After almost two decades of working with computers, I want to give it up. Instead, I want to become a plumber. Plumbers have it made.
A plumber can walk into any hardware store in any town and purchase reliable, high-quality, compatible parts. Building codes are largely standardized, too, so best practices and the rules of how to assemble the parts are widely known. Moreover, plumbing is governed by the ultimate standards body — the laws of physics, which plumbers have leveraged since the invention of the “plumber’s crack” to great advantage.
If only computers were so easy.
Of course, my lament is largely misplaced. Plumbing has been around for thousands of years, while the computer is less than fifty years old. New materials may impact plumbing every so often, but not nearly at the same rate as computing technologies, which continue to change and improve at a breakneck pace. And many computing standards do exist: technologies like Ethernet, USB, and PCI have commoditized connectivity and peripherals, providing a rich infrastructure for other amenities.
But then again, there are caveats. Little nagging truths popped into my mind as I pencilled those little white lies about USB and PCI: yes, I can plug any such device into my machine, but what about device support? Do drivers exist for my operating system and version? What about application support? Unlike parts found at the hardware store, “standardized” computer components often means “pin-compatible” or “protocol-compatible,” but not truly…
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