Past news of persistent value

Quiz on this Thursday (Feb 2). The regular quiz schedule is such that there will be a new quiz one week after each new homework solution is posted. The quiz will be roughly around the materials from that homework solution.
The textbook for this course is Kittel, Introduction to Solid State Physics, eighth edition (however, the edition should not matter much).
One more change in syllabus: office hours: Mon, Wed 2-3 PM, Wed 10-11 AM – these hours completely supersede whatever we determined tentatively before. — Sam, 5:13PM, Jan 12, 2012
One typo in the syllabus is now corrected: Thursday → Monday (for the final exam date). Thanks, CH!

Past news of purely archival value

So far, I got zero questions for homework #3. Which could be a good sign, I hope! Any case, speaking about zero, I posted one question on the forum, mainly just for fun.
Please check out a challenge question at the forum.
Solutions to homework 1, posted. Quiz 1 on Jan 26 will be about homework 1 and related materials.
The forum site is cleaned up a bit, so that, if you login to this site and then click "Forum" above, you will see only those questions relevant to our course. Use the forum site to ask and discuss any questions related to this course!
The office hour poll is open. Participate in it, if you haven't already.
Homework 1 – some problems are delayed to homework 2 (due to materials not having been covered yet).