----- Original Message -----
From: Bartow, Brett
To: Dirk Fretz
Sent: Thursday, May 24, 2007 1:12 PM
Subject: RE: Review - CCNA INTRO ECG (CCNA Self-Study, 640-821,
640-801) 2nd Ed
Thanks Dirk. It's difficult to please everyone with writing
style, as some prefer the conversational style while others want something more
concise, but I appreciate where you are coming from.
As for subnetting, Cisco is developing a subnetting game
that they have posted to the CCNA prep center. Are you familiar with
it?
Brett
Brett,
You're more than welcome. I'm
glad it was in a format that was detailed enough to be useful. Not having
a criteria per se, I made it up on the fly.
Hopefully, Wendell will take
my remarks in stride. It's just the writing format and style I don't
particularly like, not the individual. Case in point, he can be a happy
daddy all he wants. I just think a technical book needs to stay technical
rather than having cutesy reference to ones kids sprinkled between the
pages. I like matter of fact and to the point. I don't need
a warm and fuzzy personal relationship with the author because that just
takes up valuable page space. Even so, I love inside info and tidbits
of real world examples and advice.
Todd Lammle, Sybex's CCNA author, has the
same conversational writing style. Sometimes it can get a little
silly when he says things like, "I call the CLI the Cash Line
Interface...". By then, I'm rolling my eyes and thinking, "Ok Mr.
Suave. Can we please stick to the lesson at hand? I don't need the
Joe Cool treatment.".
It would be really neat to see the
updates and upgrades in the CCNA ECG material. The primary problem I had
on the INTRO exam is with the simlets and possibly the testlets (memory
failing). They're single questions with multiple subsections and actions
to perform, and not nearly as simple as the demo.
I can vaguely recall one simlet that had
5 subsections. It had a router connected to two switches that were
connected to two PCs. The first thing that needed to be done was to choose
a IP addressing scheme from four to six addressing schemes that were
provided. Then you had to do something else and three additional
things. Without some drilling and practice with this kind of problem, it
got to be a matter of thinking, "Anything else?!! Can I get you a cup of
coffee?! Wash your car?! How about a nice defrag to make your hard
drive feel all better?!". ;0)
Btw, is it possible for CP's or Boson's
programmers to come up with some kind of a subnetting quiz
program that would randomly create or pull a primary network address
from a database and then create a criteria for subnetting the
PNA. Since IP addresses are binary in nature, i.e. the building block
of machine code programming, and certain conditions and paradigms can be
designed into a program, a subnetting quiz program would seem to be a
natural thing to create and use for subnetting practice. We've probably
both seen charts
(See Fig. C) that show the possible subnets and hosts per subnet depending on
how many bits were borrowed from a primary network address. The charts in
and of themselves are basically IF/THEN statements, which is the basis for a lot
of programming. So, as another tool in the IT toolbox, it'd be great if
someone could create such a program for people to practice
subnetting.
In closing, thanks again for the chance
to review the book and I'll keep in touch.
- Dirk
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, May 23, 2007 8:47
AM
Subject: RE: Review - CCNA INTRO ECG
(CCNA Self-Study, 640-821, 640-801) 2nd Ed
Dirk--Wow, thanks for the detailed feedback. I appreciate
the depth of your commentary on the book. I've forwarded it on to the author.
As I mentioned before, we are working on updating these
books to make them align better to the exams. We have reorganized the content
to help focus on more exam-realistic scenarios, which I believe was your
primary issue with the self-study material in the market today. I think you
will be pleased with the results. I will certainly send you copies once they
are published this summer.
Good luck with your studies. If I can be of any
assistance to you in obtaining your certifications, please let me
know.
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