Re: OT (Hint: maybe on-topic if you need to need help)

Dark Fiber,

1. An advertisement would imply I am selling something and I assure you I
have no skin in the game. Not yet anyway.

2. I was invited to Narbik's class back in 2008 as some may recall - so I
attended the class free of charge and I simply posted me thoughts on the
class - for those who don't know I get asked regularly about these classes
and which I prefer. If anyone here has asked I give my opinion unicast as
well as multicast/broadcast.

3. There are things I'd like to see in every class and maybe not see as much
of and I actually mentioned these things to Narbik, one-on-on - I've done
something similar for Wayne - who took everything I said quite negatively
and so I'm not sure if things improved after the fact, since I have nothing
to say or do about their products after that last e-mail encounter we had.
His team was copied on the e-mail so they know at least a part of the
conversation.

4. There are lots of great instructors and each has many positives and
"maybe negatives" - I always try to focus on the positives.

5. I have a chance to watch Paul Borghese in action this past week, and when
he asked me for my opinion, I offered it as well along with suggestions to
help illustrate my points and be helpful to such a generous soul who has
brough the world groupstudy.com for example.

Now - I do like some others - Jeremy Ciora - FABULOUS INSTRUCTOR - this guy
never has a video that I've ever seen that is unprepared for. He brings
humor, interest, delight, an incredible attitude to the industry and it
shows. Love his stuff and yep I bought the CBT Nuggets CCIE Videos some
years ago.

Every CCIE Instructor on this forum probably has nightmares about competing
with the guy most of the world owes their CCNA/CCNP or CC-Whatever to...
and for good reason.

Everyone loves Jeremy.

Now take Chris Bryant - This guy is calm, cool, and collected. Very matter
of fact. He has his materials together and he is awesomely well prepared.
He does not "physically" demonstrate the same enthusiasm as Jeremy - but he
does cut to the chase and covers the material succintly, matter-of-factly,
and quite expertly.

Both of these guys have their respective market cornered and with good
reason - They R-O-C-K and CCIE Candidates can learn a lot from both of them
for a fraction of the price of any of the CCIE offerings to cover some of
the same materials.

The cat is out of the bag.

Now Dave Huccaby - the man does not waste a syllable - no jokes, no fanfare,
no foreplay... he gets right down to business and delivers the goods -
non-stop.

If he were teaching the CCIE Candidates in such a fashion - he'd be the dog
to beat. Either of the CCIE's mentioned - Jeremy or Chris each would
capture a prominent share of the CCIE market and with solid reasoning if
they ever decide to move in that specific direction.

Sure there are others.

I've yet to see everything I see at Cisco Live show up at the CCIE level -
wonder why sometimes - or perhaps some of it does show up eventually.

Ever hear of a guy named Faziz? A Cisco employee - this guy delivers
awesome materials - he wrote the Cisco Press - Troubleshooting Routing
Protocols for the CCIE - and he is totally awesome in a bubbly good humored
kind of way - I could sit in a class non-stop with the guy on some of the
deepest topics - you can "feel" that he loves the subject.

If anyone gets a chance at Cisco Live to attend Troubleshooting OSPF - he's
the guy - I'd highly recommend the class.

I enjoy classes with Narbik no doubt. His lectures are well rehearsed and
validated prior to class.

Umm... if anyone things I don't question the hell out of the guy - in class,
out of class, and even at 4am in the morning... ask the other guys in
attendance... if I think he is wrong - I challenge. If I think he did not
clarify enough - I ask for more... etc.

I probably ask more questions by myself than the entire rest of the ~20
people in attendance and I don't stop. It's my nature.

So... don't think I give the guy an easy time in class, at lunch, or
dinner... or for those 5--6 hours Sunday evening....

I worked him over and asked more things than mostly any other other student
might and some things that would perplex some of our favorite instructors -
all hours day or night... in class and out of class.

He delivered the goods.

Not saying other guys can't do as well...

I get accused of "interviewing" co-workers, vendors, etc. all the time and
maybe I am guilty of it... Perhaps.

However, I tend to dig untill satisfied.

Now some people take my queries quite wrongly and some may even see them as
attacks - can't help that... however, I ask stuff for my benefit or even for
the benefit of the assembled group...

We paid a lot of money to attend the class, travel to class, stay in hotels,
and other misc. fees - I believe asking a little more from such a master
instructor is par for the course.

I have seen instructor avoid the students at lunch... and disappear
immediately after a class as a consistent rule for whatever reasons...

Judge that behavior as you will - some people have lives and need to get
away from it all.

Me - I live technology -24/7/365 in some shape, form, or fashion and I
deploy nearly the entire gamut of products Cisco has for the
Campus/Enterprise and so I have questions or concerns that not everyone is
going to have...

The service provider guys have a different set of concerns and questions -
not usually mine.

I think it helps us all when we know our instructors have a little more
breadth and depth of knowlelge than the notes they have prepared or the
slideshow they have delivered who knows how many times.

Every thing Narbik dicussed on the board has been tested by the man and some
of the issues came directly from this forum. Directly. He tells of them as
he goes and why he decided to make examples of each of them for his classes.

Hope that helps a little....

I'm not exactly a billboard.

FYI - I still love INE's contributions to the CCIE world, I just don't know
if the same level of prep is present in all of the materials I've seen that
the Brians themselves used to deliver - I know Brian M. has gotten a lot
better and he delivers like he means it.

Now... I've seen some private DVD collections on Ebay done by individuals
and without mentioning names... I value them almost exclusively for the
sheer number of errors that one person can make with a camera and a CLI...
Not to be mean - I bought them and I find a certain a value from them...
however 100% accuracy is not why. Nor is the value of explanations either
per se.

Darby Weaver

http://www.darbyslogs.blogspot.com

Blogs and organic groups at http://www.ccie.net
Received on Sat Apr 30 2011 - 21:00:18 ART