Acknowledgments

I'd like to acknowledge all the fine folks who made this book possible. Al Gore, inventor of the Internet. Bill Gates, inventor of the top seven tax brackets in the United States. Billy Mays, inventor of TALKING WAY TOO LOUDLY ON TELEVISION. Professor Hubert Farnsworth, inventor of the "What-If Machine." Conan O'Brien, inventor of television. Montgomery Scott, inventor of transparent aluminum.

Of course, aside from those luminaries, plenty of other people helped make this book a reality, and I'd like to acknowledge them: Richard Dal Porto, Steve Anglin, Douglas Pundick, Liz Welch, Katie Stence, and everyone else at Apress who I inadvertently left out who continue to make writing these books less like work and more like...well, still work, but it's work that I don't mind doing!

I'd like to acknowledge Herman von Rosmalen and Anthony Volpe, the two names that will forever be linked with mine in literary history (my heart goes out to them on that one!)

A special acknowledgment has to go to whatever alien species originally seeded our world with life that eventually evolved from the primordial ooze into modern-day humans. I just wonder, if when they return to check on their experiment, they'll consider it a success or an abject failure?