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Dear reader, please accept my most sincere thanks for spending your hard-earned money on this book. I hope it will live up to your expectations, and help you grow as a Machine Learning professional.
Writing it is the conclusion of a process that started 40 years ago, when I opened a BASIC programming book for the Commodore VIC-20. Over the years, I've bought and read more technical books than I can remember, and writing one is a dream come true. I can only hope that traces of the undying brilliance found in the works of Donald Knuth, Brian Kernighan, Dennis Ritchie, Kirk McKusick, Richard Stevens, and Evi Nemeth somehow rubbed off on me during the years I spent reading them, but I very seriously doubt it.
First, I'd like to address my most sincere thanks to the Packt team, especially my editors Joseph Sunil and David Sugarman for their valuable feedback and advice. I never thought writing a book would be this painless. I would also like to thank my reviewers, particularly Javier Ramirez and Ricardo Sueiras, for helping me make this book better than it originally was.
I'd also like to thank the AWS service teams who work on Amazon SageMaker every day, and sometimes every night, to give our customers the best possible features and service quality. You are the unspoken heroes of this book, and I'm but your messenger. I hope I did you justice.
On a personal note, I'm forever indebted to my parents for their never-ending support, and for never pulling the literal plug on me when other kids were playing outside, or when the moon was already high the sky. Back then, I did take the road less traveled, and these long days and nights spent dissecting Commodores, Apple ][s and Macs made all the difference.
My love also goes to my wife and children, who somehow kept the house calm enough during COVID-19 lockdown for me to write 13 chapters in 3 months, at my own amazement. Now, I promise I'll take more time to enjoy these sunny afternoons.
Finally, I want to dedicate this book to the memory of my uncle Guy Simon. Wherever he is now, I hope that he's proud of this Hobbit's adventures.