About the Author

Mark Lassoff, according to his parents' frequent claim, was born to be a programmer. In the mid-eighties, when the neighborhood kids were outside playing kickball and throwing
snowballs, Mark was hard at work on his Commodore 64, writing games in the BASIC
programming language. Computers and programming continued to be his strong interest
in college, where Mark majored in communications and computer science. After completing his college career, Mark worked in the software and web development departments at several large corporations. In 2001, on a whim, while his contemporaries were conquering the dot com world, Mark accepted a position training programmers in a technical training center in Austin, Texas. It was there that Mark fell in love with teaching programming, which has been his passion ever since. Today Mark is a top technical trainer, traveling the country providing training for software and web developers. Mark's training clients include the Department of Defense, Lockheed Martin, Discover Card Services, and Kaiser Permanente. He has consulted for companies such as Dell, Target, and Lockheed Martin, and government agencies including the US House of Representatives. In addition to traditional classroom training and consulting, Mark releases video tutorial training for aspiring programmers on his websites. He lives in coastal Connecticut near the Connecticut River, where he is in the process of redecorating his house.