- Geohot released a PlayStation 3 exploit that permanently breaks Sony’s firmware signing on all 50 million existing consoles, demonstrating an unpatchable hardware-level vulnerability.  
- A new open-source tool called “PDFtank” was introduced: a server that automatically fetches and caches research papers given only PubMed IDs, intended to let labs share curated paper collections.  
- Participants discussed a PLOS ONE paper reporting functional “de-novo designed” proteins built from an artificial sequence library; the synthetic proteins sustain E. coli growth, illustrating practical progress in artificial biology.  
- Development of SKDB, an “apt-get for hardware,” advanced with a YAML-based package spec that tracks dependencies, bills-of-materials, and optional “transformations” (format converters, CAD renderers, toolpath generators).  
- A Rutgers “Singularity Studies” course released lecture recordings, and the channel recovered ~27 k pages from Anders Sandberg’s offline “Transhuman Page” via Internet Archive scraping, preserving a key transhumanist resource.  
- MakerBot was featured in Forbes as “best of CES,” and new OpenSCAD parametric-design modules were shared on Thingiverse, reinforcing the open-source hardware ecosystem.  
- Keyboard ergonomics were debated: members compared Data-Hand, Kinesis, and Maltron layouts, speculated on exceeding 20 cps typing speeds, and considered 3-D printing custom non-QWERTY designs.  
- DIY safety ideas included an open-source fire-extinguisher concept inspired by the “FireHero” flame-thrower guitar project, alongside ongoing work on normothermic perfusion systems for 3-D tissue printing.