The book was initiated by Marus Fontoura when Wolfgang and Marcus met in Rio in July 1999. A month later Bernhard joined the team. Besides the truly distributed writing (Princeton, NJ; Constance, Germany; Munich, Germany; San Jose, CA; Berkeley, CA), the authors worked on the book during a sailing trip in the Caribbean in Spring 2000. The final proof-reading was accomplished on a lake near Salzburg in August 2001, exactly two years after Bernhard and Wolfgang met there for their initial discussions.