Acknowledgments

Sometimes I love to write and other times it’s like squeezing out that last bit of toothpaste—from the point of view of the tube. At those times the constant support of my friends and family made the difference between a finished book and a smashed computer. In return I would like to say thanks, starting with my lovely wife Karen and my noble son Jackson for their constant support, and for putting up with me when that last sentence would just not settle down. Thanks especially to Karen for sneaking into my office in the middle of the night to remove the extraneous of’s and the’s from the manuscript.

Thanks to my good friend Bob Kiel for his constant encouragement. Couldn’t have done it without you, Bob.

Thanks, too, to Eileen Cross for simply being there for me for all these years.

Thanks to the fine folks at FGM, especially Scott Gessay, Mike Fortier, Mike Morehouse, and Kirk Maskalenko. It really is a great place to work. Also thanks to George Croghan for continuing to speak to me even after I had used the parental voice of death on him.

Thanks to Chris Bailey for keeping me from taking a match to the whole project.

I also owe some serious gratitude to Gene, Laura, and Derek Stokes for their company and cheer as well as occasionally providing me with a quiet place to think and write: I’ve spent many a happy hour toiling away at the kitchen table of their beach house. I’d especially like to thank Gene for his rocket fuel martinis. I have only myself to blame if Gene’s concoctions occasionally enhanced the happiness of the hour at the expense of the toiling. And thanks to Laura for injecting just the right level of zaniness into my life.

Special thanks to Scott Downie (the brightest intern who ever fetched coffee) for introducing me to the TV series Firefly and thereby getting me through the dark days of Chapters 15 and 16.¹

Thanks to everyone behind the Northern Virginia Ruby Users’ Group, RubyNation, and the National Capital Area Clojure User Group for their encouragement. Through their efforts hundreds of gallons of beer have found a decent home.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed the early versions of this book, including Rob Sanheim, James Kebinger, and Ethan Roberts.

Special thanks for Beth Gutierrez for providing her unique perspective on the manuscript.

Thanks to Carl Fyffe for helping me find a way out of the dark days of Chapters 15 and 16.

Thanks to Mike Abner and the aforementioned Carl for helping me to settle on a title.

Thanks also to Steve Ingram for starting the e-mail discussion that eventually gave birth to Chapter 6.

Thanks to my friend Diana Greenberg for her constant support, and for not buying a copy of this book before I can give her one.

Special thanks to Diane Freed. If you can imagine trying to correct a manuscript full of technical terms, tortured syntax, and typos (I can’t), you have an idea of the job of a copy editor, a job that Diane performed with real finesse.

Thanks also to Rob and Denise Cross for putting up with me over a long Thanksgiving weekend as I went through my end of the copyediting of this book.

Thanks to Raina Chrobak of Addison-Wesley for her help and patience.

Finally special thanks to my editor Chris Guzikowski for putting up with the delays caused by the dark days of Chapters 15 and 16.

P.S. Thanks to Peter Cooper, Sonia Hamilton, John G. Norman, and Bodo Tasche for suggesting corrections to the first printing.