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Actually, black material captures photons in the visible spectrum and increases in temperature.

Thermal radiation ranges in wavelength from the longest infrared rays through the visible-light spectrum to the shortest ultraviolet rays. The intensity and distribution of radiant energy within this range is governed by the temperature of the emitting surface. The total radiant heat energy emitted by a surface is proportional to the fourth power of its absolute temperature (the Stefan–Boltzmann law).

Britannica.

In case you didn't know, the visible spectrum is between UV and IR.

How does a microwave oven heat up food even though it emits no thermal radiation?

A microwave oven does emit thermal radiation to heat up food. Microwave radiation is thermal radiation. For some reason, pre-college teachers and books have a mistaken notion that thermal radiation = infrared radiation. All frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum carry energy, from radio waves, microwaves, infrared waves, visible light, ultraviolet, and X-rays to gamma rays. All frequencies of radiation heat up an object that they strike and therefore can be thermal radiation. When physicists use the term "thermal radiation", they either mean radiation that has the ability to heat up an object it strikes. Or they mean a broad spectrum of frequencies with a certain shape that depends on the emitter's temperature.

So yeah, a theoretically-perfect black object (we have what, 99.7% material now?) captures a lot more thermal radiation than a PV panel. I suppose a transparent PV passing near-100% of what it doesn't convert to electricity would be a good first pass, and then take the rest through a mechanical system. Still.

I like the ones sugested at http://www.phys.uu.nl/~thooft/theorist.html#pmathematics . For the basics there's Texas A&M's http://www.wtamu.edu/academic/anns/mps/math/mathlab/beg_algebra/

sounds just like something these people do regularly.

sounds like WTAMU or one of the other Texas A&M University schools...

They have a history of banishing those that try to inform them of flaws in their systems.

This of course has led to a situation where those that discover the issues simply keep quiet in fear of such underhanded retaliation; leading to those systems being actively exploited....

sounds like you ran into the people from this place

well... at a school I used to go to they got rid of some of their best CS/CIS/MIS teachers/profs by not keeping them happy. Those good teachers/profs went to places like TTU and elsewhere.

This was also exasperated by the people running the IT department (not the professors, but the management) who didnt know anything about running a network correctly. They fired two of the best people they had (even railroaded one just to save face). Ever since, their CS dept has gone downhill...

Walk away.... dont say a word...

If your school is WTAMU, then just walk away... dont say a word about it... your info WILL be used against you. They will use anything to cover their asses... including you...

I know its not just you, but the instructor "freebees" are one of the biggest reasons that the prices of the books are so high.

At one particular .edu the faculty gets to place books on a wishlist and the publishers sends them most of the items on the wishlists as long as some of those become part of some curriculum (or at least on a "suggested reading" list)

If its WTAMU or one of the A&M schools, then RUN AWAY... They have a long history of blaming "innocent/whire hats" people that inform them of the security holes that they have when those holes are exploited by real black hats.....

What I have wondered if there is a license that is similar to the GPL except for ONE {albeit MAJOR }difference... Allow everyone the rights that the GPL gives except for a particular "group" that can be specified in the license....

example: anyone can use and distribute my software or services except for those affiliated with

1- Competitior company A
2- WTAMU.EDU students and staff
3- ARN.NET customers and employees
4- Some specific Person B (wtjoker) and their workplace (wtjoker-work)
5- Those listed at some particular url (http://example.com/bannedaccess/)

Sounds like WTAMU and ARN.net....

What some of you need to remember is that things on the network at WTAMU have changed quite a bit since these events.

Much of the networking staff/IT there has changed completely. Kenneth is no longer there; but James is still there.

They (the current networking staff) really have worked hard to fix the problems that plagued their system.

It is not fair to continue to block them for mistakes in their past.

Just a guess, but it is most probably James H. and/or the dean of Tech. Dr. Nelson, who follows all of James's "recommendations" blindly, who "advised" the Police department to continue not to allow him access to the campus.

The police/admins. may not have handled the situation as well as they could have. What they should have done was allow him access to the campus with a restriction on computer access. The problem with that is that his abilities as mentioned here probably meant that they were afraid of his ability to still "get through". Of course the next logical question is.. If he really IS that good, doesnt it mean that if he wanted to harm the campus network, he would have been able to do so remotely anyways, and most probably WITHOUT detection?

Most of the case file, including a copy of the trespass warnings, and other details can be obtained from him (if you ask nicely) or from the court records (if you are willing to go through the red tape).

As for the UPD, [writing "forever" on a trespass warning that has a normal limit of 1 year clearly shows a deeper hatred than normal]

I am surprised he did not go further legally {but funds may have been an issue} since it was obvious that the UPD was most probably abusing the law(s) that allowed them to ban him from campus in the first place.. A law that was meant to stop drug dealers and gang members and other VIOLENT offenders from accessing campuses was possibly being abused by the police to further their own personal prejudices and fears or agendas.

Some of the same problems on the networks mentioned above; many that seem to have been fixed were some that supposedly the "accused" informed them of a long time ago, but was ignored, and was later on blamed for when they were most probably exploited.

His "defense" file if they went to trial contains copies of emails to both the ISP and his bosses at the university about some of the problems, as well as an "explanation" of most of the circumstancial evidence that they had..

Something else that gets me, and was mentioned in that newspaper article, is that the university allows a CONVICTED murderer {manslaughter) to access the campus freely, but yet they deny someone else access to the University...

One really has to wonder if other factors are in effect here other than the network issues.

It seems more of a personal grudge than a network/computer issue.

Something that no-one else has mentioned here is that there is also another third party involved. A third party who initiated the accusation/complaint (their web page was also allegedly erased by the accused), who turns out was applying for the same job position as the "accused" at the ISP

makes you wonder......

What some of you need to remember is that things on the network at WTAMU have changed quite a bit since these events.

Much of the networking staff/IT there has changed completely. Kenneth is no longer there; but James is still there.

They (the current networking staff) really have worked hard to fix the problems that plagued their system.

It is not fair to continue to block them for mistakes in their past.

Just a guess, but it is most probably James H. and/or the dean of Tech. Dr. Nelson, who follows all of James's "recommendations" blindly, who "advised" the Police department to continue not to allow him access to the campus.

The police/admins. may not have handled the situation as well as they could have. What they should have done was allow him access to the campus with a restriction on computer access. The problem with that is that his abilities as mentioned here probably meant that they were afraid of his ability to still "get through". Of course the next logical question is.. If he really IS that good, doesnt it mean that if he wanted to harm the campus network, he would have been able to do so remotely anyways, and most probably WITHOUT detection?

Most of the case file, including a copy of the trespass warnings, and other details can be obtained from him (if you ask nicely) or from the court records (if you are willing to go through the red tape).

As for the UPD, [writing "forever" on a trespass warning that has a normal limit of 1 year clearly shows a deeper hatred than normal]

I am surprised he did not go further legally {but funds may have been an issue} since it was obvious that the UPD was most probably abusing the law(s) that allowed them to ban him from campus in the first place.. A law that was meant to stop drug dealers and gang members and other VIOLENT offenders from accessing campuses was possibly being abused by the police to further their own personal prejudices and fears or agendas.

Some of the same problems on the networks mentioned above; many that seem to have been fixed were some that supposedly the "accused" informed them of a long time ago, but was ignored, and was later on blamed for when they were most probably exploited.

His "defense" file if they went to trial contains copies of emails to both the ISP and his bosses at the university about some of the problems, as well as an "explanation" of most of the circumstancial evidence that they had..

Something else that gets me, and was mentioned in that newspaper article, is that the university allows a CONVICTED murderer {manslaughter) to access the campus freely, but yet they deny someone else access to the University...

One really has to wonder if other factors are in effect here other than the network issues.

It seems more of a personal grudge than a network/computer issue.

Something that no-one else has mentioned here is that there is also another third party involved. A third party who initiated the accusation/complaint (their web page was also allegedly erased by the accused), who turns out was applying for the same job position as the "accused" at the ISP

makes you wonder......

The problem is in the academia that joined the "internet" at a late stage. Many only mention usenet as a "passe" item. A local .edu does just that...

(They also discourage IRC)

They will change their minds...

I always laugh at any place that makes such a bold statement as "we will never use Linux"...

In 1997 an administrator for a local .edu once told me that they would NEVER use linux on their network... (They were an NT and Novell shop)

They have now converted several of their servers to use Linux... (about time; even though hey were "enlightened" about it ~1996...)

so...

They will come around.. it may take a while... but sooner or later those disbelievers will realize that Linux is here to stay..... and can only get better.. :-)

Note: Posting anonymously for obvious reasons...


Yup.. Sounds like the admins at WTAMU. They once shut off the network connection of one of the student web servers because it was "running an illegal service".. (which turned out to be a student doing an "nslookup -d" which resulted in a zone transfer that their monitoring program detected as a tcp connection to port 53...)..

They also shut down several ethernet ports for having smb shares on (even passworded ones)... Their excuse was that they did not want items on the network with "possible improper names"...

Thing is... the admins are (were) clueless (they had a mail server running Sendmail SMV-8.6 till recently... It was only shut down when it was severly abused, and the parent school TAMU (who in comparison are actually exremely knowledgable) got complaints about it and threatened to shut off network connectivity for the whole WTAMU campus (which would have affected another local college and other enteties that get their connectivity through WTAMU)

PS... WTAMU still has LOTS of other security holes... which they HAVE been informed about....