About the AuthorJames E. Gaskin has been solving computer and network problems for businesses small and large since 1984. He also writes books, articles, and jokes about technology and real life. In 16 books and hundreds of articles, network consultant Gaskin tells people faster, cheaper, newer, and smarter ways to connect to each other and the world.A founding member of the Network World Lab Alliance, Gaskin focuses on small office issues and product testing. He is the leading voice for the small business market through his long-running Small Business Technology newsletter distributed by Network World. As a speaker, Gaskin travels the country in Hawaiian shirts helping people laugh at their IT pain while teaching them new ways to put technology to work. In venues such as Network World Technology Tours and seminars at leading industry conventions such as Networld + InterOp, Gaskin delivers objective information stripped of marketing hype in his trademark "unbiased and unboring" style.When avoiding computers, Gaskin plays classical chamber music on the violin and tennis (but not at the same time) in the Dallas area.ColophonOur 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.Mary Brady was the production editor and proofreader for Talk Is Cheap. Nancy Reinhardt was the copyeditor . Matt Hutchinson and Claire Cloutier provided quality control. Julie Hawks wrote the index.Scott Idleman/Blink designed the cover of this book. Karen Montgomery produced the cover layout with Process Type Foundry's Stratum. Marcia Friedman designed the interior layout. This book was converted by Andrew Savikas 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 Berthold Baskerville; the heading font is Adobe Helvetica Neue; 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 7.