I really don't have a dog in this fight, but some people do still seem to be developing Automated Transactions.
I would give you a +1 if I could for doing your own research
You might be interested in the machine code testing and results for Nxt AT: http://ciyam.org/nxt/
If you want more information on the innards, the best person to contact is btc2nxt at nxtforum.org. He is the one who most commonly gives updates in the thread you posted above.
Edit: Nevermind, I see you have already registered and asked questions