Acknowledgments

We would like to give thanks to the many individuals who helped make this book possible. Writing a book is a team effort and we were fortunate to have a great team that was sincerely interested in making the material in this book as informative and accurate as possible.

First and foremost, we would like to thank all the editors who painstakingly read through every chapter, page, paragraph, and sentence to help mold our thoughts and ramblings into what you will hopefully find a very enjoyable and worthwhile journey. We especially want to recognize the technical editors, whose job it was to pour through more than a few voluminous specifications and documents to ensure that we never strayed too far from reality: Grant Holland, Steven Haines, Jon Hassell, Alex Kachur, Alan Moffet, and Tim Drury. We are also greatly appreciative of the work done by our project editor Tonya Simpson and copy editor Sossity Smith and for Michael Hunter's work in securing the software for the CD. The quality and polish of this book are to their credit (and any mistakes are ours alone).

We would like to in particular thank Todd Green and Sean Dixon for giving us enough rope to hang ourselves and for trusting that we knew what we were doing from the beginning. Your patience was dearly appreciated.

Finally, we would like to collectively thank our families and friends for the understanding and support throughout the entire process. It wouldn't have been possible without your undying support.