Colophon

Our look is the result of reader comments, our own experimentation, and feedback from distribution channels. Distinctive covers complement our distinctive approach to technical topics, breathing personality and life into potentially dry subjects.

The animals on the cover of Switching to VoIP are hyacinth macaws ( Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus ). The bright blue hyacinth is the largest species of macaw, growing up to 40 inches in length. Surviving in three distinct populations in southern Brazil, eastern Bolivia, and northeastern Paraguay, the hyacinth macaw prefers riverside tropical rain forests and palm swamps. They can be found in pairs or in small groups, males and females looking nearly indistinguishable.

Hyacinths mate for life. The female incubates the eggs, while the male collects and brings food to her. The young stay with their parents for about six months before setting off on their own, but they don't reach maturity and start breeding until they are about seven years old. While the hyacinth lifespan in still uncertain , some scientists think that the birds live up to 60 years .

The hyacinth's diet consists of a large variety of nuts and seeds, many of which would be inaccessible without the bird's exceptionally powerful bill. Part of this diet includes unripe fruit and poisonous seeds that no other animal can digest. Scientists speculate that digesting these toxins is only possible because of another part of the hyacinth's dietlarge chunks of moist clay from river banks. This clay helps absorb and neutralize the poisons. In their messy eating habits, hyacinth macaws play an important role in seed dispersal. They seem to carry and drop seeds everywhere they go.

Adam Witwer was the production editor and Norma Emory was the copyeditor for Switching to VoIP . Sada Preisch proofread the text. Matt Hutchinson and Claire Cloutier provided quality control. Peter Ryan provided production assistance. Angela Howard wrote the index.

Ellie Volckhausen designed the cover of this book, based on a series design by Edie Freedman. The cover image is from the Dover Pictorial Archive. Karen Montgomery produced the cover layout with Adobe InDesign CS using Adobe's ITC Garamond font.

David Futato designed the interior layout. This book was converted by Keith Fahlgren to FrameMaker 5.5.6 with a format conversion tool created by Erik Ray, Jason McIntosh, Neil Walls, and Mike Sierra that uses Perl and XML technologies. The text font is Linotype Birka; the heading font is Adobe Myriad Condensed; and the code font is LucasFont's TheSans Mono Condensed. The illustrations that appear in the book were produced by Robert Romano, Jessamyn Read, and Lesley Borash using Macromedia FreeHand MX and Adobe Photoshop CS. The tip and warning icons were drawn by Christopher Bing. This colophon was written by Adam Witwer.