First and foremost, thank you to my beautiful wife Jessica. From the initial idea through the last review, this book would not have been possible without her encouragement and support. Thank you for being my sounding board and for taking on so much while I hid away behind my laptop.

Thank you to my children Annabelle and Levi, just for being you. You are the best kids a father could hope to have. Thank you for your smiles, patience, understanding, and welcome interruptions.

Thanks to my mother and departed father for their ever-present encouragement, including helping start my journey into the digital world long ago with a Commodore 64 and a guide to BASIC.

Thanks to everyone who contributed their time and effort including:

Dave Aitel, for agreeing to review this book and using his extensive experience to provide feedback and examples. This is a clearer, richer, and all-around better book for his challenging critiques and suggestions.

Carol Long, for seeing the potential in the early manuscript; to Tom Dinse for his guidance throughout the editing and publication process, and to the rest of the staff at Wiley for their diligent efforts.

David Nadwodny, for his thoughts and encouragement, and for demonstrating what can be accomplished with duct tape and string given ingenuity and initiative.

Dave N., for his thoughtful feedback early on that helped shape many of the presented ideas.

Finally, thank you to the people I did not name, those that I've worked with and learned so much from over the years, and those whose countless hours of research and analysis I relied upon. My gratitude to those that toil in the shadows, that try not, but do.