Chád Darby is an author, instructor and speaker in the Java development world. As a recognized authority on Java applications and architectures, he has presented technical sessions at software development conferences worldwide. In his 15 years as a professional software architect, he's had the opportunity to work for Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Merck, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and a handful of startup companies.

Chád is a contributing author to several Java books, including Professional Java E-Commerce, Wrox Press; Beginning Java Networking, Wrox Press; and XML and Web Services Unleashed, Sams Publishing. Chád has Java certifications from Sun Microsystems and IBM. He holds a B.S. degree in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University.

You can read Chád's blog at http://www.luv2code.com/ and follow him on his Twitter handle at @darbyluvs2code.

Melanie Archer is a front-end web developer living in Oakland, California, USA. Since handcoding her first web page in 1997, she's worked with design agencies and startups to bring standards-compliant delight to dozens of user interfaces.

Miriam Salzer has a background in studio art and design, but became hooked on creating websites. She is the owner of Salzer Design, which primarily designs and builds websites for visual and performing artists and for non-profit organizations. Since 2006, Miriam has worked as a software engineer for companies on products as diverse as blogging and medical applications. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her family.