• The Internet Archive’s book-scanning hardware was debated: MrClif believed they had open-sourced their own scanner, while ybit countered that a job posting for an operator on a “brand new” machine suggests otherwise.

• Amazon quietly acquired Touchco, a multi-touch interface firm, hinting at next-generation human–computer interaction hardware.

• A new documentary preview on the Blue Brain Project was shared (http://thebeautifulbrain.com/2010/02/bluebrain-film-preview/), prompting discussion of Henry Markram’s reluctance to open-source the project and the feasibility of a distributed, non-time-dependent alternative architecture.

• Open neuroscience resources were actively exchanged: kanzure posted large collections of neuro papers and books at http://designfiles.org/papers/neuro/, http://heybryan.org/books/Biology/neuro/, and http://bio.cc/Bioinformics/papers/; xApple (EPFL) mentioned using NEST for large-scale spiking-network simulations.

• Ted Berger’s “biomimetic microelectronic” hippocampal prosthesis was discussed: ybit noted Berger’s 2006 claim of primate implants “within three years,” yet no peer-reviewed mouse or primate implant data has appeared; the group was actively seeking surgical details and recent publications.

• The channel crowd-sourced missing literature: ybit requested a copy of a University of Twente thesis on neural interfacing (http://doc.utwente.nl/68962/) and later circulated a Google Groups link aggregating dozens of brain-emulation resources.

• Practical BCI questions were raised—how to surgically place transmitters/receivers and whether fMRI studies of visual hallucinations exist—showing a shift from simulation to implantation logistics.

• kanzure’s class notes on “Building Brains” (http://heybryan.org/school/buildingbrains/all.html) were offered as a crash course on artificial neural networks for newcomers like xp_prg.