Author name: Paul Darr

Paul Darr has lived in California, Oregon, Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, and currently lives in San Antonio, Texas. Paul is also an Army Veteran, who has deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. On the political spectrum Paul is a Classical Liberal and member of the Libertarian Party. Paul is currently employed as an IT Manager and is a father of a handsome boy and beautiful daughter. In his free time Paul enjoys reading, using and modifying open source software, gaming, and several other geeky pursuits.

America’s Changing Religious Identity

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Interesting items from the study:

• All “white Christian” religions in the US are declining except Mormons.
• All “white Christian” religions are aging (lack of young people) in the US except Mormons.
• Mormons are steady at about 2% of the US population.
• Gender identifying as Mormon: 48% men, 52% women (one of the most gender balanced religions in the US).
• Men account for 64% of atheists and 63% of agnostics in the US.
• 38% of people 18-29 are in the “religiously unaffiliated” category.
• The religiously unaffiliated category is higher and growing faster than ever at 24% of the US population.
• Mormons continue to be one of the most educated religions in the US but have a larger group with only some college education at 32%.
• Mormons have the largest family sizes out of all religions in the US.
• 42% of Mormons have more than 3 children under 18 in their homes.
• 44% of Mormons are Republicans, 12% are Democrats.
• 51% of Utah identifies as Mormon. Six states are less diverse.
• 20% of Idaho identifies as Mormon.

Website

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Replacing PRV

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So we had the Pressure Reducing Valve (PRV) go out in our home. I first noticed when we couldn’t operate our sprinklers due to the low pressure. The first bit of the job was finding the thing.

I first found the water main.

I then looked to the nearest access and found a shut off valve.

Well shoot that’s not the PRV. I know it’s near the main. I asked around but tapping with my shovel is what helped me find it. It had been covered by sod.

There was also a third access that was also buried. I ended up digging it all out and putting a larger access cover that was more usable for $20.

I then tried taking the PRV valve out. Minerals had of course solidified it in place so we had to cut it out. Of course turn off water at the main and drain the line using your faucet.

We then glued some PVC in place to screw it on and tightened the PRV in.

It’s nice to have full water pressure again. We let the water run for 10 minutes from a hose to help get air out of the line. I also took off all the aerators from indoor faucets to remove sediment kicked up and put them back.

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1.5M Unpatched WordPress Sites Hacked

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My wife’s blog was one of those impacted but I had a backup of the SQL, so I was able to restore the content like it was prior to it being defaced.

Lessons learned: I don’t log on to my wife’s blog enough to see it needs updates. So I just enabled automatic updates for everything on it to mitigate that in the future. The downside of that is, I won’t see if an update will fail until later but I can always restore things like I did in this case.

Positives: My backups work. It was simple and easy to do a restoration. I logged into PHPMyAdmin dropped the table for her blog and then imported my backup and all was well again. After completing the updates it was ready to go.

For us her blog is pretty important. It acts as our family journal that she writes in every Sunday and reflects on our family and children.

I’m now also looking into a plug-in that will remind me to update her site.

Article with more information on this exploit and hack.

 

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Bit by the Nexus 5x bootloop

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So my Nexus 5x decided to start bootlooping on me over the weekend. I tried resetting and reflashing it but I had no luck there. Today I called the Google store and luckily they are extending my warranty and exchanging my device for a refurbished one. I’m currently using my old Nexus 5 that’s over three years old. I used it for two of those years and then my wife used it for one, until I bought her a Pixel this past Christmas. So far with going back to the Nexus 5 all I miss is the better camera, fingerprint sensor unlock and slightly better battery life. On the other hand I like the Nexus 5’s size more as it fits into my pockets better and feels better when using one handed. That all combined makes me a bit jealous of my wifes Pixel as it incorporates all the good points of both those and has an even better camera and battery life. So far the extra cost seems like a good investment for her device.

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