Acknowledgments

First, I'd like to thank this book's reviewers, Robbie Allen, Nate Campi and Jay Kreibich, whose close reading of the text caught more errors than I'd like to admit to, and whose suggestions improved nearly every recipe. I'd also like to thank the Internet Software Consortium and Nominum, for their hard work on the development of BIND 8 and 9, without which I imagine my career would have veered in a wildly different direction.

While I'm up on this podium, let me acknowledge the unsung heroes of the BIND Users and BIND 9 Users mailing lists, who do a tremendous job of answering dozens of DNS and BIND questions each week -- some of them for the nth time. I hope this book helps alleviate their workload a little. Who knows? Maybe we'll be able to use it like the longtime regulars in the bar, telling each other jokes by calling out each joke's number: "How do I point my domain name at a particular URL?" Section 2.7!^[2]

^[2] For a variation on this joke, see http://www.awpi.com/Combs/Shaggy/929.html.

I'm grateful to my friend Paul Phillips, for the use of his Scrabble anecdote, and for his occasional -- but always entertaining -- dispatches from the world of professional poker. And I am, as ever, indebted to my friend Paul Albitz, under whose wing I got my start, and who sets a sterling example as a patient teacher, selfless coauthor and methodical engineer.

The folks at O'Reilly, as always, have been wonderful to work with, especially my editor, Mike Loukides.

Finally, my love and thanks to my family: to my mom, my first reviewer, whose voice you undoubtedly hear in my writing; to my dad, for hours of academic tutelage; to my sister ("You shut up!") for her good humor; and of course to my wife, Paige, and son, Walt, and my dogs, Dakota and Annie, for their love and for lost hours.