About the Authors

John Mueller is a freelance author and technical editor. He has writing in his blood, having produced 108 books and more than 600 articles to date. The topics range from networking to artificial intelligence and from database management to heads-down programming. Some of his current books include discussions of data science, machine learning, and algorithms. His technical editing skills have helped more than 70 authors refine the content of their manuscripts. John has provided technical editing services to various magazines, performed various kinds of consulting, and writes certification exams. Be sure to read John’s blog at http://blog.johnmuellerbooks.com/. You can reach John on the Internet at [email protected]. John also has a website at http://www.johnmuellerbooks.com/.

Luca Massaron is a data scientist and marketing research director who specializes in multivariate statistical analysis, machine learning, and customer insight, with more than a decade of experience in solving real-world problems and generating value for stakeholders by applying reasoning, statistics, data mining, and algorithms. Passionate about everything regarding data and analysis, as well as about demonstrating the potentiality of data-driven knowledge discovery to both experts and nonexperts, Luca is the coauthor, along with John Mueller, of Python for Data Science For Dummies, Machine Learning For Dummies, and Algorithms For Dummies. Favoring simplicity over unnecessary sophistication, he believes that much can be achieved by understanding in simple terms and practicing the essentials of any discipline.

John’s Acknowledgments

Thanks to my wife, Rebecca. Even though she is gone now, her spirit is in every book I write and in every word that appears on the page. She believed in me when no one else would.

Russ Mullen deserves thanks for his technical edit of this book. He greatly added to the accuracy and depth of the material you see here. Russ is always providing me with great URLs for new products and ideas. He’s also the sanity check for my work.

Matt Wagner, my agent, deserves credit for helping me get the contract in the first place and taking care of all the details that most authors don’t really consider. I always appreciate his assistance. It’s good to know that someone wants to help.

A number of people read all or part of this book to help me refine the approach, test the coding examples, and generally provide input that all readers wish they could have. These unpaid volunteers helped in ways too numerous to mention here. I especially appreciate the efforts of Eva Beattie and Osvaldo Téllez Almirall, who provided general input, read the entire book, and selflessly devoted themselves to this project.

Finally, I would like to thank Katie Mohr, Susan Christophersen, and the rest of the editorial and production staff.

Luca’s Acknowledgments

My first greatest thanks to my family, Yukiko and Amelia, for their support, sacrifices, and loving patience during the long days/nights, weeks, and months I’ve been involved in working on this book.

I thank all the editorial and production staff at Wiley, in particular Katie Mohr and Susan Christophersen, for their great professionalism and support in all the phases of writing this book of the For Dummies series.

Publisher’s Acknowledgments

Senior Acquisitions Editor: Katie Mohr

Project and Copy Editor: Susan Christophersen

Technical Editor: Russ Mullen

Editorial Assistant: Matthew Lowe

Sr. Editorial Assistant: Cherie Case

Production Editor: Vasanth Koilraj

Cover Image: © agsandrew/Shutterstock