Setting up WAMPServer in 2024

I have been wanting to try out some PHP scripts for posting to a WordPress site from Ton Ziljstra (see this page for background, and Github for the scripts). I have a Windows laptop, and have used WAMPServer on previous laptops so I chose WAMPServer (download link). I noticed when I started the install that there were some Visual C redistributable files that also needed to be installed (see bottom of this page). I went to the release page and downloaded the latest version of the VisualCppRedist_AIO_x86_x64.exe file and used “Run as administrator”. This application installs multiple Visual C executables, and takes several minutes to run. You will see a number of windows open and close. When the installation is complete, there will be a splash screen indicating that all files have been installed. This might be behind other windows, so you may want to monitor the icons in the Windows app tray at the bottom of the screen to see if there is an icon you do not recognize.

After the installation, it is a good idea to run this checking app to confirm that all necessary Visual C files were installed correctly. I ran this and got the message that all installations were complete.

Finally, I started the WampServer installation by double-clicking on the EXE file I had downloaded to start. There are several checkboxes to accept the license, the location of the installation, and default web browser and text editor, but other than that, the installation took care of itself. To start WAMPServer, I double-clicked on the icon on my desktop (titled “Wampserver”). A splash screen indicated after 10-15 seconds that all server apps were running. I started Microsoft Edge and typed “localhost” in the address text, and got a “main screen” with info on the server apps.

Finally, I wanted to create a test PHP file to make sure that the server was working. I used the following source code:

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html>

<body>

<?php

echo “My first PHP script!”;

?>

</body>

</html>

I saved this in a file called hello.php, and copied it to C:\wamp64\www. I then changed the URL in the browser to localhost/hello.php and saw the following:

Now I am ready to start doing some PHP testing!

What If Trump Wins? An interactive web site

Via an email newsletter from Eileen Flanagan, I found out about an interactive web site/story called “What If Trump Wins?”. The site presents the reader with an initial choice – does Trump or Biden win the 2024 US presidential election? Based on what result the reader selects, a set of other choices is presented along with a narrative to fit the initial choice. From the main site page, there are 25 different ways that the story ends. The site was created by the advocacy group Choose Democracy, which conducted trainings back in the 2020 election to prepare for a coup or possible electoral mischief. I “played” the story both ways (first selecting Trump and following the suggested actions, then selecting Biden and following different actions). I thought it was an excellent “thought exercise” which provided insight in how a Trump presidency might unfold. Check it out – it might make you want to get involved in the election!

Book Review: “Rules for Resistance: Advice from Around the Globe for the Age of Trump”

I found this book on the shelves near the John Kasich book I posted about yesterday. The book is a series of essays published in 2017 and edited by David Cole, National Legal Director for the ACLU. The essays are grouped by region (Europe, The Middle East, Asia, Latin America) as well as a set of essays for journalists covering Trump, and the text of the original guide from the group Indivisible.

Each essay passes on ideas/anecdotes on specific authoritarian rulers in those regions. The ones about Silvio Berlusconi in Italy were most like Trump, but essays about Orban, Modi, and Putin were also instructive. There were two essays that I thought had the best advice for opposing Trump:

Luigi Zingales, in an op-ed for the New York Times in November 2016 (paywall, also mostly available in this Washington Examiner post), compares Trump and Berlusconi, showing many similarities. He points out that Hillary Clinton spent so much time explaining how bad Trump was that she did not often promote her own ideas, to make the positive case for voting for her. Also, the news media focused too much on Trump’s behavior. The only two politicians who beat Berlusconi did it by focusing on the issues, not Berlusconi’s character. From this, I would say that the Democratic Party is trying to point out the significant policy differences between Trump and Biden, but I think there is still too much focus on Trump’s character flaws. Also, the hope that the indictments against Trump would keep him out of the election have gone for naught, so he will have to be beaten at the ballot box.

Anne Applebaum wrote an article for the Washington Post (also available on her site) called “Advice from Europe for Anti-Trump Protesters”, in which she made some observations about elections in Poland in 2015 and 2016. A radical populist party was able to win with a minority of voters, and started to destroy democratic and state institutions. Poles took to the streets in huge demonstrations. Here is a summary of her reflections on the value of those protests (her sub-headings from the article):

  • Protest makes people feel better
  • Protest, if not carefully targeted, achieves little
  • Protests inspire conspiracy theorists
  • Politics matter more than protests
  • In a democracy, real change comes through politics, political parties and elections

I think her final two sentences sum up her advice well:

“Protesting might make you feel better, it might win a few battles, and it might attract attention. I’m sorry if you are angry at “the establishment”, but you need to work for it and within it if you want it to change.”

https://www.anneapplebaum.com/2016/11/16/advice-from-europe-for-anti-trump-protesters/

Book review: “It’s Up To Us” by John Kasich

The subtitle of this book is “Ten Little Ways We Can Bring About Big Change”. I stumbled across this while researching some other posts, and recently got it from the library. It draws on John Kasich’s career in public service (governor of Ohio, US presidential candidate, US House rep). The ten ways are as follows:

  • Start A Movement – Mentions the women’s suffragist movement, environmental issues (think Greta Thunberg) among others
  • Be The Change Where You Live – Look at what you can do in your neighborhood, your town or city
  • Be Prepared To Walk A Lonely Road – Being out in front of an issue can bring criticism, but accept that you might need to stand out from the crowd before you can find a way to convince others to stand beside you
  • Slow Down – Take time to stop, look and breathe
  • Bounce Back – After a setback, we need to be able to dust ourselves off and get back in the mix
  • Love Thy Neighbor – Work to lift people up, not tear people down
  • Get Out Of Your Silo – Take in other points of view and stay open to revisiting your own points of view
  • Put Yourself In Someone Else’s Shoes – Understand other people’s struggles
  • Spend Time Examining Your Eternal Destiny – Think about the footprints you are leaving behind
  • Know That You Are Made Special – Live each day in a way that lets your individuality shine through

I thought this was an uplifting book, if short on specifics, worth a read if you are thinking about activism.

Are we creating great things?

In 2017, I wrote a post with the title “We have great tools to create – are we creating great things?”. It was in reference to a Doc Searls liveblog post on a podcasting conference at Columbia University. My observation was that there are a lot of low-quality podcasts, but as time goes on, better ones will appear.

Since then, the availability and quality of tools has increased (blogging, podcasting, video, etc.). Ken Smith recently commented on the tools aspect by linking to a video by actor Jason Alexander on acting/screenwriting – that the tools needed for creating videos are available to everyone (Alexander finishes by saying “You can create a movie on your phone…”). Ken mentions that the same is true for active citizenship as well. I will follow up on this in a minute.

In a recent post, I listed the tools I needed to create a podcast in the car, and have other posts on how to add podcast cover art to a WordPress-hosted podcast, and simple instructions for using WordPress as a podcast hosting tool. The tools available for blogging are always increasing, as is the same for video production. So, since we have the tools part covered, are there some great things out there? Are there more great things that need to be created?

Two excellent instances of group efforts in a topic are the Election Law Blog and the Americans of Conscience Checklist. The first is a group blog following current events in election law and the politics of election law. The second is a group creating lists of bite-sized actions that people can take to promote progressive causes. Both sites use WordPress as their main platform.

Jeffrey Issac’s Democracy in Dark Times blog does an excellent job of addressing issues relating to Donald Trump. Recently, he has been covering the student protests at his university, Indiana University, and calling out bad behavior by the university administration and Indiana elected officials.

I have made efforts to document events such as the protests in Portland, Oregon in 2020, the Georgia Trump election interference trial, a podcast about the “tools for thought” space, a site documenting news on the “return to office” efforts in the American workforce, and a “link zettlekasten” capturing news on elections.

Dave Winer has called for “determination” in using tools and resources to pick up the slack for lack of coverage by the New York Times and other outlets. Ken Smith has called to start “the work of a generation” (I am assuming this is work to try to ensure that our democratic system continues). I recorded a podcast addressing these calls (punchline: take some action, do something, don’t just call for resistance/protest). I think that this quote from a more recent post of mine is a good way to wrap this up:

… I recently listened to a Radio Open Source podcast episode focusing on the life of Hannah Arendt, who lived under authoritarian and totalitarian regimes in the 20th century. One line of her writing stood out to me: “We are free to change the world and start something new in it.”. I think that every podcast is a chance to change the world, and anyone is free to create one and send it out into the world.

https://andysylvester.com/2024/04/19/the-joy-of-podcasting/

As Ken Smith quoted Pete Buttigieg:

“Don’t wait. Start now.“

http://oldschool.scripting.com/ksmith3123@gmail.com/2024/04/20/123857.html#a124210

Checking on past electoral results in your precinct

In my previous post, I was able to locate the precinct number in my county in Oregon where I vote. My next exploration was to see the results for the 2022 and 2020 elections for races that I voted on. There is a site called OpenElections which works to collect raw data from elections across the United States. This data is stored on Github. The data is organized by state, so I was quickly able to find the folder/repo with results for Oregon. Next, I found the 2022 general election results and the 2020 general election results (both results were saved as CSV files). Here were the results for my precinct for both of those years for the major (Dem/Rep) candidates:

2022

  • State House Rep: Tracy Cramer (Rep) 523, Anthony Medina (Dem) 542
  • State Senate: Richard Walsh (Dem) 533, Kim Thatcher (Rep) 528
  • US House Rep: Andrea Salinas (Dem) 517, Mike Erickson (Rep) 511
  • US Senate: Jo Rae Perkins (Rep) 466, Ron Wyden (Dem) 564
  • Governor: Tina Kotek (Dem) 486, Betsy Johnson (Ind) 71, Christine Drazan (Rep) 508

2020

  • State House Rep: Teresa Alonso Leon (Dem) 660, Anna Kasachev (Rep) 525
  • State Senate: Not up for re-election
  • US House Rep: Amy Ryan Courser (Rep) 508, Kurt Schrader (Dem) 649
  • US Senate: Jo Rae Perkins (Rep) 503, Jeff Merkley (Dem) 669
  • US President: Donald Trump (Rep) 507, Joe Biden (Dem) 678

Overall, this precinct is pretty evenly split between Democratic and Republican voters, even though statewide Democrats hold majorities in the Oregon House and Senate, and all 5 statewide offices. In my opinion, based on the results of the 2022 governor’s race (Tina Kotek beat Christine Drazan by 67,000 votes out of 1,935,852 votes cast), Oregon is becoming more of a “purple” state than remaining a “blue” state.

Who represents you? (2024 edition)

Back in 2022, I wrote a post about looking for my electoral precinct and who represents me in Oregon. The original tool for “finding your legislator” has now moved to this URL. It allows the user to type in their address, then the tool displays the the Oregon House and Senate districts that cover this address. The other piece of information to find out is my voting precinct. Since Oregon votes by mail only, there are no physical precinct voting locations that could help guide this. I checked my voter registration online, but the web app did not display my voting precinct within my county (grrr!). I then checked the Marion County website and found a link to a GIS map of voting districts. I then scrolled around until I could see my address, and found the precinct via color coding (mine is 835). The state of Oregon also provides a dataset of all precincts in Oregon (downloaded the spreadsheet to take a look). My next post will try to use some of this information to look at past election results.

I use Emacs on Windows, with generally ok performance. Today, it took several minutes for Emacs to start, and I could not use the mouse to position the cursor (had to use all keyboard commands). Lazyweb – anyone else seen this before?

I have been following the Gaza student protests across the US, starting at Columbia University (AP timeline, FOX5NY TV timeline). As a graduate of the University of Texas, I have been saddened to see its students being harrassed and intimidated by local and state police, with the blessing of UT president Jay Hartzell and Texas governor Greg Abbott. More often than not, law enforcement is being used to stifle legitimate nonviolent protests. More coverage: Texas Monthly magazine, Texas Tribune, Daily Texan.