Acknowledgments

After having written a technical book it's really fun to write the Acknowledgments page. It is even more fun now because I am writing this in a bus commuting from work to home. I'd like to thank Infowave Software, Inc. (http://www.infowave.com) - a nice Canadian company for enabling me wirelessly. Thanks to their efforts wonderful things are possible now, such as working from virtually any spot on earth over a wireless link.

My first book was about Windows NT security. What a dull subject. But I had a nice Acknowledgments page there. Many people who bought the book have read this page. Quite often this was all that they have read in the entire book! But my time was not wasted - that's for sure, because this page is the most important. It only looks like the first page, in reality this is the last page. I write Acknowledgments page when the book is finished, and this Exchange book is now finished. Isn't it nice? My soul may soar now...

Readers of my previous Acknowledgments page have pointed out that I have missed mentioning the Communist Party of the Soviet Union for its heroic effort of keeping the entire population of 1/6th of the planet on budget. A few comrades should be thanked personally for that, especially those known by aliases. Thanks, mother Russia!

I am also overwhelmed with feelings about Microsoft Co. Among many two dominate. Their software never fails (how could it?). Because of it we have job security for life.

I'd like to thank Vancouver transit system for having a not very convenient route map. An average time to get from my home to my work is about 2 hours. It is a serious amount of time. If you use both ways productively, for example, by practicing your keyboard hitting skills, you may do something useful. Such as writing this Acknowledgments page. I am not sure about other contents. Research in transit is an advanced technique because it requires swapping MSDN library disks and physical exercises with wireless modems such as putting them out of the window for better signal. I was distracted! Part of my energy was used to maintain control over hardware. Here goes a disclaimer. Take the book as is. But! Because of the swapping disk problem I was forced to stare at some documents longer than necessary. I learned quite a few things doing it. Sometimes an inconvenience is useful. Like writing software in the middle of Siberia for slow computers. Your software is becoming fast.

At first I just wanted to write a book about Exchange gateways. After having tried to write a chapter or two I have discovered that this is a die-hard business. It requires ultimate concentration of mind and years of experience in the field. Also, my editor Berney Williams did not appear to be happy with it. In addition I am recalling communications from real gateway developers politely asking me to stop writing a book immediately, to protect gateway developers job security. Thanks a lot, people! I have understood the hint and have written a book about Exchange development in general, without even trying to design a gateway. That's a difficult business, guys, don't even try it. Yeah, a copy editor will cut this for sure... For those of you who still want to write a gateway - piggy-back on a Microsoft sample instead (I am showing how).

Finally, and most important, I'd like to thank all the people who directly participated in preparation of this book: Berney Williams and the team (), technical reviewer (), a copy editor (). Also, my colleagues at Infowave Software, Inc. for enabling me with a technology to conduct research and writing from places of complete wilderness, for the opportunity to work on exciting projects related to the subject, and extraordinary level of professionalism. Here we go: Mike Blackstock, Rod Martens, Rob Muir, Gord Pawliuk, Wayne Lum, Don Chan, Mark Brady and Kaz Kylheku. Thanks to you all, guys!

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