Writing a technical book involves just as much creativity and inspiration as writing a fantasy or a science fiction novel; it’s just a different kind of inspiration. I would like to dedicate this book to my inspiration: my wonderful wife, Connie.

Regardless of where the inspiration comes from or what it produces, it’s still a highly creative process that is subject to writer’s block and fits of irritability, crankiness, defeatism, and being so absorbed in a particular topic that the world around me ceases to exist until I have conquered that topic.

It truly is a battle, “me vs. the technology.” The problem is that this battle requires a huge time investment. Somehow my wife has managed to tolerate me being in the same room but simply “not being there” while I type away in order to defeat the chapters that loom before me, daring me to take them on. My daughter, Jerrah, has her own keyboard so that she can pretend to “be busy” just like Daddy. There’s something bittersweet about the fact that she wants to be like me, but that her impression of me is one of being busy and typing all the time.

My wife’s patience, love, caring, and support have been invaluable. Without her support, I would’ve given up on writing before I even got started. And certainly without her I never would have been able to write this book, the single largest and most time-consuming book I’ve ever written.

Regardless of which deity you believe in, or whether you believe in one, you must concede the existence of angels. After all, I am married to one.