What Are We Going To Do Tonight

I’m going to date myself with two references in this post. The title is in reference to Pinky and the Brain and the book, Controlling the World with Your PC. The book isn’t the best book in the world, but it was one I really enjoyed when I was younger. In a world without ubiquitous access to the internet, it felt a little liberating to learn how to extend the reach of a computer outside the screen or speakers. Back in the day, parallel and RS-232 were the primary modes for controlling any external devices. The concepts of this book are the precursor to today’s IOT. Today, USB and ethernet has taken over as the primary wired communication technologies and Bluetooth, and cellular are the preferred wireless technologies. There is almost no need for Parallel and RS-232 programming now (when was the last time you bought a computer with a parallel printer or RS-232 port; if ever you have).

One exception to the dominance of ethernet and USB, in the wired space is the communities behind Raspberry Pis and Arduinos (and the many variations). These devices have their own pin-out ports that are very similar to the old Parallel and RS-232 ports. I love what people are doing with these devices. I wish they existed when I was a kid.

I’m not highlighting this book because it is necessarily one that I think is incredibly useful for todays world. However, there are two concepts from this book that are useful

1. Tinkering is fun and sometimes profitable. This book is all about how to tinker and build stuff. If you have free time and need a hobby or want to give another dimension to your programming skills, It is incredibly satisfying to bring devices to life. It is pretty cool when you get something to appear like you want on a computer screen. Getting something to appear on an external device and controlling something external is another level of satisfaction, especially if you partially, mostly, or completely made that other device.
2. If you want to take over the world, you’re going to need to know how to control electronic devices. Or at least know people who do. There are many purposeful applications without much external world interactions. Most of my career has been working on back end services that no one ever sees working. However, like it or don’t, we live in a physical world. Software without a connection to the outside world is limited.

I recently participated in an introductory workshop to train a Racer and watched some races. I didn’t spend a lot of time on it, but it, along with all the different kinds of drones and self-driving cars, seem to be the current evolution of Controlling the World with Your PC (or the cloud). I know that there is a lot of apprehension with how much computers are becoming a part of everything. I don’t mean to make any sort of philosophical comment on that aspect. That is for a separate post. This is about a small look back and a glimpse of the natural progression of computing technology (and also a suggestion on something to do with you evenings instead of playing video games or binge watching; also, I highly recommend interfacing with other human beings, but that is for another post).