- A 20-foot-tall pneumatic robot capable of shooting ping-pong balls was built in 20 days by the Austin Robot Group, with final control software consisting of ~3,000 lines of code written in the last eight hours.  
- Vern, leader of the Austin Robot Group, keeps a decades-long collection of computer and electronics hardware; a visit to his home yielded five boxes of historical gear spanning 70 years of computing history.  
- Pacific Biosciences’ technology page describes single-molecule real-time sequencing by synthesis, prompting the idea of attaching DNA polymerase to an AFM tip to observe base incorporation in real time.  
- Hardware failures discussed include an incompatible nVidia proprietary video-card chipset and a motherboard that literally caught fire, both being returned for replacement.  
- The RepRap project (thereping.com) was shared as a resource for open-source 3-D printing and rapid-prototyping hardware relevant to DIY bio and robotics labs.