Acknowledgement

Writing is a fascinating journey. I would like to extend my special thanks to Marc Clifton Todd Brakke, and Margo Catts who were along with me on this journey. They corrected, annotated, criticized, and helped me at every step. Thanks also to Joshua Heyer (Shog9) and Rama Krishna for reviewing this book and for their invaluable advice. I also want to add a note of thanks to Dr. Luiji for all the encouragement at the times when I needed it.

I am deeply grateful to Loretta Yates, acquisitions editor at Sams/Que Publishing for her unmatched dedication to quality and progressiveness, without which this book was never possible. Thanks also to Jennifer Gallant, Cindy Teeters, and Rosemary Lewis from Pearson Technology Group.

I would like to extend my appreciation to the folks from Microsoft, for their time and effort to make this book complete in every sense, especially Brian Teutsch, Daniel Moth, and Annuska Perkins. I would also like to thank Rick Kingslan, Karen Wong, and Mark Schmidt.

Last of all, I would like to mention my brothers Rakesh and Rajeev, for all the wonderful things I have learned from them, and Simple and Shilpi for just being so wonderful. And my inspiration and my driving force Neelu.