Acknowledgements

Many people have assisted in the preparation of this first version of the book. But, of course, as leader of the English++ project, I alone feel responsible for any shortcomings. I would like to give special thanks to a group of enthusiastic 3rd year computer science students of the Jagiellonian University, without whom this book would have never been prepared. They have worked as experts in the IT field, text selectors, authors of complementary exercises, and finally shaped the book. Above all, I am grateful for the support and coordination of the project provided by Artur Staszczyk and Paweł Fidelus and for the creativeness and engagement of all the English++ members: Aleksandra Sendecka, Aleksandra Bieńkowska, Ewa Matczyńska, Artur Staszczyk, Paweł Fidelus,Tomasz Paczkowski, Piotr Śmigielski, Bartłomiej Filipek, Krzysztof Szromba, Michał Kubak, Michał Pal, Krzysztof Roksela, Krystian Kichewko and Szymon Kaczorowski and Piotr Bzdęga. They have all contributed to the accomplishment of the book, not only by practising their English language skills but also by actively using their knowledge as experts in the field. Their work goes far beyond the standard requirements of an English university course.

Special thanks also go to: Dr Anna Ochal from the Institute of Computer Science, who revised the mathematical part of the manuscript and to Dr Jerzy Freundlich, a colleague of mine, who painstakingly revised the reading and listening texts and the exercises; Małgorzata Świątek, Director of the Jagiellonian Language Center, and Professor Marek Skomorowski, Director of the Institute of Computer Science, for supporting my initiative; Professor Władysław Miodunka for helping me to maintain my belief in the value of the Project; Dr Rafał Maciąg and Jerzy Zając for their help in the recording studio; Dr Monika Coghen for her supportive comments; and Maciek Kwiatkowski for giving the book its final shape. Particular thanks go to Jolanta Krzyształowska, Financial Director of the Jagiellonian Language Centre and the administrative staff of the Centre.

The project members are grateful to Professor Stanisław Migórski, Dr Igor Podolak and Dr Piotr Kalita from the Institute of Computer Science of the Jagiellonian University for giving us permission to reproduce extracts of their work in our book: “An Introduction to the Modelling of Real–World Problem by the Simplest Ordinary Differential Equations” by Stanisław Migórski and “Mechanical Model of Artery Walls” by Piotr Kalita and Robert Schaefer. We are also grateful to the following authors for permission to reproduce extracts of their work in the English++ book:

• Joel Spolsky for “Lord Palmerston on Programming”
• Randy Nash for “Cyber Warfare: Reality or Box Office Hit?”
• Roderick Hames for “History of Computers”
• Damien Stolarz for “How to Stream Video Over a Network or the Internet”
• John McCarthy for "What Is Artificial Intelligence? - Basic Questions”
• Martin Fowler and Pramod Sadalage for “Evolutionary Database Design”
• Martin Fowler for “Writing Software Patterns”
• Tim Jones for “Anatomy of the Linux Kernel”
• Robert Ahlfinger, Brenton Cheeseman, Patrick Doodyfor "The Pitch Correction Algorithm: an Overview”

A special word of thanks go to those authors who additionally supported us with their enthusiastic mails.

The following texts come from open sources:
“Computer Facial Animation”,
“IloveYou Worm”,
"Software Development Process”,
"Quake - Game Engine”,
Open News episodes 25, 29 and 31 are under the licence of Creative Commons.
Agile Software Development.
The pictures come from:
History of Computers: Picture 1, Picture 2, Picture 3.
ILoveyouWorm: PhotoownedbyLuiDuar(cc) Picture 1, Picture 2, Picture 3.
How to Stream Video Over a Network or the Internet: Picture 1, Picture 2, Picture 3.
Computer Simulation: Picture 1, Picture 2, Picture 3.
Computer Facial Animation: Picture 1, Picture 2, Picture 3, Picture 4.
Cyber Warfare: Reality or Box Office Hit? Picture 1, Picture 2, Picture 3.
Lord Palmerston on Programming: Picture 1, Picture 2, Picture 3.
Quake-GameEngine: Picture 1, Picture 2, Picture 3.
Mechanical Models of Artery Walls: Picture 1, Picture 2, Picture 3.
The Pitch Correctiom Algorythm. An Overwiev: Photo owned by woodleywonderworks (cc), Picture 1, Picture 2, Picture 3.
Software Development Process Picture 1, Picture 2, Picture 3.
What is Artificial Intelligence: Picture 1, Picture 2, Picture 3.

Monika Stawicka
July 2008