Acknowledgments | Internet-Enabled Business Intelligence


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	Internet-Enabled Business Intelligence By William A. Giovinazzo
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Whenever they give out the Academy awards, the recipients always say "there are so many people I need to thank." Invariably, they ramble on and on until the band starts to play and someone turns off their mike. This is what's nice about a book. There is no band to silence me. In bringing this book together, I had a great deal of help from many intelligent , kind, and professional individuals. I am continually grateful for their support in this effort. The challenge is to sufficiently thank them all.

First and foremost is Eric Hanson. Our daughters are in the same Indian Princess tribes. One late night over the campfire I had expressed concern that the book was drifting and I was very interested in ensuring that I was providing substantive content. As is his nature, he volunteered to help. Even then I didn't believe he understood what was involved. I took him up on his offer regardless. I owe him a debt of gratitude. He kept me focused and provided an excellent sounding board for ideas, as well as providing excellent ideas of his own. When I was carried away with my own rhetoric he attempted to bring me back down to earth. There are times, however, when he did not always succeed.

I also want to thank the people at Prentice Hall. This book has been two years in the making, and they have demonstrated enormous patience. In this time, I went through my share of editors, all of whom were very helpful. Starting with Tim Moore, an all-around terrific guy and ending with Victoria Jones, my current editor, they have all been both patient and helpful. I am not sure why Victoria still speaks to me. Every month for the past six months I have been telling her the book will be done the end of next month. Don't say anything to her, but I think I might really be done writing this soon.

I would also like to thank the reviewers, Jeff Kirk and Jody Giles. They suffered through my poor grammar, mixed metaphors, and indecipherable spelling. Their corrections and suggestions are of great value to me.

Another group of people I wish to thank are the many fine folks at Oracle. They were supportive of this effort and provided much needed advice. Of that group , there are several people I wish to thank specifically . Marty Gubar assisted with Oracle Business Intelligence JavaBeans. Mark Hornick provided input on the Java Data Mining API. Lisa Alms was kind enough to provide feedback on Oracle 9i Application Server. In addition, Gregory Dorman provided help with the Java Multidimensional Database API. I wish to thank each of them for taking time out of their busy schedules to assist me in this effort, receiving in return only this note of gratitude.

There are some people I need to thank on the personal level. My wife and children have been very patient. This work at times affected them more than it affected anyone else and yet they were always supportive. Thanks to my good friend Bill Hayes; if it weren't for his assistance in other areas, I would never have had the time to write this book. I must also thank my dearest and oldest friend and supporter, Tonoose Dimeo. In all the things I have done he has been there with his friendship, advice, humor, and, when necessary, correction. This book would never have come into existence if it were not for him.

Finally, I must thank the one to whom I owe the greatest of all debts , my Lord Jesus Christ. I am thankful that I have been blessed with so many things, not the least of which is the gift to be living at this time, in this place. I am grateful for being able to work in this industry, doing the thing that I love, with a truly terrific organization. More than this, as you can tell by reading this long list of acknowledgments, God has blessed my life with so many wonderful people, with so much kindness, and so much love. To say that I am not worthy of such blessings is obvious to anyone who knows me, which makes me all the more grateful.

As I approached the daily task of writing this book, I prayed that it would be something of quality, something that would be of real benefit to the reader. Where the book accomplishes that objective, I give all the credit to Jesus and I thank him for his blessing. If there are places where this book falls short of achieving this goal, I can only say that it is, to steal a line from my altar boy days, "through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault."


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