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Originally posted by Tcat
Pretty accurate. The PDF @ http://www.alphageekproductions.com is
actually InsideScoop which is ExamInsight & a pretty well done glossary... The Print InsideScoop has a test sim on CD, which I have replaced on the web site with my own new work and a different engine. Actually I like my new test better than the one in InsideScoop. I could, but won't create a paper version of the test sim...

My stuff will continue to be available from BFQ/TRP, and they are going to have to start converting it from other tools.

My direction is moving away from the supporting the retail channel with content.

I have been deathly silent here and else where because I have been back to beating my head against a brick wall on a new way of teaching. Well after five years of getting a bloody head, yesterday 14 Dec 2003, the brick wall broke!

I still have *a lot* of work in front of me, and I'm proud to say at long last, the technical issues are behind me :-)

With this breakthrough, my efforts are going there. BFQ/TRP can take my work and convert it to the more traditional forms and tools, and sell it.

I will be going my own way. Several things will not change. I will continue my no-ads policy. Ya find me by word of mouth or ya don't. Thats the only way I can deliver for $20 while amazon sells the same thing for $90. Amazon and the publisher both have costs and need to make a profit to pay those costs. I'm not going to increase my overhead with ads.

Off my soapbox and back to work...

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Originally posted by Tcat
Sorry Jose... Two threads got intertwinded in one topic. One is a member here asking me to visit him in California.

That is a long overdue visit in the land of physical reality. Christmas time is good for two instructors to get together since we don't have live classes to worry about. That is one thread.

Another thread is the (correct) confusion about my work and availablity of same.

It is very (VERY!) confusing because I no longer am the author of a particular publishing house in the traditional sense. Long time ago (last century) I would do contract or sometimes even ghost writing for the traditional boys (Sybex, Corollis, etc).

That would mean if I did say, i-Net+ I could not write about i-Net+ for another publisher.

Today I generate my own work without the $$ assurance I will see a dime. That means no $$ but lots of freedom to do what I want with the work.

One of the things I choose to do is give it to http://www.totalrecallpress.com which in turn can sell print books, ebooks, re-sell to books 24-7, whatever. I get a % of their results.

That does not prevent me from selling the work myself as an ebook, in effect, competing with TotalRecallPress. Hell, I can print it and compete on print sales if I like. They put nothing (much) in the development. In all fairness, they DO help. They paid for me to go to Moscow (air, motel, food) for a computer forensics conference. That makes all of 2 pages in Security+ ! (But it is an area of deep interest to me). So we help each other on an informal basis.

One of their major tools is the Quizzer engine for the test sim. And they use MS Word for text creation.

I am no longer using either.

I have selected other tools as they are more suited to material for use in schools.

My friends still get to use my work. And they now have to figure out a way to import it from other tools. For example, I am creating test sims in Quiz, not Quizzer. That is because I can licence from the engine author a real LAN based test engine for up to 25 students. So, say you are leading a class on Security+. You spend an hour talking about PKI. At the end of the hour before a break, you give the entire LAN/Class 10 questions I wrote on PKI. As the instructor, you get a "radar screen" with a bunch of student ID's The ID's plot out based on Time required/# answered correctly.

If your "radar screen" shows 6-7-8 minutes and 1-2 questions answered correctly, that means all the student ID's will pile up in the lower right hand corner... in other words a classroom full of crash and burns.

Now some people may say, what a bunch of idiots. A real instructor would look at that pile of missed answers and long time involved and say..... "damn. I sure didn't do PKI well." And would know to re-visit PKI throught out the rest of the class.

I can't do that with BFQ/TRP tools. So, I'm no longer using them. They will have to adapt what I am doing to their tools, not me using their stuff.

I will continue to sell my stuff direct @ laugably low prices. I can do that since my overhead in things like buying ads at examnotes or anyplace else on the planet is 0.00 per year. I support examnotes by giving my time and free PDFs away to visitors of examnotes. I DO NOT contribute by saddling myself with a fixed cost of ads. If our host wants to sell my PDF's, he certainly can. He just has to ink a deal with me and charge you whatever he wants and give me my cut. He's going to have to charge you more than I do because examnotes has costs running the site.

If our host wants something other than PDF's, well examnotes is going to have to find a way to work with what I'm doing. If I leave PDF format for something else, people who want to sell my stuff in a different format are going to have to spend the time/money/energy to convert it to their liking and sell it as they see fit...

The reason is...

I've been working on an "itch" for more than 5 years. The deal is you may think of me as a geek. Really, I'm a psychologist with a big focus on how brains remember things. I just happen to practicing my trade in computers for the past 30+ years.

I'm within an inch of hitting a life long hunt that involves how to teach anyone, anything, regardless of how their brain works. I've understood the concepts since the '60's. Making it work technically and economically has been THE WALL.

Maybe I'm close to dying now. This has been a life long chase, and I've got it!
Just a few petty logisitical challanges... like making it ALL work in Windows, Mac Pre/post OS X, and Linux.

Linux is still the sticking point. I expect to have that solved before we're all popping corks to welcome in the new year.

The last point you may be asking for clarifcation on is ExamInsight/InsideScoop.

ExamInsight is a print book. InsideScoop is a print book that IS ExamInsight + a glossary + a Test Sim. The PDF I sell directly is InsideScoop with a different test sim that I also wrote... with the LAN capablities I mentioned above. InsideScoop = $90. Direct from me, = $20
(you supply the ink and paper if you want hard copy).

It does get confusing, doesn't it?
Tcat

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quote:

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My stuff will continue to be available from BFQ/TRP, and they are going to have to start converting it from other tools.

---

quote:

---

My direction is moving away from the supporting the retail channel with content.

---

quote:

---

I have been deathly silent here and else where because I have been back to beating my head against a brick wall on a new way of teaching. Well after five years of getting a bloody head, yesterday 14 Dec 2003, the brick wall broke!

---

quote:

---

I still have *a lot* of work in front of me, and I'm proud to say at long last, the technical issues are behind me :-)

---

quote:

---

With this breakthrough, my efforts are going there. BFQ/TRP can take my work and convert it to the more traditional forms and tools, and sell it.

---

quote:

---

I will be going my own way. Several things will not change. I will continue my no-ads policy. Ya find me by word of mouth or ya don't. Thats the only way I can deliver for $20 while amazon sells the same thing for $90. Amazon and the publisher both have costs and need to make a profit to pay those costs. I'm not going to increase my overhead with ads.

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