- Autodesk’s new 10-document limit and removal of generative-design features from the free tier of Fusion 360 is driving a surge of interest in open-source CAD alternatives; ImplicitCAD’s website traffic has risen five-fold and even the pre-alpha slicer hslice is seeing new users.  
- Participants compared frustrations with OpenSCAD—especially its lack of object introspection, rounded unions, and reproducible geometry across versions—and joked that “all software sucks,” highlighting the need for better open-source CAD tooling.  
- kanzure introduced Google’s XLS toolchain: xlscc compiles C++ into an intermediate representation that XLS then lowers to synthesizable Verilog, enabling software-style development for FPGAs; Verilator and cocotb were cited for fast cycle-accurate simulation and Python-based testbenches.  
- A possible month-long “secure cryptoprocessor” hackathon challenge was floated: contestants would implement a hardened core, ideally using the open RISC-V ISA plus custom extensions, with kanzure supplying only a testbed and evaluation framework.  
- Links to hardware security resources were shared: Ledger’s hardware-integrity checklist, ST’s ST31H320 secure MCU, and the 1979 patent that created the first single-chip cryptoprocessor for PC software copy protection (US 4,168,396).  
- L29Ah posted a PLOS ONE paper showing an inverse correlation between serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels and SARS-CoV-2 positivity rates, adding to the channel’s ongoing discussion of DIY health interventions.  
- The documentary “Hope Frozen,” chronicling the cryopreservation of a 2-year-old Thai girl with brain cancer, prompted debate over Alcor’s protocols and whether any human brain has yet been preserved by Nectome’s ASC (aldehyde-stabilized cryopreservation) technique.