• Amazon’s Kindle was critiqued as a missed opportunity to become “rekindle,” a Creative Commons–friendly open-publishing platform.  
• The Elphel open-source camera (Linux-based, FPGA-driven) was highlighted as hackable hardware for custom sensor front-ends and computer-vision experiments; links to its software repository and internal assembly blow-up were shared.  
• Thingiverse entry #319, Oomlout’s automatic wire stripper, sparked discussion about the project’s reluctance to collaborate with the open-manufacturing community and the risk of “open manufacturing” being trademarked.  
• A practical fab-lab business-model debate centered on TechShop’s failure: $100/month memberships could not cover the cost of high-end tools nor match their limited capacity; Les Filip’s approach of building $100 k machines for ~$2 k was noted.  
• DIYbio lab techniques discussed: iGEM/BioBrick DNA arrives dry on filter paper, must be rehydrated, PCR-amplified, and checked with agarose gels; participants lamented biologists’ reliance on sloppy, non-repeatable gel ladders and revisited microchip electrophoresis papers as alternatives.  
• Fluorophores.org (a fluorescent-dye database) and Wikiscope.org were introduced as open resources for biology imaging.  
• A tongue-in-cheek “pirate” MP3-player shaped like a bundle of TNT was proposed as a satirical anti-RIAA device to be tossed into crowds at fancy dinners.  
• Fluidic computing ideas surfaced: gene claimed flip-flops are basic fluidic elements; kanzure sketched a path from Boolean logic → VHDL → fluidic circuit synthesis for a fully fluidic RepRap controller.  
• Matrix-inspired hardware banter: gene argued that hover-ships could be built today with room-temperature superconductors and superconducting power cables, while thermodynamics makes the film’s human-battery premise impossible.  
• Coordination around Les Filip’s new 4 000 ft² Austin workspace intensified; core team (kanzure, fenn, Les, treadwell, possibly rauchwerk) weighed coworking rentals, MechMate kit sales, and consulting revenue as first steps, while fending off less-focused proposals from the Robot Group mailing list.