Acknowledgments

Let me start by acknowledging Karen Wachs, Acquisitions Editor, and Chris Zahn, Development Editor. They have made this book possible from start to finish. Many thanks to Karen for being patient, understanding, and helpful. She has certainly run with me and the project to see that this book optimally covers a large product. Chris is the main reason why each word, sentence, and paragraph is connected with the others in the book. Credit goes to him where you find the chapters readable, logical, and unambiguous. I need to acknowledge the valuable contributions made to the book by Elizabeth Finney, Bart Reed, Rhonda Tinch-Mize in their roles as Project Editor and Copy Editors, respectively. Thanks are also due to Henry Winkler of Microsoft and Andrey Kruchkov of Quarta Technologies for criticisms, as well as encouragement, in their technical reviews.

Last but not least, kudos to Sangeetha, who helped me handle the pressures of working for a Big Five firm, writing on a big product, and watching the big adventures of the starship Enterprise, all at the same time!