I may be the fortunate one with my name on the cover, but there are several people who were instrumental in the creation of this book. Without them I would not have been able to take on, much less finish, this project.

In “order of appearance” I would like to thank:

•  My agent Carole Jelen, VP/Literary Agent at Waterside, who brought me this great project. From my perspective this opportunity magically appeared, but that’s only because Carole was working hard behind the scenes to make it happen.

•  Alasdair Gilcrest, my researcher and writing assistant, whose skill, effort, and technical expertise were indispensible in all aspects of creating the manuscript for this book. One of the best things about all of this new technology is its ability to connect people from across the world. In this case two guys who never met in person—one in North Carolina and one in Bangkok—were able to collaborate while they both went about work and life using many of the tools and technologies discussed in this book (in a very secure way of course). Alasdair is a true pro and I’m very fortunate to have him on my team.

•  Darril Gibson, my technical reviewer/editor and the CEO of YCDA, LLC. YCDA stands for “you can do it all,” and based on what I’ve seen from Darril, I believe it. I’ve had the good fortune to work with some very good technical reviewers over the course of writing eight books, and Darril is among the best I’ve ever seen. Not only is he an expert on the subject matter, but his attention to detail and ability to recall details from previous chapters blew me away, sometimes drove me crazy, and ultimately resulted in this book being far better than it would have been otherwise.

•  Kate Shoup, my copy editor, who must be the most patient person in the world. Not only did she correct all of my many writing gaffes over what must have been 15 very long chapters for her, but she did it with patience, grace, and unending professionalism. The fact that she never once complained (at least to me) about my staunch and stubborn refusal to comply with any known standard for reference annotations should make her eligible for sainthood some day.

•  Editorial manager Larry Goodrich and associate program manager Rainna Erikson at Jones & Bartlett Learning, who kept the project rolling along and made sure all of the moving parts stayed aligned. The writing and editing team accomplished a lot in a very short time; this was in large part due to Larry’s day-to-day and chapter-to-chapter guidance and Rainna’s management.

•  The production team, who designed, formatted, and produced this book as it was being written. They are a true team of professionals who are in the business of making authors look good.

Thank you all. I am truly grateful.

Jim Doherty