I would like to thank my family for tolerating me throughout the whole process of writing this book. My four beautiful children, Emily, Carter, Cohen, and Brady, you helped give Dad a reason to keep writing this book, and I love you very much for being the great kids you are. My brothers and sister, thanks for encouraging me through the process. You guys have written some tomes yourselves, and it was always helpful to have someone who understands the rigor needed to put out any kind of technical work—I love you guys. To my Dad, your sense of humor helped me through a lot of the days when I didn't feel like writing—I love ya Harold; don't stop making everyone around you laugh.
For all those who helped this fledgling security researcher along the way—Jared DeMott, Pedram Amini, Cody Pierce, Thomas Heller (the uber Python man), Charlie Miller—I owe all you guys a big thanks. Team Immunity, without question you've been incredibly supportive of me writing this book, and you have helped me tremendously in growing not only as a Python dude but as a developer and researcher as well. A big thanks to Nico and Dami for the extra time you spent helping me out. Dave Aitel, my technical editor, helped drive this thing to completion and made sure that it makes sense and is readable; a huge thanks to Dave. To another Dave, Dave Falloon, thanks so much for reviewing the book, making me laugh at my own mistakes, saving my laptop at CanSecWest, and just being the oracle of network knowledge that you are.
Finally, and I know they always get listed last, the team at No Starch Press. Tyler for putting up with me through the whole book (trust me, Tyler is the most patient guy you'll ever meet), Bill for the great Perl mug and the words of encouragement, Megan for helping wrap up this book as painlessly as possible, and the rest of the crew who I know works behind the scenes to help put out all their great titles. A huge thanks to all you guys; I appreciate everything you have done for me. Now that the acknowledgments have taken as long as a Grammy acceptance speech, I'll wrap it up by saying thanks to all the rest of the folks who helped me and who I probably forgot to add to the list—you know who you are.