About the Author

Rodney Ringler has 25 years' experience developing multitasking and parallel applications, with the last 10 focused on C# and .NET. He graduated cum laude from Clemson University with a BS degree in Computer Engineering. He then worked for 12 years in the fiber optic manufacturing industry on C-based real-time multitasking process control systems, where he went from being a developer to a project manager to an IT architect. After this, he spent 8 years running his own application development and hosting company focused on both .NET and open source technologies. He then spent several years as a consultant, working with companies in the retail, software, and manufacturing industries. Currently, Rodney works as a senior .NET developer at a manufacturing company based in Charlotte, NC, and takes .NET and object-oriented programming classes at Central Piedmont Community College. In his spare time, Rodney enjoys life in Lake Wylie, SC, with his wife and four children. Gaston C. Hillar is Italian and has been working with computers since he was 8 years old. Gaston has a Bachelor's degree in computer science (graduated with honors) and an MBA. Currently, Gaston is an independent IT consultant and a freelance author who is always looking for new adventures anywhere in the world. He was a senior contributing editor at Dr. Dobb's, and has written more than a hundred articles on software development topics. He has received the prestigious Intel Black Belt Software Developer award eight times. He has written many articles about Java for Oracle Java Magazine. Gaston was also a former Microsoft MVP in technical computing. He lives with his wife, Vanesa, and his two sons, Kevin and Brandon.