About Us

Tricia Ballad spent several years as a web applications developer on the LAMP (Linux, Apache, Perl/PHP, MySQL) platform before she dusted off her B.A. in English/Creative Writing in 2005 to launch her freelance writing career. She combines creative talent with no-nonsense practicality to distill complex technical information into a format that can be easily understood.

Tricia has written Securing PHP Web Applications (Addison-Wesley, December 2008), co-authored PHP and MySQL All-in-One Desk Reference for Dummies (For Dummies, January 2008), and been a technical editor for Fundamentals of Software Development (Pulse Learning) and The Gadget Geek’s Guide to the Sony Playstation Portable (Thompson Learning, 2006). She has also developed over two dozen online courseware titles in subjects from consumer electronics to digital photography and business continuity.

Bill Ballad has worked in every aspect and at every level of Information Technology, from his days as a hardware technician at a small Mom & Pop ISP to architecting and maintaining Windows based servers and heterogeneous networks for some of the world’s largest corporations.   He has been an active member of the online Information Security community for many years, and recently led an effort to counter an international hacker group exploiting Option Cart, a widely-used e-commerce solution.

Bill and Tricia have collaborated on and co-authored several books on web application programming, including Securing PHP Web Applications (Addison-Wesley, December 2008).