Welcome to the twenty-ninth issue of De Programmatica Ipsum, dedicated to the subject of Internet of Things. In this edition, Graham tells his own personal IoT story filled with pain and irony; Adrian argues that the IoT industry is the next target for government regulation; and in the Library section, Graham talks about “Gödel, Escher, Bach” by Douglas Hofstadter and its relationship with code and computers.
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Internet Of Unusable Things
This issue of De Programmatica Ipsum comes out as I have been in my current house for four years. The previous owners had installed a smart thermostat to control the heating and hot water, and had left it and the control hub along with all the instructions.
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On The Need Of Regulation In The IoT Industry
Reading this magazine is a political act. When choosing between Pravda or the Financial Times; Fox News or PBS; Daring Fireball or Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows, a reader should know what those publications stand for. Every newspaper, every magazine, every blog, every podcast has a point of view, a flag, a position, to be defended and to be upheld. Paraphrasing the words of the "Think Different" campaign, one can disagree with them, vilify them, but one must be sure that each of these publications tries hard not to be ignored. Choosing whichever option is, simply put, a political act.
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Douglas Hofstadter
You may be worried that I am going to talk about an author of books that are not about programming, and you are correct and incorrect. Correct, in that Hofstadter's books are not about programming (the intellectually hollow like to claim that they are not about anything at all, or that if you think you know what they are about then you did not understand them; this is untrue). Incorrect, in that Hofstadter's books and computer programs themselves are about the same thing.
