Mark Minasi wrote his first computer program in 1973. As a computer journalist over the past twenty years, he has been a columnist for such magazines as BYTE, Windows NT Magazine, Nikkei NT, and Compute, and a contributor to Computerworld, Teleconnect, Programmer's Journal and Computer Language. He is the author of thirteen technical books on computers, with over a million and a half sold worldwide in 12 languages. He regularly speaks about the computer industry at computer conferences and to the national media. He lives in Virginia's Tidewater area.