ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Although only one person's name winds up on the spine of this book, it takes a large army of people to put out a book, and without their help, dedication, and tireless efforts, there wouldn't even have been a spine; and to them I'm greatly indebted.

First, I want to thank absolutely just the coolest person I've ever metmy wife, Kalebra. I don't know how I ever got lucky enough to marry her 15 years ago, but it was without a doubt the smartest thing I've ever done, and the greatest blessing God's ever given me. She just flat-out rocks, and at this point, I can't imagine that the crush I've had on her since the first time I met her will ever go away. I love you, Sweetie!

Secondly, I want to thank my son, Jordan. Little Buddythere's so much of your mom in you, in particular her kind, loving heart, and that's about the best head start anyone could ask for in life. You're the greatest little guy in the world, and thanks so much for making me smile every single day while I was writing this book, and for setting up your iBook next to me so we can "write books together."

I want to thank my team at KW Media Groupthey're a unique group of people, with limitless energy and amazing talent, and I'd put them up against anybody in the business. In particular, I want to thank my Creative Director Felix Nelson for his great ideas, cool cover designs, intro artwork, and for his ongoing dedication and consistently amazing attitude. I want to thank my Tech Editors Polly Reincheld and Veronica Martin for making sure everything works the way it should, and for input and ideas that helped to make this a better book from top to bottom. I want to thank the amazing layout master Dave Damstra for making the book look so squeaky clean, and my Production Editor Kim Gabriel for making sure everything came together on time.

As always, a special thanks goes to my very good friend Dave Moser for his unwavering commitment to making sure that everything we do is better than what we've done before. He's an inspiration to everyone on our team; he helps us go places we couldn't go without him, and I'm honored to have him at the helm.

I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my good friend Terry White. Terry is a major Mac OS X tip hound (and president of MacGroup-Detroit, one of the very best Macintosh User Groups anywhere), and he was kind enough to share so many of his cool tips and amazing tricks with me; and this book is far better than it would have been without his help. Thank you, manI owe you big time! Also, many thanks go to Dave Gales who helped me with the early testing.

I want to thank Jean Kendra for her support and enthusiasm for all my writing projects, and to Pete Kratzenberg for making it all add up. I also want to thank my brother Jeff for letting me constantly "pick his brain," and for his many ideas, input, support, hard work, and most of all for just being such a great brother to me always.

Of course, I couldn't do any of it without the help of my wonderful assistant, Kathy Siler, and all the "behind-the-scenes" team at KW Media who constantly keep raising the bar.

I want to thank all my "Mac Buddies" who've taught me so much over the years, including Bill Carroll, Jim Goodman, Dick Theriault, Don Wiggins, Dave Gales, Jim Patterson, Larry Becker, Jim Workman, Jon Gales, Jim Nordquist, and a big thanks to my buddy Rod "Mac Daddy" Harlan (President of the DVPA) for his contribution of some very cool iDVD tips.

Thanks to Nancy Ruenzel, Scott Cowlin, and everyone at New Riders and Peachpit for their ongoing commitment to excellence, and for the honor of letting me be one of their "Voices that Matter."

And most importantly, an extra special thanks to God and His son Jesus Christ for always hearing my prayers, for always being there when I need Him, and for blessing me with a wonderful life I truly love, and such a warm, loving family to share it with.