Life

1.5M Unpatched WordPress Sites Hacked

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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Office Shed Completed

So as some of you might know I’ve been working on building a shed that I planned to insulate and use as an office. After  several weekends of work it’s completed and I’ve moved my office out to it.

Here is my favorite shot which Sarah dubs it a Man-Cave:

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The three monitors are great for school work or gaming. The TV is great for me or when Joseph is hanging out with me. In this case he was watching a video of someone playing Twilight Princess while I was working on stuff.

It’s also useful for storage:

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Think of that as like a bunk used for storage.

There is also an area that’s going to have a future piece of foam for a couch/emergency guest overflow sleeping area.

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Joseph liked hanging out there while I wrote this. I also have all my random computer parts stored nicely.

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Here are a few “in progress” pictures for the project:

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I used Rock Wool insulation. It’s a bit higher R value than the pink stuff and it’s wonderful to work with in comparison. It’s also fire resistant and offers so sound insulation. It’s pretty tough to hear outside of the shed.

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This was after I covered the insulation with 1/4 ply wood and built my shelving. I debated using drywall but I like the wood everywhere. It’s tough to damage and I just like the look.

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This was a picture after being built. The only addition being some steps and a small window AC is now connected. I have a standard door with deadbolt to help make it more secure and provide a better seal against the elements. The outside of the building matches the siding and roof of my house, which made it easy to get HOA approval.

 

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Marijuana legalization is a Christian stance

Helping HandsA person can oppose the recreational use of marijuana and yet still recognize that the impact of the prohibition on drugs has not achieved it’s intended results and in many ways has accomplished the opposite. I would like each of you to take a moment to consider what the current “War on Drugs” has accomplished and consider that education and personal choice might be far better tools to accomplish the task of reducing recreational drug use.

Let’s first look at marijuana use over the past decade compared to tobacco use. According to a 2013 Pew Research Survey over the past decade use has increased from 40% of adults having tried the drug to 48%. According to the Centers for Disease Control numbers, smoking hit an all-time low in 2013 at 17.8%. These two numbers are at odds with common policy as the legal tobacco saw a decrease while the illegal marijuana saw a marked increase. In this case, criminalization has completely failed to reduce the use of marijuana; while education and personal choice has been far more effective at reducing tobacco use. I would even go so far as to say that those that are still in support of marijuana prohibition are ignorantly supporting its continued black market use.

Now let’s consider the impact the “War on Drugs” has had on the prison population and our communities. Currently over 46% of Federal inmates are being held for drug offenses. This percentage holds roughly at the various states also. That is a large percentage of the prison population that is being held and largely going untreated for drug use. Habitual/detrimental drug use should be treated as a public health problem and not a criminal justice issue. Throwing people in cages is a very poor treatment for drug use and is largely ineffective. When drug use hurts a person’s life, we should take the compassionate approach and help them to get the medical treatment they need. Ruining a person’s life in prison to save them from potentially ruining their life with drugs only yields a Pyrrhic victory, even in the best case scenario.

As a compassionate change from current policy, I propose that those of us who oppose harmful drug use just do so in a more effective manner. Education on the potential harm and persuasion will do far more to influence moral behavior than trying to use the government to enforce it. All of us have agency, while on the earth to choose for ourselves to follow what the Lord would have us do. For those that fail and need help, our compassion and medical treatment will do far more to help them than prison. The potential benefits of such a change would mean a lower prison population and reducing the harmful impact drugs have by providing better treatment for those that need it. It would also provide a tertiary bonus of reducing street crime associated with drugs and reducing the violence inherent there. Please consider taking what I think will be the more effective and compassionate approach for drug policy. It’s what I believe the Lord would have us do to help our neighbor and not try to throw them in a cage.

 

While we are on the topic, can we get industrial hemp legalized and not so controlled by the feds that it’s nonviable? The stuff isn’t even usable as a drug yet gets demonized to the point of being ignored as the great textile that it is.

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Minetest time with Joseph

minetest1So Joseph discovered Minecraft and wanted to play it. I ended up going with Minetest a free, open source near-infinite-world block sandbox game and a game engine, inspired by InfiniMiner, Minecraft, and the like. It has clients for Ubuntu, Android and several other platforms. He has loved having me go on adventures and build stuff with him. The other day we hit a bug and his character sunk a good couple hundred feet down in the game. I dug down to help rescue him and then I hit the same bug to go deeper past lava and stuff. It was pretty hilarious. I was digging what seemed like forever to get us out. I had no clue the game could go so deep. When they say near-infinite, they mean it.

Here is a picture of the castle we built and it’s surroundings. Click on the image to see the full sized version.

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