• 11 Posts
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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 20th, 2023

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  • If it’s from a memorable phrase, then the phrase has a lot of redundancy and it’s hard to estimate the actual entropy. Generating a random phrase and writing it on a slip of paper works for me. Keep the paper in your pocket and refer to it when you need to, instead of trying to memorize it. Once you’ve typed it into the computer a few times, you remember it automatically. At that point you can swallow the paper or use your favorite alternate secure disposal method ;).





  • I wouldn’t bother with the Fiverr thing but interesting personal projects and FOSS contributions are both good. Sizeable FOSS projects mean you’re working with other people which brings both benefits and challenges, and more closely resembles the “job” world. You could also look for actual paying work (not gig work like Fiverr, that is crap) if you have the time for it (summer job might be possible). Look at the monthly “Who is hiring” thread (first weekday of each month) on news.ycombinator.com, look on craigslist, etc.

    Getting involved in FOSS is pretty simple. Find a project with a list of open tasks or an issue tracker, find something that interests you, say you are interested in working on that task, and start contributing patches. Usually if the project is not a high-visibility one with a lot of contributors already, it will welcome any help it can get. Lots of such projects have Freenode IRC channels where you can chat with the other devs in real time. I’m less comfortable with the ones that use Discord, but that’s just me.