judah's recent activity
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Comment on Why OpenBSD Rocks in ~comp
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Comment on What's your guitar (or other instrument) practice routine? in ~hobbies
judah LinkNice! A music question on here! I’ve been studying piano and music theory so I can get better at producing music in general. My goals for piano have been to be able to know exactly what I’m...Nice! A music question on here!
I’ve been studying piano and music theory so I can get better at producing music in general. My goals for piano have been to be able to know exactly what I’m playing/hearing and the ability to write chord progressions. I haven’t really thought of playing Jazz standards besides So What and Autumn Leaves though, so maybe I should start! My main practice methods are:
Chord Scales
Same as you but I play a triad or 5th on each note in a scale, moving up to the leading tone and back down to the root.Arpeggios
In a 1-3-2-4 pattern, I move up each note in a scale. So in F: F-A-G-Bb-A-C-... I’ll then do the same thing in differing patterns: 1-3-2-1, 1-4, 3-2-1, 3-1, etc.Random Progression Challenge
In my head I’ll pick a random key (major or minor), then play random chord progressions in it so I really “get” the key. After I’m done I’ll quickly go through and play the key’s scale in octaves 2, 3, and 4. -
Comment on <deleted topic> in ~talk
judah LinkWorking on a project in silence with the window open. It’s so peaceful having the only sounds be your keyboard and the world outside!Working on a project in silence with the window open. It’s so peaceful having the only sounds be your keyboard and the world outside!
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Comment on Is a password manager essential? in ~tech
judah LinkI’m in the boat of yes and no. Yes: If you’d like a quick and painless solution and don’t care about what your password is, looks like, or where it’s stored, it’s a good option. I do personally...I’m in the boat of yes and no.
Yes:
If you’d like a quick and painless solution and don’t care about what your password is, looks like, or where it’s stored, it’s a good option. I do personally advise against cloud based password managers, as data breaches can and will continue to happen no matter what security measures are in place. If you need your passwords available on multiple devices, I recommend Enpass which is free on everything but iOS (I think it’s a $10 OTP) and isn’t cloud based. Then you can keep a full back up on a flash drive; easy and doesn’t rely on a cloud based service. If you’re not a fan of Enpass, I’ve heard Keepass is also good.No:
A good, memorable password doesn’t need to be filled with random characters, numbers, etc. It needs to be personal to you and hard for a computer to calculate “blind.” Sure “Dogname123” is personal, but a brute force password cracker looks for things exactly like this (unless it’s salts and rainbow tables and stuff like, but that’s not my point), and your goal is not to make a password look “strong,” but to make the cracking tool take as long as possible to crack your password whether it be via a hash, salted hash, or just brute forcing it. The style I like (but change slightly from time to time) is to pick 3-5 things that are specific to you, your life, your interests, and combine them:- A brand or company name
- A specific object
- Song lyrics or a band name
- Colors
- Swear words or obscenities
You then take all of these values, separate them with a special character (optional), add capital letters where you see fit (but not lIkEThIS), and then you have a personalized password that’s easy to remember since it’s similar to—if not the same as—a mnemonic and doesn’t use multiple, different special characters or rely on numbers. For each new site, you can then change the format slightly depending on the site itself (maybe for tildes I use ~ as my special character, etc). If you have a really bad memory or are afraid of forgetting your passwords, you can also go the old school route and write them down on paper and store them somewhere safe (like crypto wallet recovery keys).
In closing:
Password managers are good if you choose the “right one.” I personally can’t justify a monthly payment for “oooh salted hashes and wow aes-256 ‘government style’ encrypted databases that are owned by someone else” but that’s just me. I understand why you would want that though, as it can definitely suck sometimes managing your own passwords (as someone who just reset one of theirs today (16 year old me had great password security...)).Sorry if this was too long or boring to read, but hopefully it cleared up some things for you. Cheers!
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Comment on What do you think is one thing every programmer should know how to do? in ~comp
judah Link ParentI meant more of “knowing x will help you with programming or make you better in some way.” Like, for instance choosing and sticking to a programming “style” and making sure your code is formatted...I meant more of “knowing x will help you with programming or make you better in some way.” Like, for instance choosing and sticking to a programming “style” and making sure your code is formatted consistently between files/projects. That’s something that helped me out a lot.
And true! I’ve been (very briefly) testing mercurial, which has been nice. Not sure what other SCMs are worth trying though. Any suggestions?
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What do you think is one thing every programmer should know how to do?
My pick is definitely a basic understanding of git / version control in general
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Comment on What’s something that you wish more people would inform themselves about? in ~talk
judah Link Parent100% agree. The main thing that bothers me is that YouTubers advertise these services like they're the saviors of online security. When in reality, most just take the data your ISP would've...100% agree. The main thing that bothers me is that YouTubers advertise these services like they're the saviors of online security. When in reality, most just take the data your ISP would've received, encrypt it, and send it off, making you slightly more "anonymous."
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Comment on Tildes folks, are you learning another language or multilingual? in ~humanities
judah LinkI’ve been studying Korean for about 6 years and am finally getting to the point where it doesn’t feel so much like a second language. I think the biggest thing that helped me was actually trying...I’ve been studying Korean for about 6 years and am finally getting to the point where it doesn’t feel so much like a second language.
I think the biggest thing that helped me was actually trying to speak and use the language in practical ways (web browsing, texting, journaling, etc). Anki was great in the beginning, but after a while I feel it’s better to do less drilling and memorization and to try actively “thinking” in the language. For instance, most native English speakers can tell that “The brown large dog jumped upwards” sounds odd or incorrect. This is because there’s actually a “hidden” structure in English that most natives learn without ever being taught (but that’s a conversation for another day lol). I think learning this structure is a big factor in really “getting” a language, since you can intuitively decide what sounds wrong or unnatural while you’re speaking, rather than having to translate everything word for word while trying to remember the rules you studied. How do you learn this “hidden structure” efficiently or easily? I have no clue, I’m still trying to figure that out myself!
I’m also hoping I can pick up French and Mandarin Chinese again soon since I love those languages!
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Comment on What programming language do you think deserves more credit? in ~comp
judah Link ParentFunnily enough, I don’t use Perl very much if at all anymore. I mostly used it like a systems programming language though. My favorite projects were a DSL parser, an automated monthly expense...Funnily enough, I don’t use Perl very much if at all anymore. I mostly used it like a systems programming language though. My favorite projects were a DSL parser, an automated monthly expense tracker, a subreddit scraper, and my own tiny version of Make.
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Comment on What programming language do you think deserves more credit? in ~comp
judah Link ParentHmm I somewhat disagree. Technically any language can be write only, I just think the line between “good” and “bad” Perl is much finer than in other languages. But I agree that it’s definitely...Hmm I somewhat disagree. Technically any language can be write only, I just think the line between “good” and “bad” Perl is much finer than in other languages. But I agree that it’s definitely easier to write horrible code in Perl than in most other languages lol
I also don’t necessarily think freedom corresponds with a lack of memory safety. No matter what systems programming language you use (besides Ada), you always have the possibility of memory safety issues. Even Rust, which touts itself as the safe alternative still has memory leaks.
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What programming language do you think deserves more credit?
My pick is Perl5. Even though a lot people (mostly those who’ve never touched Perl) say it’s a “write only” language, I think it does a lot right. It’s easy to prototype with, and it gives you a...
My pick is Perl5. Even though a lot people (mostly those who’ve never touched Perl) say it’s a “write only” language, I think it does a lot right. It’s easy to prototype with, and it gives you a lot of freedom in how you want to solve a problem; which I think is one of the most important features of a programming language.
I’d like to know what your picks are!
33 votes
I’ve been an Arch user for a few years now, but OpenBSD sounds really interesting. What would be the reasons for me to switch over? I’m assuming security would be the biggest factor?