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Mark Widmer Computing
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What We Do
• improve business efficiency
• use innovative techniques
• provide staff motivation
• implement understandable, scalable solutions
• produce robust, low maintenance systems
• provide extensible, reliable, speedy code
• reduce full-lifecycle costs
Proven Results
Systems created, techniques and areas of expertise include…
• point of sale systems supporting hundreds of retail outlets
• comprehensive DBMS backbone for insurance corporation
• large-scale database migration
• multi-tier database development
• financial systems
• governmental correspondence tracking system with full interdepartmental security
• hardware, software and OS installation, including Unix/Linux, Windows and Mac
• customer messaging system for telecommunications industry
• websites and blogs
Combining high standards with recent development techniques, we build cost-effective, reliable, powerful computing solutions.
With over twenty years’ experience, your project is completed on time and on budget. Rates are competitive, and we are adept at providing a personal touch.
Why You Need a Systems Analyst
With Mark Widmer Computing, you’ll get a realistic assessment of your requirements; that is, an honest appraisal of what your business really needs. We deliver effective, real-world systems that work productively now, and into the future.
Services
Specializing in custom software development, maintenance and modification, and database development, web-based, networked or desktop.
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Keeping up to date on software and technology is important to us.
That includes exploring all the options for your shop, including the new developments in open source software.
Request an assessment of how to use these alternatives in your business to take full advantage.
Our Mission
Reasonable Rates, Solid Solutions
Mark Widmer Computing works to solve problems using the latest approaches and techniques, while looking for ways to reduce your expenses.
Working with you, we utilize professional development techniques.
That means following best practices; providing an analysis of your system requirements; producing clean, documented code that can be upgraded; not locking you into any particular vendor; and, including built-in software tests.
With a charted path and a development plan for guidance, you’ll avoid surprises and needless expense.
Systems development tools include…
Ruby on Rails, PHP, MySQL, T-SQL, PostgreSQL, AJAX, HTML/XML/CSS, Java and JavaScript, Express/Node.js, SQL Server, C++, C, Access, VFP and WordPress.
Sample Site
The Foreseeable Future Website
The Foreseeable Future forum was created as an example of the powerful ways you can leverage open source tools to create a powerful custom database-powered website efficiently and inexpensively. It leverages SQL, Ruby on Rails, AJAX and various other tools and methods.
The concept of the site is to allow users a way to use predictions to help them make decisions in their day-to-day lives by discriminating between who is making good and bad predictions. The Foreseeable Future was designed to allow users to tabulate and track predictions and keep a record of successes.
FAQ
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Contact us by email.
What areas does Mark Widmer Computing specialize in?
Database, custom software development, web work, operating system installation, systems analysis, updates and maintenance.
What can I expect?
For real solutions to your IT needs, contact Mark Widmer Computing for professional systems analysis and programming. Please get in touch today.
Software Industry
Microsoft and the Saga of Bill Gates
What is the scoop on William “Bill” Gates III, who has been such an influence in the world of computing? Why such a punchable figure? What does it want? What are its motives?
The Saga of the Entity Bill Gates
Dvorak & the Entity Bill Gates
Dvorak brought up a few intriguing facts, years ago. This was a time of glorification of Bill. John C. Dvorak used to be a columnist for PC Magazine, back when “PC” didn’t mean “politically correct,” and was the main reason I, and many others, read the mag every two weeks.
We’d been told that Bill was some sort of computer genius, who, almost single-handedly, created modern personal computing, or something along such lines.
To this day, we’re inexplicably fed the same old story line. Look here, for example: “Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft in a garage over 45 years ago. In 1987, the stock went public, ultimately making its initial investors fortunes.” — Michael Lebowitz, RealInvestmentAdvice.com.
Who’d have ever known, if John hadn’t mentioned in that computing column, that the “whiz kid,” entity Gates, was financed with a million bucks seed money, and that the mom was best buds with IBM’s CEO?
Well, this was just the tip of the iceberg. Gathering information, bit by bit, (or byte by byte, heh-heh), we found that Gates’ father was a high-powered corporate attorney, and an eugenicist with an eye to “population reduction;” that is, killing everyone he doesn’t happen to like, a mindset passed onto his spawn. Gates, Junior, is a massive swindler who may have never written a line of code, but is, reportedly, an adept thief. For those of you who follow this stuff, it should immediately bring to mind the swine entity “Mark Zuckerberg.”
One other thing to note: it appears that it was Apple’s initiative that ushered in the modern era of computing with graphical interfaces, due to Steve Jobs having the foresight to recognize the importance of the invention of the mouse.
Meet the Parents
Mary Ann Maxwell Gates (née Maxwell) was Bill’s mother. Who the hell knows if it was that Maxwell, related to Robert and Ghislaine Maxwell? Swindler and spy Robert Maxwell was born Ján Ludvík Hyman Binyamin Hoch and changed his name, perhaps to make it easier to monogram his hankies. So unless Mary’s ancestors were named “Hoch,” and changed their name as well, it would seem they aren’t related. But, then again, nothing is as it seems.
She was the first female president of King County’s United Way, the first woman to chair the national United Way’s executive committee. IBM’s CEO, John Opel was also on the committee.
She was the first woman on the First Interstate Bank of Washington’s board of directors and served on the boards of corporations including the First Interstate Bank, Unigard Security Insurance Group, and Pacific Northwest Bell. She also had an 18-year stint (1975-1993) on the University of Washington’s board of regents.
The father, Bill Gates Sr., was a founder of an important law firm in Seattle, and also served as president of both the Seattle King County and Washington State Bar associations. He, too served on the United Way board, and that of Planned Parenthood.
Importantly, though, mom sat on the board of IBM, and was influential, along with the father, in getting Microsoft a role in providing software to IBM.
A weird point just discovered: He should be Bill Gates IV, because back to the great-grandfather, they’re all William Henry Gates. Did the family not know the Roman numeral for four, or what is going on here? Maybe they’re like the cave people we’re told about that can only count up to 1-2-3… many.
Programmers & Bill Gates
You may not have known they were even proposing this notion, or you may be surprised they haven’t gone ahead with it! That is, introduced “licensing,” or “accreditation” for programmers. This was an ominous idea pushed thanks to the entity Bill Gates. The swine wanted to make another kind of killing, by forcing programmers to become licensed, and profiting from the charges for that. But there are just too many areas of computing, and many of them don’t feature Microsoft products, so the idea was abandoned, for now.
It’s notable, and should be obvious, that you don’t want a “standardized” bunch of goons in computer programming. A variety of we goons of different training and approaches and experience are needed. But somehow, Gates and that ilk get the power to enforce their disturbed and damaging wills on others, mostly unfettered.
The Microsoft Windows Keylogger
This is just one example of the debauchery of Microsoft, and by extension, Bill Gates. If you have a staff working for you to cover-up your crimes or unethical behavior, and muddy the waters, use promotion, shilling, cover-ups and back-filling, it’s amazing what you can get away with in business. Monopoly control doesn’t hurt, either, forcing the public (really, brainwashing them) into using your product.
Quora.com forum:
Why does Windows 10 come with a keylogger? I feel like it steals the users privacy from them. Then how could Windows become popular?
“Tejas Gold” replies:
This is not a feature of Windows 10—this exists only for the Technical Preview and will be removed from the final version of Windows 10.
Onmsft.com article:
Relax, Windows 10 doesn’t have a malicious ‘keylogger’ – by “Ron,” 2015
The truth is Windows 10 does gather some of your data, but not in the traditional sense and definitely not as a malicious keylogger. In fact, I think there are people out there who legitimately think Windows 10 has a malicious, hidden keylogger out to cause harm…
…That data is sent to Microsoft for fine tuning purposes to improve voice recognition and spell-checking… Theoretically, improvements are then made to your usage making you a happy Windows 10 camper…
First of all, what is a keylogger? A keylogger is short for keystroke logging, the action of recording or logging the keys struck on a keyboard. This is typically done in a covert manner… Keyloggers are typically considered spyware, since they contain any information you may have typed, such as email passwords, bank account details, etc.
Does Cortana listen and record your phone calls? No. Does Cortana or Bing use any of the data to sell advertising or mine information? No. Does Microsoft collect your credit card information, email addresses, or passwords? No.
Betanews.com:
Untwist your panties — Windows 10’s ‘keylogger’ is nothing to worry about – by Mark Wycislik-Wilson, 2014
Microsoft is very upfront about what is going on… “We may collect typed characters”? This is the clause that has upset a lot of people… We’re getting into semantics here, but Windows 10 does not include a keylogger — at least not in the traditional sense of the word. Microsoft is very open…
The suggestion implicit in referring to a keylogger in Windows 10 is that Microsoft is being underhand. It absolutely is not. Data collection is made explicitly clear right from the beginning.
Remember, this is Microsoft. It’s one of the biggest companies in the world, with millions of pairs of eyes watching its every move… There is nothing untoward going on here.. Microsoft is under far too much scrutiny for even consider misusing collected data in any way, despite what some people have suggested.
I’m all for laying into Microsoft — but only when it’s justified. Cut the company some slack. Move on… there’s nothing to see here.
The Ed Bott Report:
Does Windows 10 really include a keylogger? (Spoiler: No) – by Ed Bott, January 27, 2015.
Conspiracy theories sometimes take on a life of their own, independent of the facts. Here’s how this one got started
“In effect.” Not in actuality. And in fact there’s little evidence that the author has enough background in computer science or security to tell a keylogger from a key lime pie.
If there were really anything resembling a keylogger in the Windows 10 Technical Preview, it would be very easy to discover and document exactly what information it’s transmitting. I’ve done a cursory check and can’t find anything that matches that description.
It’s hard to stomach the bilge by the “authority,” Ed “Butt.”
And what an insult to the readers that he prepares an article so superficially that he only bothers to do a “cursory check,” of his supposed facts.
Bott’s “cursory check,” didn’t even extend as far as the Microsoft’s own statements.
From Microsoft.com:
Finally, we will access, transfer, disclose, and preserve personal data, including your content…
If you open a file, we may collect information about the file, the application used to open the file, and how long it takes any use [of] it for purposes such as improving performance, or [if you] enter text, we may collect typed characters and use them for purposes such as improving autocomplete and spell check features.
The data we collect depends on the products and features you use, and can include the following:
Name and contact data. We collect your first and last name, email address, postal address, phone number, and other similar contact data.
Credentials. We collect passwords, password hints, and similar security information used for authentication and account access.
Demographic data. We collect data about you such as your age, gender, country, and preferred language.
Payment data. We collect data necessary to process your payment if you make purchases, such as your payment instrument number (such as a credit card number), and the security code associated with your payment instrument.
Device and Usage data. We collect data about your device and how you and your device interact with Microsoft and our products.
NetworkWorld.com – Data Center Explorer
No, the Windows 10 preview’s keylogger will not steal your bank information – by Andy Patrizio, Oct 8, 2014
Word hit last week that the beta for Winodws (sic) 10 had a keylogger built in and the web went nuts. Understandable, but also wrong.
The bottom line is that Microsoft was never duplicitous or attempting to hide what it’s doing. It’s spelled out on a privacy policy that I suspect few people read. This is a beta program, regardless of the fancy name, and they need to collect metrics to make it better.
Now this is kind of schizophrenic…
NetworkWorld.com – Data Center Explorer
Windows 10 is possibly the worst spyware ever made – by Andy Patrizio, Aug 4, 2015
Buried in the service agreement is permission to poke through everything on your PC.
Cortana proves problematic because it has access to your camera and microphone, and more importantly, it has access to your contacts, calendar, and probably all of your documents.
Geek.com article:
Microsoft clears the air on Windows 10 “keylogger” – by Lee Mathews, October 7, 2014
Does Windows 10 really have a keylogger in it? Yes. It hasn’t been planted there to steal bank card numbers or website credentials, however. If you’ve installed software like the Windows 10 Technical Preview before, you know exactly why it’s there.
Wow. All these posers, directing traffic. They seem about as credible as a face Roman Reigns WWE push.
You’ve got to admire the insolence in the content of the shill articles: “Untwist your panties,” “(people) having absolutely no clue,” “conspiracy theory…”
There doesn’t seem to be any recourse against the lies and deception (except use Linux, of course). It’s funny, though, how they’ll also tell you how to disable something that doesn’t even exist, according to the “experts.”
Reddit.com:
Disable KeyLogger Windows 10 – by NightBits, 2015
Install Windows 10
Press Shift + F10 on the loginscreen to open commandprompt
Input the following commands:
sc delete DiagTrack
sc delete dmwappushservice
echo “” > C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Diagnosis\ETLLogs\AutoLogger\AutoLogger-Diagtrack-Listener.etl
The Hacker News:
Windows 10 Preview Has A Keylogger to Watch Your Every Move – by Wang Wei, October 3, 2014
Essentially by accepting the Windows 10 privacy policy you are allowing Microsoft to screen your files and log your keystrokes. This means, if you open a file and type, Microsoft have (sic) access to what you type, and the file info within.
Privacy News Online article:
Microsoft Windows 10 has a keylogger enabled by default – here’s how to disable it – by Caleb Chen, Mar 20, 2017
Many Windows 10 users are unknowingly sending the contents of every keystroke they make to Microsoft due to an enabled-by-default keylogger. This function has been around since the beginning of Windows 10, and is a prime example of why you should never go through the default install process on any Operating System. The French government even issued a warning to Microsoft last year, telling them to:
Stop collecting excessive data and tracking browsing by users without their consent.
The Register reports:
Windows 10’s ‘built-in keylogger’? Ha ha, says Microsoft – no, it just monitors your typing – by Neil McAllister, Oct 7, 2014
[When you] enter text, we may collect typed characters and use them for purposes such as improving autocomplete and spellcheck features.
Microsoft hasn’t said just how many of those typed characters it might collect or how often, but this is in fact something that the Windows 10 Technical Preview might do.
Does this mean Microsoft is planning to use Windows 10 to swipe everyone’s online banking passwords? The chances are slim to none – although if you do your online banking on a prerelease test version of Windows with an experimental build of Internet Explorer, you deserve what you get.
So, what to make of all that?
Well, Microsoft unquestionably does force a keystroke logger in your install of Windows 10, and it can siphon up whatever it wants. Presumably, Microsoft can also go through the stored files on your machine and take what it wants.
law.stackexchange.com reports:
Microsoft does not recognize users’ privacy rights. The Microsoft Privacy document does not say anything positive about privacy in this document that isn’t contradicted by their own words elsewhere in the same document.
Microsoft does explicitly reserve rights to share users’ private data with just about anyone and everyone.
Microsoft explicitly disallows legal recourse regarding privacy.
It’s Microsoft’s offerings as a whole, not (just) Windows 10
The key document to focus on is Microsoft’s Privacy policy document.
This policy applies to many Microsoft products and services, including, but definitely not limited to, Windows 10.
It is clear that the shills bend the truth with impunity. You have to wonder how anyone could put his tagline on bald-faced lies cheer-leading Microsoft, ignoring Microsoft’s own policy, including the EULA (End User License Agreement) and privacy statement.
It’s inconceivable that Microsoft would need to collect your passwords, and other personal information, including things you type, like a book or email, unless there were something nefarious. And who could even deny the existence of the keystroke logger, credibly, unless they had some insider knowledge? Without such knowledge, no way of knowing, their comments are worse than useless, and just plain stupid.
A keylogger is indiscriminate. That means your bank password, your credit card number, passport number, driver’s license information, everything. Not hard to grasp. Even if Microsoft didn’t have any bad intent, and it does, your private information would still be vulnerable to hackers.
If you were needing any confirmation of “fake news,” here it is, in your face. This is what power, money, control and monopoly looks like, with the lackeys trying to make people feel bad for concern about their security (after hammering people, shaming and scorning them for not taking proper precautions in other instances).
And that’s Bill Gates’ Microsoft for you. One way or the other, it employs shills to spread their lies and try to make Microsoft look good.
We do have the benefit of having learned that these outlets are proven fakes and can’t be trusted:
ZDNet
Ed Bott/The Ed Bott Report
Geek.com
Betanews.com
Onmsft.com
Some, like ZDNet, seemingly too big to be affected, can get away with trashing their own credibility. Some outlets may be owned, directly or indirectly, by Microsoft. As far as the individual shills, they probably use fake names anyway. So they meet no consequences for deception.
Presumably this is carried over to Windows 11 as well, why would they change?
They don’t change. Here they are at it again recently, exposed in this headline: ‘Privacy’ Search Engine DuckDuckGo Smoked Over Hidden Tracking Agreement With Microsoft.
The Creation of Microsoft
So, how did Microsoft come to be the company it is? Here’s an excellent Quora.com answer that outlines the early Microsoft story in the best way, (and the way most consistent with other information we’ve gleaned over the years), as follows.
Why it is said that Bill Gates stole MS-DOS from Gary Kildall and GUI from Xerox PARC?
Roberto Santocho, 40+ Years High Tech/Silicon Valley Startups at Consultants (1977-present)
Answered 2 years ago · Author has 24.7K answers and 17.9M answer views
GUI
I recently answered a similar question here about this subject so I will refer to a lot of what I previous wrote. For almost four decades I lived inside the triangle that is formed when you connect Xerox PARX, Stanford University and Google (Actually it was originally the AOL/Netscape complex) and was involved directly or indirectly with these events, at some points I personally knew the people involved and was able to get critical details to confirm that this is what actually happened:
Bill Gates did publicly state that he stole ideas from Xerox but the truth is far more complex than that superficial statement would lead you to believe.
Bill Gates was trying to trick people into believing that he did not steal any idea from Apple, so to muddy the waters he admitted stealing from Xerox PARC so that he would get you to believe that Steve Jobs also stole from Steve Jobs. It fooled a lot of the media who repeated it over and ver again until it became an urban legend but it is completely untrue.
As someone who was in High Tech and Silicon Valley at the time, I knew many of the people involved with all the growth in the early day and what I am about to tell you are the facts as they told them to me.
Bill Gates stole the source code to the Macintosh to create Windows. How he did it was something that the media knew about yet never tells anyone when they repeat their complete incorrect urban legends. In fact Steve Jobs gave Bill Gates the source code to Macintosh so that Microsoft could create apps for Mac users. Bill took the Macintosh source code and gave it to his engineers with the instructions to use it to create Windows. That was the actual theft, since Microsoft did not have a license to copy the Macintosh operating system and Apple did sue them over this theft, which is another fact that the media has left out of the urban legends.
Bill Gates was leveraging the urban legend that Steve Jobs somehow stole intellectual property from Xerox when Steve was touring Xerox PARC. In fact, Apple was a customer of Xerox PARC, having paid $100,000 to Xerox for a unlimited license for all Xerox technology. The tour Steve was on was a legitimate tour for a paying customer, everything he was shown was covered by the Apple license. Steve got excited about the computer mouse, which Xerox did not invent. Steve went back to Apple and brought his staff to Xerox to see The Mouse, because Apple already had a GUI based personal computer desktop operating system working in their lab, but it used a Light Pen which Steve hated. If anyone actually looked at the Xerox GUI and the Mac GUI then they would see that they were nothing alike in look or concept, it was obvious that each was unique.
Steve wanted The Mouse (to replace the light pen that the Apple developers were using on the Lisa/Mac prototype) but Xerox had not invented The Mouse so Steve Jobs had to go to Stanford AI and license The Mouse from Stanford. Apple was and still is the only company that has ever paid for a license for The Mouse (which was the key technology that made the GUI actually makes sense).
Bill Gates was trying to distract the media of his theft from Apple, by pointing at Xerox and claiming that the theft occurred there. Of course Xerox never sued Apple and Xerox never sued Microsoft because in fact neither one of them stole anything from Xerox, ever. Bill Gates did wind up in court for the infamous Look & Feel lawsuit, for stealing the Macintosh from Apple (to create Windows), but that is a story for another day.
DOS
Keep in mind that Microsoft did not invent DOS and they did not create the DOS that they showed to IBM, they stole it from another company, put their name on the startup screen and fooled IBM into signing a contract for it. After Microsoft got the IBM contract, Bill Gates went to the actual company that made DOS and he purchased it outright for $5,000 without telling them why he was buying it.
IBM had no idea that the stolen operating system would be the key to making billions of dollars and IBM had no idea that everyone except for Apple would illegally copy IBM’s PC (to this day there has never been a license agreement for IBM Clones, the stories on the Internet that say that all clones were licensed is simply a lie.
Details
Micro-soft (now known as Microsoft Corp.) was founded by Bill Gates and when Gary called Bill to tell him that IBM was on the way, Bill eagerly anticipated getting whatever business IBM had in mind. What ultimately happened was that one of Bill’s employees had an illegal copy of 86-DOS that he had hacked and replaced the name “Seattle Computer Products” withe the name “Micro-soft” on the start screen. Gates told the employee to demonstrate that operating system to IBM and to keep his mouth shut, after a few protests the employee performed the demo, and IBM signed a deal with Bill Gates.
Microsoft stole the “86-DOS” operating system, owned by Seattle Computer Products, and written by Tim Paterson. Bill Gates conned Tim Paterson into signing over all the rights to 86-DOS for only $5,000, without telling him that it was for what would become the most famous operating system in the world.
Naturally IBM spent an obscene amount of money in an attempt to destroy Apple, all that money actually boosted MS-DOS from obscurity to prominence. What IBM could not predict was that the clone community would effectively clone IBM-PCs, and IBM did not expect that they would lose the court case again the early clone makers so IBM gave up and just kept trying to make IBM PCs alongside the much cheaper clones, even though the clones were not license and contrary to some online stories, IBM never licensed its PCs to the clone community, so Microsoft was the only one to benefit from the theft of MS-DOS/86-DOS.
Gary Kildall
Gary was not ripped off by Microsoft in the early stages of the creation of MS-DOS. According to the people who were closer to this part of the story than I was, at that time, IBM did approach Digital Research, owned by Gary and Dorothy Kildall, twice. The first time Dorothy was approached by IBM she refused to sign the onerous non-disclosure agreement, so IBM tried again with Gary when he returned to the office and he also did not like the idea of the over the top IBM non-disclosure agreement Gary then told IBM to go see Bill at Microsoft. This part of the story is a bit convoluted and confused as to when IBM went to Microsoft and when they went to Digital Research, but ultimately it all is irrelevant because IBM did not sign with Digital Research, IBM did sign with Microsoft and Microsoft did not steal anything from Digital Research, they stole it from Seattle Computer Products.
Microsoft did attack Digital Research in the marketplace, making its products not work well with Digital’s DR-DOS, in a variety of ways, including but not limited to Microsoft’s AARD. At that time we found that using DR-DOS with Microsoft products was being increasingly unreliable and switching to MS-DOS always cleared the reliability and stability problems so the public know secret at the time was the Microsoft was doing everything possible to sabotage Digital Research, so in that sense Gary Kildall was ripped off by Microsoft.
Fakes?
Some latest news from down the pike reports that Bill and Melinda may be fakes: clones or doubles. Take a look at how easily this fantastic new program helps do fakes or simulations (scroll down the linked page for examples, and caution: page is resource-heavy).
The talk about fakes is tied to the story about the final fate of the entity Bill Gates, a story that’s been bouncing around, here and there, on the net.
The Final Fate of Bill Gates – the Bill Gates Entity Dead?
Girl On Fire.com reports:
“I’m innocent of all charges brought against me,” Gates said. “Melinda is a liar. I am a good man. I am charitable, and I’ve always obeyed the law. Yes, I was arrested in 1975, and again in 1977, for driving without a license and speeding, but those don’t deserve a death sentence—”
“I asked if you had any last words. I didn’t ask you to write a novel,” Rear Adm. Crandall said.
He motioned to the soldier standing beside Gates. The soldier pulled a lever, and a trap door beneath Gates’ feet swung open.
But something went wrong. His neck did not immediately snap; rather, he dangled in the air, his legs flailing wildly and his eyes bulging from their sockets as if to burst. A guttural, gurgling sound escaped his lips as his handcuffed arms tried in vain to grab the rope from which he was hanging.
“Rear Adm. Crandall’s assistant asked if they should cut Gates down, but the admiral said no, that the sentence would be carried out despite technical difficulties. Gates hung there for about 4-5 minutes, alive, before strangulation killed him. They then cut him down, and a doctor said he was dead. Bill Gates is no more,” our source said.
So what is presented to us now, according to this reasoning, is their duplicates, created after the execution of Bill (and reportedly Melinda as well). Sadly, this amusing bit of fiction is only some wish-fulfillment/vengeance porn. There have been similar reports of the executions of Clinton, Fauci, and other famous low-lifes. I guess the authors make a buck of it somehow. Gates and the other freaks probably get off on this stuff, maybe even write it themselves. Knowing what we know of them, anything’s possible!
What to Make of This?
It’s a long process to figure out the dilemma presented by the entity Bill Gates, and now, supposedly, Gates “stepped away” from Microsoft.
Something that’s baffling for not being widely recognized: Someone doesn’t just “step away” from dominating a near-monopoly over an entire industry, especially not a controlling personality. Also it should be clear that someone that’s a techie, wants to stay in technology, to continue to play around and discover. Yet we’re told that Gates was running around India doing vaccinations, or worrying about creating fake meat from bugs and algae and molds for your eating pleasure. Or, he’s lurking around and gobbling up prime farmland, trying to accrue a monopoly on that. Certainly inconsistent with the publicly-promoted history.
Also inconsistent: Since Bill initiated a grand quest to “give away the bulk of the Gates fortune,” Bill’s personal wealth has somehow doubled, to over $100 billion.
The facts indicate that we’re still not being told everything about Microsoft, or IBM. You may recall outrageous nonsense about Gates going in and domineering IBM by sheer force of personality, to ram through his vision for OS/2, a forgotten old operating system intended to replace Windows.
Yes, Gates is a tyrant, not a computer geek. Luckily for the tyrant, there is ample opportunity for control in the new roles of know-it-all, busybody and eugenicist.
The most obvious conclusion we can draw, is that Gates and those associated with the entity are essentially actors. We can’t trust anything the mainstream news has to say about them. Bill was set up as “face” for Microsoft, like Musk became for Tesla and other scams. It’s important that certain enterprises put a human face to their endeavors. It increases public interest, therefore serving as free advertising, giving a human dimension to big corporate maneuvers. Also, it provides an opportunity for endless gossip (i.e.: publicity). Big money doesn’t work in a vacuum.
It’s plausible that Gates was a method of remaining at arms-length while IBM conducted its various dirty deeds, like the DOS theft, whether originally intentional or not, that is the way it shook out, the result of what he accomplished. A go-between or intermediary, or an asset.
It also brought to mind the term, cutout.
From the online definition: In espionage parlance, a cutout is a mutually trusted intermediary, method or channel of communication that facilitates the exchange of information between agents. A mechanism or person used to create a compartment between the members of an operation to allow them to pass material or messages securely; also an agent who functions as an intermediary between a spymaster and other sub-agents.
Should the indicted murderer Gates, guilty of crimes against nature, be tried and executed? Some would say to skip the trial part. Fooled by the propaganda, most people simply don’t get it. The entity Bill Gates wants you dead, dead, dead, and to dance on your grave whilst soiling itself in glee.
Utilities and Useful Software
This area is for logging any programs or utilities that I’ve found useful over time.
CopyQ
Have you ever wished ctrl+C ctrl+P, (copy and paste) were more powerful, to be able to save a copy of more than one thing for later use? Try the CopyQ advanced clipboard manager that saves multiple cuts without overwriting. So you can go find something you cut or copied several items back, click on it, and paste it in. It’s a great program, free for Linux, Mac and Windows.
WordPress Tips
General tips and discoveries for WordPress software.
Font Awesome
Plugging Font Awesome icons into a WordPress site produces an interesting problem. It has always been peculiar that the Font Awesome site recommends using <i></i> to tag the icon. Using this tag, though, doesn’t allow menu items to highlight, at least in the theme I use. Making them <span></span>, which you can do, fixes the problem!
It seems that using <i></i> tags is as stupid as it looks. It never meant “icon,” like some say, nor “italic,” but that is how browsers always interpreted it; that is, they italicize the text within the open and close “i” tags. Technically, it means, “idiomatic” text, or text that is somehow set off from normal text. For example, a company name is often italicized so you are alerted that it is distinct from a regular word. Also, you used to always see foreign words italicized. But “idiomatic” shouldn’t include icons — they aren’t text.
Plugin Pros & Cons
Those very handy WordPress plugins are great, but not so great when they crash the site.
When they get abandoned by the creator and aren’t kept up to date, that can be a major source of pain. Consider that plugins have to be generic, which means pack in a bunch of things that you probably don’t need.
The solution? Add plugins for needed functionality, but replace them with your own code, which won’t have all the unnecessary overhead, as you can.
For big things like site backups, SEO, site protection, mail campaigns and subs, it’s impractical to write your own solution. But it seems there are numerous plugins that do the job right and have been for some time, making it likely they’ll continue to exist for a while, and not be buggy.
But it’s good to keep track of what all your plugins do, and remove the unused ones ASAP. To keep these details, there’s a useful plugin, called, Plugin Notes, that as the name implies, lets you keep notes on each plugin. Its really an essential tool for WordPress.
Set It & Forgot It: Update Your PHP Version on WordPress Localhost
This won’t be of interest, unless having to locally configure WordPress and update its PHP.
Many times, you’ll run a LAMP or WAMP bundle like XAMPP, which bundles Apache, MySQL, Perl and PHP, and provides a control panel, especially on Windows. On Linux, it’s fairly easy just to install these programs separately. Anyway, these details are only of interest to WordPress admins, running Linux. The steps here are for Linux, but similar for Windows.
I had a problem with Apache (server software), because you set it and forget it. I had to update a local WordPress site and had the new Apache version installed, but it wasn’t picking it up in WordPress. I looked for a configuration in WordPress, but nothing. WordPress will just use whatever is active on your system.
There are only a few steps shown, for the very specific case of WordPress on Linux, localhost. When you’re running a live site your service provider generally takes care of the details of updating things like the Apache host.
Of course you need to get the new PHP version, in this case PHP 8.0. The steps for that are well-documented and easily found via web search. Reminder: Perform the usual back up of your system and apply any updates.
Again, this is for a Linux system, but the principle is the same for any system using Apache.
linuxUser@client ~
File Edit View Search Terminal Help
linuxUser@client ~ $ sudo a2dismod php7.4 linuxUser@client ~ $ sudo a2enmod php8.0 linuxUser@client ~ $ sudo systemctl restart apache2
As shown, you turn off old Apache in your O/S, then set it to the new one. But I faced an issue: it wouldn’t take, and it took a while to figure out the sticking point.
Sticking Point
My problem was in having updated to PHP 8.0, those updates wouldn’t apply to WordPress. Once explicitly updated, something was stopping WordPress from picking up on 8.0. The sticking point was that I had confirmed the PHP version, and had disabled the version my system said was running, version 7.4. It turned out there was yet another version of PHP, 5.4, running. It was necessary to specify a2dismod php5.4. After that was disabled, I went back into WordPress and finally it was picking up on version 8.0 of PHP (and not giving a “Update your PHP” message any more).
It’s advisable to check your install, using the following command.
linuxUser@client ~
File Edit View Search Terminal Help
linuxUser@client ~ $ sudo systemctl status apache2.service