# Key Ideas from #hplusroadmap IRC Discussions

• Developers discussed scaling challenges for Git repository hosting platform Piny, debating whether a custom solution was preferable to using GitHub's API or Gitorious, with particular focus on balancing static file hosting (easier to scale) versus dynamic social features like activity feeds and friend lists.

• The architecture of Piny was described as having three components (piny-code, piny-web, and piny-shared), with ongoing work to integrate Ikiwiki (a wiki compiler) into the codebase while addressing directory structure and template management issues.

• A DIY Arduino EEG Kickstarter project was criticized for potentially reinventing existing technology like OpenEEG, sparking debate about whether it genuinely aimed to make EEG more accessible to non-engineers or was redundant.

• Open-source CAD tools RapCAD (http://rapcad.org/) and OpenSCAD (http://gitorious.org/openscad) were highlighted, with mention of efforts to add a Python interpreter to OpenSCAD.

• The "Hundred Year Starship" initiative proposing a one-way Mars mission by 2030 was discussed alongside MarsHome.org's development of a Mars analog research center in California focused on teleoperation and autonomous manufacturing.

• Participants shared information about a NASA Ames Research Center project demonstrating how to melt moon rock/ore to create simple machine tools, discussing the potential of using solar concentrators for selective laser sintering with moon dust.

• Several open-source game projects were considered as educational tools for space settlement, including Mars colony simulations and an iPhone game about building a Mars base or teleoperating rovers.