Dr. Morgan states that his purpose for writing this book is to provide a clear, concise history of Persia after the arrival of the saljuqs until the rise of the Qajar dynasty. He also states that he hopes to prove the legitimacy of calling this time period "medieval." In both tasks he succeded. Though brief, only 160 pages of text, the book demonstrates how Persian history in this time period, though it appears fragmented, is actually unified in the continuation of Persian culture, and administrative structure. This book is certainly intended for the students of the Middle East, and while Morgan spends agood deal of time cataloguing rulers and battles, he spends an equal amount of time with religious, economic, social and cultural aspects of the period. The book is well laid out, in chronological order. Each chapter is appropriately titled, and the book follows a consistent pattern. If you have an interest in Persia, this book is extremely interesting.

David Morgan does an excellent job with the history of the conflict within the SBC over the past 25 years. Clearly documented and well researched, Morgan takes you step by step through the transformation of the convention from liberal (or moderate) leadership to conservative management. Although he never suscintly states his position, he does offer clear clues along the way that he comes from a more "moderate" persuasion, but he does seem to present a quite unbiased reference work. He demonstrates clearly the attitudes and actions of both sides, neither of which is very complimentary in light of Christianity at times. An excellent, readable work - exciting, frustrating, and most of all, enlightening.

I bought this set of books to refresh my memory, compare it against my experience and to see in which area I have to study to be able to pass the tests for CCNP. Overall I would normaly rate them higher, but all 4 books need extensive editing. I found many errors, even in areas I didn't have that much experience. More then once I would read something on one page and then on the next page it would opposite of what was just said. Very often the examples are wrong too. In the Routing book for example it talks about static routes and using passive-interface on a BRI interface, yet the example shows in the top BRI as physical interface, but the bottom of the example and the text after the example talks about Serial 0.

The same goes for the included test software with study mode and test exam. There are many questions for which you should select more then one answer, but they set the answers to only one selectable. Or in one case at least the question had two possible answer choices, but none was marked as the right answer.

I sent several times feedback to Cisco Press and checked their website if they have maybe an update for the books or software, but nothing so far. Nor has any of my feedbacks being answered.

All in all the books did help me to prepare myself for the tests and pass all successfull on the first try, but I credit much to my general knowledge about networking and parallel reading other documentation...

I purchased this set last year and so far I have taken only Routing and Remote Access Exams, I'll be taking the Switching exam this coming Wednesday. These books are the only ones you need if you want to pass the difficult exams. Though you cannot expect that everything in the exam will be discussed here, you need a bit of common sense and work experience to get past through all of them. I passed the two exams in one try using these books as my sole study guide. These books cover more details of the exam topics than the Sybex one I think. I agree with the description above saying that Routing is the weakest among the books. Though Gough tried really hard to present the topics, something was still missing. I suggest you read the books cover to cover, answer all the test questions in the book and in the CDROM and if you could, get a BOSON software as well. That will surely help. Good luck!~

I'm about to start studying and plan on purchasing this set of books as well as the CCNP preperation library. Cisco changed some of the format on one of the tests around and gave it a slightly different title. An additional chapter for each of the two relevant books can be downloaded from Cisco Press for free. Here's what Cisco Press says on their web page.

September 2002: Cisco changes CCNP Routing Exam
On September 13, Cisco Systems introduced a new version to its professional level Routing exam, known as Building Scalable Cisco Internetworks (BSCI). BSCI has an additional section on the IS-IS protocol not previously covered in the BSCN course or exam. This exam, already in existence as part of the CCIP certification program, replaces Building Scalable Cisco Networks (BSCN), one of the four exams required for both the CCNP and CCDP certifications.

Free Chapters from Cisco Press!
Cisco Press published two titles originally created for BSCN preparation, Building Scalable Cisco Networks and CCNP Routing Exam Certification Guide. These titles are still excellent self-study tools in your overall preparation strategy for pursuit of CCNP or CCDP certifications. To assist candidates, Cisco Press is providing supplemental chapters on IS-IS. The BSCN and Routing Exam Certification Guide supplemental material can be downloaded by clicking the links below.

A book that is what it says it is. This is mostly a compilation of standards, in the format of a reference book. I was looking for specific implementation details for MPEG, and this was not the book for me. Still, I am keeping it as a reference and anyone looking for the same will not be disappointed.

Digital Compression for Multimedia by Jerry D. Gibson, et al presents data compression types and techniques in eleven chapters. Each chapter describes in a simple way about different types of coding, including lossy and lossless. The material covered in this book ranges from the classical Huffman Coding to the most recent MPEG standards. It covers JPEG, multimedia/video conferencing, and MPEG. This book covers the basic principles and standards and their applications in great detail. Also presents mathematical foundation and algorithmic details in appendices/special sections. However, some mathematical background is required to understand the mathematical equations or the proofs. It includes a wealth of figures and tables as well as a list of acronyms with definitions. It's very easy to understand and follow the compression algorithms. This is a very informative book and can be used as a textbook for advanced undergraduate/graduate courses.

This book was very useful to me in my research. My research is in the area of data compression and its applications to communication networks. The title of my dissertation is Data Compression Techniques in Modern Communication Networks.

C.S. Rani, Ph.D.

Mr. Morgan does a good job of writing his life's diary with the analogy of the automobile running through the entire book. It is funny, thought provoking, and sad in places. He paints some pictures that are so real you can picture yourself in his shoes. His story about his first horseback ride is a good example. I enjoyed the book for its honesty in telling of the ups and downs of life.

David A. Lake and Patrick M. Morgan, eds., Regional Orders: Building Security in a New World (The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997) pp.403, price not listed.

"During the Persian Gulf War, George Bush sought to evoke a "new world order". The president was right in seeing a new potential for the international management of interstate and intrastate conflicts, but he was wrong in his horizons. Rather than a single world order, we are witnessing today the emergence of a variety of new regional orders." (Emphasis in original) This is the opening sentence of a book appropriately titled Regional Orders: Building Security in a New World.

Equally appropriately, it is based on a futuristic assumption: "In the foreseeable future, violent conflicts will mostly arise out of regional concerns and will be viewed by political actors through a regional rather than a global lens." We are either still on the way towards evolving regional arrangements and actions to cope with conflicts; or the entire project has been an unattainable ideal from the beginning. The book reflects innovative mode and optimistic mood in the discipline of International Relations in the early nineties. That is its contribution and that is its weakness.

In fact, one of the contributors attempts to draw parallels between the Concert of Europe and the Arab-Israel situation in West Asia and concludes on the note of optimism tempered with caution. (David J. Pervin, "Building Order in Arab-Israeli Relations: From Balance to Concert?" pp. 271-296) Susan Shirk, in her paper on "Asia-Pacific Regional Security: Balance of Power or Concert of Powers? (pp.245-270) argues that since successful management of relations between powers in the Asia-Pacific would be difficult to achieve by power-balancing alone, a regional concert of powers could emerge involving the US, Russia, China and Japan. "...there remain two possible obstacles ...a lack of ideological consensus and uncertain acceptance of the status quo," she concedes. No minor irritants, these!

Edmond J. Keller, on the other hand, is less upbeat. He identifies progress toward democracy and self-sustained development as the priority goals in Africa and will be content to see the development of interlocking collective security management systems linking the Organisation of African Unity with subregional organisations having common collective security interests. ("Rethinking African Regional Security" pp.296-317) Yuen Foong Khong is even less sanguine regarding Southeast Asia in the New World. As ASEAN moves toward expanding its membership and reaches out to nest itself in larger multilateral organisations such as the ARF and APEC, "it is conceivable that the spirit of togetherness engendered by ASEAN's cooperative ventures in the previous decades may come under strain." ("ASEAN and the Southeast Asian Security Complex" pp.318-339).

After the end of the Cold War, political analysts and policy makers alike turned their attention to the regional conflicts. Against the background of improving relations between the US and Russia, the conflicts in the margins of the global system, i.e., South Asia, West Asia, Africa, the new states in Central Asia etc., were seen as the fresh and more dangerous threats - to the states, to the regions and to the world. The political analyses broke new grounds at times. At others, old tools were employed to understand and explain new realities.

David A. Lake divides regions into three neat categories: unipolar, bipolar and multipolar and goes on to apply the Neorealist maxims to explain the regional dynamics. For example, he says, the unipolar regional security systems will be relatively autonomous, according to the theory of hegemonic stability; the multipolar ones will also be autonomous but plagued by problems of conflict management; and the bipolar ones will be less cooperative and less autonomous. (pp.60-61). There are several problems with such formulations. One, the Neorealism does not provide a comprehensive framework for understanding international relations. Two, the regional systems are inherently open. The global system, other regional systems, and even "outside" states can have a major impact on a region. (PP. 9-10). Autonomous regions, in the circumstances, can only be less penetrated vis-à-vis the highly penetrated ones. Three, as Hurrel puts it, "...all regions are socially constructed and hence politically contested." A state can be a member of two regions simultaneously; at times, three. Or a state can choose to look east, west, north or south according to its needs at various points in time. Or a region can choose to deny a state its membership in the region.

To sum up, even if one rejects the contention that 'in marked contrast to the Cold War era, we do not see global political considerations leading to the consistent imposition of global issues, institutions or orders on all regional security complexes," (p.347) the book is a welcome input to the burgeoning literature on regions in a comparative perspective.

Gulshan Dietl, Professor, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi - 110067.

Far from informative, this book does nothing toward providing any sort of accurate rendition of the madness that has engulfed Sundance of late. Both the dashed dreams and the fulfilled hopes of the various players are often obscured by the author's tedious, hackneyed prose. Prose that is so cliche-ridden I wonder whether the esteemed Mr. Anderson actually wrote it himself or simply gave the book as an assignment to another drear film student, a pre-John Anderson in its larval stage if you will. On every page we learn not so much about the Sundance festival or its participants as we discover Anderson's yearnings to fit into that world, to find a place for himself among the glamor and achievement that only true creators attain. Sour grapes and misgivings on every page, it might more aptly be titled "Tales of a Film Critic Nothing."

A previous reviewer claimed author John Anderson was some kind of piteous wannabe. He didn't read this book very closely: it's not Anderson talking. The author almost completely relies on interviews with others; they make up 9/10ths of the book. It's an *oral history*, or maybe an oral snapshot, of the 1999 festival. I just got back from my first Sundance (2003) last month, and read this book afterwards. Very amusing, very "human-sized," as the back cover blurb puts it. Some movie suits are their own self-parodists; it's interesting to read about people who live in Park City, Utah all year and then get overrun for two weeks annually. This is not snobby at all, not whiny. It's fun and funny and true.

I bought this book hoping to gain a solid understanding of the potential legal "bullets" (contract disputes, copyright issues, etc.) that an Internet entrepreneur should be on the lookout to avoid...

What I got instead was a 250-page essay on the history of the (Canadian) legal system and the field of computer science...

Clearly intended as a college textbook, this book is profoundly misleading in its subtitle, "What You Need to Know About Doing Business Online."

I would avoid it.

It's scary. No fault of the writer's, because it made sense *3* years ago, but that would be like trying to sell a book in 1997 that is entitled "What Fax Machines Can Do For Your Business" or a 1948 book on "Why Your Company Needs Telephones". Doesn't anyone have anything new?

This book serves well in educating business executives on both the legal and business issues which are often overlooked in today's business transactions over the Internet.
Although I've not finished the book, this book at first read seems much too valuable to put down!

regards,
Nel,
Program Manager
E*commerce Division
Singapore Telecoms Ltd