- Google-scale data processing: a participant laments that Google engineers can spin up terabyte-scale jobs and get results in ~10 minutes, highlighting the gap between corporate and individual access to cheap, large-scale storage and compute.  
- DIY storage reality check: discussion confirms that “unlimited” web-hosting plans quickly cap out below 1 TB, underscoring the persistent cost and availability barriers for personal big-data projects.  
- Cryonics documentation project: docl is maintaining an open cryonics wiki; kanzure requests a comprehensive list of buffers and reagents to improve the resource.  
- Autodesk’s expanding footprint: MakerBot signed a deal to bundle Autodesk’s 123D Creature iPad app and optimize the entire 123D suite for MakerBot printers; participants view Autodesk’s simultaneous funding of synthetic-biology and hackerspace initiatives (e.g., Gemsi via Bilal Ghalib) as “creepy” corporate capture.  
- Sugar-based laser sintering: jmil is developing a multi-year project to laser-sinter sugar layers for low-cost 3-D printing; nmz787 explores whether an apin-coated sugar layer would crystallize under light, comparing sugar to pricier photoresins and considering sugar as a sacrificial scaffold or fake extracellular matrix.  
- Paperbot scraping: the channel’s paperbot attempted to fetch several paywalled articles (IEEE IPDPSW 2011, Elsevier hypnotics/GABA study, AMS Notices 2012) and fell back to raw PDF dumps when translators failed, illustrating ongoing efforts to liberate academic literature.