# Key Points from the ##hplusroadmap IRC Discussion

• A tiny EEG/ECG board from Medigram was discussed that harvests radio-frequency energy instead of using batteries, highlighting technical challenges in biosignal amplification including high-impedance input stages that are extremely sensitive to environmental interference, requiring copper shielding and differential measurement techniques.

• DIY medical technology development was a major focus, particularly around dialysis machines and cell printers, with participants noting the economic disparity between the relatively low cost of dialysis machines ($4-20k) and the high treatment costs ($3,000-5,000/month) in the $7 billion dialysis industry.

• The conversation revealed that dialysis centers operate on thin margins for Medicare patients (4.4%), while commercial insurance patients (11% of total) generate most profits despite representing only 34% of revenue, with Medicare covering end-stage renal disease patients regardless of age.

• Technical details about kidney failure mechanisms were shared, specifically how diabetes leads to kidney damage through glycosylation endproducts (AGEs) accumulating on blood vessel walls, making nephron filters too porous.

• Ray Kurzweil's hiring as Director of Engineering at Google was discussed with skepticism about his potential impact compared to other Google technical leaders like Peter Norvig.

• Copenhagen Suborbitals was highlighted as a notable open-source space organization developing inexpensive forms of suborbital manned spaceflight outside government programs, with participants critiquing space advocacy communities for lacking practical implementation skills.

• Participants shared technical solutions including a working rsync command for retrieving code from Sourceforge ("rsync -av rsync://PROJECTNAME.cvs.sourceforge.net/cvsroot/PROJECTNAME/* .") and information about the window manager "cwm" that allows searching for windows by typing.