This is intended as a rough outline of what I'm hoping to cover. I probably won't get to all of these things, and maybe I'll get to some others, but feel free to catch me afterwards if you want to poke me about something that I skipped (or get more information about something that I didn't)

• Basic concept behind shift registers
  • Serial-In, Parallel-Out
  • Serial-In, Serial/Parallel-Out
  • Parallel-In, Serial-Out
  • Serial/Parallel-In, Serial-Out
• With/without separate output register
  • Load-then-latch vs. instantaneous response (?)
• Chainable
• What Can You Do With That?
  • Conserve pins
    • Control 8, 16, or more outputs with 3 pins
    • Read from 8, 16, or more inputs with 3 pins (?)
  • Control an 8×8 array of LEDs with 3 pins
    • Line-by-line
    • Watch out for refresh rate/duty cycle problems
• Gotchas
  • Easy to potentially exceed power rating
    • Transistors can help
  • Shifting takes time