I was hoping for something to read to a child. Instead I found Santa mixed up with the NRA and toting a Confederate flag. Adults may find this an amusing rendition of St. Nick's visit with clever illustrations - but I'd never read this to a child.

If you or someone you know is a genuine redneck--then buy this book! Davis crammed his book full of great lingo, authentic redneck details, and hilarious parody. Just don't try to drink an RC cola while you read, or you'll end up laughing and spewing it all over the book. Take it from one who knows!

Amusing and very creative in content. Sure to hold attention. Very good for Christmas. Adults will appreciate the book as well as children. Very colorful! Worth the money!

I used this book and the full CNE Study Guide as my primary sources to study for these two CNE exams. I found the Network Technologies section to be very good. It contained everything I needed to know, and a very few things I didn't, to pass the test comfortably. Unfortunately I cannot say the same for the Service and Support section. It covered all the topics, but in nowhere near enough detail. I passed that test, but only barely, and I believe I passed it based more on luck and personal experience than based on the material in this book. You can rely on this book for the Net Tech test, provided you memorize all the information which is very densely packed, but for the S&S test you will be much better off getting additional material.

I used this book once again for the Service and Support test passed reading only this book. This series is designed to be like a review but it does a good job of giving you enough to pass the tests on their own. It does the job of the main study guide from the same author but without all of the bull that he puts into the other book. I actully passed this test and Zenworks the same day and I am now a CNE. I know it is hard to believe me with this claim but it is true. Thank you Mr. Clarke IV, you did a good job with this series.

Thank You

Dack CNE, MCP, CCNA, N+

I'm not sure what the problem was with "A reader from San Antonio, Tx". I found this book to be a great help to both the network & the support exams. You *must* remember that it's designed to augment full course material (novell white book or the Novell Study Set - ISBN: 076454554X i think) - it is NOT for study on its own.

It fulfills this role well. I've used other Clarke notes before (CNA) and I intend to buy more ... pity there isn't a MCNE set.

After working with NetWare networks for 4+ years I finally decided to earn my CNE status. To bring myself up to speed I bought the Novell's CNE Study Set : Guide to Intranetware/Netware 4.11 and Guide to Core Technologies. I enjoy taking the hands on approach to learning a system and use technical writing for informational purposes, but once I started reading this book I found that I couldn't put it down. I recently lost my old copy and decided to purchase another book by a different author, I found that this book didn't even come close to the quality information I found in the Novell's CNE Study Set : Guide to Intranetware/Netware 4.11 and Guide to Core Technologies. If your looking for a CNE study book to help you earn your CNE status, or if you just want one for reference, you should buy this book.

I took a four month training course for Netware 4.11 at a local college and this was the book that our instructor used to teach the class. I found this book to be very informative and the software and practice quizzes were excellent in preparing you for all of the CNE exams. The software that comes with the book is very useful and essential for studying for your CNE. It even comes with a 2 user version of intranetware 4.11! You also get the Clarke tests cd, which is quite useful, but I would recommend that someone seeking to be certified to purchase the Big Red study test from Novell.These test questions come directly from Novell's testing database. With this book and the Big Red tests you will have the success you seek!

You can use these two books to pass all the CNE exams except the elective. It does have alot of extra funny stuff in it but it doesn't get in the way and some of it is quite nice. It has brain teasers which generally have nothing to do with Netware but are good for giving you a break from studying and help to sharpen your thinking. At first I thought I didn't like the jokes, teasers, and quotes but when I had to get a book by a different author for my elective I really found it dull and extremely boring after Mr. Clark's books. You also get a small version of the Clark tests for Core Technologies, a demo of the MTL so you can become familiar with it, 2-license Netware, and other demos on CD. You can't miss with these books. You can get your CNE using them alone (except for the elective). I did.

This book will prepare you for the exam, but what a waste of time reading. I was so incredibly sick of his tree-hugging "wit" I have done MCSE, Citrix CCA, Cisco CCNA, Compaq ASE courses and exams and never seen a book where an author needs to put his beliefs or humor in the book. Get to the point and get there quickly. Alright, my wife thinks I am being too negative. Do you get prepared for the test absolutely. Did I learn a lot about Netware 5 absolutely. Did I pass the test easily, yes again. I just didn't appreciate the writer's style of presenting the material. Also, why doesn't Novell give you an evaluation copy of Netware with this kit? If they want you to learn this stuff then experience is the best way. (I didn't buy a Compaq server to sit around and collect dust)!!!! Please Novell, DO NOT allow this moron to write for you. Hire a professional writer and allow Mr. Clarke to write the great American novel "My trip through Woodstock: The stories of a 60's tree hugger living in the 21st century"

I found this book to be good, but David Clarke tends to add fanciful fluff in an attempt to make the topic matter interesting. The book covers all the necessary info, lays it out pretty much as you will see on the exam, however, the author presents the material like a text book, not an exam cram book. In this way, you can potentially learn the material better and later use the book as a reference. Unfortunately this makes for a thick book that may take you longer to plow through. I can honestly say this book helped me pass my CNA exam the first time out. Oh course, it helped that I have 10+ years experience in NetWare and networking. The important point here is the book will cover everything, but you will need experience. Do the labs, puzzles, and sanple exam!

First, I passed the CNA5 test with a score of 100%. If it had not been of Clark's book, I would have missed a lot of content. This book is written with a friendly touch and doesn't make you feel like you are reading Novell's whitepapers. Still, all the exam theory and course objectives are covered, plus the author gives a little taste of what there is to learn before getting the CNE title. I am very pleased with this book (already ordered the CNE study guide) and I have already recommended it to colleagues who are interested in Novell certification. My certification path, for your interest, was installing Netware 5 at home (2 computers) and working around with it, reading this book, practicing on Exam Essentials tests and passing the test! Good going M.Clark!

At first Bond Films, co-authored by Jim Smith and Stephen Lavington, looks simply like a brief outline of each of the James Bond films. However, delving deeper reveals that compiled within the Bond Films is actually quite a wealth of information from a variety of sources.

Each film has a standard set of sections devoted to it, which are all discussed in the books introduction. Some of these sections include information on fashion decisions in the films, the advancements of particular continuing characters including M and Miss Moneypenny, the box office returns for the films, award nominations and film trivia. The most interesting sections, and those which make this a successful book, are those which discuss scenes cut from the film, source to screen information, real world influences and parallels, product placement details, critics responses to the film and social references in the film. It is the latter which may prove to be the most interesting to Bond fans as they summarise information which hasn't previously been made readily available.

Despite some 'gem' sections there are two which could easily have been left out. The first is 'quotes', everyone enjoys particular quotes for varying reasons and it seems unnecessary for the authors to attempt to define which are the best of a particular film. Also unnecessary is a section called 'The One With'; a section that informs you how to remind a friend which film you mean. For instance, The Living Daylights is given as "The One With: the rock of Gibraltar, the milkman and the cello". Some may find the section interesting, the 'hardcore' Bond fan will find it a statement of the obvious.

It is obvious that a lot of work has gone into summarising material to include in the book, particularly for some of the aforementioned sections.

It's good to see areas dedicated to the majority of Bond films, Never Say Never Again included. While 1967's Casino Royale is included in the book it is disappointing to see that the 1954 version of the book is not. While, admittedly, it was only a telemovie it is undoubtedly an important part in the history of the cinematic James Bond.

Bond Films, co-authored by Jim Smith and Stephen Lavington, isn't the best Bond book ever, but it's obvious that the authors never intended for it to be. They had an intention from the start, stuck to it and in doing so successful created an interesting source of information.

An above-average book on the Bond series. In my opinion, the book's major lapses are when it tries to put the Bond films in historical context. The most notable howler here is a lengthy discussion of the effect of the 1973 OPEC oil embargo on the UK (page 139). This whole analysis is flawed because the UK was exempted from the OPEC embargo! The book also stumbles when it discusses the Thatcher government. For one thing, it claims (page 177) that the Thatcher government was elected in September 1979 (it was actually May 1979). Secondly, the book makes much of the fact that the same Defence Minister appears in the Bond films pre- and post-1979. The book claims (page 169) that for the character Frederick Gray still to be Defence Minister after the 1979 change of government, he "has pulled off the biggest party political defection in British history." In fact, it was not unheard for a minister to serve in both the late 1970s Callaghan Labour government and in the Thatcher government--for proof, see page 546 of Kenneth Morgan's book CALLAGHAN: A LIFE.

Another flawed discussion occurs when the authors claim that DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER "was very much ahead of its time" because "the idea of space-based lasers was not seriously mooted until US President Ronald Reagan's 'star wars' program of the 1980s" (p. 114). In fact, space-based weaponry was the subject of international diplomacy well before the 1980s--it was even covered by a 1972 arms treaty. Another space-related error occurs when the authors give the wrong year for the first space shuttle mission.

The book takes a decidedly rose-tinted view of Timothy Dalton's box office performance. You would not know from this book, for example, that all of the 1980s Roger Moore's 1980s Bond pictures scored higher US admissions than either of Dalton's films. More generally, the authors take a scattergun approach to the reporting of box-office results, sometimes reporting world grosses, sometimes only US grosses. Moreover, for both OCTOPUSSY and NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN, box office rentals are incorrectly given as box office grosses. Many of the other box office comparisons in the book are misleading because of the failure to adjust for inflation.

As far as the reviews themselves are concerned, I was pleasantly surprised to see some kind words said about A VIEW TO A KILL and some reservations about GOLDFINGER. Otherwise, the reviews report quite conventional views about the films; indeed, the opinions expressed here about the first eleven movies are virtually interchangeable with those in John Brosnan's classic book on the Bond series. Sometimes the influence of previous books, while understandable, is TOO intrusive. For example, Barnes and Hearn's judgement on THE SPY WHO LOVED ME in their book KISS KISS BANG BANG was that it was "a slick...'greatest-hits' package" (page 129 of 1997 edition); Smith and Lavington's judgement on the same film is: "A slick, pacy 'greatest hits' package" (page 154).

There are numerous misquotations from the films as well as misspellings of names of characters, cast members, and historical figures. Most of these errors are minor but avoidable. On other issues, such as the running time of ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE and how many of the Bond films are solo-scripted, the book's errors are more serious.

The Moore films are repeatedly criticised for making the James Bond character well-known throughout the world rather than a secret agent, ignoring the precedent for this in two Connery Bonds--Bond made the papers in YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE and was world-famous in DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER. (Barnes and Hearn's book on the Bond films was also guilty of this double standard.) Other inconsistencies appear to be a by-product of the book being written over a long period. For example, page 33 claims that "throughout" the Bond film series, Soviets were never Bond's main enemy--ignoring FOR YOUR EYES ONLY, which is acknowledged on page 176 as a film where the main villains are Soviet-backed. And the statement on page 177 that "politicians had been either anonymous or not obviously based on any one person" in the films before FOR YOUR EYES ONLY seems at odds with the authors' own account of the conclusion of GOLDFINGER: "[the] plane Bond is taking to meet President Johnson..." (page 41).

If there's any useful information here, it's difficult to find. There is nothing but fluff, bad jokes, and lame analogies. The author never gets to the point. His writing style is nauseating. Save your money

The crossword puzzles seemed a little off, but I can't complain since I passed the CNA exam immediately after reading this book and taking the practice exams provided on the CD. It was enjoyable reading and sometimes even funny. Perhaps that is why I was able to learn instead of sleep.

The book was published in April 2000, which means it was probably written during late 1999 and early 2000, when the NASDAQ was soaring to 5000 and tech had no boundaries. Its tone of breathless enthusiasm is very representative of that time. The book does accurately state the e-potential, but like NASDAQ investors in March 2000 did, it extrapolates unsustainable trends into a ceaseless upswing. The Web is here, and it is a true revolution, but ultimately it is simply another communication channel for insurers and their stakeholders. This is a great read, but only to help understand what kind of carried-away thinking created the tech bubble.

Just finished a LAN Class, where I had to buy books on NT, Cisco, MS-DOS and Novell. Got through all the other books with no problem. Then my instructor saved the best (worst) for last. I get nauseated trying to learn anything from the text in this book. I can stand to read about two pages in a row at any given time and then I have to close it and take a break. Today is my last day of class and I haven't finished this book yet and don't believe I will. The only good thing about it is that it is very thick and dense and will make a nice backstop when I go to the pistol range and shoot it full of holes.

There are two types of CNE students in this world: Those that love this book and those that loathe it. I was severely disappointed to find that, although the cover of the book tells you that the official Novell courses are inside, they're not in any specific order! I don't know about the rest of you, but I take one test at a time...and that's how I'd like to study for them. There's an index at the back that tells you which pages to read to follow Novell's cirriculum for a specific course, but it's 10 pages here, 5 pages there, 2 or 3 pages here, 30 pages there...on and on and the the material may span 1000 pages or more. I don't understand the thinking when putting this book together. I bought it at another store and returned it. My time is too valuable than to subject myself to this.

All knowledge this book offers is well hidden behind all those jokes and "zen" things. It's a good book for people who want to train how to distinguish between useful and useless information.

Very low information/page ratio.

Certification is not easy. I have been using David James Clarke's CNE Study Guide since v3.12. I still use it for reference. This guide is ga great tool, it is well organized, and the puzzles, jokes and quotes help keep your mind moving. (Lets face it, alot of the information you have to memorize is not interesting.) It is presented in the English we use on a daily basis, not in technobabble that you have to decode while you read. With the flood of computer books, none is perfect, but this one is the most complete I've seen. Start with this, but don't expect any single book to make you a CNE or MCSE, it takes more than reading.

There is no single source of all information. A great deal is opinion and experience. If you can't learn from a book with this much information, you might want to re-examine your study habits. The problem might not be the book.

Thanks to Mr. Clarke for his help in my success...

For those who have read "Novell's CNA Study Guide for NetWare 5", you will be familiar with David Clarke's style. All the necessary material is covered, but extra fluff is inevitable. As with the CNA book, the author uses a fantacy corporation named ACME to illustate his points. The company is made up of heros from earth's past (King Aurther, Abraham Lincoln, etc...) that are the key players for each division/department. Using an example for illustrative purposes makes since, but I think Mr. Clarke goes too far. My advice to Mr. Clarke is keep writing good study guides, but trim out some of the non-sence.

On the whole the book is very good and I recommend it. You may end up doing more reading than you had planned, but you will learn the material. If you are preparing for CNE exams, experience definitely helps. Do the labs and practice exams.

This study guide is outstanding! This combined with CNE Quizzer is the recipe for passing exams & learning the material. All the fluff makes the book easier to stay awake while reading compared to the "Technical" references only books I've used before.

Having learned most of what I know about Netware 4.11 from Clarke's books, I took a leap and bought both the admin and CNE books that he authored for Netware 5.1. I was disappointed. The books lack the anecdotes that break up the monotonous material, and it's evident that Clarke wasn't enthused with writing this book.

Much of the material isn't fully explained. For instance, in the Advanced Administration section, Clarke mentions subordinate reference partitions, but doesn't go on to explain what a subordinate reference is. His explanation of b-trees for NSS volumes is likewise lacking. It could be summed up as a replacement for FAT that allows the volume to mount faster, but instead he concentrates on explaining it's heirarchical properties, losing the reader in the process. A full 100 pages of information new to Netware 5.1 was lost upon me for this very reason.

But in the absense of other study materials for Netware 5.1, you probably don't have much choice but to buy this book if your aim is to obtain a CNE via self-study. If you can get your hands on the Exam Cram books, I highly recommend them as a supplement (good luck getting the exam cram for Advanced Admin, which is out of print). If you use Transcender exams in conjuntion with these books and set up a netware 5.1 server to practice with, you should have absolutely no problem passing the tests. But don't depend on this book alone, because it probably won't suffice.

I started seriosly my study with this book.The good one is, the style he (the author)talk to us in the book, I really like it!
But some thinks are logical and I understand easierly, but some others really difficult. And if your head is burning, and still you don't understand the meaning, your are demotivated. A little bit later, you find out that not you are mistaken,there are explanations in the book, the can 't be true! That are not translation-mistakes, like from english to german. I compared it with an original english book. And? The it 's the same! How can a Leaf-Object recieve "C" as an Object-Right. Check it under the capital:Netware-Security. Where you can make your own test! The other mistakes are softer, but enough to make you confus.
I wouldn`'t explain everything here, if I could find out who is responsible, to give a chance to modify the book.

After passing NetWare Administration 5.1 using the companion CNA 5.1 book as my primary study resource, I was hoping for a similar experience with this book. I am finding that while the CNE 5.1 book does cover much of the material for the remainder of the CNE examinations, it is a bit light in some critical areas. I have expanded my studies with another CNE series from Novell Press, a set of third party CBT's, and even broke down and took the official Advanced Administration 5.1 course. I'm not at all certain that I would have passed Advanced Admin or NDS Design if I had trusted just this book to get me prepared.

My other frustration is that for a new book, it does not attempt to cover the latest version of the NDS Design and Implementation test or the Service and Support exam. Why not? The latest tests have been out there for a while. Like the CNA book, I get the feeling that this book is a slight re-write of the previous 5.0 version and was rushed to publication without attempting to cover everything in the most current versions of these exams.

While I still find this book valuable for CNE test preparation, I do not feel comfortable using it as the main resource for my studies. It certainly is a good secondary resource.

All I have left for my CNE certification is Service and Support and an elective. I will definitely keep using this book to help prepare for S&S, but I am already lining up other resources to fill in the anticipated gaps.

I hope when this book gets updated for Netware 6, the publisher will allow the author to take the time to provide a comprehensive text for those of us who prefer the relaxed pace and flexibility of self study over the shotgun (boom, here it is, we're done) authorized courses - and make certain that all of the objectives from the most recent courses and exams at that time are covered in depth. Perhaps it is time to break this book up into more than one volume to allow room for the needed detail.

BTW, lose the crossword puzzles and the word searches at the end of the chapters. They are next to worthless in helping to make the information stick and pretty much a waste of time. How about putting that effort into a set of sample test questions on one of the companion CD's?

Again, all in all, this is a good book, but for me, it just isn't enough to make me feel totally prepared for the tests.