Acknowledgments

I would like to thank all of the many talented and energetic professionals at Apress. I appreciate the understanding and patience of my editor, Jonathan Gennick, and managing editor, Kevin Shea. They were instrumental in the success of this project. I would also like to thank the army of publishing professionals at Apress for making me look so good in print. Thank you all very much!

I’d like to especially thank the technical reviewers, my colleagues at Oracle for their constructive criticism, and my academic colleagues for encouraging me to write this edition. Most important, I want to thank my wife, Annette, for her unending patience and understanding.