Acknowledgments

Any book is a cooperative venture, and this one was more so than many. Thanks to Nancy Kotary, who corralled the burgeoning project that always seemed on the verge of escaping from the barn, and managed to whip it into shape and get it into print with good grace and even better humor. Thanks to Rael Dornfest for his laser-like focus on making sure that every hack was exceedingly useful and moved well beyond the obvious. Laurie Petrycki and Dale Dougherty offered valuable advice and feedback in the early stages of writing. Many thanks to Tim O'Reilly, who entrusted me with this project, albeit in a very different form when it was first conceived, and who gave very targeted advice and pointers in the important early phases of writing.

Thanks also to the production team at O'Reilly: Brian Sawyer, Lorrie LeJeune, Darren Kelly, Ellen Troutman-Zaig, Jamie Peppard, Mary Agner, James Quill, Robert Romano, and Jessamyn Read.

As always, thanks to my family. Lydia put up with my usual diet of late-night deadlines, and Mia let me get my work done when we were on her grand audition tour for college ballet programs. As for Gabe, his advice and recommendations on which hacks to cover was an enormous help. We'll get the DivX tip in next time, Gabe!