The authors of this book work for Content Master Ltd., a technical authoring company in the United Kingdom specializing in the production of training and educational materials. For more information on Content Master, please see its Web site at http://www.contentmaster.com.

Martin Bond, B.Sc. M.Sc. C.Eng, M.B.C.S., was born in Blackburn, England and went to University at Aberystwyth, Wales to study Pure Maths and Physics. Discovering Computer Science and programming was a lot easier than mathematics, Martin switched to a Computer Science degree. After graduating Martin did research into large scale software systems until the thought of earning money lured him into the commercial world. Martin was soon managing an R&D team developing parallel processing compilers for the occam language, but preferred to retain his hands-on technical skills and moved in open systems software design and consultancy. Since 1995 Martin has worked primarily as an independent trainer, course writer and technical author specializing in Unix, C, C++, Java and software design. Martin has written training courses on Unix, XML, Java and Solaris Security and co-authored Tomcat Kick Start (Sams Publishing, 2002). Martin currently lives on a smallholding in Cornwall, England.

Dan Haywood has been working on large and small software development projects for more than 12 years. These days, he fills his days with consulting, training and technical writing, specializing in OO design, Java and J2EE, Sybase technical consulting, and data modeling. Previously, Dan worked at Sybase Professional Services, performing a variety of roles, mostly in the financial industry, including architect, performance specialist, and project manager. Dan started his IT career at (what was then) Andersen Consulting, working as a developer on large-scale projects in government and in utilities. Dan is married and has a baby daughter.

Debbie Law B.Sc., was born in Romsey, England in 1959. Debbie started on compiler development for parallel processing systems, later working on the design and development of client server applications. Debbie now pays the bills writing technical books and training material as well as doing consultancy work for UK clients. Debbie has an honors degree in computer science from Southampton, England and currently works as an IT consultant based in Cornwall, England.

Andy Longshaw is a consultant, writer, and educator specializing in enterprise platforms, Web-based systems and Web services, particularly the design and architecture decisions required to use these technologies successfully. Andy has been explaining technology for most of the last decade as a consultant, mentor, trainer and conference speaker. A wild rumor suggests that some people have managed to stay awake in these sessions. Despite being well educated and otherwise fairly normal, Andy still subjects himself and his family to "trial by unpredictability" by watching Manchester City FC far more often than is healthy.

Peter Roxburgh graduated with a first class degree with honors in business, and has since followed a diverse career path. From his home in the medieval walled town of Conwy, North Wales, he authors a wide-variety of training courses, and books including Building .NET Applications for Mobile Devices (Microsoft Press, 2002). He has also written and contributed to a number of journals and Web sites on cutting-edge technologies.

Peter spends his spare time playing the guitar and bouldering on nearby sea cliffs and mountain crags. When he is not strumming or risking life and limb, he enjoys spending relaxing and quality time with his daughter, Chloe.