- A $10 bounty was offered for anyone who can make an Arduino accurately control the linear sled motor (laser-positioning actuator) inside a CD/DVD drive, highlighting early DIY precision-motion hacking.  
- Discussion of whether a KDE 3.5.4 bugfix is still worth submitting now that KDE 4.x is mainstream, illustrating the tension between legacy support and forward development in open-source projects.  
- A Slashdot comment was shared critiquing the “killer idea > execution” myth, framing it as a “get-rich-quick scheme for thinkers” and reinforcing the channel’s emphasis on building rather than just ideating.  
- The Debian autoproject tool was noted for generating RPM templates; a wishlist item was raised to add automatic Debian package scaffolding via dh_make, pointing to friction in cross-distro packaging workflows.  
- iPhone app development was floated as a possible income source for a community member, with at least two participants brainstorming app ideas and the “write app, sell app, profit” model.  
- The annual Edge.org “World Question” feature for 2009 was linked; participants expressed surprise at seeing biologist PZ Myers listed, debating whether his inclusion signals broader acceptance or mere publicity for transhumanist themes.  
- A KDE bug (#132480) was successfully patched and submitted, demonstrating active upstream contribution from the channel.  
- Daniel Tammet’s new book was mentioned as an attempt to “make a buck,” sparking brief commentary on monetizing exceptional cognitive abilities.  
- A member reported $1,000 worth of packages stolen, underscoring logistical risks faced by hardware-oriented biohackers.  
- A workflow was outlined for batch-processing ~100 video clips: extract metadata via Flickr’s photo_embed endpoint, HTML-decode descriptions, and sniff out .flv URLs with Wireshark—an ad-hoc data-pipeline for open-source video production.