- A discussion of crowdfunding fatigue: participants questioned the reliability of platforms like RocketHub, Kickstarter and IndieGoGo, and floated the idea of a micro-format or aggregator to track and evaluate grant proposals across the many new “crowdfunding” sites.  
- Three early-stage science crowdfunding campaigns were shared: a magnetic nerve-stimulator prototype (compared to trans-cranial magnetic stimulation), an ancient-Roman DNA project, and low-cost seismic sensor kits.  
- ImplicitCAD, an open-source functional-solid-modeling tool written in Haskell, was highlighted; links to its GitHub repo and core operations module were posted.  
- A Google-Desktop-to-SolidWorks plugin and a new RepRap blog post (“Say Goodbye to Unsightly STL Triangle Files”) were noted as developments in open-source CAD and 3-D printing workflows.  
- DARPA’s “Cyber Fast Track” program was mentioned—explicitly targeting small organizations, hacker spaces and maker labs for rapid cybersecurity R&D contracts.  
- NIST’s Smart Connected Systems lab now points its official URL to a GitHub repository, signaling another government agency embracing open-source hosting.  
- A participant designing a home-built STM discussed using stepper motors and screws instead of expensive tubular piezos and asked the channel for construction pointers.  
- The Open Hardware Journal’s November 2011 issue was linked as a PDF, continuing the channel’s practice of circulating new open-hardware literature.  
- Trehalose was raised as a potential over-the-counter caloric-restriction mimetic; imminst.org was suggested as a place to gather anecdotal usage data.