Acknowledgments

I l @ ve RuBoard

This book would not have been possible without the support and assistance of a whole bunch of people. Their reward? Embarrassment (and possible immortality) in this section.

First and foremost, I'd like to thank my family for providing me with a quiet place to work, and for putting up with my odd work hours (and even odder behavior) while this book was being written.

A big thank-you to my "co-CEO" and friend, Harish Kamath, for the professionalism he exhibited in doing my job (as well as his own) while I was working on this book.

Many thanks to Sterling Hughes, Phillip G ¼hring, Dan Libby, Manuel Lemos, Stephan Schmidt, Nigel Swinson, Edd Dumbill, Dietrich Ayala, and B rd Farstad for sharing their code and their time with me; and for their professionalism in answering my ( numerous !) questions.

For keeping things interesting, thanks to: Popeye and Olive, Dennis Lehane, Lawrence Block, Bryan Adams, the Stones, Scott Adams, Gary Larson, MTV, Buffy, Stephen King, Barry White, Robert Crais, Robert B. Parker, Baz Luhrmann, HBO, Mark Twain, Mahtab Marker, Tim Burton, everyone at "the other company," the entire cast of Friends , Dido, Google.com, Alfred Hitchcock, Michael Schumacher, Humphrey Bogart, Amazon.com, U2, The Three Stooges, Ling's Pavilion, Britney Spears, Kylie Minogue, Oscar Wilde, Bill Watterson, Punch, Harry Potter, Scott Turow, Blizzard Entertainment, Xerxes Antia, Dire Straits, David Mitchell, and all my friends at home and elsewhere.

A special mention must be made here of the great team at New Riders Publishing ” especially my Acquisitions Editor, Deborah Hittel-Shoaf; my Development Editor, Laura Loveall; and my Technical Editors, Zak Greant and Mark Nenadov, who guided this book through the development process. This is a very professional team, and if you, dear reader, ever have the opportunity to work with them, I encourage you to do so. Thanks much, guys!

I l @ ve RuBoard