Acknowledgments

The idea for this book came out of my work teaching at NYU. A huge debt of gratitude is owed to the ever encouraging faculty, staff, and students who comprise NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program and who provide an endless source of inspiration. Thank you to Red Burns for creating, fostering, and ever improving ITP. Thank you to Dan O'Sullivan for constantly challenging me. Thank you to Tom Igoe and Dan Shiffman for showing me that it can be done. Thank you to Rob Ryan and Marianne Petite for all of your support. Thank you to all of the rest of the faculty, staff, and residents that I have worked with. And thank you to all of my current and former students who have made me realize how rewarding it can be to teach and see projects come alive; particularly Nisma Zaman, who provided very valuable early feedback.

This book would not have come close to being in existence if it weren't for the dedicated and very talented staff at Apress. Thank you Steve Anglin, Matthew Moodie, Corbin Collins, Mary Ann Fugate, Adam Heath, Anne Collette, and the rest of the Apress staff for your extraordinary effort.

A huge thank you to Steve Bull and Wallace Jackson, the technical reviewers for testing every piece of code and for filling in the blanks when I missed something. Your contributions were invaluable!

It goes without saying but this book could not have been written if it weren't for the folks responsible for bringing Android into existence. Thank you to them, particularly Dave Sparks from Google who made himself available for some very valuable fact checking and question answering.

To all of my friends and family who were so encouraging, thank you.

Finally, of course, this book would not have happened without the support of my wonderful wife, Karen Van Every. Thank you!