Tane Piper is a full stack developer based in London, UK. For over 10 years He has worked for several agencies and companies delivering software in a variety of languages such as Python, PHP, and JavaScript. He has been working with Node.js since 2010 and was one of the first people talking about server-side JavaScript in the UK and Ireland with several talks in 2011/2012. He was also an early contributor to, and advocate for the jQuery project. Currently he works at a consultancy in London delivering innovative solutions and is mostly writing React and Node applications. Outside of his professional work he is a keen scuba diver and amateur photographer.
I would personally like to thank my girlfriend Elina who has turned my life around in the last two years and encouraged me to take up the task of reviewing this book.
Joel Purra started toying around with computers even before he was in his teens, seeing them as another kind of a video game device. It was not long before he took apart (sometimes broke and subsequently fixed) any computer he came across while playing the latest games on them. It was gaming that led him to discover programming in his early teens when modifying a Lunar Lander game triggered an interest in creating digital tools. Soon after getting an Internet connection at home, he developed his first e-commerce website, and thus his business started; it launched his career at an early age. At the age of 17, Joel started studying computer programming and an energy science program at a nuclear power plant's school. After graduation, he studied to become a second lieutenant telecommunications specialist in the Swedish Army before moving on to study for his master's of science degree in information technology and engineering at Linköping University. He has been involved in start-ups and other companies—both successful and unsuccessful—since 1998, and he has been a consultant since 2007. Born, raised, and educated in Sweden, Joel also enjoys the flexible lifestyle of a freelance developer, having traveled through five continents with his backpack and lived abroad for several years. A learner constantly looking for challenges, one of his goals is to build and evolve software for broad public use. You can visit his website at http://joelpurra.com/.
I'd like to thank the open source community for providing the building blocks necessary to compose both small and large software systems even as a freelance consultant. Nanos gigantum humeris insidentes. Remember to commit early, commit often!