ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Writing a book is like running a marathon. Or so I’ve been told. But what I do know is that writing this book tested the limits of my endurance, and I couldn’t have done it without my personal cheerleading squad of close friends and family.

First of all, I’d like to thank my wife Hema for her constant love, encouragement, and patience throughout the two years it took to complete this work. I thank my friend Raviprakash Jayaraman for being a co-conspirator in all my dubious projects, for being a technical reviewer for this book, and for interesting lunches, movies, and trips to the S.P. Road Zoo. I thank my friend Seby Kallarakkal for pushing me to pursue this book and for all the interesting discussions we had together. I am grateful to my pal Dr. Santosh Hemachandra for helpful discussions on fast Fourier transforms. I’d like to thank Karthikeyan Chellappa for helping me test out the installation of Python modules and for our running sessions around Kaikondrahalli Lake. I would also like to thank Matthew Denham (with whom I conversed on reddit) for his help on the mathematics of Spirographs.

I’d like to thank Tyler Ortman and Bill Pollock of No Starch Press, for accepting my book proposal, and Serena Yang, for her professional work in editing the book. I’d like to thank Nicholas Kramer for his technical review of the book.

I thank my parents A.V. Venkitachalam and N. Saraswathy for providing me with an education far beyond their financial means. Finally, I thank all my teachers who inspired me. I hope to remain a student all my life.