Acknowledgments

You might have noticed that this book is dedicated to my brother Bobby. He was the first person in the family to get involved with computers, and in many ways Bobby was responsible for my eventual career in computer programming. Bobby died from colon and liver cancer while I was writing this book. Shortly thereafter, during a routine screening for a minor health problem, an alert ultrasound technician noticed a spot on my liver.

While virtually everyoneincluding very good doctors in several hospitals assured me that this was likely nothing to worry about, I worried. I also hassled one of the doctors I had been seeing for many years for the treatment of Gardner's Syndrome, the underlying condition that had killed both Bobby and my father, many years earlier. Dr. Hans Gerdes and his office assistant, Joanne Booth-Pezantez, were every bit as relentless as I was in trying to get to the bottom of this, and we did. Not long after Bobby died, I had successful liver surgery to remove two liver tumors , one malignant. Without the excellent care I received at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, writing this book would not have been possible.

Working with Microsoft Press has been a joy. In addition to Ben Ryan, whom I have known and worked with since before he came to Microsoft Press, the editors who worked on the book were uniformly helpful even when assaulted by my occasionally tortured prose . Kathleen Atkins, Mary Barnard, Molly Fulton, and Rebecca McKay, among others, have vastly improved and clarified my basic ideas. Jim Fuchs has been a truly amazing technical editor, not only clarifying technical points where needed but also adding insights and pushing me to improve in some areas. When I discovered a significant problem with some of the code late in the game, Jim worked to make the required changes, ensuring this would be the best book possible. Thanks to everyone at Microsoft Press!

Claire Horne of the Moore Literary Agency helped me clarify what it was I thought I had to say and presented it to several publishers until one of them agreed that there was a book in there somewhere. Thank you, Claire.

Tom Dignan of Bear Mountain Software came to my rescue as I was at sea in a pool of MAPI. When I needed insight into the inner workings of MAPI, I turned to Tom. The MAPI examples are largely drawn from code Tom kindly provided for me to use. Even the significant modifications to that code were the result of conversations with Tom. The final example in the book is a simple network monitor. For many of you, this simple example will serve as a starting point for your needs. For those of you with more complex needs, Tom's Bear Mountain Software puts out a great product named Topper that you should consider owning.

While I was writing the book, I couldn't ignore my day job. Special thanks to the folks at Home Care Information Systems (HCIS) for their kindness not only during the book-writing process but also during my illness , which was plopped right in the middle of the process. Michael Zaccardi of HCIS has the distinction of being the first person to purchase the book on linebefore I even completed it. Kathy Collins and Rich Wheatley of the St. Barnabas Health Care System have continued to allow me to work on some neat projects in spite of a much-too-limited time budget. Ed Colosi and Lenny Gray have been sounding boards for many of the topics covered in this book, even in subjects beyond their special areas of expertise. Thanks all.

Family life with two teenagers can be trying in the best of circumstances. As you can gather from my brief discussion of my family's recent health problems, my children, Tim and Erin, have not had the best of circumstances. In spite of that, I am pleased to report that as of this writing they are happily in college, studying (I hope) even as I write this. Kids, I love you very much and am proud to see the grown-ups you are becoming.

Finally, this book would not have been possible without one other person in my lifemy wife, Jean. I am not sure she knew what she thought she was getting into when she signed on for this marriage 21 years ago, but I bet it was a bit different from the way it turned out. She has been with me and other family members literally up and down the east coast , getting the best care we could. Many other wives would have said "Enough!" some time ago. She keeps on trucking . Here's to 100 more years, with 100-year extensions. I love you.

Douglas Reilly

doug@accessmicrosystems.com



Inside Server-Based Applications
Inside Server-Based Applications (DV-MPS General)
ISBN: 1572318171
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 1999
Pages: 91

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