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Acknowledgments

A book like this doesn't come into being without help from literally dozens of people. Without their assistance, the book you hold in your hands would probably still be a bunch of sticky notes on the side of our monitors. This is the part of the book where we get to say whatever we like about the folks who helped us out, and we don't have to worry about music playing in the background telling us to shut up and go away, as you might see on TV during an awards show.

We couldn't have completed this project without the constant prodding, begging, pleading, and support from our editor, Andy Oram.[3] If there is one person most responsible for the book in your hands, it's Andy. We really do appreciate the weekly nag sessions.

[3] Then again, if there's a second edition on the horizon, one might argue that this project is not complete.

Andy isn't alone, though. At O'Reilly there are a bunch of other folks who had some part in getting those sticky notes converted to a cohesive book that you'd be willing to read, so we also have to thank the production, illustration, and marketing folks for helping to pull this book together. And, of course, thanks to Tim O'Reilly for his continued commitment to producing some of the industry's finest documentation for popular open source software.

Finally, we'd both like to give a big thanks to the folks who agreed to look over the various drafts of the book and tell us all the things we were doing wrong: our reviewers. They spent part of their 2003 holiday break looking over roughly formatted versions of this text, full of typos, misleading statements, and outright mathematical errors. In no particular order, thanks to Brian "Krow" Aker, Mark "JDBC" Matthews, Jeremy "the other Jeremy" Cole, Mike "VBMySQL.com" Hillyer, Raymond "Rainman" De Roo, Jeffrey "Regex Master" Friedl, Jason DeHaan, Dan Nelson, Steve "Unix Wiz" Friedl, and last but not least, Kasia "Unix Girl" Trapszo.

From Jeremy

I would again like to thank Andy for agreeing to take on this project and for continually beating on us for more chapter material. Derek's help was essential for getting the last 20-30% of the book completed so that we wouldn't miss yet another target date. Thanks for agreeing to come on board late in the process and deal with my sporadic bursts of productivity, and for handling XML grunt work, Chapter 10 Appendix C, and all the other stuff I threw your way.

I also need to thank my parents for getting me that first Commodore 64 computer so many years ago. They not only tolerated the first 10 years of what seems to be a life-long obsession with electronics and computer technology, but quickly became supporters of my never-ending quest to learn and do more.

Next I'd like to thank a group of people I've had the distinct pleasure of working with while spreading MySQL religion at Yahoo during the last few years. Jeffrey Friedl and Ray Goldberger provided encouragement and feedback from the earliest stages of this undertaking. Along with them, Steve Morris, James Harvey, and Sergey Kolychev put up with my seemingly constant experimentation on the Yahoo! Finance MySQL servers, even when it interrupted their important work. Thanks also to the countless other Yahoos who have helped me find interesting MySQL problems and solutions. And, most importantly, thanks for having the trust and faith in me needed to put MySQL into some of the most important and visible parts of Yahoo's business.

Adam Goodman, the publisher and owner of Linux Magazine, helped me ease into the world of writing for a technical audience by publishing my first feature-length MySQL articles back in 2001. Since then, he's taught me more than he realizes about editing and publishing and has encouraged me to continue on this road with my own monthly column in the magazine. Thanks, Adam.

Thanks to Monty and David for sharing MySQL with the world. Speaking of MySQL AB, thanks to all the other great folks there who have encouraged me in writing this: Kerry, Larry, Joe, Marten, Brian, Paul, Jeremy, Mark, Harrison, Matt, and the rest of the team there. You guys rock.

Finally, thanks to all my weblog readers for encouraging me to write informally about MySQL and other technical topics on a daily basis. And, last but not least, thanks to the Goon Squad.

From Derek

Like Jeremy, I've got to thank my family, for much the same reasons. I want to thank my parents for their constant goading that I should write a book, even if this isn't anywhere near what they had in mind. My grandparents helped me learn two valuable lessons, the meaning of the dollar and how much I would fall in love with computers, as she loaned me the money to buy my first Commodore VIC-20.

I can't thank Jeremy enough for inviting me to join him on the whirlwind book-writing roller coaster. It's been a great experience and I look forward to working with him again in the future.

A special thanks goes out to Raymond De Roo, Brian Wohlgemuth, David Calafrancesco, Tera Doty, Jay Rubin, Bill Catlan, Anthony Howe, Mark O'Neal, George Montgomery, George Barber, and the myriad other people who patiently listened to me gripe about things, let me bounce ideas off them to see whether an outsider could understand what I was trying to say, or just managed to bring a smile to my face when I needed it most. Without you, this book might still have been written, but I almost certainly would have gone crazy in the process.

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