment
Is this the female version of myself?
Socionics November 7, 2010
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Reading questions and answers about Socionics, on Quora
How to self-publish a book like a professional August 11, 2009
Posted by Spencer Stern in How to's.Tags: desktop publishing, DTP, lulu.com, professional self-publishing, scribus.net, text editor
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Having already self-published my first book back in September 2007 I have enjoyed a consistent flow of royalties each month ever since. At that time I didn’t appreciate or understand a few “simple” ways to achieve two things: 1) to make my book like on par with those produced by a traditional publisher, and 2) how to write a book for a “target market” with an appropriate title and not just for myself or a select few.
Here’s a good video as to why you would want to write a book and rightfully profit from it:
And so I present the Stern Publishing Method (trademark pending) to actually walk you through conception to execution to $$$:
- [Pre-production stage] Using whatever tools you like such as a notepad and pen, begin to brainstorm your ideas, draw up mind maps until you can define the content layout of your book.
- [Production stage] Contrary to popular belief you don’t need a word processor for several reasons. In short it will cause more problems later on. Simply download a free advanced text editor with a spell checker plug-in (if required) and produce multiple “bite size” raw text files for each chapter/section of the book to keep the project more manageable
- [Post-production stage] Using your proof read text files you are now ready to start putting the book together using desktop publishing software. I personally use and highly recommend Scribus. At this point you want two things: 1) to import your source content text files using custom tags that will assign styles to the text you have defined in Scribus, and 2) to actually layout the book itself using frames.
- [Distribution stage] Using Lulu.com you would upload your Scribus-produced PDF’s for content and cover design when asked. Once an ISBN has been assigned you would need to go back and update your Scribus source file with the relevant numbers and bar-code and re-upload updated PDFs.
- [Marketing stage] Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that “nothing I create has value”, or “its not about the money”, or “I wrote this book purely out of love”. The fact is, you know something unique and you need to get the word out through social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, etc. and/or your own website.
That summarises the Stern Publishing Method. If you want a full “take me by the hand and make me a published writer” coaching session then contact me direct at s.stern@slideconsulting.com or via this blog on end of the About Me page.
How to get more juice out of your Nokia 6300/6301 August 9, 2009
Posted by Spencer Stern in How to's.Tags: battery life, efficiency, mobile phone, nokia 6300, nokia 6301, optimization, software tweaking
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Despite the “smart phone” craze whether its an iPhone you wouldn’t want to get scratched or a Blackberry you wouldn’t like to fall into the wrong hands, nothing quite beats the robustness and reliability of a “classic” Nokia handset.
I have previously labelled the Nokia 6300/1 as like “an iPhone without multitouch” because it does everything I currently want reliably and cost-effectively with a great UK provider that rewards customer loyalty with stupendous bonuses.
Anyway, here’s a few tips on how I figured I can get more battery life out of my Nokia 6301:
- Hardware upgrades:
- Replace the NOKIA BL-4C battery (rated at 860 mAh) with an inexpensive higher capacity (compatible) replacement battery (rated at 1000 mAh)
- Software tweaking:
- For some bizarre reason the phone has 2 “power saving” modes: one called “power save” and the other called “sleep mode”. Turn off the latter for better general battery usage otherwise the phone has a tendency to light up and light down periodically when the battery finishes charging or when battery life is low, etc.
- Turn off any screen savers since the “power save” mode will dim the display anyway showing you the date and time.
- Turn off Bluetooth since no one really needs it “always on” except “on-demand” to transfer files or update the phone using Nokia PC suite, etc.
- Turn off Wi-Fi and scan for networks only when desired e.g. in a saved hotspot that will allow free and fast mobile internet usage.
- Set GPRS to connect only “when needed”. It may also help to increase the time delay that the push email service checks for new messages.
- Store and set your (static) wall papers from the external memory card instead of internal. Dynamic wall papers will use more power to “run”.
That’s a few quick and essential tips for maximizing battery life. Some tips can be adapted for other makes and models of handset especially the switching off of Bluetooth which is known to zap battery life.
Forget JDate, I’d rather have a math debate… August 6, 2009
Posted by Spencer Stern in JDate, Reflections.Tags: discrimination, JDate, Judaism, reflection, women
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Quite simply its a global Jewish dating site with an extreme bias towards Americanism and Conservationism in my opinion which in turn creates a hub that attracts primarily “land of the free” prospects making up the vast majority of members who will 97.85% of the time in my experience end up totally NOT interested in anyone outside their borders frequently denying IM requests and ignoring emails.
The web site also incorporates an element of “if it aint broke NEVER fix it!” which is totally anti-progressive avoiding such basic (and i mean REALLY basic) features likes a simple way to know who an actual subscriber is rather than waste one’s time sending letters of interest that will likely never get a response from.
Another one that gets me… if by some miracle of the Jewish dating lottery two members click “yes” together they should get more than just an automated email to confirm the “double yes” interest. Geez… with the odds stacked against this happening couldn’t we at least get a “bonus” of say a free couple of emails each INTERESTED person can send each other whether subscribers or not.
The IM system has been mastered by myself. I know how it works inside-out in a role of mine as system’s analyst. Anyway, a much needed feature is to exclude IM’s from foreign Jews for the nationalist reasons mentioned above.
Oh well, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, they obviously have sh*t loads of money to throw around at their toys of negligible real value like registered trademarks, a blog and magazine that avoids the real issues of a feature-starved site, etc.
Expect further rants until my current membership plan is up for renew in December by which time I will either actually get a real JDate or die trying from smoking my hookah, at least we can reflect in peace together without the nonsense that women put men through with their emotional outbursts, moaning, whining about all the problems that haven’t actually happened yet. And don’t get me started on Geography, physical distance is MORE of an issue than potential psychological distance which is perhaps more important don’t we we think??
Another fake prospect on JDate.com August 5, 2009
Posted by Spencer Stern in JDate.Tags: 419 scams, JDate, Nigerian scams, online safety, reflection, women
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I personally believe that my life and its struggles are in actual fact meaningul and rewarding hence I present another hunch-turned-truth story of yet another JDate scam artist. I have annotated the original transcript in {red curly brackets}.
Slidester: I assume you like boiled eggs… {Today’s ice-breaker}
*** Waiting for jessicalolFA8A to connect
*** jessicalolFA8A’s IM window is open
jessicalolFA8A: hello {not responding to the ice-breaker}
Slidester: well do you?
jessicalolFA8A: how are you??
Slidester: are you not gonna respond to my assumption?
jessicalolFA8A: no sory im not a boiled eggs {she’s confused already}
jessicalolFA8A: i dont like boiled eggs
jessicalolFA8A: i want a hard balls lol {sometimes an egg IS just an egg as Freud would remind us – another seducing and gold-digging Nigerian woman, obviously}
Slidester: oh really?
jessicalolFA8A: yup
jessicalolFA8A: haha
jessicalolFA8A: so what are you looking for?? {does my male visage not give a hint}
Slidester: haven’t you read my profile yet?
jessicalolFA8A: w8 i read {teenage short-hand language}
jessicalolFA8A: i see
jessicalolFA8A: ur looking for a woman
jessicalolFA8A: huh sorry im just too busy chatting my friends on yahoo {red flag #1: oh dear, its ploy to chat on YAHOO aka “the scam artist’s messenger of choice”}
Slidester: are they Nigerian?
jessicalolFA8A: no they american
jessicalolFA8A: they lived in new york {red flag #2: sharing way too much information too early}
Slidester: cool
Slidester: so you’re new to jdate then?
jessicalolFA8A: no not really because i forgot my pass to my other account
jessicalolFA8A: so that i make another account {a likely story, not!}
Slidester: u do know that you’re profile isn’t ready for me to read yet?
jessicalolFA8A: i dont know
Slidester: are you on facebook?
jessicalolFA8A: no {red flag #3: everyone (especially teenagers) should be on FB these days!}
jessicalolFA8A: and you
jessicalolFA8A: sorry im just too busy chatting on yahoo maybe we can switch there {Yahoo – the preferred IM of the Nigerian scam artist}
Slidester: do you think i’m so stupid that i don’t know that you’re a 419 scam artist?
jessicalolFA8A: L0l k@ t@ng na m0h {and the scam artist reveals herself and my “always on” cautiousness is justified yet again!}
*** jessicalolFA8A’s IM window is closed
I’m quite impressed this with this one as I sussed them out after just around 10 minutes although should have known better when their profile said “willing to convert” with no photos and no information given.
Not to worry, desperate scam artists represent less than 8% of members I interact with on the site although at least I have more “fun” with them then genuine prospects who don’t know what they want and like to raise false promises and hopes. Its no wonder they say that dating is generally unfair for men with the abundance of low self-esteemed women who are simply not ready to receive all that they really desire from the men ready to mutually provide it.
