- Paperbot, an open-source IRC bot for retrieving paywalled PDFs, was rapidly iterated with new modular architecture, proxy rotation through hundreds of university EZproxy endpoints, watermark stripping via pdfparanoia, and successful ScienceDirect downloads.  
- The channel organized acquisition of a decommissioned Illumina GAIIx DNA-sequencing rig (102 × 67 × 92 cm, 511 lb), planning Labor Day pickup in Hercules, CA and comparing shipping quotes.  
- Unit-testing philosophy for paperbot split between mocking HTTP responses with libraries like httmock versus live URL tests to detect upstream publisher changes; Zotero’s translator list was recommended as a canonical source of journal scrapers.  
- JSTOR DOI quirks were clarified: older articles use 10.2307/ prefix, while externally registered DOIs (e.g., 10.1086/) must be explicitly included or PDF links fail.  
- A privacy-focused GPS-logging ecosystem emerged: bbrittain released an open-source Android logger (https://github.com/cavedweller/QS-GPS-Logger) that records every seven seconds without cloud upload, while SparkFun’s retired open-source GPS Logger Shield and successor breakout (product 10920) were cited as Arduino-based precedents.  
- The Angel Sensor (angelsensor.com), an open-hardware wrist-worn device claiming heart-rate, SpO₂, temperature, and motion sensing, was met with skepticism over spectroscopic accuracy and data ownership.  
- Python 2 vs 3 performance debate highlighted that Python ≥3.2’s GIL can impose 300× slowdowns in threaded workloads, with coroutines or multiprocessing suggested as work-arounds.  
- kanzure circulated an economic-history argument that England’s Industrial Revolution was driven by a small, four-fold increase in “high-quality workmen” (carpenters, wrights) rather than broad human-capital gains, prompting discussion on critical-mass expertise versus average education in technological take-off.