I would like to say thank you to my wife, Anna, for supporting me during the year I spent working on this book. She was taking care of our home and kids to give me more time to spend on the book.

Thank you to my mother, Natalia Miroshnikova, and father, Sergey Miroshnikov, who invested their time in me from the moment I was born. I owe them a lot.

Thank you to my technical editor, Roger A. Grimes, who supported me from the beginning of this process till the end.

Thank you to my friends Lucine Wang and Jon DeHart for a good time we spent together; this helped me to get some small breaks during my tight schedule.

Thank you to John Wiley & Sons for giving me the opportunity to write my own book. It is a great company to work with. I would like to also say a personal thank you to Tom Dinse, Jim Minatel, and Kim Cofer for their help editing the book and coordinating all work related to its creation.