- The Stanford “ml-class.org” and “ai-class.com” MOOCs had just started; participants complained that the machine-learning homework teaches nit-picking rather than debugging real convergence issues, and that Octave/Matlab error messages are unhelpful.  
- A plot of non-converging gradient-descent for exercise 1 was shared at http://fennetic.net/irc/ml-class-ex1-divergence.png to illustrate the problem.  
- Discussion of open-source CAD interoperability: kanzure’s 2010 attempt to reverse-engineer the SolidWorks file format (documented at http://www.heybryan.org/solidworks_file_format.html) was revisited, and BRL-CAD was recommended as a source of format converters.  
- A new “Hardware Startup SF” meet-up (scheduled for Nov 10) was mentioned as a networking event for hardware entrepreneurs.  
- Practical maker advice was exchanged on extracting a stripped M2 laptop screw—suggestions included left-handed drill bits, screw extractors, and (jokingly) EDM or acid etching.  
- kanzure recommended the documentary “Bigger, Stronger, Faster*” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bigger,_Stronger,_Faster*) for its treatment of enhancement culture.