This is an unclassified version of a study originally done by OSS psychologists on the selection of personnel suitable for clandestine operations. This means those in which the individual is inserted into enemy territory and then left alone to live under deep cover, always living in a state of stress and tension.
Compare this with covert operations in which groups of individuals are inserted for the purpose of operational support to indigenous forces or for independent raids and sabotage. On covert ops there is usually a safe zone where some can relax and unwind while others watch and the individual is not only armed but often uniformed as well. Wearing a uniform does not protect one from summary execution as a spy if captured but it does gives a valid claim to POW status and one can hope it will be granted.
Thus, it takes a very special mental state to operate alone and to expect nothing but torture and death if captured. And hope that execution will be swift. Few can stand the tension that results from being alone in a hostile environment.

This is one of the best books that I've every used. I had it for 5 years and I use it all the time. it's great for beginnners, and professionals. I own my own video productions company.
I'd recomend it to anyone and everyone!

This is a very good guide to gain a global view of each theme treated with rigor to sharpen the understanding of the subject. The questions for further consideration should have a model answer to consolidate the aim of provoking the correct intended thoughts about historical problems unless you want to limit yourself to an educated opinion. The reader would also benefit with answers from the themes and questions raised concerning specific documents.

In What Is Truth?, James Emery White presents an insightful examination of the concept of truth as it finds expression in the theological systems of five prominent Evangelical theologians: Cornelius Van Til, Francis Schaeffer, Carl F. H. Henry, Millard Erickson, and Donald Bloesch.

White rightly realizes the enormous challenge that postmodernism presents to Christianity, especially its Evangelical stream. Post-foundationalist thought tends to challenge not only objectivity in man's grasping and appropriation of truth, but even the very ontological reality of truth. While even so hardened a relativist as Richard Rorty admits the self-defeating nature of such a claim, it continues to garner support from many sectors of philosophy. White helpfully draws a clear distinction between the metaphysical and epistemological aspects of. This is his book's major contribution to the debate. He concludes that the metaphysical and ontological reality of truth as it is expressed in the traditional correspondence theory of truth is basic to Christian theology, indeed to all thought. The epistemological aspect of truth is a bit more problematic, though, as debate soon becomes mired in debates over epistemic justification, the nature of starting points, evidentialism vs. presuppositionalism, etc.

White provides incisive critiques of the five major thinker's systems. He appropriately questions Van Til's jihad against univocity, his attendant rejection of the necessity of the law of contradiction, and his claims that his system provided objective certainty and absolute proof for Christian theism.

The chapter on Schaeffer is rather well done. Schaeffer's shortcomings as a philosopher and historian (he claimed only to be a simple evangelist) are discussed. The best portion of the chapter deals with Schaeffer's failure to provide positive proof for Christianity. He failed to realize that disproving atheistic nihilism does equal proving Biblical Christianity. Schaeffer also tended to stress the pragmatic aspect of truth-claims, asserting that a worldview could not be true if it did not explain the 'mannishness of man,' not realizing that his values existed within his worldview and thus could not be a criterion for choosing a worldview.

Carl Henry likewise placed too much faith in the power of rational argumentation to prove the truth of Christianity. Henry is to be credited, though, for championing the universality of logic, and the propositional nature of reality and Scripture.

Millard Erickson is one Evangelical who has engaged in serious dialogue with postmodernism and post-liberal theology. He has attempted a synthesis which preserves the historic orthodoxy of the Reformation while incorporating the insights of recent trends in theology, including existentialism, structuralism, and narrative theology. While his synthesis tends more toward the former tradition than the latter, he has nonetheless been influenced by contemporary thought more than other thinkers. This influence is evident in his nuanced formulation of inerrancy, his emphasis on personal revelation, his coalition with evidentialism and its emphasis on empirical verification, and his openness toward progressive hermeneutical methods.

The last thinker examined, Donald Bloesch, can hardly be classed an Evangelical. He is a Barthian through and through. He embraces the dialectical theology of the neo-orthodox irrationalists and vitiates the doctrine of the authority of Scripture. Positively, though, he steers Evangelicals toward an appreciation of the theological implications of the Incarnation, as well as the concept of revelation as an event as well as a body of truth. Furthermore, his rejection of autonomous philosophy is a strong antidote to the Enlightenment strands in Evangelical thought.

White's book is well worth reading. White provides a good overview of the concept of truth in the thought of the thinkers he covers. I do have some gripes, though. First, numerous misspellings and typos mar the text. Second, White makes the same mistake he accuses most thinkers of making: that of confuting the metaphysical and epistemological aspects of truth. He does this when he asserts a dichotomy between the correspondence and coherence theories of truth. He wrongly portrays the latter as an ontological description of truth. Coherence and correspondence cannot be so easily dichotomized. Coherence proponents such as Gordon Clark and Cornelius Van Til believed in the ultimate unity of the two. Truth corresponds to the mind of God, which is completely coherent. Third, the book contains no index! Fourth, the selection of Van Til, Schaeffer, Henry, Bloesch, and Erickson is questionable. The issue is primarily philosophical. I would have selected Van Til, Gordon Clark, Arthur Holmes, Alvin Plantinga, and Norman Geisler.

These books are awful! I am a IS Manager for a school district and the typo's I found were frustrating. For example, I used it as a quick reference for the proper UNC path for user profiles. I kept racking my brain for two hours trying to figure out why it wasn't working. I finally realized that the path they had written down (\\server_name\winnt\profiles)(p.346 in NT server 4 book) was completely wrong!!! The proper path shopuld be \\server_name\profiles\username.

Sorry, just venting. Buy the Exam crams if you want to be MCSE. I struggled with the Sybex books for 6 months. I bought the Exam Crams and passed all 6 exams in 5 months

Jeff Tangen MCSE

The Net Ess book is good. Lots of details and well structured. But the other three I wouldn't recommend to anyone that knows how to point and click. First of all, the contents are VERY repetitive between the three NT books (some exercises are even the same, word for word). Secondly, the instructions for the exercises go into excruciating details. e.g. they take up half a page (or more) telling you how to open up something in Control Panel. Well, duh! I definitely advice anyone that knows how to get around in NT to avoid this book set. Lastly, they only cover some very basic stuff, and completely ignored many advanced topics that're required in the exams. However, you can probably pass the exams if you spend some time on exploring NT yourself. To sum it all up, the Net Ess book alone is enough to help you pass the exam (and nice to keep as future reference), but the other three only get you to know about the basics of NT. So get additional materials if you're serious about becoming a professional. By the way, these are only my opinions. Some people may see the above points as the "goods" of this book set. So you decide yourself. Good luck!

I bought the boxed set, but I didn't use them to pass the 3 required exams: NT 4.0 SERVER, SERVER IN THE ENTERPRISE AND NT 4.0 WORKSTATION. Why? Because each book is huge, I tried reading through the first couple of chapters of NT Server 4.0 and ended up quitting because the information was very basic. It's really good for people who have absolutely no networking knowledge at all, because it covers basic networking. I have used the program and taken some classes so I found these books a waste of time for me. I wanted to save time (who has time to waste reading a 500 to 600 page book when you can read one that's half the size)so I used Sybex's MCSE core requirements NOTES instead. These books cut through all the unnessary stuff and give you the information you need to pass the exams.

However, I must say that I would not have passed if I did not use the practice tests put out but Transender corporation. the question's used in the exam notes book's did not prepare me for the exams. In conclusion, If you want to pass read the MCSE CORE REQUIREMENTS NOTES AND KNOW THE INFORMATION ON THE TRANSENDER EXAMS AND YOU WILL PASS. I hope this helps. Good luck.

This book covers a very emotional issue for many people on both sides of the debate. I believe this book to be one of the better in presenting the Southern side. I belive the term "yankee" is used so much in this book simply because of emotion. Unbridled anger, I'm sure overcame the authors during their research. If something has been represented to you as truth your entire life, just to be proven otherwise, it would be a great point of contention. This book is well documented and thoroughly researched and footnoted. Human nature is to be sorry for misdeeds. Human tendency is to justify one's actions. Slavery was immoral, wrong, indecent, and was no "bed of roses" (European immigrants in the 1800's knew all about it). I don't think the authors should have "gone there." I thought it ironic that some Northern states passed laws disallowing blacks from residing within their borders. I've grew up in the South and have never heard this. I wonder why? They were allowed to stay long enough to get out. My only wish is that others, not JUST the South, would be labled for what they were. Perhaps this book may open some minds and we can all realize blame as well as glory.

Buy it and read it! This book is about a critical point in American history, the fight for Southern Independence. That is, the seperation of America into two seperate distinct countries. The book presents the less known story of the Southern States. It addresses several reasons for the War, many which are not widely known and may not be popular. It demonstrates without a shadow of a doubt that the Confederate States of America achieved constitutional legal independence. The book brings forth the atrocities that the American government (Northern nation) inflicted upon the newly formed Confederate nation. It presents an account of slavery that is startling, but supports the position with strong documentation. For credibility and accuracy the book uses the American Constitution and other American Federal, State and local government documents. It also references documents by several individuals of the time, from Senators to slaves.

Many people hold emotional views why the war was fought, without ever getting the facts. Some of those people are quite outraged when they encounter historical facts that do not align with their unfounded emotional beliefs. This book presents documented historical information, it is not written to incite, but to inform. And inform it does!

Even today the events of those four years are still impacting our daily lives. Isn't it time you got informed too !!

My interest in the Civil War started with a goal of understanding "Why war was inevitable" given that secession would occur. "The South Was Right" gives great insight into the real causes of war. The issue of slavery vs Tariffs will be debated forever as the cause, but this book clearly presents the concept that Lincoln saw that the loss of Southern agriculture and ports for internationsl trading would mean financial disaster for the Union. The book documents well that money raised from taxation on imports and exports through Southern ports and particularly of southern agriculture products (King Cotton) fed the construction of the northern infrastructure (canals, roads, bridges) and ignored the the needs of the south. Upwards of 75% of federal revenues came from southern imports/exports and the south received little of the benefit of that revenue. This insight alone made my reading of this book well worth the time spent.

A new and interesting tidbit of information was revealed in this book. Why was Ft Sumpter so important? Why fire on Ft Sumpter? Lincoln refused to vacate Ft Sumpter after secession, making Ft Sumpter an occupied military installation, occupied by the Union Army on the soil of the CSA. Ft Sumpter was being resupplied by sea on the order of Lincoln, and Ft Sumpter was the Customs House in Charleston. All Tariffs were collected at Ft Sumpter and it would appear that the Union refused to give up tax collection on cargo passing through Charleston. It would also appear that this war was was fought over taxes.

Further, when I read of the ratification of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution in 1867, and the deceipt, illegality, and coercion required to ratify the 14th Amendment, which effectively killed the concept of "States Rights", I was deeply affected. The case is made that the 14th Amendment was not legally ratified and one could conclude that all Supreme Court decisions that follow the 14th Amendment are without basis... Almost all civil rights decisions go to the 14th Amendment and the growth in power of the central federal government eminates from the 14th Amendment.

Further revelations concerned a summary of historical facts of slavery, roles and attitudes of some blacks favorable to the south, summary of many Yankee atrocities, treatise on Slavery as the cause of the Civil War, and dealing with numerous "myths" that support the traditional causes and history of the war between the North and the South.

As a Texan, I well remember learning i n the 1950sthat "Lincoln was the Greatest president because he freed the slaves" and can recite to this day the Gettysburg Address. I do believe that I am the victim of these "Yankee Myths". I greatly value the liberation from those myths that "The South Was Right" has provided.

This book was not written to be an objective evaluation of both sides of all of these issues. But it does present the Southern view, as told by southerners, and presents much compelling evidence and logic. It goes far to balance out the barrage of traditional Yankee history that we all learn in school. Do not expect to read about Southern Atrocities, Southern culpability in the causes of the war, Southern political miscalculations, or fault in any southern leaders.

"The South Was Right" will sadden you to read that Lincoln trampled the Constitution in starting a war to "Save the Union"... He needed to "Save the Union from bankruptcy" and he started a war to do so. And you will be saddened to see the extremes that the Northern politicians went to in enacting the laws of Reconstruction and reatification of the 14th Amendment. Be prepared to be emotionally affected if you value the letter of the law in the U S Constitution.

This book has altered my view in many respects. I highly recommend it in spite of its flaws.

I used the Sybex books for the NT 4.0 exams so I figured why not use them for the 2000 exams.

I thought the 70-210, 70-215 and 70-216 books were good, BUT the 70-217 book is terrible. Lots of mistakes, awful questions at the end of the chapter. I even found some incorrect answers within the questions provided.

I'm not sure if I'm going to use Sybex for any of the others.

Yes, the books by Chellis et al...are probably the best MCSE Study Guides (definitely better than the New Riders that I also got), but I had to take several of the exams repeatedly to pass the exams. I realize that this is probably because Microsoft has made it more difficult to pass the exams, but I still would like to have the exams made as easy as possible.
There were a lot of good associated products on the CD, and the cost of the four set was pretty good . Overall, yes, I would recommend.

While I would hesitate to say that the first editions of these books stunk, Sybex really stepped it up with the second editions. I had a chance to look at the first editions, and decided to go with another book (which was not very helpful). As an MCSE in NT 4, I have the basic understanding and experience needed to pass these exams. But unfortunately, I have test anxiety. The review questions in these books were extremely helpful, as well as challenging. They gave me an idea of what to expect when I was ready for the test. I used the Net Infrastructure and Directory Services books to prepare for the exams, and I passed. In addition, the real world examples and Exam Essentials section helped me gleen from the text what was very important.

I've just passed this fourth exam of MCSE and I'm really glad I left a few days before taking it, to go through other tests from other vendors and the MS Readiness Review book. It was then that I discovered that this book covers about HALF the detail you need to know! This was quite a surprise - the Sybex NT Server 4, Workstation 4 and Net Essentials books have been excellent. This book overlaps far too much info with the NT Server 4 book, about 70% I reckon, whereas the test overlaps about 10%. In summary, an excellent book if you haven't read NT Server 4, and you don't need to pass the exam for which it was intended to be a study guide.

I've read a total of 3 NT Server study guides. I couldn't say I passed the exam without help from this book.

This book did help me pass the exam. However, there are a few objectives that are not covered in the detail needed to pass the exam.

Questions at the end of the chapters are a bit too easy.

Would buy it again, but for this exam you need more than one book.

I really enjoyed this book. When I passed the adaptive exam I KNOW I got 14 of the 15 questions right and think I probably got the other, one, too. About overlap in the series, well, the microsoft core exams have a lot of overlap. It's not the authors fault. About errors, the microsoft way is not always right. You have to learn a few 'wrong' ways to pass their exams. But, yes, the cybex books do explain a few (I've found two) things in ways that will lead you to answer a question or two wrong. Something about manditory profiles being cached locally and upgrading from 95 to NT (you can email me if your concered and need the 'right way'). Otherwise, these books are great. My employer thinks I superman since I've passed four exams in two months.

I am going to be honest. I passed the CCNA exam on March 2000. So I started studying for the CCDA exam. I will have to say that the exam is hellish. I have Sybex, Syngress and a Cisco Press CCDA study guide. It takes much more than just reading the book. You really have to be around the Cisco products. If you are a test taker and feel that you can pass it on the first try then please be my guest and take it. I am so burned out that I have decided to pursure something else. Just to give you an idea of how hellish the exam is. I took it in October of 2000 and scored a (711), I took it again in December and scored a 670 and I took it again today and scored a 695 (Passing score is 755). Each of these were failing scores but what is so unique about these scores are that they are very close together and the scores did not improve even though I studied harder than the previous tests. I hear so much praise from everybody I just wanted to add my advise so not to skew people's perceptions - yes people do fail the exam.
For the exam, what I felt the study guides needed was to concentrate more on are the scenarios. You need to know how to give the customer the best option available to him based upon what he wants and how his current network is set up. - This was approximately 30-40% of the exam.

I passed my CCDA exam on 10-11-2000 using only the Sybex study guide and with no networking experience other than the Sybex CCNA sudy guide and the CCNA exam I passed.

I scored 100% on 6 of the 10 sections of the 640-441 and passed with a 815. I studied and knew that study guide very well and thought there were several points that the book didn't address but the thourough knowledge of the other subject areas gave me enough points to pass. This was a very difficult exam for me, especially having no hands-on knowledge of networking. This book alone should be more than adequate to pass this exam for anyone with a reasonable knowledge of Networking.

Good luck everyone!

I used Lammle's CCNA book to help prep for the CCNA certification and was not disappointed. Unfortunately this CCDA book did not measure up (as far as the 640-441 exam). Despite my cirticism I will say I would not have passed without it. If you're just buying this book to pass a test, go elsewhere, it only covered 20-30% of the exam material (or at least the test version I had). It did contain a wealth of information that is useful on a daily basis especially if you need a good review of the basic concepts. The Sybex/Lammle format is easy to follow and there was not too much superfluous information to get lost in. A good review of technologies you may not work with on daily basis. Usually it is these items that trip you up on the exams. While I would buy Lammle again I've decided to give Newcomb's CIT book a try for both continuing to build my knowledge and moving up the CCNP ladder.

Seeking to reprise his earlier success with The Last of the Mohicans, James Fenimore Cooper went on to write several other tales built around his heroic character Natty Bumppo (called "Hawkeye" in Mohicans and "Pathfinder" in the book of THAT name). In this one our hero is known as "Deerslayer" for his facility on the hunt and is shown as the younger incarnation of that paragon of frontier virtue we got to know in the earlier books. In this one, too, we see how he got his most famous appellation: "Hawkeye". But, this time out, our hero comes across as woefully tiresome (perhaps it's because we see too much of him in this book, where he's almost a side character in Mohicans). Yet some of Cooper's writing skills seem sharper here (he no longer avers that Natty is the taciturn type, for instance, while having the fellow forever running off at the mouth). But, while there are some good moments & excitement, this tale really doesn't go all that far...and its rife with cliches already overworked from the earlier books. The worst part is the verbose, simple-minded self-righteousness of our hero, himself, taken to the point of absolute unbelievability. He spurns the love of a beautiful young woman (though he obviously admires her) for the forester's life (as though he couldn't really have both), yet we're expected to believe he's a full-blooded young American male. And he's insufferably "moral", a veritable goody two-shoes of the woodlands. At the same time, the Indians huff & puff a lot on the shore of the lake where Deerslayer finds himself in this tale (in alliance with a settler, his two daughters, a boorish fellow woodsman, and Deerslayer's own erstwhile but loyal Indian companion Chingachgook -- "The Big Sarpent," as Natty translates his name). But the native Americans seem ultimately unable to overwhelm the less numerous settlers who have taken refuge from them in the middle of Lake Glimmerglass (inside a frontier house built of logs and set in the lake bed on stilts). There is much racing around the lake as Deerslayer and the others strive to keep the few canoes in the vicinity from falling into the hands of the tribe of marauding Hurons who have stopped in the nearby woods on their way back up to Canada (fleeing the American colonists and the British at the outbreak of English-French hostilities -- since these Hurons are allied with the French). And there are lots of dramatic encounters, with some deaths, but the Indians seem to take it all with relative equanimity, while trying to find a way to get at the whites who are precariously ensconced out on the lake. (It seems to take them the better part of two days, for instance, to figure out they can build rafts to make up for their lack of canoes -- and why couldn't they just build their own canoes, in any case -- and how is it they don't have any along with them since it's obvious they'll have to cross a number of waterways to successfully make it back to the homeland in Canada?) The settler and the boorish woodsman, for their part, do their stupid best to attack the Indians unnecessarily, getting captured then ransomed in the process, while Deerslayer and Chingachgook contrive to get the loyal Indian's betrothed free from the Hurons (it seems she has been kidnapped by them -- the reason Deerslayer and Chingachgook are in the vicinity in the first place). In the meantime the simple-minded younger daughter of the settler (Cooper seems to like this motif since he used a strong daughter and a simpler sister in Mohicans, as well) wanders in and out of the Indian's encampment without sustaining any hurt on the grounds that the noble red men recognize the "special" nature of this poor afflicted young woman (Cooper used this motif in Mohicans, too). In the end there's lots of sturm und drang but not much of a tale -- at least not one which rings true or touches the right chords for the modern reader. Cooper tried to give us more of Hawkeye in keeping with what he thought his readers wanted but, in this case, more is definately too much. --- Stuart W. Mirsk

Cooper's final Leatherstocking Tale, The Deerslayer, depicts young Natty Bumppo on his first warpath with lifelong friend-to-be, Chingachgook. The story centers around a lake used as the chronologically subsequent setting for Cooper's first Leatherstocking Tale, The Pioneers. Tom Hutter lives on the lake with his daughters and it is here that Deerslayer (Bumppo) intends to meet Chingachgook to rescue Chingachgook's betrothed from a band of roving Iroquois. A desperate battle for control of the lake and it's immediate environs ensues and consumes the remainder of the story.

Throughout this ultimate Leatherstocking Tale, Cooper provides Natty much to postulate upon. Seemingly desiring a comprehensive finality to the philosophy of Bumppo, Cooper has Natty "speechify" in The Deerslayer more so than in any other book, though the character could hardly be considered laconic in any. Though the reason for this is obvious and expected (it is, after all, Cooper's last book of the series), it still detracts a tad from the pace of the story as Natty picks some highly inappropriate moments within the plot to elaborate his position. And, thus, somewhat incongruently, Cooper is forced to award accumulated wisdom to Bummpo at the beginning of his career rather than have him achieve it through chronological accrual.

All things considered, however, The Deerslayer is not remarkably less fun than any other Leatherstalking Tale and deserves a similar rating. Thus, I award The Deerslayer 4+ stars and the entire Leatherstocking Tales series, one of the better examples of historical fiction of the romantic style, the ultimate rating of 5. It was well worth my time.

"The Deerslayer" is, chronologically, the first of Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales, although the last to be written. It takes place in the early 1740s on the Lake Glimmerglass. Natty Bumppo, called Deerslayer, and his friend Hurry Harry March go to Tom Hutter's "Castle," which is a house built on stilts on a shoal in the middle of the lake, and it is practically impregnable. March intends to get Tom's daughter Judith to marry him. More love is in the air, for Deerslayer plans to meet Chingachgook at a point on the lake in a few days in order to help him rescue his bride-to-be, Wah-ta-Wah, who is a prisoner of the Hurons.

War breaks out, Tom and Harry are captured by Hurons, and the untested Deerslayer must go on his first warpath to rescue them. That sets up the plot, and there follows many twists and turns, ending with a very haunting conclusion. Although the book drags in parts, it's still pretty good.

I would caution you not to expect realism in this book. "It is a myth," D. H. Lawrence writes, "not a realistic tale. Read it as a lovely myth." Yes, Deerslayer is fond of talking, but take his soliloquies the same way as you take Shakespeare's: characters in both men's works meditate and reflect on what they are going through. So toss out your modern preconceptions aside and just enjoy the myth!