- A Google-Books-hosted chapter on “pulsed water-drop micromachining” was identified as a candidate open-source micro-/nanofabrication technique for community labs, prompting discussion of cutting-force formulas from ASM handbooks and Plymouth University’s machining-force page.  
- Participants argued that small CNC mill frames must be stiff enough to withstand the ft-lb loads required to fracture the workpiece; otherwise flexing will exceed 1-mil tolerances, and thermal-expansion mismatches between frame and actuator materials must be mitigated with matched materials, internal coolant, or interferometric self-calibration.  
- A “briefcase” modular hexapod mill was proposed: collapsible aluminum-tube frame, pinned joints, and ball-bar or interferometer self-calibration to eliminate the need for precision-ground surfaces.  
- Festo’s air-muscle-driven bionic arm was analyzed for cycle life (>1 M), weight, noise, and the absence of hydraulic air-muscle prosthetics.  
- A DIY 12 kW mechanical inverter design (100 A relay switching at 60 Hz) was dismissed as unsafe after estimating 3000 A short-circuit arcs and rapid contact failure.  
- Debate over university-affiliated incubators concluded that weekend “3-Day Startup” events and programs demanding equity for small capital often strip founders of IP; Vextec was cited as a counter-example that leveraged $100 k SBIR grants to reach $3 M revenue while retaining 100 % equity.  
- bkero documented a two-day struggle to compile OCRopus on Gentoo for a 4.3 GB biology textbook, noting Ubuntu builds in ~30 min; kanzure provided links to an OCR’d textbook mirror.  
- Technical side topics included pyparsing for chemical-formula parsing and vim-to-VCS integration, soldering 16-pin TSSOP packages and AD9835 DDS chips, and a “Singularity Scavenger Hunt” for the upcoming Singularity Summit.