# Summary of #hplusroadmap IRC Log (October 4, 2013)

• Two academic papers were shared and discussed: one on pattern recognition (DOI: 10.1016/j.patcog.2007.04.003) and another on brain-computer interfaces from IOP Science, showing the channel's focus on technical research.

• A discussion occurred about a Science article criticizing open access journals, with participants noting that the author failed to mention on NPR that reputable open access journals like PLOS ONE rejected his deliberately flawed papers, while some traditional Sage and Elsevier journals accepted them.

• Several Tor hidden services were mentioned (BMR, Sheep, Deepbay), followed by a Guardian article about NSA attacks on Tor users, with participants questioning the security of Tor hidden services and discussing potential timing analysis vulnerabilities.

• Participants discussed server automation techniques for deployments, with recommendations to use configuration management tools like Chef rather than shell scripts, especially for Ruby applications, and mentioned Vagrant for integration.

• Git-crypt (https://github.com/AGWA/git-crypt) was shared as a tool for encrypting sensitive files in Git repositories, demonstrating the channel's interest in security tools.

• A critical discussion of an H+ Magazine article about the Catholic Church's stance on transhumanism occurred, with participants expressing skepticism about the article's claims and the publication's quality.