• kanzure released pycal3d, an open-source Python wrapper for the Cal3D character-animation library, with build instructions at http://adl.serveftp.org/~bryan/pycal3d/.

• genehacker prototyped a high-pressure “piston-based water gun from hell” using an air-over-water intensifier; the group compared it to safer, cheaper Harbor Freight air-over-hydraulic pumps and $20 air-powered grease guns.

• Participants evaluated modular, low-cost housing options for hacker spaces: used shipping containers (~$1.5–2 k delivered) versus tension-fabric clear-span buildings detailed at http://www.clearspan.com/fabric/structures/ext;Structures/Sizes.html.

• MIT’s new Fab Academy vocational program was announced at http://fab.cba.mit.edu/academy/about/ to train people worldwide in Fab Lab digital-fabrication techniques.

• drazak sought a low-voltage, unity-gain-stable single-channel op-amp (~7.6 V rail-to-rail) for a three-channel headphone-amp ground channel, prompting debate on part substitutions in the open-source PIMETA2/PPA designs.

• Slashdot’s revisit of DIY HERF guns (http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/09/27/2020204/Revisiting-DIY-HERF-Guns) sparked speculation that public availability of EEStor capacitors could make such devices more common.

• Participants warned that most ceramic capacitors are temperature-sensitive and microphonic in audio circuits, with C0G/NP0 ceramics acceptable only under space constraints, and shared Tangentsoft’s guide on input-capacitor selection at http://tangentsoft.net/audio/input-cap.html.

• The TI BUF634 buffer datasheet (http://focus.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/buf634.pdf) was cited to challenge claims about op-amp loading behavior based on its phase-offset curves.