Our look is the result of reader comments, our own experimentation, and feedback from distribution channels. Distinctive covers complement our distinctive approach to technical topics, breathing personality and life into potentially dry subjects. The tool on the cover of Mind Hacks is an incandescent light bulb. While many assume that Thomas Alva Edison invented the light bulb in 1879, Edison's actual achievement was to advance the design of the light bulb from a patent he purchased in 1875 from Canadian inventors Henry Woodward and Matthew Evans. Edison's improvement was to place a carbon filament in a vacuum bulb, which then burned for 40 hours. An English chemist, Humphrey Davy, invented the first electric light-an arc lamp-by connecting two wires to a battery and attaching a strip of charcoal in the middle of the circuit. Other inventors continued to make various incremental improvements in such areas as the filaments and the process for creating a vacuum in the bulb, but in 1879, Edison developed a triple threat: a carbon filament, lower voltage, and an improved vacuum in the bulb.

In 1882, Pearl Street Station, in New York City, was the first central electricity-generating station constructed to support the light bulb invention. Although the alternating-current method of generating electricity proposed by Nikola Tesla proved to be the superior technical solution, Edison was engaged in a battle for control of America's electric infrastructure. Edison declared that his direct current system was safe and that alternating current was a deadly menace, which he publicly demonstrated for years by using alternating current to electrocute dogs and cats.

But in 1893, when alternating current was used at the Chicago World's Fair to light 100,000 incandescent lightbulbs, the nearly 27 million people who attended the Columbian Exposition saw the safe and impressive demonstration of that technology. The event signaled the demise of direct current systems in the United States. Sarah Sherman was the production editor and proofreader for Mind Hacks, and Norma Emory was the copyeditor. Meghan Lydon provided production assistance. Mary Anne Weeks Mayo and Emily Quill provided quality control. Lucie Haskins wrote the index.

Hanna Dyer designed the cover of this book, based on a series design by Edie Freedman. The cover image is an original photograph. Clay Fernald produced the cover layout with Quark XPress 4.1 using Adobe's Helvetica Neue and ITC Garamond fonts.

David Futato designed the interior layout. This book was converted by Julie Hawks to FrameMaker 5.5.6 with a format conversion tool created by Erik Ray, Jason McIntosh, Neil Walls, and Mike Sierra that uses Perl and XML technologies. The text font is Linotype Birka; the heading font is Adobe Helvetica Neue Condensed; and the code font is LucasFont's TheSans Mono Condensed. The illustrations that appear in the book were produced by Robert Romano and Jessamyn Read using Macromedia FreeHand MX and Adobe Photoshop CS. This colophon was written by Reg Aubry.