- IEEE Spectrum’s “Moneta: A Mind Made from Memristors” sparked debate on whether evolutionary search in self-modifying analog memristor hardware could discover computational architectures that neither conventional FPGAs nor artificial neural networks can reach, with Hugo de Garis’s earlier FPGA “artificial brain” work cited as a digital but less evolvable precedent.

- A complete migration of the legacy NanoEngineer CAD/Simulation codebase from CVS/SVN to Git was completed, preserving every commit since 2005 and cleanly representing the 2007 merge of three formerly separate codebases (Distribution, cad, sim); the conversion used `svn-all-fast-export` with explicit rules for `trunk/(cad|sim|Distribution)/branches/*` to retain accurate merge history.

- Participants evaluated ROS (Robot Operating System) as a unifying middleware for both robotic arms and general digital-fabrication control, contrasting it with existing open-source CNC stacks such as EMC2 and Fabuntu, and noted the practical gap between academic robot demos and affordable, real-world manufacturing automation.

- A PUMA 500 robot arm was reported to be operational after relocation; plans include designing custom tool attachments (e.g., screwdriver end-effector) to test low-cost automated assembly workflows.

- MakerBot’s first retail storefront in Brooklyn was highlighted as a milestone in the commercialization of open-source hardware.

- Additional links circulated included an Economist briefing on personalized genomics, DIY leaf-pigment chromatography instructions, the “Large Hadron Rap” and other science-music videos, and IEEE Spectrum’s critical piece “Ray Kurzweil’s Slippery Futurism” together with its Slashdot commentary, which fueled skepticism about Kurzweilian exponential timelines.