Computers of Pi

by Lee A. Hart

(to the tune of "American Pie")

A long, long time ago,
But I still remember,
How computers used to make me smile.
I knew that if I had a chance,
That I could make those digits dance,
And that would make me happy for a while.

But the prices made me shiver.
Student wallets can't deliver.
Computers then were dinosaurs,
Locked in rooms with sealed doors.
Coding programs all by hand,
Punched cards to the promised land.

Do you believe computers can
Improve the life of modern man?
Computer Lib and Mindstorms showed the way.
Machines could bring a bright new day.
The promise of technology,
Make it work, for you and me.

Altair and Apple, young upstarts,
And Heath computers came as parts,
To build yourself and learn the arts.
So I went to my favorite store,
Where I'd bought computers, years before.
But they've all closed; it's all offshore.

Do you remember hex opcodes?
And know all the addressing modes?
Assembler codes like LDX,
And COSMAC CPUs had SEX.
Today we C them RUST away
PC clones drove them away.

The engineers I most admired
Are all dead; or now retired.
Kildall, Knuth, and Kernighan.
Peddle, Woz, and Christiansen.
Condemned by profit in the end
Will we see their likes again?

Private data's not allowed.
It's all locked up now in the cloud.
Facebook and Google's master plan,
The genie's in the lamp again.
The marching morons won the war.
What future do they have in store?

So bye, bye, home computers; goodbye.
We're left with Arduinos, and Raspberry Pi.
But I will keep computing 'til I die.
I will be computing 'til I die...

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This poem was inspired by the direction personal computing has taken. Computers were originally the exclusive province of the rich and powerful. They were locked away in sealed rooms, and guarded by a priesthood of zealous wizards.

Then idealistic and visionary "nerds" broke computers free from the corporate clutches of 3-letter giants like IBM, DEC, and NCR. Thanks to their efforts, soon *anyone* could build, program, and use their very own computers any way they liked. It was a revolution that changed the world as dramatically as the steam engine, printing press, and electric light.

But now, corporate interests have re-captured computing. They are all built somewhere offshore, programmed by anonymous corporate experts, to do what *they* want you to do with them. No one builds or programs their own computers... almost. But there are still a few "nerds" like me, hacking away in their basements or bedrooms, perhaps to devise the next revolution in computing.

Lee A. Hart