This book is so delightful. As a city dweller in Manhattan with a large roof deck of my own, I needed some inspiration for growing plants upwards on several trellises I installed. This book was perfect! The designs a gorgeous, and the writer gives you enough information to duplicate some of the marvels. Also, if you love Paris as I do, you'll love daydreaming over the photographs.

Yes, I have a deck built over my garage roof which is accessible from my kitchen/fam. rm. So, I was looking for inspiration on what plants to have there this summer when I happened upon this very attractive book about terrace & rooftop gardens just yesterday at my local bkstore! I am getting lots of ideas from the pics on color combinations, styles and accents. The photos are detailed & altho I haven't read the text yet, it appears to have lots of quotes from the owners perspective on why they chose their plants. The author embellishes this with clear descriptions as well. Photo descriptions usually name the plants shown & I've seen 2 or 3 already of interest that are new to me that I can look up in a gardening guide & perhaps incorporate into my own roof top garden. Ea. section of the book shows several examples of private terrace gardens; i.e. A section on "Open-air dining" showing several terraces planted around tables & chairs for delightful outdoor meals. Another sec. called "Hanging gardens" using bamboo & cascading plants in unusual planting combinations. A thoroughly delightful feast for the eyes; and, one would never guess that all these various styles are within one large city and thusly all in the same approx. climate. I will be devouring this book this spring and enjoying it for many years to come!

Falcon never fails to produce some of the hottest, sexiest, and best looking porn stars of today. This glossy all-color volume is a compilation of the best of the new young porn superstars currently modeling for Falcon. The heat just melts off these pages as these men are presented in all their glory. These are some of the biggest superstars they have ever presented to their fans. They are beautifully photographed and crystal clear. Superstars such as; Billy Brandt, Colby Taylor, Christian Taylor, Javier Duran, Jeremy Jordan, Karl Tenner, and many more are included. This is a great collector's book for all the fans of Falcon videos.

Joe Hanssen

The title of this review says it all.

Kenneth Clark gives an unpropogating look at Da Vinci. All too often Leonardo's name has been attached to support a variety of causes of this or that nature. Being, seemingly, irreligious and unphilosophic while being the quintessential Renassaince Man. His name is often used as a mascot to justify the ideals of this or that group of whatever. He was clearly an animal rights lover, possibly a closet Franciscan, in all probability a homosexual (although not much of an activist). Leonardo was into his thoughts and had little patience for something that was already complete in his mind. He left scores of unfinished works, and minons of angry patrons - contrary to Bornstin's book that Leonardo was in constant search of patrons - Clark says he had many unhappy patrons. Leonardo was an animal lover who hated violence (although he designed armaments of various sorts). His depth of religious devotion could be argued, but he was not irreverant, as some have claimed. Leonardo was rather Franciscan and had a fondness for animals and individuality. He was free and valued his own individualism. Other than Da Vinci's notebooks nothing much authentic comes down to us. Every other work of Leonardo has been severally retouched or destroyed, what there is left of Leonardo's work is highly speculative - what bit is in his hand ect. Clark gives a healthy, vibrant, nonproselytizing look at a genius - something anyone might find interesting.

Kenneth Clark's book is probably the best available introduction to Leonardo da Vinci. It is both a good biography and an insightful analysis of Leonardo's art and artistic career. The text is appropriate for both laymen and students of art history. Clark's writing is concise and extremely engaging (to the point where I would recommend reading this book for fun), but it is also intelligent and very informative, with a clear thesis that ties the vast body of matieral covered together into an easily comprehensible package. This book is slightly out of date now, but Martin Kemp's introduction and revision help to ammend for that. I particularly recommend this most recent edition as it is well-illustrated.

This is the best book available in English on Leonardo da Vinci. True, the book was first published several decades ago, but the art historian Martin Kemp has added footnotes that bring the text up to date. Kenneth Clark made a tremendous contribution to the study of Leonardo da Vinci with this book - Science and Technology Museum notwithstanding!!!!

Alexander Hemon left his home in Sarajevo in 1992 to visit a friend in Chicago. The visit was intended to last a few months. Hemon never returned to Bosnia, however, because the Bosnian-Serb army had surrounded his hometown on the very day he planned to return. Undaunted, Hemon, a half-Serbian, half-Ukrainian writer, remained in Chicago, where he worked at a number of menial jobs and began learning English. He published his first story in English in 1995 and, five years later, the collection of seven stories and a novella that form "The Question of Bruno."

Perhaps because he is from Eastern Europe and had been a writer in his native language before he learned English, he has often been compared to Nabokov. While the comparison is simplistic, it is seemingly suggested by Hemon himself, at one point, when he related to Salon Magazine how he learned English: "I read 'Lolita' in English and underlined the words I didn't know." However, unlike Nabokov, who circulated largely in academic circles, Hemon spent two and a half years canvassing for Greenpeace, where he met and spoke with thousands of people of every stripe, developing an ear for English as it is actually spoken. It is not surprising, then, that Hemon's writing is less academic and obscure than that of Nabokov.

"The Question of Bruno" is a remarkably good collection of stories that continually engage the reader. Like many first works of fiction, the stories, while fictional, appear to draw heavily from Hemon's own experiences, particularly those of living under Marshall Tito's communism and the implosion of Yugoslavia which followed Tito's death, of growing up in a family with roots in both Serbia and the Ukraine, and, ultimately, living and writing in a language not his own. Hemon's writing is vivid, intelligent and darkly humorous, his style marked by keen description and uniquely discordant turns of phrase that sometimes seem to reflect his alienation from the English language in which he writes as much as his remarkable skill as a writer.

The best of the stories in this collection is "A Coin," a tale of Aida, a woman living in Sarajevo under siege, and a man, presumably Hemon, living in Chicago, where he worries about Aida, about whether she is still among the living. Thus, Aida relates what it's like in Sarajevo: "Suppose there is a Point A and a Point B and that, if you want to get from Point A to Point B, you have to pass through an open space clearly visible to a skillful sniper." And Hemon, the author, relates from the disconnected safety of his dingy Chicago apartment: "I open my mailbox-a long tunnel dead-ending with a dark square-and I find Aida's letter, I shiver with dread. What terrifies me is that, as I rip the exhausted envelope, she may be dead. . . I dread the fact that life is always slower than death and I have been chosen, despite my weakness, against my will, to witness the discrepancy." "A Coin" is a remarkable story which vividly captures both the hellish, contingent existence of Aida in war-torn Sarajevo and the dark anxiety of her Chicago correspondent.

"The Sorge Spy Ring" is another outstanding story, the fictional childhood memoir of a boy growing up in Sarajevo during the time of Tito, a boy fascinated with spies who develops an elaborate fantasy that his father is a spy. It is a fantasy that seemingly becomes grim reality when Marshal Tito's security police appear in the middle of the night and take the boy's father away. He is released from prison several years later, "diagnosed with brain cancer, curled into an old man, with most of his teeth missing." Longer than the story itself is the subtext, a series of forty footnotes that relate snippets of the biography of Richard Sorge, a real-life Soviet spy who achieved high rank in the German army and the Nazi Party and was eventually executed by Japanese security police in 1944.

"Exchange of Pleasant Words" is a wonderful fictional memoir of the Hemon family history and a Hemon family reunion of sorts. "Inspired by the success of the Sarajevo Olympiad and the newly established ancient family history, the family council, headed righteously by my father, decided to have an epic get-together, which was to be held only once, and was to be recorded as the Hemoniad."

"Blind Josef Pronek & Dead Souls," which runs to nearly eighty pages and may be characterized as a novella, tells the story of a man named Pronek who emigrates to Chicago from Sarajevo in 1992. The story appears to be, of course, the thinly fictionalized, episodic story of the author himself. While somewhat uneven in quality, the story within the novella titled "Iceberg Lettuce, Romaine Lettuce" is a wonderfully humorous narrative of Pronek's first job in the United States that displays Hemon's writing at its best.

"The Life and Work of Alphonse Kauders" is a series of short, factual statements about a character named Alphonse Kauders, who appears Zelig-like (as one reviewer has aptly put it) at various important moments in history and with various historical personages. It is a humorous and enigmatic piece that is accompanied by a glossary providing background on its referents.

Finally, there are three shorter stories. "Imitation of Life" is a wonderful little memoir of childhood recollection, fantasy and film. "The Accordion" is an almost photographic tale of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. "Islands," the first story in the book, is another reminiscence of a childhood trip from Yugoslavia to the coast that suffers from excessive and discordant use of language. It is the weakest of the writing in this collection, a story that has a kind of strangeness that apparently derives as much from Hemon's alienation from the English language as it does from any innate skill as a writer.

Alexander Hemon left his home in Sarajevo in 1992 to visit a friend in Chicago. The visit was intended to last a few months. Hemon never returned to Bosnia, however, because the Bosnian-Serb army had surrounded his hometown on the very day he planned to return. Undaunted, Hemon, a half-Serbian, half-Ukrainian writer, remained in Chicago, where he worked at a number of menial jobs and began learning English. He published his first story in English in 1995 and, five years later, the collection of seven stories and a novella that form "The Question of Bruno."

Perhaps because he is from Eastern Europe and had been a writer in his native language before he learned English, he has often been compared to Nabokov. While the comparison is simplistic, it is seemingly suggested by Hemon himself, at one point, when he related to Salon Magazine how he learned English: "I read 'Lolita' in English and underlined the words I didn't know." However, unlike Nabokov, who circulated largely in academic circles, Hemon spent two and a half years canvassing for Greenpeace, where he met and spoke with thousands of people of every stripe, developing an ear for English as it is actually spoken. It is not surprising, then, that Hemon's writing is less academic and obscure than that of Nabokov.

"The Question of Bruno" is a remarkably good collection of stories that continually engage the reader. Like many first works of fiction, the stories, while fictional, appear to draw heavily from Hemon's own experiences, particularly those of living under Marshall Tito's communism and the implosion of Yugoslavia which followed Tito's death, of growing up in a family with roots in both Serbia and the Ukraine, and, ultimately, living and writing in a language not his own. Hemon's writing is vivid, intelligent and darkly humorous, his style marked by keen description and uniquely discordant turns of phrase that sometimes seem to reflect his alienation from the English language in which he writes as much as his remarkable skill as a writer.

The best of the stories in this collection is "A Coin," a tale of Aida, a woman living in Sarajevo under siege, and a man, presumably Hemon, living in Chicago, where he worries about Aida, about whether she is still among the living. Thus, Aida relates what it's like in Sarajevo: "Suppose there is a Point A and a Point B and that, if you want to get from Point A to Point B, you have to pass through an open space clearly visible to a skillful sniper." And Hemon, the author, relates from the disconnected safety of his dingy Chicago apartment: "I open my mailbox-a long tunnel dead-ending with a dark square-and I find Aida's letter, I shiver with dread. What terrifies me is that, as I rip the exhausted envelope, she may be dead. . . I dread the fact that life is always slower than death and I have been chosen, despite my weakness, against my will, to witness the discrepancy." "A Coin" is a remarkable story which vividly captures both the hellish, contingent existence of Aida in war-torn Sarajevo and the dark anxiety of her Chicago correspondent.

"The Sorge Spy Ring" is another outstanding story, the fictional childhood memoir of a boy growing up in Sarajevo during the time of Tito, a boy fascinated with spies who develops an elaborate fantasy that his father is a spy. It is a fantasy that seemingly becomes grim reality when Marshal Tito's security police appear in the middle of the night and take the boy's father away. He is released from prison several years later, "diagnosed with brain cancer, curled into an old man, with most of his teeth missing." Longer than the story itself is the subtext, a series of forty footnotes that relate snippets of the biography of Richard Sorge, a real-life Soviet spy who achieved high rank in the German army and the Nazi Party and was eventually executed by Japanese security police in 1944.

"Exchange of Pleasant Words" is a wonderful fictional memoir of the Hemon family history and a Hemon family reunion of sorts. "Inspired by the success of the Sarajevo Olympiad and the newly established ancient family history, the family council, headed righteously by my father, decided to have an epic get-together, which was to be held only once, and was to be recorded as the Hemoniad."

"Blind Josef Pronek & Dead Souls", which runs to nearly eighty pages and may be characterized as a novella, tells the story of a man named Pronek who emigrates to Chicago from Sarajevo in 1992. The story appears to be, of course, the thinly fictionalized, episodic story of the author himself. While somewhat uneven in quality, the story within the novella titled "Iceberg Lettuce, Romaine Lettuce" is a wonderfully humorous narrative of Pronek's first job in the United States that displays Hemon's writing at its best.

"The Life and Work of Alphonse Kauders" is a series of short, factual statements about a character named Alphonse Kauders, who appears Zelig-like (as one reviewer has aptly put it) at various important moments in history and with various historical personages. It is a humorous and enigmatic piece that is accompanied by a glossary providing background on its referents.

Finally, there are three shorter stories. "Imitation of Life" is a wonderful little memoir of childhood recollection, fantasy and film. "The Accordion" is an almost photographic tale of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. "Islands", the first story in the book, is another reminiscence of a childhood trip from Yugoslavia to the coast that suffers from excessive and discordant use of language. It is the weakest of the writing in this collection, a story that has a kind of strangeness that apparently derives as much from Hemon's alienation from the English language as it does from any innate skill as a writer.

You don't get far with "The Question of Bruno" without knowing a little about Aleksander Hemon, so here goes : born in Sarajevo in 1964, emigrated to Chicago in 1992, took a series of menial job-type-jobs (bus boy, waiter, you get the picture) and wrote - in English, not his first tongue - at night or whenever else he could. Oh, and you wont find a single bit of Hemon-related information that does not include a reference to Nabokov. Hemon is the new Nabokov, you see?

"The Question of Bruno" is made up of seven shortish short stories and one not-quite-a-novella. In "The Sorge Spy Ring" (an intensely irritating story to read, it has to be said, due to the huge number of footnotes), Hemon relates how - following reading a book on a charismatic WWII spy called Sorge - he started believing his own father was a spy. The footnotes act as a synopsis of the biography young Hemon read. Prior to the Sorge story, we hear about Alphonse Kauders, who knew Sorge. The Kauder story is funny. This seems to surprise people for whatever reason. You can hear them bubbling at fashionable parties. He comes from Sarajevo? Yes, and he's funny. The Alphonse Kauders story is funny like Vonnegut (funny like "Hocus Pocus"). Elsewhere - in "Islands", in the lovely "The Accordion" - Hemon explores his past, his ancestry, his "Hemonhood", the relation of Hemon(s) to the world and to history.

Some of the stories are good. Some of the stories are beautiful. All of the stories - even the irritating ones - show potential. That is the most important word.

Years from now, out back of some old pawnbroker's shop, this old guy will unearth this book (he'll have it wrapped up in cloth, buried at the bottom of a chest) and talk about the great potential young Hemon showed. Course, the old pawnbroker will know whether Hemon made good. That's the danger right now. Everybody says Hemon, Nabokov / Nabokov, Hemon. It's the kind of thing could go to your head if you let it. It's the kind of thing could spoil whatever comes next.

You should read "The Question of Bruno" because it's good. You should praise "The Question of Bruno" because it is brave and shows potential.

You should be hesitant - and excited - about whatever comes next, and you should read whatever he does next because - that's the test.

This book is good for those investigators that have the time and resources to equip a van specifically for surveillance. But as a private investigator I can tell you that I do the vast majority of my surveillance from my personal vehicle, as do most private investigators. What it all comes down to is that the title of this book is highly misleading. Just be aware of what you are purchasing and you won't be disappointed.

After reading this short,but comprehensive, book I realised that this is the closest thing I have read to what surveillance is all about. I have had many years experience in law enforcement and this book reflects how it actually is. The methods outlined in this book are still used by Police teams in the year 2000. Congratulations to Bob Bruno for a great manual. Only problem is that it is to short (84 pages)

My coworker and I sat on the floor at the library, read this book in about 15 minutes, and were overwhelmed by the wealth of knowledge Bob Bruno provides. Our only regret is that we cannot rate this book at 10 stars (AT LEAST)!!!!!

Bob Bruno is the PREMIER private investigator, and should be lauded without pause for the genius of his work. The principles his book has taught us will remain with us throughout our lives.

Bruno unleashes page after page of his expert knowledge in this classic example of P.I. turned Educator.

This is Bob Bruno's Magnum Opus.

Bob, wherever you are, we thank you.

If you try these recipes, you will not duplicate pizzas cooked at Uno's, Gino's, Giordano's, etc. You will make a decent pizza (and I've had to experiment quite a bit to improve on Bruno's recipes), but don't be fooled into thinking that these are the real thing. And the basic deep dish recipe is just the same as the one you can get free at many sites on the internet. A better book is Evelyn Slomon's, but hers suffers, too.

First of all, NO, these are not the secret recipes of Giordano's, Gino's, Pizzeria Uno, or the others.

They are, however, very good pizza recipes. My main criticism of the book is that some of the instructions are incomplete. For example, in the stuffed pizza recipe he tells you to put the sauce on top of the pizza without pre-cooking the pizza at all. In my experience, that always results in a doughy, partially-uncooked top crust. I prebake the pizza with no sauce for about 10 minutes, then add the sauce, and it's great. But Bruno should've told me that; I shouldn't have had to figure it out for myself.

Yes, I would like to get my hands on the actual Giordano's recipe, but these recipes still beat any pizza I can get here in Oregon.

As former Chicagoans who have been forced east into a pizza wasteland, we found exactly what we were looking for in this book! Yesterday we sat down to the first genuinely delicious pizza we have had in the last two years. The dough was delicious and the sauce was perfect. We can't wait to make more.

This book was a fun read. But, it is simply a cover for pushing ancient egyptian philosophy(occultic practices). It's simply a nice cover to get unsuspecting or naive readers to purchase more new-age reading material.

The reading level is barely 8th grade. But, I believe that is the target audience 13-15 year old young men.

What really made this unbelievable is how easily he captured some of the most hardened criminals by simply sneaking in to their homes in the middle of the night. One guy he 'apprehended' was millionare cocaine dealer with homes in ny and miami. i guy that heavily connected ain't gonna get caught by two poorly trained bounty hunters.

His so-called seekers have no military background and p/u tracking by reading police manuals.....Get real.

But, the book is a fun read.

The Seekers is an exhilarating tale of Joshua Armstrong's life. The story is an intriguing mix of ancient philosophies, modern day street smarts and extraordinary compassion.

Armstrong founded the Seekers, which is a group of bounty hunters that work out of New Jersey. Unlike other bounty hunters who have less than a 50% success rate, the Seekers have an 85% success rate and have captured over 2000 bail jumpers.

Armstrong is constantly trying to become a "stellar man" and it is this journey of discovery as well as the thrilling adventure of some of his most famous captures that make this tale so captivating.

Where else can you read about Egyptian philosophy, mad bombers, spiritual enlightenment and drug dealers all in one place?

The best part about this book is the stories. Armstrong grows up in New Jersey, and eventually ends up on the west coast, where he is first really exposed to the criminal element. While working on a fishing boat in Alaska, he gets his first experience bounty hunting while trying to earn some extra money. He is not impressed with the guy he was working with, but was intrigued by the profession.

Armstrong goes on to found the Seekers, a group of bounty hunters who are professional, and respectable. His religion plays a part in the book, and is primarily seen in his attitude torwards the criminals he is trying to capture. He does not accept the fact that all of them are automatically evil, and frequently talks about how he is trying to let his mind grow, and that this is what the people he works with need to do as well. The religion is not an overwhelming part of the book, but if you are the sort of person who cannot read about a religious view that conflicts with yours without getting agitated, this is not the book for you.

The best part of the book is the stories about caputres he's made. As a bounty hunter, it is his job to track down people who were arrested, made bail, then did not return for their trial. A typical bounty hunter gets 5,000-25,000 a capture. Most of the chapters in the book describe memorable captures this bounty hunter has made either individually, or with the help of his organization. He would aquire information on his target, then track that person down and capture them in the most efficient and non-violent way possible. It is very interesting to hear about the situations he's been in, and how he survived them, and made the capture. It's a pretty easy book to read, and very engrossing.

I tend to agree with the review given by "Rover". Considering the fact that you're using a WYSIWYG editor (even though it's the best) to develop server-side scripting of database backed web sites, should indicate that you can't know everything about PHP scripting or MySQL. (just a general concencus that I've gathered from talking to other web designers). Therefore, my headline comment of 6-8 pages more per chapter to explain the intracacies of what's going on when you "click this or ,select that or type in this" would have pushed this book to the highest level. All in all, it's a great walk through of the potential that Dreamweaver MX has built into it's base pertaining to open-source scripting and SQL implementation (i.e. PHP & MySQL). Bottom line - I thorougly enjoyed it, learned a great deal of what Dreamweaver MX can really do but would have liked a little more "fyi pertainging to what's going on behind the "WYSIWYG scene" for a total learning experience. I have to say BUY IT FOR SURE! Then pursue answers to PHP-MySQL basics from another source. This book is definitely worth the investment.

I have been using Dreamweaver for over 3 years and more recently Dreamweaver MX. I consider myself an expert in Dreamweaver, but I have never used its dynamic features. This book was a great resource for me. After reading through it, and its examples, I was creating PHP MySQL dynamic pages in two days. I never knew how easy Dreamweaver MX makes PHP MySQL development until this book explained it to me. This has unleashed a whole new aspect of Dreamweaver MX for me. I can't wait to start using it on my web sites.

This is literally the book you are looking for if you have a basic handle on how the three pieces of this puzzle look & feel but want to see the completed puzzle itself. The authors take you through the conception, design, & creation of a PHP/MySQL web application using Dreamweaver MX. They cover installation of MySQL & PHP on IIS boxes & Apache - watch that you're using the right version of PHP & the PHP MySQL admin tool they recommend! - and take you by the hand through the whole project. Great stuff and they could easily write another book covering this subject.

The central idea of this book is that fairy tales, above all other literary forms, are ideally suited to help children deal with issues of growing up. Bettelheim presents the features fairy tales have in common, such as the triumph of a young and previously devalued person over powerful enemies and extreme hardships. He shows how fairy tale exaggerations are actually truer to children's perceptions than "realistic" stories are, and so better address their needs. He goes into detail about the problems particular fairy tales address, such as how Cinderella handles sibling rivalry and emerging sexuality. While Bettelheim follows Freud, he acknowledges that Freudian constructs such as the id are useful metaphors, not absolute truths. He provides valuable insights into the worth of fairy tales, including the important point that their metaphorical nature is a vital part of their function. The underlying meanings, which are often scary, should not be explicated for children, who will come to terms with them in their own time.

Bettelheim discusses the particulars of many of our most treasured fairy stories (particularly the Brothers Grimm) and outlines how events in the stories do not explicitly state, but parallel the developmental stages in a child's life. Periods of human development such as toddlerhood, puberty, and young adulthood are conveyed through symbols such as colors, numbers, and animals. Bettelheim states that many fairy tales have a lesson to teach with a somewhat risque or violent story, and while acknowledging that this could make some parents uncomfortable, states that authors that have sought to temper these effects have actually ruined the teaching and palliative effects of these stories. All said, Bettelheim makes a strong case for fairy tales as teachers about life. The lessons; however, are presented in an abstract or fantasy way that allows children to detach from, and therefore externalize, their own life questions and problems.

It is the mark of brilliance when something commonplace, approached from a new angle, becomes a world of startling insight and fascination. Such is the case with Bruno Bettelheim's masterwork, The Uses of Enchantment (1975).

Bettelheim's book is a key to the apparently simple world of fairy tales, taking us deep inside the inner workings of many popular tales (Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Cinderella, to name a few) and unlocking the powerful psychological contents hidden within.

Fairy tales, the author shows us, are actually powerful psychological messages for children, carefully packaged into a sweet-tasting pill of enchantment. Over thousands of years, Bettelheim says these stories have evolved into the best experiences (next to good parenting) that a child can have in its arduous struggle to mature into a successful adult.

I often use a pen to mark the most significant ideas and discoveries I encounter while reading; in this book, I found myself squiggling, starring, check-marking, and exclamating all over the place--the pages are chock-full of surprising revelations and sudden bursts of light around dark corners. Essential for parents, storytellers, psychologists, or any student of humanity, this book is a genuine classic, a fairy-tale come true.

By the way--for a discussion of archetypal elements in stories, this blows the Hero With 1,000 Faces out of the water.

I read both DCN and this book to pass the CCDA exam. Both were good books for my exam preparation and education. Are you going to find the exact questions on the DCN exam in this book? No, but if that is what you are looking for then perhaps you should ask yourself why you are reading the book to begin with. Read the material in the book, understand it, then apply what you learned in the exam.

I would have given this book 5 stars if it hadn't been for weak coverage of ATM, X.25, VTP, and some minor errors (ISDN) on the practice CD.

Overall, I felt it was an excellent book and the CD was a nice surprise (even with a few errors).

I bought this book last month and just took the test this past Friday and passed. I think the book is laid out very clear, with easy to understand examples and text. I found the case studes helpful and the Appendix material most valuable. It's too bad whoever writes the exams for Cisco doesn't think about the way they ask the questions. You will really need to understand the material so when you read the case studies during the test, you can attempt to figure out what the exam author is really asking you for. You have to remember to always think CISCO! The exam is 72 questions long and you have 2 hours to take the test. You will need it to read all the case study questions. My only real complaint is that the book teaches you how to interview a customer and extract information, but the test leaves you wondering what are they asking in the question. Either way, this book is an excelent desk top reference for anyone in Networking and IT.

This is all you need to get your CCDA! I just passed the DCN exam quite easily with flying color by refering to this book only.

The book has lots of case studies questions on all chapters, besides good and brief explanations on the Cisco internetworking technology material. It even dedicates the last chapter for several extra case studies. All I can say is that they are more than enough to prepare you answering case study questions on the exam day.

The CD has an electronic version of the book and more than 200 practice exams questions. Take and pass the practice exam several times and you are on your way to the CCDA!

WARNING:

- When you sit for the exam, make sure you read the case study questions VERY CAREFULLY and understand them before answering.

- Keep in mind that DCN exam IS NOT for a novice. You'd better have a good understanding of basic internetworking stuff, know Cisco products quite well, and have real-world experiences. This is not an ordinary 'paper exam', but it challenges your capability to implement internetworking on real-world scenarios. For the first two, make sure you read all the chapters and the Appendixes. It is also a good idea to visit the Cisco web site and read all related materials. For the experience thing, nothing is better than 'tasting the honey by yourself'.

(CCNA, CCDA, Network+, MCSE+I, MCDBA)