Strategy Books

This is a wonderful book, if you're in a relationship or just want to understand how we (humans) interact with each other. It has opened my eyes about my relationships (male and female). Why we do what we do and why opposites attract (chemistry), and how to work to hold your relationships together so everyone wins and you can get what you need and desire. Thanks Dr. Kappas!

If you can get past the cheesy forward by Florence Henderson and the amateur typesetting, this book will alter the way you see yourself and members of the opposite sex. And you will finally understand!

According to the author, there are two kinds of "sexual personalities": Emotional (E) and Physical (P). Emotionals are more reserved, need sex less often, and are generally more introverted and less expressive. When they hear things, they are liable to infer all kinds of meaning. When speaking, they are direct and say what they mean, however bluntly it may come across. Physicals, on the other hand, are ready for sex on a moment's notice, bond more readily with their lover, are intensely devoted, and draw more attention to themselves, particularly in their appearance and mannerisms. They hear things literally, and speak inferentially, meaning that they must give you all the background in order to make their point. Everyone has some mix of Emotional and Physical traits but generally we're ruled by one and attracted to the other.

This book goes into depth on how the two personalities attract, relate, and clash. It offers ways that they can maintain the attraction without the clashing. It also gives great ways to attract/meet your complimentary opposite. It will shed great light on the relationships of your past and present (as well as future).

This book explains it all!!!! Are you a Physical or an Emotional? The book clearly defines, so there is no guessing on your part, which one everyone is. It get's down to the very basics that a Physicals heart and pluse beat faster than an Emotionals and a Physicals body temperature is higher than an Emotionals. Opposites do attract because they are attracted to what they find different. Understanding the differences allows them to accept and not try to change the other person when a found in a relationship. Physicals are more comfortable verbalizing, touching and living by feelings. Emotionals are more comfortable thinking, retaining his/her own counsel and living by logic and reason. One is heart-ruled, one is head-ruled. Both are capable of thinking and feeling, and both posses an ability to act out both logically or emotionally. Yet each is more comfortable with one behavior than the other. Physicals are more emotionally ruled, and place more emphasis on the success of their relationships over the sucess of their careers. Emotionals, place the most emphasis on the logical and analytical needs of life. They are most comfortable giving priority to career or work, not emotions. Emotionals express, for the most part, through logical, non-emotional words and gestures, while Physicals express emotionally. When confronted with danger or threat, the Emotionals first response is to back away and think things through while the Physicals first reaction is to express and act out what they feel. Emotionals express what they think, while Physicals express what they feel. Emotionals HEAR inferentially, they SPEAK literally, and Physicals HEAR literally, they SPEAK inferentially. This is a must read for everyone. You will have a better understanding of human interactions. Highly recommended.

This book transformed my life! After reading it about eight years ago, it helped me to understand the compelling attraction & polarity force behind my most intense relationships, and why they would play out the way they did (ending). For the first time I had both the insight to be able to understand the pattern I was in, and the tools to make the changes. I went from being serially monogomous (exciting beginnings with disappointing and painful endings), to happy and content in my 6th year of marriage to a Great guy, and we have a beautiful 4 year old boy. I am fulfilled!!! (And Yes, I am a 76% Physical.Yeowzie!) The quiz helps. Thank-you, thank-you John Kappas. Profound insights, Practical information, Easy reading, Great Book!

To Whom It May Concern, This is the best book I've ever read! It is absolutely the closest thing to being able to read and possibly write your future! If you are having doubts then swallow them now because this knowledge will change your life forever. If you want the key to making a hard relationship with someone you love work out. Well, here it is. I think that people cannot afford to know.....

Thomas Plunkett

With this book, David Feldman takes the mystery out of reverse mergers. Going public via an APO (alternative public offering) is a legitimate way to take a micro-cap company public while raising the necessary funds to grow the business. His strategies and insights, written in plain English, are invaluable for any CEO/CFO who is contemplating a reverse merger, especially after the recent SEC rulings. I would, however, caution that the book is not a do-it-yourself "how-to-guide" but rather a starting point to get acquainted with the reverse merger process. My biggest take-away is to make sure you bring in a capable and experienced team of advisers to make the reverse merger process a seamless transaction.

This is a most informative book and tells you how to do it. The concept is mysterious at first but is clearly explained in this book. It is a must for anyone considering taking his business public. I highly recomend it.

If you want to know the right way to organize and structure Reverse Mergers, this is the book to go for. It's an excellent up to date reference as well as a guidebook of do's, don'ts and "tricks of the trade"; even better, it's written so both newbies and professionals can benefit from it.

At the very minimum, Reverse Mergers will pay for itself many times over in saved legal fees; more importantly it will almost certainly save you a lot of time and may well save you from some very expensive mistakes. If you intend to do anything in this area, Mr. Feldman's book is undoubtedly the best $50 investment you can make.

Well, maybe it didn't exactly change my life, but it gave my law firm a new direction. My firm specializes in strategic transactions - initial public offerings, private placements, mergers & acquisitions - but we had steered clear of reverse mergers because of the uncertainty and confusion. Feldman and Dresner cleared up that confusion we now offer reverse mergers as part of our services.

This book showed the mechanics of structuring a reverse merger, how to create shell corporations and guidelines on financing. It covers due diligence, securities filings and and plenty of mistakes to avoid.

Whether you're an attorney, accountant, investment banker, business owner or private investor, this book will offer you an new strategy for growth and finance by way of reverse mergers.

Only a few years ago, it seemed that nearly every company was going public with an IPO. Now many quality companies are locked out of the IPO market, but companies have other ways to go public. One of the most popular paths is a "reverse merger." In this transaction, your private company merges into a public company (often a "shell") and controls it, giving you a public stock with which to raise capital. This may sound shady, but it's not: many well-known companies have gone public through reverse mergers, including Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, Turner Broadcasting System, Occidental Petroleum and Blockbuster Entertainment. Experienced Wall Street securities attorney David N. Feldman takes you through the reverse merger process in detail. The book is wonderfully clear and thorough, and should become the definitive textbook on reverse mergers. It is, however, a dry read. A profusion of technical rules and especially acronyms (SPAC, SOX, Form 10-B, Rule 419, Regulation A, SB-2, PIPE) make the book slightly MEGO (My Eyes Glaze Over) for the uninitiated - but then, they are not its target audience. We enthusiastically recommend this book to sophisticated investors, lawyers, accountants, investment bankers and executives who want all the details on this increasingly popular financing technique.

As a professor of Christian Education in a Seminary, I found this work from Dr. Hemphill very useful and required my students to read it for my course in Sunday school growth.

I would heartly recommend this book to pastors, Christian Educatin directors, deacons, laymen and other interested persons desiring real Christ-centered church growth.

I didn't read this book throughoutly, but I appreciated it through the title. I do believe that this book shall make something for teen-workers.

If your Sunday Schools are lethargic, aimless and have low expectations--and you want change---this is the book for you. Hemphill focuses on the fundamental philosophical shift we need to make but most of the book describes practical strategies that have added vigor and attendance to our small church!

As a professor of Christian Education in a Seminary, I found this work from Dr. Hemphill very useful and required my students to read it for my course in Sunday school growth.

I would heartly recommend this book to pastors, Christian Educatin directors, deacons, laymen and other interested persons desiring real Christ-centered church growth.

A thorough and comprehensive look at small group work in the life of the local church. Dr. Hemphill argues that the Sunday School can be the church growth tool of the 21st century. He creatively links the three tasks of the Great Commission to the work of the Sunday School. This strategy has been successfully used by a large number of churches. This is an excellent book for all those who work in the small group ministry of the local church.

This book is about the rise of Christianity as a form of revolution -- an overthrow of the existing Roman order. The author argues that Christians carried out this revolution by loving their enemies and supporting -- rather than fighting -- the existing Roman political-social order. This revolution was then met with a failed Roman counterinsurgency. The author uses the modern theoretical framework of fourth generation warfare (4GW) and counterinsurgency (COIN) to explain these events.

Early on in the book Daniel Abbott lays out a framework for generational change. Abbott believes each higher generation of war operates deeper into an enemies Observe-Orient-Decide-Act (OODA) loop. He states the Christian Roman-era revolution was a fourth generation of war. It wasn't fully clear as to how 4GW is analogous to the Observe-Orient part of the loop. The author's explanation is that 4GW blurs the line between peace and war. However, it isn't fully clear to me as to how this blurring relates to going "deeper" into the loop. The author raises, what seems to be, another requirement of 4GW -- breaking the will of the enemy. That seems to be an adequate requirement for 4GW, however, it doesn't seem to be essential. An actor could break the will of an enemy in numerous ways -- like attrition-style bombing -- and not be fourth generation war. This suggests that the author's definition of 4GW needs to be more rigorously defined. Also, John Boyd modelled the OODA after the scientific methodological process. The author's model for generational war is problematic insofar as a 5GW enemy can avoid the very process -- observation -- a strategic theorist could use to identify a particular generation, which raises questions about how one could support or falsify the theory. A facet of a good inference to best explanation is being able to explain observations. If a theory purports to describe phenomenon that cannot be observed then how do the theorists go on to explain a non-observable event? However, the purpose of the book was not to explain the generations so much as to describe 4GW in early Christianity. So it would be unfair to expect the author to do a complete evaluation of the model and the theory.

Another highlight of the book was a key aspect of Christianity's power -- patience. The author argues that Christians combined patience with long-term strategy to topple the Romans. For example, they waited-out the barbarian attacks and continued to support the Roman power infrastructure knowing their time might come, which reminded me of the Akira Kurosawa movie Yojimbo. The classicist Robert Greene has also written a number of books on patience being a key for obtaining power and that impatience is a principle impediment to power. Abbott's thoughts certainly add to Greene's ideas as well. Perhaps a major weakness that 4GW exploits is a society, and political elite, that lack patience.

The most interesting part of the book was the discussion of Penetration-Isolation-Subdue
/Submit-Reorient-Reharmonise (PISRR) steps to victory. Abbott does a great job of explaining this from the perspective of Christian strategy. The final chapters of the book focus on individual areas of the PISRR. The only problem I could find in this part of the discussion was that the author seemed to make a hasty generalisation from one statement by Paul to an entire theory about the role of women in Christian strategy (Chapter 5). The author would need more sources and observed instances to back up those claims.

Is the book true? As stated above I would have liked to seen more sources to evaluate what the author was saying. The major source for the book is the Bible itself. Other sources are written documents as well. Some individuals might have a problem with this, especially cross-disciplinary readers, for instance archaeologists, who analyse history from a variety of sources. However, Abbott does point to more research in this area, such as Rodney Stark, at the end of the book. I would also recommend reading Volume 1 of Michael Mann's 'The Sources of Social Power' that has a chapter on Christianity as a "decentralized civilizing community" that spread on the back of Roman strengths like trade routes. It is a nice companion to Abbott's book.

Finishing up, this is an interesting book. It has some methodological weaknesses but like all inductive theories it'll either be strengthened or rejected in time. The author has great potential to write more about the unique generational war model based on the OODA loop and I hope he will write a book about it. The author also lays out a number of people who would be interested in the book. I think the following individuals would also like it:

* Those interested in the history of revolution.
* Those interested in case studies of early political economy particularly ideological power versus military and economic power.
* Those interested in nonviolent military strategy.

The brief book outlines Abbott's application of generational war theory and contemporary military strategy to Christianity's peaceful conquest of the Roman Empire. Rome was extremely successful at defending against military and political threats. Christianity succeeded because it didn't set out to conquer Rome, but to co-opt it. They succeeded because they "loved their enemies" and turned every Christian man and woman into a cultural warrior. Less than three centuries later, they won.

My background in these areas is very limited, and alphabet-soup of strategic theories (PISRR, OODA, etc.) can be intimidating. Fortunatly, Strategies takes each theory one step at a time and makes it easy for laypersons to comprehend things like a 'Penetrate-Isloate-Subvert/Subdue-Reorient-Reharmonize' loop. This is the book's biggest strength in my opinion. Many, if not most, of its complex ideas are best illustrated graphically, and Abbott is not afraid to supplement his explanations with a plethora of clear, simply constructed graphs and charts. Even if early Christianity in particular is not of interest to you, Strategies is worth picking up just for the clear explanations of military theory that is relevant in today's political debates - Counter-Insurgency Operations (COIN) in particular. Other examples, such as Vichy France and IMB, assist the reader's understanding.

Its hard to quibble with Abbott's theory. I would have liked a slightly longer book, that supported some of his claims more. Descriptively, 4GW has great explanatory power for the rise of Christianity in Rome, but its difficult for me to believe that the apostles had the strategic co-option of the Empire in mind when they penned Matthew 5:41, Ephesians 1:10 or 1 Timothy 2:12. Strategies is for the most part a work of political science and history, but it slides into theology at points, especially in Chapter 7. Although Abbott is right, some more support for his characterizations of the world's three major religions is needed. It wouldn't be too difficult for someone wanting to pick a fight to find Islamic thinkers opposed to legalism or to bring up 2.256 in the Koran.

However, these problems are only a couple steps about spotting typos. The book is a must for anyone with an interest in broad war theory, counter-insurgency and the rise of Christianity, and makes current ideas accessible to those with little background in them.

What if I told you that Jesus and St. Paul were the architects of the greatest insurgent (fourth-generation warfare) campaign ever? What if I used Scripture and contemporary Roman records to show exactly how they did it (and how the Romans recognized the threat and responded, ultimately failing)? That's exactly what Daniel Abbott does in "Revolutionary Strategies in Early Christianity: 4th Generation Warfare (4GW) Against the Roman Empire, and the Counterinsurgency (COIN) Campaign to Save It". In an intellectual tour de force, Dan not only convincingly explains how precepts such as "If someone forces to you to go one mile, go with him two miles" and "I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a
man; she must be silent" served as foundations for the Christian revolution; he then explains how Muhammed designed Islam to defeat Christianity. And to top things off Dan analogizes the two religions to Microsoft and IBM. At just over 40 pages Dan's book is a short, clear, and profound read. It WILL change the way you look at history, current events, and the future, whether you're an atheist, agnostic, or a practicing Catholic like me. I realize that last sentence defies credulity, but the ideas in this book ARE that powerful!

The one and the only Dan Tdaxp has published his first (and by no means last) book. 'Revolutionary Strategies' applies contemporary military theory to the Christianization of the Roman Empire. Using biblical sources and secondary histories to deduce the strategy of early Christians, Dan argues that the Christian movement adopted a strategy with regards to the Roman Empire that is analogous to 4th Generation War: By loving their enemies (the Romans), the Christians ultimately destroyed the Roman will to resist Christianity. As Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire, it came to be seen by the Romans as a useful pillar to uphold the legitimacy and authority of the state as it was confronted by external enemies (re: pesky barbarians). Thus, Constantine's vision in 312 comes at a fortuitous time, as Rome was ripe to embrace Christianity, waiting patiently for its embrace.

The best of Dan's strategic analysis involves integrating Boyd's PISRR steps to victory and the gendering of different aspects of war. PISRR stands for Penetrate-Isolate-Subdue/Subvert-Reorganize-Reharmonize. However, to successfully PISRR an enemy, and harmonize its existence according to one's own strategy, it is necessary to use both male Panzers and female Soldats. Panzers crash gates, Soldats build societies. Using one without the other leaves one strategically vulnerable to further annihalation or eventual subversion. Femininity and Masculinity go hand in hand in warfare, a velvet glove to an iron fist. Christian Panzers spread the Good Word, Soldats ensured it stayed in the hearts and minds of the people. When the Empire was weak, it could switch to a Christian ideology that was already well received among the people. Thus, Christians destroyed the Roman will to resist it, as it became more rational to embrace it.

At least that's what I got out of it (without revealing too much).

However, no good review should be completely uncritical. So allow me to pick a fight. Instead of 4GW, might it be more consistent with xGW to think of this as 5GW? To quote Dan:

Your enemy must not feel that he is not on your side" (see [..]

By loving the Romans and respecting their political rule, the Christians were trying to keep the Romans from perceiving them as enemies, despite the fact that Christian social norms were non-hierarchal (everyone equal in the eyes of God) and threatening to the patriarchal Roman social order. Thus, I see carrying the equipment of Roman soldiers (as instructed by Jesus in Matthew 5:41) as a way to falsify the Roman characterization of Christians as enemies. Loving your enemy is the best way to make him not think of you as an enemy.

Either way, this is a sweet book that gets me thinking about xGW in pre-modern terms. Check it out, and then go read Dan's blog, www.dreaming5gw.com, and the blogs of those esteemed contributors.

Dan has done a remarkable job applying contemporary theories of warfare and network science to the early Christian / late Roman era. The most notable strength in Revolutionary Strategies is his inventive correlation of the defensive strategies employed by Caiaphas (the chief antagonist of Jesus's ministries) to those of Diocletian (the late-3rd century Roman emperor who ordered the most severe persecution of the Christian faithful). Accompanying this analysis is a very cogent application of the theories of Boyd (Penetrate - Isolate - Subvert - Reorient - Reharmonize, or PISRR), with modern examples like Vichy France that match the dynamics in the early Christian church.

Both Caiaphas and Diocletian sought to preserve the status quo. For Caiaphas, appeasing Rome was his primary objective: a rogue rabbi who preached of other-worldly gifts would have reflected poorly upon him and his hierarchy. Diocletian clearly understood the management complexities of so vast an empire, and seemed to adeptly address many of the most-pressing ills that plagued the Empire (poor civic participation, an army spread thin on the borders with little to no interior defenses) despite his rampant cronyism (particularly in the establishment of the Tetrarchy). But for the first 18 years of his reign Diocletian was unconcerned about the "Christian threat" - and if it not for Galerius would likely have never ordered the Great Persecution.

Most significantly, Dan's book opens several new fronts on the debate over the nature of insurgency - and counterinsurgency. For instance, is the ex post facto presumption of "co-option" by the splinter Jewish sect that has become the Christian church practical? Or, rather, was the Christian faith "culturally appropriated" by the Roman empire upon Emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in the early 4th century? While Dan asserts the former through the hypernetworking of the Apostle Paul, I believe this is a topic worthy of broader study. For instance, was Paul (née Saul of Tarsus, a Pharisee) savvy enough to realize that his peers in Jewish leadership were attracting the ire of Rome? Did Paul's ministries throughout the Mediterranean seek to increase the rift between Jerusalem and the splinter sect of Christian faithful? And were the Gospels written in a manner to give Rome (and particularly Pilate) a "pass" in the crucifixion of Jesus? (Note that three of the four Gospels were published immediately prior to the First Jewish-Roman War and the subsequent destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D.)

Dan also provides another benchmark in the evolving theory of the "generations of war", to wit his development of a taxonomy to differentiate between the various generational constructs. Though I disagree with his assertions that the "0th" (zeroth) generation connotes a form of "total war" and that 3rd generation warfare connotes "better minds", Dan brings value by identifying possible relationships across the xGW generations and inviting further dialogue.

This is perhaps the greatest utility of Revolutionary Strategies: proffering novel ideas in order to provoke debate. Just as the spiritual values of the Romans were initially at odds with the splinter Jewish sect we now call Christians, the different cognitive approaches of Islam and Christianity - one society favoring creativity and innovation, the other cherishing rote memorization - will have similar consequences for our own unfolding century.

We finally have a book that pulls several different IOS security strategies together. So many references prior to this one touch on these topics sporadically but I have yet to find a better resource that covers all the bases as does this one.

The things I like about this book:

So many authors tend to try to spread their subject matter out too wide and take too broad of an approach when writing about network security. Schudel and Smith didn't do that. Instead they focused on specific areas and worked diligently to stay on target. It was very refreshing to read a book that actually didn't wander off on tangential subjects on a regular basis.

As for actual subject matter I was very pleased to find a book that discussed the various "planes" within Cisco IOS. In my opinion Cisco has not been very good about documenting this subject and so this book has cleared up several knowledge gaps I had prior to reading it. All of the bits of information I've heard or read about in the past were pulled together in a clear and concise manner. It was also pleasing to see just the right amount of configuration "shows" rather than pages and pages of them.

I also was very happy that this book was not full of fluff. The authors used just enough background info to convey their message but did not go overboard in non-essential detail. As with any technical reference I prefer thorough and correct information but many times there is just too much description that just gets in the way.

Some reviewers stated that the authors repeated themselves within this book. For me this was not a negative. There are certain topics that I very much need repeated in order to retain it thoroughly and so this was not a problem for me. The repetitious content was neither significant nor time consuming so I consider it to be a positive rather than a negative.

The things I do not like about this book:

This is trivial but I would have much preferred a hardback book rather than a paperback. This is a personal preference of course but hardbacks tend to last longer for me.

That's just yet another great title from Cisco Press!. This book does a great job of logically dividing the overall router security into each logical context by way of describing the router's planes. I also found very elaborate and diverse "Further Reading" towards the end of each chapter very useful. I particularly liked the idea of overall structure and quality of contents in the book which relate to both a casual and an advanced reader!

Book is structured into four Parts;

Part I focuses on laying the foundation for the rest of the book. It achieves this purpose by talking about the Enterprise and SP network fundamentals. This also includes day-in-the-life-of-a-packet through various router switching mechanisms. Chapter 2 re-hashes the network security/threat models but does a nice job of dividing it into various aspects of architectures including various IP VPNs scenarios.

For an advanced reader, this should serve as a nice refresher!

Part II introduces you to real meat of router security, i.e., securing the router planes in both IP and MPLS networks. Authors do a good job of describing the details of each component. Chapters in this section contain working details and IOS configuration snippets to enhance the understanding of various concepts discussed. An advanced user will find all the details given here very useful, and prefer read them cover to cover.

Part III walks you through various case studies to further the concepts explained in the prior chapters. I particularly like the idea of covering both Enterprise and SP case studies. It provides use cases, application examples, and best practices guidelines for the key concepts discussed in the whole book

In Part IV, I very much like the idea of not just copying pasting the headers as-is, rather adding the security implications of each and putting them into its context. Cisco IOS to IOS-XR Security transition is also useful although to mostly SP audience.

This book discusses security as in Router planes for both IP and MPLS VPNs Security. A few times you can notice that authors are repeating themselves.

Overall, I strongly recommend this book to all network security engineers as MPLS (due to its inherent advantages and applications) is gaining momentum not only in the service provider space but also in the enterprise market segment.

Router Security Strategies is a book about protecting ip networks by dividing them into different segments. Network engineers for service providers and larger enterprise networks will benefit most from this manual.

Chapters 1 through 7 are not a cookbook that you can look up sample configurations, but a broad coverage of security concerns. The authors spend these chapters leading the reader to an understanding of how ip traffic can be broken down into different categories, and how to define them as well as the particular vulnerabilities each has.

Schudel and Smith describe a three dimensional way of looking at security. Whereas we may have previously thought of securing each interface in a path, this book explodes this view into a multi-dimensional paradigm of data, control, management, and services. Like parallel universes each must be addressed separately while maintaining a big picture of how each plane can affect the other. The data plane is the actual payload for applications. The control plane indicates protocols that keep the traffic flowing to their destination. The management plane concerns the network administrator's access to the equipment. Special features such as Virtual Private Networks and Quality of Service constitute the services plane.
Chapters 8 and 9 give case studies that include diagrams, numbered line configurations, with documentation.

Appendix B details of each section of IP, TCP, and other protocol packets with vulnerabilities for each part. This is the first time I have seen this type of break down and found it made several aspects of attacks clearer to me. There are several other appendices that cover the IOS XR image and an excellent section on security incident handling that one could use as an outline for their company to use. I give Router Security Strategy 5 stars.

Gregg Schudel's and David Smith's book, "Sec Router Security Strategies: Securing IP Network Traffic Planes (Networking Technology: Security)", provided some of the best layering of security technologies I've read to date. It provides the needed understanding of security concerns and the methods to control them, from the bottom of the stack within the box to the top, deep into the application layers. Because it includes both IT and SP network considerations, I'm able to recommend this to all my consulting engineers.

D. Stewart, Engineering Manager
DeBrick Consulting

Router Security Strategies (RSS) is the sort of Cisco security book I like to read. Some of you were surprised by my three star review of another recent Cisco security book -- LAN Switch Security (LSS). I suggest the authors of that book take a look at RSS as a model for writing a second edition of LSS. RSS is well-organized, very clear, and backed by plenty of actionable command syntax. Were it not for a tendency to unnecessarily repeat and summarize material, I would have rated RSS five stars. Nevertheless, anyone operating Cisco routers would do well to consider how RSS approaches the network security problem.

RSS focuses on ways to protect transit, receive, and exception IP traffic in the data, control, management, and service planes of Enterprise and Service Provider (SP) networks. That one sentence almost summarizes the entire table of contents, where Chs 4-7 cover the four planes, Chs 8 and 9 provide case studies for Enterprise and SP networks, respectively, and Chs 1-3 provide introductory and conceptual material. This is how to write a technical book! Tangential material appears in four appendices, and the authors keep the reader on track through the entire text.

RSS makes a compelling case for network security in a world where applications and Web 2.0 are all the rage. I believe many people who scoff at network security have no real idea of the complexities inherent in modern network infrastructure. Too many application-centric people take it for granted that they can reach whatever Web victim they're attacking; perhaps that is a credit to network engineers who've made their creations just work and not be the center of attention. Should attackers decide to focus on network infrastructure, RSS provides plenty of techniques for defending routers and even some switches. I enjoyed learning more about several uRPF techniques, Flexible Pattern Matching (FPM), Selective Packet Discard, Receive ACLS, Control Plane Policing, Dynamic APR Inspection (DAI), and CLI Views. Many of these methods exist to protect the network itself, not necessarily the endpoints. While the authors do mention a desire to protect hosts, I liked seeing such a focus on defending infrastructure. Perhaps "network security" should be a term transitioned to solely mean protecting network platforms?

I thought Appendix B would be the standard catalog of TCP/IP header diagrams, but I was pleasantly described to see a different approach. App B did depict IP, TCP, UDP, ICMP, IEEE 802.3, and 802.1Q headers, but the authors provide a security implication for each field in these headers. I found that to be original and informative.

I subtracted one star for two aspects of the book which bothered me. First, the authors tend to use the term "threat" in a manner which is not consistent with real threat terminology. For example, p 87 speaks of "the potential threat and impact of a given vulnerability". Threat, impact, and vulnerability are all separate concepts. Ch 2, where such terminology appears, is titled "Threat Models for IP Networks." If you read the chapter it is a catalog of attacks, which sections titled "Resource Exhaustion Attacks", "Spoofing Attacks", and so on. Clearly Ch 2 is "Attack Models for IP Networks".

Second, although the material in RSS is excellent, the authors' tendency to repeat concepts wore me down. It's usually acceptable to begin a section by referencing and/or rephrasing material from an earlier chapter, or at worst farther back in the same chapter. It's simply annoying to be told the same material that appeared in the last paragraph. Any time the reader encounters "as stated in the last section" or similar, the authors should reconsider discussing the concept again. Edits like these wouldn't necessarily shrink the book that much, but the text would not treat the reader as if he or she has too short an attention span to remember what he or she just read.

Despite those two concerns, I still very much enjoyed reading RSS. You will probably get more out of the book if you have MPLS experience, but the authors provide plenty of background anyway. One of the best aspects of RSS is the presentation of extensive IOS syntax for all of the major concepts in the book. The authors do not talk about a technique and then leave it as an exercise for the reader to determine how that idea should be implemented in IOS. Those trying to protect data, control, management, and service IP traffic will be well-served by reading RSS.

This book is a great resource for anyone with an interest in what MACV-SOG was doing during the war in Vietnam. In addition to a plethora of never before seen pictures, the book follows the story of a young man (the author) from Basic Training to Airborne and SF training, deployment to Vietnam, and, ultimately, assignment to MACV-SOG.

Fascinating, just fascinating.

thank goodness for an interprising soldier who saved the photos and info
from a lab fire and has now shared his secret world with the masses. It
gives another and more in depth view of cross border RECON in the Nam war.
Coupled with Plaster's SOG and Harris' Break Contact-Continue Mission, we
can mentally imbed with these soldiers as they risked all to interdict the workings of a cruel and voracious enemy. The book tells the story.
Great work Frank..

Greco described this book best by calling it the "scrapbook of a covert organization never meant to see the light of day." (Acknowledgements, X) This is exactly what this work is. Not only does it reflect his experiences while serving in SOG, but it reflects the overall experience of running highly classified missions into enemy controlled territory.

Before I bought this book, I was somewhat apprehensive because I had already bought John L. Plaster's book "SOG: A Photo History of the Secret Wars" and I was afraid that they'd be very similar in photos and content. While some photos appear in both books, they are each their own separate works and both compliment the other very well.

I am truly thankful to Greco and Plaster and the others alike who served in SOG and performed a job against such incredible and sometimes suicidal odds. Furthermore, thank you for taking the time to compile your experiences into something that can be read and held by those who were never there.

This book is right up there with MAJ (R) Plaster's earlier works. Predominantly consisting of a well-written narrative and unique, previously unpublished photographs, Mr. Greco's contribution to the history of SOG is incredible. As a historian and currently serving Soldier, this is a fantastic look into a world that the bureaucrats tried to forget or suppress, at least until the next war where they needed something like it again. Great work!

This was a very informative book.These men saved many lives by doing the things that they secretly did, the recognition is well deserved.

Steve Stacy

I have given out a stack of these books to my sales team. Mark Cook has not only outlined a road map to make any sales person better, but also provides enough details to allow even a rookie to succeed. Once you start reading the book, you will be compelled to complete it as soon as possible,so that you can implement the plan. This was the first book in over 5 years that I felt addressed the needs of the salesman, sales manager, and leadership, while motivating all of them to set higher goals and be able to achieve them. Remarkable achievement!

There are tons of great books on selling, many of these books claim there is only one way of selling and they usually tell you what to do but not always why. This book is totally different it's not about selling it's about leading, specifically sales people. In plain language the author points out the simple truth of how to lead sales growth and he even tells you why these techniques work.

I found the concepts and examples very compelling. I strongly recommend this book for experienced sales leaders who are determined to increase the performance of their teams.

I found the points in this book to be real world and practical for today's selling environment. Overall the subject matter is relevant and hits on the key points that any sales professional has encountered or will encounter in the selling process. I am going to have my sales managers and their sales teams read Sales Blazers and we will be talking about its key points in our next sales meeting.

I've been getting sick of the same old questioning techniques and selling processes repackaged. I've been waiting for something that is different. I loved the approach this book took of addressing the main challenge in selling or leading complex deals. I particularly liked the intro. because it seemed like I was reading about my company. Thanks!

We revamped our entire sales process and compensation package. This book was an excellent resource for us and helped us go from point A to point B relatively easily

Here is a great book for sales managers. Gets to the point, easy to read and offers great value for money. Don't bypass this for books heavy on theory and lacking practical ideas to increase your sales

In "Sales Management Power Strategies", the author makes it clear that increasing sales revenue is the responsibility of several departments working together. As you read this book you will get many ideas that you can easily implement to help your sales department succeed. Paul takes you step-by-step from hiring the right person, setting quotas and accurately forecasting results, to getting the entire company focused on revenue.

As CFO of a high tech company, I especially appreciated the practical advice, as well as the worksheets for getting top revenue performance from the company. We have already started implementing some of the ideas in this book and know we will be seeing great results.

If you're looking for a business book to add to your sales library, this should be the next book you read.

It has been said that if something is unmanaged it is uncontrolled. If sales management was truly honest, "shoot from the hip" would best describe their current sales processes. In his book, Mr. DiModica transforms time tested revenue strategies into action steps. The title says it all "building a replicable and scalable sales process." This is a great resource for any organization that is unsatisfied with their sales performance.

If you are looking to manage your sales team more effectively, then get this book. The author gives very specific details on how to manage your salespeople by metrics, develop a sales scorecard, calculate sales quotas and targets accurately, and hire the right sales staff for your company. Lots of books out there are full of fluff and generalizations, but this particular book gives techniques and strategies that work in the real world and will help increase your team's peak performance. I recommend this book to anyone seeking to build or improve their sales team.

this was truly an enjoyable book on sales techniques. i have been in sales all my life, and have read and listened to a lot of tapes on the subject, and have never heard some of these ideas put accross the way this writer has!! it was fun to read, inciteful, and thought provoking. this book was a different slant on sales, put into an easy to understand method. a born salesperson does this naturally, but this book can be a great inspiration to a novice, and a great boost for a savy salesman! thank you so much for writingthis book, winston, i really enjoyed it, and would love to read more!
cyndi boone

An excelllent read, particularly from a salespersons' point of view. The caption "If You Only Knew" became somewhat more significant as I made my way through each chapter. As the book starts out in Chapter 1 Mr. Nash talks about a method that all salespeople use everyday, however most are not aware that this method originated in Ancient Greece, 2400 years ago. And, to elaborate further so many simple techiques are explained throughout the book, an example: "Framing, very effective, that can make or break a professional salesperson. Mr. Nash covers a wide scope of what the sales process is really all about. He uses real life experiences and takes the reader with him on a real journey of the ends and outs of professional selling. As a 20 year sales veteran, I was very intrigued by the vast amount of "Tricks of the Trade" and techniques Mr. Nash discribed so well. Chapter 5, shares with the reader, a critical step to turning a prospect into a customer. Chapter 6 tackles one of the most necessary steps in the sales process, for the new or seasoned salesperson. The book was written for those who want to become "best in class" salespeople. Another area so important, Mr. Nash talks about a personal experience handling a difficult customer, the outcome was amazing. This book is filled with famous quotes and cliches that you don't want to miss. In Chapter 9, Mr. Nash shares 3 factors that play a vital role in ones' success as a salesperson, he also shares his personal experience with keeping a positive attitude and balance in his own life. As I move to the conclusion of "A SALESMAN'S TRICKS OF THE TRADE" I laughed, I was uplifted, I was inspired and I learned a few Tricks of my own! I would encourage any salesperson new or seasoned to read Mr. Nash's book.
L. Haskins

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2AP0LBC71T9Q3 A Salesman's Tricks of the Trade

I highly recommend this book for any sales professional who is seeking practical advice for real-world techniques that will improve sales. Additionally, it is delivered in an entertaining, easy-to-read format with meaningful examples of how and why these techniques worked for him in the sales arena. A definite must-read!

This book contains marvelous explanations of some of the best sales techniques I have ever found in print. I highly recommend this book to any salesperson that is looking for some very practical ways to make more sales. The author gives interesting examples where he used these same techniques in his own sales career. I found this book to be both fascinating to read and very useful to my own sales career.

Robert Lewis

Don Price's book is an upbeat, step-by-step, guide to achieving your business goals! I particularly liked it because it was so positive, easy to read, and contained lots of suggestions in a step-by-step manner for marketing yourself. It seemed pretty comprehensive, filled with both practical and innovative ideas. He concludes the book with especially good (step-by-step) questions to help you develop your own marketing action plan. In addition to that, the Appendix includes lots of sources of support for your marketing efforts - business cards, directories, publishers, audio/videotape producers, etc. I think this book would be a really great gift item, too, particularly for those friends starting their own businesses!

Just when you think you know it all, you read this book and your really put into place. As a health care provider in california, target marketing is essential. This book gave me some great ideas and insight on creative ways to market our patients.

Thank You Mr. Don Price

Dr. Brad Barez

I have used Don's techniques in both my personal and professional life, and it works. Don's easy approach takes the work out of marketing by making it not only beneficial but fun. The resutls I garnered from his advice has helped me increase my profitability by more than 30% in the first quarter of implementation. Thanks Don for writing such a valuable tool.

I love it! I found Secrets of Personal Marketing Power to be timeless in content and extremely valuable to my dental practice. The 26 secrets are powerful and useful in any business. This is a must read for anyone wanting to have an effective marketing advantage.

In this easy to read, well-written book, the author helps you to take control of your business and personal life now. Among the many strategies outlined in the book, the author discusses the five principles of personal marketing power and how to become a "miracle maker" with innovative tools and strategies either to grow your business or climb the proverbial "corporate ladder." He will help you develop the keys to your success and understand the power of the "Networking Golden Rules" -- active listening, asking smart questions, personal visibility and relationship building to name just a few. He gives you 26 Personal Marketing Secrets that empower you to fast-forward your career and shows you the simple truths in getting people to believe in you, to promote you and get free publicity, while showing you how to embody passion, insight and vision for masterminding your own Personal Marketing Plan. This book is a "must" for everyone to learn how to promote themselves in this ultra-competitive society in which we live.