For examples, the Arduino core for ESP8266 comes with plenty of interesting sketches to fiddle with! Note: As described earlier, when trying to program the ESP-01 as instructed here, you have to ...

There’s no interaction with the remote servers when operating the user interface so there is no need for an external Internet connection. The system supports Arduino and ESP controllers.

He put together a quick little IR receiver out of parts he had in the junk bin which would connect up to his computer ... little device that combines an ESP-01 with an ATmega88.