This book suffers from lack of organization, content, and insight, seemingly copied from a Microsoft Website lesson, assumes far too much without authority and delivers too little. We tried contacting the author, Ian McLean, but his email address bounced. Then we found his website does not answer and even the name server email address bounced. Perhaps he received too many negative emails.

As an example, the use of Active Directory best requires a DC installation. But the author fails to mention this which can be disastrous and lead the inexperienced reader on an endless quest. This sort of problem is rampant throughout. He writes in a rambling dialog guised as decent reference to the layperson but usually without a reference point. Even experienced Network Administrators would have problems following his chaotic, amateurish chapters.

There are far too many omissions in the book, far too many inaccuracies. But the main problem is trying to follow what he's written in some kind of decent order. This is not a reference, but a mess. I was quite surprised at how badly written it actually is.

Robert Jennings
Computer Science Editor
The Oregon Herald

A must-have for windows 2000 administrators and security personel.

This book is a must-have for system administrators and security professionals.

BAD! Wow; this man gets plenty of press and great reviews, but I cannot see why! The book is written at a grade eight reading level, and it does not state anything new. In fact, this author understates everything. Books and videos by Dede Owens, Sam Snead, and Jack Nicklaus will give you more and cost less.

This book is really good. It taught me more than I've ever known about the game. The short game section isn't very detailed, but he takes you step-by-step into developing a good swing that you can repeat. He covers all the areas in which a golfer should work( long game, short game, mental game, and course management game). I would reccomend this book to anyone who wants to tone up there skills and improve.

wow, this is definately the best teaching book that i have ever read. If you are a beginner or a skilled golfer just needing a tune up on your game, definately get your hands on this one. McLean works on all swing mechanics as well as your mental golf game, in my opinion, he covers every part of the game that might be troubling you. also helpful in this book are the many step-by-step pictures visually showing the correct and incorrect ways of certain steps.

A useful, highly detailed account of the troops, some of whom were from California, who made up the 2nd Massachusetts Cavalry, and their actions during the Civil War. They did much of their fighting in the Valley Campaign of '64, and those battles are described at length.

The writing here may be a bit too dry for amateurs. I had two major criticisms:

As a Californian, I wanted to know more about where in the state the men came from. Normally, in a history of a unit, one gets a roster with places of origin, peactime occupation, where enlisted, how dismissed and so forth. This information would have been interesting to me.

Secondly, the author is not to be trusted blindly on matters outside his specific topic. Especially, his statements on prisons and the treatment of prisoners should be qualified by examination of other texts ("Portals to Hell" is a decent secondary source). As befits a historian of a Unionist regiment, he is of clear Unionist sympathies and while I don't think he forsakes scholarly objectivity too badly, readers wanting to learn more about Mosby, the regiment's primary antagonist, will want to look at other sources as well.

Though flawed, this book still will prove invaluable for anyone curious about Californians in the Civil War.

Finally, in print, the full story of California's finest contribution to the preservation of the Union during the American Civil War. A story ,until now, only found in scattered newspaper articles, memoirs, diarys, official records, and brief spotlight accounts.James McLean has scoured the available information for the past twenty years to produce a most complete and un-whitewashed account of the service,from concept to muster out,of these brave and able Bear Flaggers. His detailed research leads us from campaign to campaign outlining every move of the 2nd Massachusetts Cavalry Regiment with detail from command down to personal insight from the troopers themselves. Along the way we meet many luminaries such as Col. John S. Mosby and boy General George Armstrong Custer both of whom's popular romantic shine does not glow as well under the objective light provided by Mr McLeans research.Other Personalities such as General Phillip Sheridan, Col. Charles Russell Lowell, L.T Col. Caspar Crowinshield, Maj. Gen. Henry Halleck , Gen. Richard S Ewell, Lt. Gen Jubal Early, and a host of others all take their turn under this able historians pen. The end result being a finely researched piece of true history unmassaged by the romantic fog of time.A must read for Californians and American Civil War enthusiasts alike. This is an almost epic story of California's most determined patriotic troopers and their adventures from San Francisco to Appomattox. Having researched this same group of Californian Troopers for the past ten years I was ,at times, amazed at the depth of his research as he mentions things about unit details I previously thought only I knew!! A very fine treatment of a much over looked group of American Heros, the California Hundred and Battalion .

I understood when I put this CD in that it would be "acted" and therefore probably a little over dramatized . . . but I was not prepared for just how over dramatized it turned out. I've heard much praise for this man's recordings but I found it almost (no offense intended) laughable. He emphasizes things that were never intended to be emphasized and varies his speed throughout--reading along slowly one moment and then speeding through the next few verses as if he's making fun of the text. I know he's not doing any such thing (making fun) and that he's probably doing his best and perhaps even at the apex of his acting ability, but I found it distracting. I will try to give an example in written form here.
"In the beginning . . . . was the worrrd, and the word waaas . . with . . God, and . . the . . word . . waaas . . God. HewaswithGod in the beginning."
If you can get past this "over-acting" the actual sound quality is very good--and some people actually prefer this approach to scripure. That's fine. But I do have a recommendation of a new recording that renders a much better reading. Zondervan has just released the New Testament (and is due soon to release the entire Bible) in a dramatized format that is both wonderfully and refreshingly done but is also less expensive than Mr. McLean's recording. This highly recommended and extrememly well done recording is simply called NIV Audio Bible: New Testament.

This audio book is a great introduction to the Bible. On one CD there are more than twenty well known scripture passages from both the Old and New Testament, and they follow the Bible's theme of redemption from Genesis to Revelation. The most fascinating part for me was hearing the famous messianic prophecy found in Isaiah 53 immediately after the crucifixion account of Jesus. It was stunning in how powerfully they fit together.

McLean's voice has an international feel to it, with a tonal quality that reminds me a little of Richard Burton. His narration is slightly musical at times, punchy and dramatic at others. He may breeze along rapidly through a passage and then suddenly slow it way down to make sure you catch some really important teaching. His pronunciations of the odd names are done with ease and clarity. But more than all of that, he doesn't just read the Bible; he recreates it in your mind. And that is a huge help for me in understanding the Bible. The visualization makes a profound difference. I can actually see the stories and verses he is telling; my mind is engaged. It's as if he is painting a picture with his voice!

Jeff McLean: His Courtship, chronicles the story of a mid-20 year old farmer who lives on his family farm. The reader is taken through his several year search for a wife - in the process, meeting women of both Godly character and those of less tasteful disposition. Jeff's parents and family guide him in this search, while pointing out the proper traits for his future wife. The writing of this book is oriented mainly toward youth in their teen tears. The family is idyllic in its orderliness and strict conservatism, but still leaves opportunities for the characters' faults to surface. These faults, though they seem out of place, are no doubt intended to cause the reader to examine his/her own life for the same failings in preparation for courtship.

The overall focus of this book seems to be more on methodology than on the actual implementation of finding a wife. The first 9 or so chapters (out of 20) did not even include the appearance of any eligible young woman. And it was not until the final 3 chapters that "the one" actually came along and was "courted". In fact, the bulk of the story seems to be one of a sermon, embellished with a "Little House On The Prarie" storyline. The viewpoint of the writer is clearly substantiated through various family Bible studies made at varying points through out the story. For those who may be new to the idea of courtship in general, it can be a very informative book which uses Biblical evidence to determine the role of men and women.

For those who are already familiar with courtship, and/or are ready to begin it themselves (i.e. 18+), this book may not give the practical, modern advice you seek. It is however a decent book to introduce the concept of courtship to teen youth. If you're looking for a good book with Christian values and teaching on courtship - you've come to the right place. If you want realistic characters with an emotionally-satisfying courtship ending - you should look elsewhere.

This is a very good book if you are commited to courtship this book tells the story of Jeff's courtship...I have commited my self to courtship and found it very help full I would reccomend all the books in this serise and I would also reccoment "courtship VS dating" and "of knights and fair maddens" both are also very good and are related to courtship

I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand it excels in terms of content, tackling the more complex issues of .NET remoting including the creation of custom channel sinks; on the other hand it is severely let down by its poor presentation.

The book doesn't come with a CD, although viewing the code in its entirity is essential to understanding the issues presented in this book. Fortunately the code is available for download from the net.

The authors often fail to provide a substantial overview of the particular topics discussed in this book and present pieces of code in a piecemeal fashion which has no relevance until you reach the end of the chapter and are able to piece it all together.

This is a good book, but if you are new to the topic of .NET remoting, as I was, then prepare to dip into MSDN and spend time reviewing the code, in order to get a true understanding of this topic.

This manuscript was extremely helpful to my colleagues and me in our most recent project. For anyone dealing with a .Net initiative involving any sort of distributed, and most importantly scalable, application this guide is a must read.

Clocktower Press should enter the annals of literature as one of the foremost incubators of new Scottish literature. Under the stewardship of Duncan McLean, the semi-collective published ten booklets from 1990-96. All but one were 16-20 pages long and the print runs were 300-500. While many of the writers who appeared in the booklets are now well-known, including Irvine Welsh, Alan Warner, James Meek, Gordon Legge, and editor McLean, Clocktower published them when they were still struggling to find their own voice and language. This anthology is broken into two halves, the first contains material that appeared in the ten booklets and has mostly not appeared elsewhere, and the second contains newer material both by past Clocktower contributors and those McLean hasn't been able to present until now. If you've never encountered modern Scottish literature, it's an OK place to test the waters, but a bit more haphazard than something like Children of Albion Rovers or parts of The Vintage Book of Contemporary Scottish Fiction. The pieces here tend to be much briefer then one is used to, many are the half page little sketches that seem to be so popular with the modern Scots.

In the first half Meek, McLean, Legge, and Warner provide high-quality pieces ranging from the aforementioned half-pagers, which Legge in particular is fond of, to McLean's 20 page story, "The Druids Shite It and Fail to Show" (which appears in his collection Bucket of Tongues). Brent Hodgson and John Aberdein were new to me, and to be honest didn't do much for me, nor did the except from Janice Galloway's novel Foreign Parts. Alison Kermack's poetry, on the other hand, managed to captivate this poetry-hater with its fierce humor. The same can be said of Alison Flett's poetry in the second section, which shared many of the same qualities. Meek, Welsh, McLean, and James Kelman all have solid contributions in the second part. Ali Smith and Leila Aboulela's pieces I could take or leave, but Shug Hanlan's poetry and short stories were excellent and will have me tracking down his debut, Hi Bonnybrig. So, if you already know the major Scots writers, this won't show you anything new about them, but it's a good way to check out some of their lesser-known peers.

This text is a timely and insightful work. The authors give a good overview of the major assessment instruments used in Early Intervention and Early Childhood Special Education. Procedural guidelines, cultural validity and family concerns are also discussed. I found that the book is a great reference tool to go back to when questions arise! I would recommend this book to anyone working in the field of Special Education.

What a lovely book! I would recommend this to those who have enjoyed the Gail Carson Levine Princess Tales books, as well as anyone who like a story with a little adventure, a little humor, and a good ending. The author's descriptions of the luscious melidrop made me long for them to be real!

My husband and I own a 4 yr old Bouvier named Gibson. This book was recommended as one of the books to read before acquiring a Bouv. It has excellent history and standards for both the American and Canadian Kennel Clubs if you choose to show. Some of the pictures of the breed are from the early 1900's are rare and wonderful to see. Since the breed was almost wiped out by the Nazis, most records and pictures destroyed, these pictures are rare and beautiful.

It is a good book for the new Bouv owner or someone who is thinking of buying one. The descriptions are very true to form. Great book all around!