Mark Gates

I have been building and writing about technology since the mid-1990s, back when a database-backed site meant PHP and MySQL on a box you administered yourself. I ran a web design business through college, sold it, and spent the next decades writing, consulting, and watching each wave of hype arrive with the same sales pitch in a new font.

These days I care about what runs on your own hardware, what leaves your machine, and whether the stack underneath is something you can actually inspect. That is why this site focuses on local models, inspectable software, and systems you can understand instead of chasing whatever acronym is trending this quarter.

This is a personal site, intentionally small. Opinion written for readers who want this angle, not a syndicated feed of my other work.