Mac OS X Power Hound, Second Edition

Acknowledgements

This book would not have been possible without the wonderful MacOSXhints.com community, which has helped create one of the greatest Mac OS X resources on the Web. Every day I’m amazed at the caliber not only of the hints (which are moderated prior to posting), but of the comments as well (which are not moderated). I feel thankful each day knowing that I’m involved in something this interesting and useful.

Very little of the Web site’s material is repeated verbatim in the book; content has been rewritten and expanded for print use. Still, the knowledge provided by the hints on the site made this book possible in the first place.

Craig Arko, John Hancock, and Phil St. Romain make the Macosxhints.com forum possible. Their daily attention to this important troubleshooting resource frees me to work on the main site and this project. In addition, their candid feedback on the sites and the book have made both much stronger over time. Thanks, guys, for making our forum a great place to find answers to Mac OS X questions!

Numerous people helped me with the Unix chapters—the most difficult part of the book (for me, anyway): Kirk McElhearn did an amazing job at updating both Unix chapters to reflect the new bash shell in Panther, and also added a number of new hints. Without his valuable assistance, this book would have been much slower in reaching completion! In addition, I need to thank Neal Parikh, head of technical operations for the Macintosh News Network and forum moderator of MacNN’s Mac OS X and Unix forums; Brian Duart, a technology consultant and systems administrator at-large in the Bay Area of northern California; and O’Reilly’s Chris Stone, author of the command reference in Mac OS X in a Nutshell. Their expertise and modifications helped make the Unix hints clearer, more accurate, and easier to implement.

A heartfelt thank you to editors David Pogue and Adam Goldstein, copy editors Nan Barber and John Cacciatore who took my ramblings and somehow worked their magic to turn them into the elegant, flowing prose that you’re now holding in your hands, and to the production and design team at O’Reilly, including Marlowe Shaeffer, David Futato, Rob Romano, and Andrew Savikas.

To James and Simon and Jacco and Jason and all the others who have enhanced my understanding of Mac OS X, Unix, the Web, and life in general: your contributions have been invaluable in helping me gain the knowledge necessary to tackle this project.

Thanks to my loving wife Marian, whose support was far more important than that of anyone else on this project. Little did we know when we started revising this book that it would consume every moment of my free time for many months. Through it all, her encouragement kept me going. And finally, thanks to our daughter Kylie, for providing the daily smiles that helped keep this project moving forward. You are the sunshine of our lives.

Rob Griffiths