I feel compelled to throw in an enthusiastic second (or third or fourth) for the Art of Electronics. AoE does not skimp on deep theory, yet it's the only book I know that tells you (for example) why you would want to use a tantalum capacitor rather than an electrolytic capacitor. And so on.
Already discussed in postings, but worth repeating: By definition, the blacker a material is, the more photons it absorbs. Ultra-black materials are particularly useful if you are making photosensitive materials (e.g. cameras) or any sort of photo collector (e.g. PV cells).
I looked for articles discussing how predictions of meltdowns did NOT come to pass, but I couldn't find any.
Bob Metcalfe predicted the collapse of the Internet by 1996 in an InfoWorld article dated December 1995. When 1996 drew to a close without the predicted meltdown, Metcalfe literally ate his words on stage at the Sixth International World Wide Web Conference in Santa Clara, Calif. For those that need a refresher: http://crcvms.unl.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind9704&L=afee mail&D=0&T=0&P=15859.
Slashdot Mirror
It's a must-have on any Maker's shelf.
- ff
Already discussed in postings, but worth repeating: By definition, the blacker a material is, the more photons it absorbs. Ultra-black materials are particularly useful if you are making photosensitive materials (e.g. cameras) or any sort of photo collector (e.g. PV cells).