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To Andrew and Elena

Acknowledgments

Thanks to all the folks at Apress for helping get this book done. Thanks to Gary Cornell for talking me into this book in the first place. Grace Wong was my project manager, a job I could never have. She was very nice about all of my delays and a pleasure to work with. My copy editor, Rebecca Rider, put up with my formatting idiosyncrasies and tightened the book up a lot. Thanks to Michael Yuan for an excellent technical review.

My family now has permission to slap me upside the head if I ever consider taking on a project like this again. Thanks to everyone—Kristen, Daphne, Luke, Andy, and Elena—for putting up with me.

About the Author

Jonathan Knudsen is the author of several other Java books, including Learning Java, Java 2D Graphics, and Java Cryptography. He is also the author of The Unofficial Guide to LEGO MINDSTORMS Robots, but, sadly, was unable to parlay that success into a full-time career. Jonathan has written numerous articles about Java and a few about LEGO robots as well. He is the father of four children and enjoys bicycling and playing the piano. For more information, see http://jonathanknudsen.com/.