Acknowledgments

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Acknowledgments I'd like to thank my family, whom I bribed with four-wheelers with the advance money, in order to make losing a lot of Mom's time and attention worth it to them too. I especially want to thank my oldest daughter, Jennifer, for learning to make SpaghettiOs and hot dogs for herself and her sister so that Mommy could work on her book. I'd like to thank my youngest daughter, Jessica, for not letting me forget who is most important. And finally, I'd like to thank my husband, Ken, who really didn't understand why I needed to write this book but put up with it, and the never-ending crunching schedules, anyway … even when it didn't seem worth the four-wheelers anymore. Thanks also to my manager and my friend, Carolyn Ruby, who made this book part of "my job" and has always been so supportive in helping me achieve my goals and find my killer instinct. Thanks to Janet Farrell and Vera Plechash, my cheerleaders. Thanks to Ward Harold for catching the JMX vision and for buddying up with me so that I could see my name in print. Thanks to Leigh for championing JMX in WebSphere and the JCP. And finally, thanks to Shelley Kronzek for continuing to nag until we were doing something we really wanted to do in the first place and for being the mediator between us technical chickens and the big scary publishing world. � Heather Kreger Wow, I'm writing acknowledgements. That must mean this project is almost complete. Saints be praised! Thanks to St. Heather for introducing me to JMX and, especially, for handling all the "lead author" administration chores. Our editor, St. Shelley Kronzek, persevered with us on this project through a series of trying circumstances and still bought us dinner in San Francisco. Thanks for your patience and dedication, Shelley. Although I got to write the book, there is a fantastic group of people in Rome, Italy, who did most of the hard work of bringing JMX to life within Tivoli as TMX4J. To Kenneth Barron, Alfredo Cappariello, Raimondo Castino, Eliseba Costantini, Marco de Gregorio, Paola Diomede, Roberto Longobardi, Attilio Mattiocco, Marco Melillo, Alessio Menale, Chiara Montecchio, Massimiliano (Max) Parlione, Maurizio Simeoni, Massimo Tarquini, and Cosimo (Mimmo) Vampo, mille grazie ragazzi! My heartfelt thanks also go to Cesare Giuliani, the best development manager I've ever worked with, for turning my fuzzy musings into working code and never complaining when I didn't come back from Sabaudia when I said I would, and to Maurizio Piatti, who is simply my favorite Italian. Finally, special thanks to my wife Diana and our kids Matthew, Aaron, and Kelly Rose for putting up with the constant presence of Daddy's laptop and the absence of his homemade bread for all these months. You guys make it all worthwhile. � Ward Harold I would like to thank my wife and daughter, Cheryl and Claire, for their patience and support. You are my compass and my light. I would also like to thank my coauthors, Heather and Ward, for their continued support and enthusiasm. Thanks go to all of the members of the JSR 77 expert group who worked so hard to produce the specification. Thanks to the management at IBM, Michelle Swenson and Diane Copenhaver, for encouragement and resources. And I would also like to thank the folks at Addison-Wesley, Shelley and all of the reviewers, for their excellent comments and suggestions. � Leigh Williamson

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