A professional writer for over 15 years, Martin 'MC' Brown is the author and contributor to over 26 books covering an array of topics, including programming, system management and web technologies. His expertise spans myriad development languages and platforms - Perl, Python, Java, JavaScript, Basic, Pascal, Modula-2, C, C++, Rebol, Gawk, Shellscript, Windows, Solaris, Linux, BeOS, Microsoft WP, Mac OS and more. The combination has resulted in expertise in web programming, systems management and integration, and XML and DocBook technologies for writing and publishing documentation. A former LAMP Technologies Editor for LinuxWorld magazine and is a regular contributor to ServerWatch.com, LinuxPlanet, ComputerWorld and IBM developerWorks. As a Subject Matter Expert for Microsoft he provided technical input to their Windows Server and certification teams. He draws on a rich and varied background as founder member of a leading UK ISP, systems manager and IT consultant for an advertising agency and Internet solutions group, technical specialist for an intercontinental ISP network, and database designer and programmer - and as a self-confessed compulsive consumer of computing hardware and software. In his pre-writing life he spent more than 10 years designing and managing mixed platform environments. As a result he has developed a rare talent of being able to convey the benefits and intricacies of his subject with equal measures of enthusiasm, professionalism, in-depth knowledge and insight. A past technical writer building both the documentation system and writing content for MySQL and the MySQL groups within Sun and then Oracle. MC is currently the VP of Documentation for Couchbase and is responsible for all published documentation, training programme and content, and the the Couchbase Techzone.