Acknowledgments

First of all, many thanks to my advisor Jack Stankovic for being supportive of me and my work, for giving me enough rope but not too much, for pushing me in the right direction when I was wasting time or missing the point, and for speedy turnaround on many iterations of each dissertation chapter during busy times.

I’d like to thank Mike Jones for introducing me to a relevant and interesting area of research, and for being a mentor as well as a de facto second advisor.

Thanks to my committee--Marty Humphrey, Mike Jones, Paul Reynolds, Sang Son, and Ron Williams--for useful advice and constructive criticism at the proposal, at my defense, and in between. I would also like to thank Paul for being the chair of my committee and for being a patient and supportive advisor during my first few years at UVA.

Thanks to David Coppit, Gabe Ferrer, Sean McCulloch, Mike Nahas, Anand Natrajan, Alastair Reid, Glenn Wasson, and Brian White for providing useful feedback on a draft of this dissertation. Special thanks to: Sean for going above and beyond the call of duty by reading something like five chapters in two days, Dave for applying the “Kevin standard” to my claimed contributions, Brian for curbing the excesses of my (sometimes overly) parenthetical writing style, Mike and Alastair for actually reading the proofs, and Nuts for making a massive contribution.

Thanks to Sarah Creem for her love, patience, and understanding.

I would like to thank my parents for always being supportive, and for advising without pushing. Also, thanks for providing me with the 1972 World Book Encyclopedia and a Texas Instruments 99/4a--I have no idea where I’d be if I hadn’t had access to these things.

Thanks to SIGBEER and the Inner Circle--you know who you are--for being, in large part, responsible for making my stay at UVA an enjoyable one and for sustaining a level of Wrongness which, although occasionally excessive, was never unwarranted.

Thanks to Jay Lepreau and the rest of the Flux group at the University of Utah for helpful conversations and friendly advice, and for giving me space in their lab while I wrote this dissertation.

Finally, I would like to thank Ginny Hilton, Brenda Lynch, and Tammy Ramsey for giving me friendly help countless times over the past six years, and for providing a much-needed level of indirection between me and the University bureaucracy.