• A new paper titled “AirHopper: Bridging the Air-Gap between Isolated Networks and Mobile Phones using Radio Frequencies” was shared (arXiv:1411.0237), describing a technique for exfiltrating data from air-gapped computers via FM radio emissions generated by the video card.  
• Discussion of BLAKE2 as a modern, high-performance cryptographic hash function; zooko’s slide deck (https://blake2.net/acns/slides.html) was circulated to advocate its adoption over older hashes.  
• Two open-source debugging tools were highlighted: ircpdb, a Python debugger that lets multiple developers collaborate over IRC, and Google’s pyringe, a ptrace-based debugger for live Python processes—participants suggested combining them.  
• Paperbot, the channel’s automated paywall-bypass bot, was reported “dead” because it had not been maintained; fenn manually retrieved a paywalled Sage journal PDF for a user to keep the resource-sharing culture alive.  
• A Forbes article on “developeronomics” (the economic argument that software talent is the scarcest and most leveraged resource) was debated, including its claim that the Internet’s “Year 0” should be 29 Oct 1969.  
• Bitcoin mining economics were analyzed: participants linked geopolitical stress (ruble devaluation, Ukraine/Syria tensions) to increased BTC speculation and posted photos of a 2 MW Thai barn-mining operation that caught fire, illustrating the race-to-the-bottom for marginal electricity costs.  
• Practical DIY health advice circulated: Walmart pharmacists can suggest OTC alternatives to avoid doctor visits, but chain pharmacies were criticized for poor Adderall availability and slow service; Kroger was noted to leak location-identifying metadata.  
• XML versus JSON resurfaced as a tooling debate; dingo defended XML’s schema enforcement and comment capability for scientific publishing (e.g., NLM DTDs) while others mocked enterprise XML bloat.  
• A microcorruption.com CTF leaderboard was mentioned—user levskaya cracked into the top 100, prompting kudos and links to the embedded-security challenge site.