This book is a good starting point for the newly revised Windows 95 (70-064) exam. I just took it and scored 857 (minimum passing score is 632). The book goes into detail on topics that are heavily covered on the exam (networking with NT and NetWare, printing, system policies), and this makes it a great place to start studying. However, the 95 exam is full of nitpicky questions that are NOT covered in this book; you need additional sources to be completely prepared. In addition to buying this book, I'd recommend downloading the Win95 Resource Kit from Microsoft's Web site and spending some time going through it, especially troubleshooting. Also search the web for "70-064" to turn up helpful links. This is one of the hardest exams in the MCSE sequence, but if you use these sources you should be in good shape.

.... to pass the Win95 exam. This book is like all others in this series: Each test objective is examined in a seperate section while numerous fairly difficult questions test your knowledge. In addition, there are hands on exercises to reinforce the material. There are no pretty pictures here but this obviously helps keep the price at a very reasonable $25.00. The other recommended references would be the win95 resource kit and your hands on experience. A highly recommended book.

The 70-64 Windows 95 exam is tricky, but this book provides a very good foundation for the success. It does cover much more than is actually on the exam, and as such serves as a reference for the OS. I do think you will need to supplement study with the Windows 95 resource kit, but all the objectives on the exam are covered in the book. While the sample questions are sometimes lame (and really do not mimic the exam) there is an appendix which provides GREAT last minute study tips. The section on troubleshooting is fantastic, written by a person who obviously has spent time in the field wrestling with the same kind of problems administrators see every day. All in all, it is well worth the money I spent.

This work while attempting to appear objective is clearly a work of an Anti-Masonic Catholic. It is no secret that the Catholic Church and Freemasonry have a longstanding relationship of less than amicable terms. Mr. Fisher attended a Catholic University and has since written for several Catholic magazines. This book is even published by a Catholic Publishing company. (Talk about conspiracies!) On top of all these, Mr. Fisher's endnotes cite unidentified sources. (I'm still trying to locate Ibid!) For a truely objective study of Freemasonry and its history, try Robinson's "Born In Blood," a much more scholarly and less sensational book.

I have tracked this book on Amazon's web site, and, frankly, am amazed that there have been several quite negative comments to the effect that the book is not based on facts, or is "the same old story of half-truths," innuendos, etc.

The fact is the book is copiously documented with over 1000 end notes, primarily from Masonic sources. Indeed, the author makes known that he read every page of each monthly issue of the former flagship magazine of Scottish Rite Masonry of the Southern Jurisdiction, titled, "The New Age," for each of the years from 1921 through 1984. The book is based primarily on that work, and documents from "New Age" articles that Masonry has been for nearly 300 years a subversive secret cabal to overthrow church and state in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Within two years after "Lodge Door" was published, the magazine's title was changed to, I believe, "The American Freemason."

Further, "Lodge Door" is augmented by numerous citations from a Scottish Rite "Bible" titled, "Morals and Dogma" by Albert Pike, who was found guilty of treason to the U.S. during the Civil War. He was pardoned by President Andrew Johnson, a Mason, who was awarded the fourth through the 32 degree in Masonry in his White House bedroom. That President's pardoning of Albert Pike was one of the reasons for the House impeachment of him, which was rejected in the Senate by one vote, following a full court press by Masonry in America.

I strongly urge every American to read the book which has sold well over 25,000 copies.

Other sources include a long secret report on Masonry's secret efforts to initiate the Philippine Insurrection at the turn of the last Century, which is available in the National Archives, Internal Revenue Forms 990 on the Scottish Rite and allied organizations, as well over 200 other books.

The most startling revelation in the book documents that the U.S. Supreme Court was dominated by Masonic Justices from 1941 through 1971 in ratios of 5-4 and 8-1. Moreover, it is documented that the Court took up religion clause cases almost in the same sequence as was discussed in the "New Age."

Behind The Lodge Door is one of the most important books on Freemasonry that has ever been written. Al Jerome, Florida

I am the author of Behind The Lodge Door, and believe it may be helpful if potential readers knew the type of research and findings which the book brings out.

First, of all, before writing the book, I was generally favorably disposed to the Masonic Fraternity after viewing a Shriner's Parade. Accordingly, to find out more about the "Craft," as initiates call Freemasonry, I read each monthly issue of its flagship monthly magazine, "The New Age," for each of the 10 annual issues for each year from 1921 through 1984. The majority of those issues ran about 110 pages per month, with very little advertising. The magazine's length shortened considerably about 10 years prior to its name change in less than a year after my book was published.

From that research, augmented by Inernal Revenue Records, personal papers of five Supreme Court Justices, Civil War Records, Presidential papers, etc., I learned that Masonry was a militant opponent of the Catholic Church. The fact is that Church issued more than 50 major documents condemning Masonry for its Naturalism, and its unceasing efforts to overthrow Church and State.

A crucial part of the book discusses how America was changed from basically a Christian nation to an agnostic country. That was accomplished through the Supreme Court of the United States when that body was dominated by Freemasons in ratios of 5-4 and 8-1 during the period 1941-1971 when it completely reversed 162 years of prior Court decisions regarding the religion clauses of the Constitution, as well as Congessional and Presidential actions.

One of those Justices, Hugo Black, an ardent Mason, was found to be 1. A lifetime Member of the Ku Klux Klan, and was Constitutionally disqualified to sit on the Court. The latter reason is that when he was a U.S. Senator, he voted to increase the salaries of Justices from $10,000 to $20,000 per year, which is in violation of Article 1 of the Constitution.

An interesting aspect of the Court's religion clauses decisions is that the arguments set forth in the Court's negative opinion on Christianity in America were predicated on arguments previously set forth in "The New Age." Moreover, they were brought before the high bench almost in the identical sequence in which they were complained about in the "New Age."

That is the general thrust of the book. But interestingly enough, shortly after my book was published, Scottish Rite Masonry changed the title of its flagship magazine.

Read the book. There is none other with such devastating documentation.

The main reason I bought the book is that I wanted to learn the basics of system administration-type stuff common to Unix and Linux. If that's what you want to learn, this ISN'T the book you want. The only parts of this book good for that purpose, along those lines, are about five chapters and appendixes (out of 28). If you want to learn to use the X Windows system (overlayed with GNOME or KDE) to make and use a Linux machine for purposes similar to those you'd use a Windows workstation, then this book's for you. However, I doubt most people who want to get deep into Linux really need a zillion chapters about GNOME. I mean, heck--if you want it and can install it, you are probably smart enough not to need a Dummies book to figure out basic productivity software.

I bought this book and used it to install Linux on Gateway Solo 1150 laptop. At first I partitioned the hard drive, but the book assumes you aren't going to use a partition, and the installation (and use of the book) will probably go most smoothly if you have a spare hard drive on a regular desktop workstation. There weren't detailed instructions for the special case of someone wanting to partition a hard drive on a laptop, and there was a serious problem (possibly just a problem with the CD) installing the X Windows system.

Also, the jokes were sometimes a little strained...

I'd recommend this book for anyone who wants to install Linux for the first time, as well as set up dial-up web access and e-mail, a printer, word processor, database, spreadsheet, presentation and appointment software (Star Office) without paying hundreds of dollars for it. Very readable and good selection of information. A good complement is Linux Networking For Your Office by Roderick Smith, once you know the basics of Linux and want to set up a network to share files.

This book would have gotten 5 stars if not for one bad omission... it doesn't say enough about dual-boot installations. in particular, it doesn't tell you that if you're installing Linux as a second operating system with Windows NT or 2000, installing LILO in your Master Boot Record will make Windows inaccessible. Since the instalation chapter does talk about non-destructive partitioning (which most people will only do for a dual boot system with windows) this caution should have been mentioned somewhere to keep beginners from making this mistake and losing their Windows partition.

This book sets itself apart from other Red Hat 7 books:

1. It actually contains a Red Hat 7 CD. Most other books, I have looked at, still carry only a Red Hat 6.2 CD.

2. I provides clear instructions on how to create an installation disk from Linux. All other books, I have looked at only explain how to create an installation disk from DOS.

3. It provides step by step instructions on how to burn CDs with Red Hat Linux. It even gives you step by step instructions on how to set up an IDE CD-ROM drive to burn CDs. All other books, if at all, might talk quite some about Linux CD burning, but do not tell you how to do it.

4. It explains how to download, install and use RealPlayer. I have not found this information in any other book.

If you want to get up and running fast with Red Hat Linux 7, this book is your choice. If you want to have a lot of in-depth information about the Linux operating system, look elsewhere.

Thomas Kirsch

I bought this book expecting a real debate between the three views mentioned, namely, Young Earth Creation, Old Earth Creation, and Theistic Evolution. The reason I found it disappointing is for two main reasons. None of the contributors really talk about the evidences for their position, but instead ramble on about their philosophy of science. Van Till spends most of his time trying to convince people to call his perspective the "fully-gifted creation perspective" instead of theistic evolution. To me, it really was just playing with words in order to avoid the negative Christian response to evolution. Does Van Till believe in Darwinian evolution or not? He says he does, so why not Theistic evolution? His view, as he expresses it, is really Deism, although he protests that it isn't. Read what he says and decide for yourself. My other major complaint with the book was that instead of the proponent of each view responding to the other two views, the responses were made by a third party "panel". I found this to be extremely unsatisfying.
The book wasn't totally without merit, and all three perspectives had some good things to say - but it got lost in a lot of wordiness about "words" which really took away from the book as a whole.

This book consists of essays by proponents of each of the three views (Young Earth Creationism, Old Earth Creationism, and Theistic Evolution) and commentaries by practitioners of four disciplines: Biblical studies, theology, philosophy, and science. The entire discussion is concluded by summaries by Philip Johnson, an advocate of intelligent design, and Richard Bube, an advocate of theistic evolution.

The result is only partially successful. I am particularly impressed with the essays by Paul Nelson and John Mark Reynolds (Young Earth Creationism) and Howard J. Van Till (Theistic Evolution). Both give lucid and reasoned presentations of their views. I was pleasantly surprised to see Nelson and Reynolds, neither of whom I have read before, forego some of the more common but already discredited scientific arguments for a young Earth. Van Till presents a well thought-out and challenging integration of science and theology.

I am very disappointed by the commentaries, however. My first complaint is that the commentators sometimes seem unwilling to critique the essays primarily within their own expertises. For instance, John Jefferson Davis spends much of his space discussing the fossil record. On the one hand, none of the other commentators talk about this important piece of evidence. On the other hand, I wish the editors could have found someone other than a theologian to do this.

My second, more serious complaint is that each of the four commentators speaks entirely from an Old Earth Creationist perspective. In fact, Walter Bradley (who is supposed to provide criticism from a scientific perspective) uses the space allotted for commentary on the Old Earth Creationist perspective to attack the positions later presented in the Theistic Evolution essay. The reader is deprived of any scientific critique of the Old Earth Creationist view and instead finds a philosophical objection to a view not even presented yet. I find that entirely inappropriate.

As a brief introduction to the thinking in the three perspectives on creation and evolution, the primary essays in this book are very good. They each present some of the strengths and weaknesses of their own positions. These are not explored fully, but each essay is well referenced for further reading. The commentaries could have benefited by a better selection of commentators, however.

i've read in the field of creation-evolution for nearly 30 years now, from the _genesis flood_ to _darwin's dangerous idea_. that certainly doesn't make me an expert, only a concerned layman. this book is addressed by christian's to christian's, not that anyone outside of that community won't get a great deal out of the discussion only that the emotional desire/impetus to seek answers pushes christian's with a high view of scripture to try to reconcile the two biggies in their lives: science looking at general revelation and theology looking at scriptures. if you're not part of this community it is much easier just to ask "so what?" and not to understand why this is such a personal topic.

this is a first book, that is suitable for educated people to delve into a topic where many of the other books in this field/topic presume a background in either science or theology, or where the books are so stridently biased as to be "preaching to the choir" and put off 'newbies' with their presentation.

the issues are presented well enough that i think if someone finishes the book they will have a reasonable idea of what the problems are and where the different parts are most concerned in the discussion. it is not a scientific or theologically based book but rather philosophic. it presents concerns from each viewpoint, thus showing relative priorities in what each person discusses first and critisies as lacking emphasis in the other viewpoints. this is one value in a debate type of format, it can leave you with a prioritized idea of what people find important in the issues.

one problem however with this debate framework is that each person reading the book who already have committments to issues or positions tend to cheer for their side and boo down the opposing sides. this is evident from the reviews posted here, the young earth creation team is not the big names in the field, so it looks like in suffers from lack of heroes. nay, the two philosophers defend the position well given the page constraints they faced.

there is one issue running through the book i wished everyone had addressed in a more explicit matter, that is the difference in accepting the functional materialism of science versus the uncritical acceptance of a materialist world and life view of scientism. there is much confusion between the two, you can see it in much YEC criticism, in this book as well, of both progressive creationism and theistic evolution. naturalism is the idea that what we see is what we get, no god's behind the curtain, no skyhooks to come down and rescue us. there must be a distinction between how science uses this idea as a working hypothesis, as a functional means to an end, versus how a philosophy uses it as an axiom. of the 3 viewpoints, only vantil talks to the separation of the two. the YEC's fault the other two positions as if they accepted the materialism/naturalism as a deep committment in their systems. which as christian's is simply unacceptable from the beginning.

i liked the book. i think if you need a place to start it supplies one. however if you are already committed to a position you would be better off served by jumping straight to one of the major works in each viewpoint. and interact with that author without the polemics that form the debate structure of the book.

Paul Loeb's book takes an unduly complicated subject and makes it simple. When I read this educational and entertaining book I found myself saying "Of course, why didn't I think of that! ". I think every great philosophy and discovery has that element of recognition. Animals in the wild don't get fed canned mush, they eat natural foods just as we do. Why should we not allow our dogs to eat the way every other animal does? And why should we not use our human advantage (hands that can throw) to impress them and make them behave in a way that benifits us, our neighbors and therefore the dogs themselves? Absolute common sense, and it works. My dog is wonderful and much happier since she understands that I am in control. I can take her anywhere and be proud of her. Thank you Paul Loeb, when is the next book coming out?

I thought I knew all about my children (my Yorkie and my Poodle), but this book was enormously eye-opening! It is easy to read (you won't want to put it down), and so informative that you MUST have this book in your library!!!

This book is amazing. I have three dogs. A beagle, a labrador and a rottweiler. They do exactly what I say when I say it and seem to love me all the more. I really understand them now, and see my mistakes in dog rearing in the past. I have never found a book like this. You do what he says, exactly, and it works. Period. No nonsense - a slap on the behind is effective punishment for some offenses. The "throwing technique" is the best. If your dog is doing something wrong, correct him verbally and if he ignores you, throw something at him! It doesn't have to hit him - I use sock balls with pups - and your dog will obey you immediately. This guy is Dr. Doolittle. Got a dog? GET THIS BOOK!

While this book is very detailed, well-researched, and well-illustrated, this toilet-training method just didn't work on my cats.

I have two cats. Both are siamese, born on the same day about 15 months ago. They've lived their entire lives indoors in the company of people. Before we tried toilet-training them, they were perfectly box-trained. As soon as we started lifting the litter box up off the floor, cat poops began appearing on the floor now and then instead of in the box. We tried giving them a couple low steps to help them climb up to the box -- no help. We tried scouring the floor with all sorts of chemicals, sprinkled it with red pepper, we even covered it with a big potted plant and some cinder blocks. Each time we'd end up finding piles of poop between the obstacles.

We ended up with a thoroughly stinky bathroom, a scraped-up floor, a dead plant (not much sunlight in the bathroom), and diappointment. (sigh) I guess you can't win 'em all.

I don't usually go in for the latest and greatest pet trends (raw diets, monogrammed sweaters, isoloation treatment, etc.), but after feeling that horrible kitty litter crunch under my feet for the umpteenth time, I decided that this was worth a try. Rosco (my Russian Blue) didn't take too well to it at first, but eventually he started to catch on. The pictures are very instructive and helpful, but a tad on the graphic side...not for young children, I would say. I was very excited at the prospect of saving some kitty litter cash...but I quickly gave up on that plan when I realized that the increased toilet paper usage was more than making up for any litter savings.

I think some kitties might be able to be trained in 21 days, but not all. The most important part of this book is praise and patience! I trained my three kitties but it took longer than 21 days, more like 2 months. If your kitties don't like it you have to go slower. I agree that this book could really use a web site or 800 number or _something_ for when you have questions. Maybe we should start a support group? :> Anyway, after reading how awful kitty litter is for cats (not to mention the environment) almost anything is better than changing the litter every day. Even occasional setbacks.

Research on David Lane reveals that he will attack any religion that comes close to the teachings of his beloved Charan Singh. Lane wrote this one 25 years ago as a college term paper, just after becoming a devotee of Singh. Naturally, since he believes his way to be the only way, anything coming close *must* be stolen from his precious master. His attacks on Eckankar are mild compared to his attacks on the various Indian branches of Sant Mat. This book does a grave disservice to anyone interested in seeking spiritual truth.

This book contains some enigmatic information about Eckankar and Paul Twitchell, the founder of this modern day religion.

Being that he is a Professor at a small California college, this book is generally considered to be a credible scholarly work.

In actuality it is his term paper written twenty years ago, as a twenty year old student.

On 12/28/2000 in postings to the alt.religion.eckankar newsgroup David Lane has finally admitted the truth about this paper.

Writing about his "own biases" he said:

"I agree that there are some slants and some interpretations of mine that cannot be so universally duplicated and those can become arguable points of contention.

First, THE MAKING was written NOT as a sociological treatise but as a 'critical expose'.

Second, I wrote the paper when I was an undergraduate in religious studies.

Third, I am NOT a member of ANY sociological association.

Fourth, I NEVER claimed that the MAKING was a sociological treatise.

I wrote the paper AS AN EXPOSE!"

By intention this book may be shocking to those that do not see that the conclusions he draws and assumptions he makes are just the beginning of his twenty year campaign to defame all religious teachings.

From Catholicism to small innocuous teachings like Eckankar, Professor Lane believes that all religious experience has no reality beyond the neural synaptic firings within the brain.

So this is not a serious work of research but a paper intended to provoke negative opinion about Eckankar. At that it is a compelling success.

I am a former student of Doctor Lane, and I consider the time I spent in his classroom as the most influencial experiece of my short life. I recently reread this piece, and I can honestly say it is testiment to my affirmation that he is a reveloutionary scholar in religious studies, and has pumped life into a dying field. Be warned, you will question your faith when studing his material, but what is faith when it is untested?

Have to agree with version7x - the book's more about network admin for Solaris 8 than it is about Solaris 8 itself. Don't be fooled by the title or the editorial review. If you are as new to Solaris 8 as I am, buy Solaris Operating Environment Boot Camp (ISBN: 0130342874) instead. Two stars for a misleading title!

There is only one type of computer book I buy - O'Reilly. Every UNIX administrator knows the same thing. My bookshelves are crammed with sed & awk, sendmail, and all of the cool bookshelf series. This new Solaris book is an excellent addition to my library. It gives an overview of what Solaris is all about, how to get it running, and most importantly, how to support common network services. Security and storage are covered. You should not expect to learn everything about Solaris from this book. But it's the best summary I've seen to date.

Had this book been titled "An introduction to Network Administration on Solaris" O'Reilly would have hit the nail on the head with this one.

The book takes a shallow and deep approach to most topics the average administrator might just need a clue on. The book has enough depth to get your feet wet in each topic - allowing you to know if you need to study more or call it good.

Overall, this book hits all the basics and gives a great overview of an immense topic.

This is a solid reference book for those doing primarily Forms development, but it lacks quite a little in the Reports department. If you're buying it for Reports development, as I did, you'll be disappointed. I have yet to find a very good Reports reference. That said, this is probably the best one out there. The book contains something like 70% - 30% Forms info to Reports info (and that may be a little generous). It does have a few good examples and is an easy read.

READ THIS BOOK. You may understand what subclassing means and how object libraries work, but you'll have a hard time being productive if you don't understand how they best work together.

Wish I had this book before beginning my latest project. It has changed the way I look at Forms and Reports development.

Every so often a single book will define the way a tool will be used by everybody for a long time. 'Developer Advanced Forms and Reports' is that kind of book.

As a longtime Oracle DBA and a long-ago SQL*Forms developer, I was called upon to create an infrastructure for Oracle-based applications development. I knew all the Forms concepts, but desperately needed as quick a jumpstart as I could get to make it all work together. This book provided that jump with detailed instructions and examples.

I really think this book will become _the_ standard methodology for Oracle Developer developers everywhere.

Congratulations - and many thanks - to Dr. Dorsey and Mr. Koletzke for a job very well done.

Strathern's books appeal to two main types of readers: (1) Curious newbies who would like to dip their feet in philosophy and/or science; and (2) Lazy intellectuals who want to learn everything about everything without doing any real work. Either group will be ill-served by this book, which treats important ideas in a smug and cursory manner. The best introduction to Nietzsche is probably "The Gay Science", by Nietzsche himself. He's a much more powerful, disturbing, and beautiful writer than Strathern would have you believe.

If you know absolutely nothing about Nietzsche, this book will help you get your feet wet. It cannot be the only book you learn from, but it is certainly helpful to the beginner. If you're a college student in a rush to whip up a paper, consider yourself [in bad shape].

Strathern gives a fairly decent account of Nietzsche's life, and rather unfortunately, it takes up most of the book. Nietzsche's concepts are given a meager eight pages leaving readers feeling unsure as to what Nietzsche really wanted to say. The author also doesn't elaborate on Nietzsche's concepts at all. The idea of Eternal Recurrence is very thin and bare, and the concept of the Superman is hardly laid out at all. There is no way anyone can understand the Superman from reading this book. I found that readers may feel stuck if they don't know Nietzsche's predecessors (Hegel, Schopenhauer) as Strathern assumes the reader knows these characters already.

While the title is a misnomer (you can easily fit this in during your lunch break), it's a good refresher on Nietzsche's life and basic concepts. I do recommend reading more of the philosopher's works, as this book in no way covers it all.

Strathern's book on Nietzsche provides a nice, easily readable summary of Nietzsche's life and work. Much of the book is devoted to his personal life, which brings the man to life. But his main philosophical ideas are also covered. Strathern also shows how Nietzsche's work fits into the bigger picture of philosophy. It is a great read for someone who wants to learn the basics of Nietzsche but who doesn't have much time.