Acknowledgments

I'd like to start by thanking Dale Dougherty and Rael Dornfest for coming up with this terrific series of books, and Tim O'Reilly for talking me into writing this particular volume.

Thanks to Dale Dougherty (again) for his guidance and the steadfast idea of exactly what a "hack" should be. Additional thanks to Ruth Kampmann, Nancy Kotary, and Jim Sumser for their roles in the bizarre series of events that led to the inception of this book.

Thanks to Jeffrey P. McManus and Jeff Huber of eBay for their help with the eBay API, the new "Voyager" search engine, and some other aspects of the marvelous, sometimes mysterious, and always changing computer system behind the curtains at eBay.

I'd also like to thank Todd Larason, who provided code that served as the basis for many of the scripts in Chapter 8.

Thanks to Tim Miller, Katie Woodruff, Michael Eisenberg, Cat Haglund, Dennis Butzlaff, Sara Raymond, and that nice lady who kept bringing us drinks.

Special thanks to Michael Moore, and an extra-special hello to Addie.

Finally, my gratitude and love to Torey Bookstein, whose love and support help warm my soul.