There is no replacement for doing the work of studying. There are no shortcuts, there is no way to make it more fun. However, there are ways to make sure you make good use of your time and to maximize the chance of a good grade.

Here's a list of prescriptions I took away from my time at the University of Connecticut. I graduated with a 3.99 GPA, taking a Computer Science and Engineering major and a Mathematics minor, and later got a Masters in the same area.

TLDR:

• Do the syllabus reading and homework in advance. This maintains a time buffer that will save you when the going gets rough.
• Write notes by hand, and digitally transcribe them later. This helps cement knowledge in your mind.
• Take practice exams like real exams. This is the best way to practice for an exam. Grade yourself after.
• Foundational courses like calc 1 or or general chemistry don't change much over the years. This means old practice exams and other coursework can be useful studying tools.
• These prescriptions require budgeting your time, and it's okay if you don't budget for all of this. Your time at college shouldn't just be about getting straight As.

I maintain an SSH bastion server for all my beloved VPSes. The server I host this blog on only accepts SSH connections from the IP of that bastion, and I keep that bastion hardened. It's a minimal Alpine install with nothing but an SSH server.

So I felt some dismay when I found the server got a score of F on sshaudit.com. I got an F! My bastion failed 2 of 5 host key tests, 4 of 9 key-exchange tests, and 7 of 10 MAC tests.

These are the steps I took. Although I'm on Alpine, I was able to cherry pick commands from the Debian-focused server guides hardening guides on sshaudit.com.

TLDR provided below the cut, with some script script to do the work for you.

TLDR: Here are things I like and can recommend.

• Pop! OS for a Linux distribution.
• Blender for 3D graphics.
• Python or Javascript for those learning programming, but it's complicated.
• 1password for password managers.
• Signal for messaging.
• Obsidian for notetaking.
• Wirecutter and Rtings for prodcut reviews (to replace Reddit.)
• OBS for screen recording and streaming.
• DaVinci Resolve for video editing.
• micro for an easy-to-use terminal editor... But also vim.
• Fastmail + IWantMyName for personal email.

I've had friends ask me for recommendations for software. They ask me this because I am a hollow person who has spent too much of my life on the computer. I love when people ask me these questions, because my strong opinions on software are usually otherwise "offputting" and considered a "personality flaw".

All jokes aside, I wanted one place to chronicle recommendations I tend to make. In no particular order, here are some of my favorites.

I read and Consumed™️ a number of things the first half of 2023. Let me detail some of them:

• Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer helped me reconcile disillusionment and frustration I had with academic science, and to help me appreciate different philosophies of thought.
• The Magicians by Lev Grossman is a grounded examination of the fantasy genre within a well-fleshed fantasy world. If "Houlden Caulfield seeks Narnia but goes to Hogwarts" sounds interesting, then check this out.
• This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone is a short story about star-crossed lovers from two advanced, warring, timeline-hopping scifi empires. I didn't like it that much, but it was 200 pages and fun to read.
• The Before Me podcast series is a well-constructed narrative built around interviews with the narrators mother, who arrived to America fleeing the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. It's worth a listen.

TLDR: Set the following in your caddyfile for each site: header Permissions-Policy "interest-cohort=(),browsing-topics=()". This disable both the old FLoC and the new Topics.

Here is an abbreviated version of my Caddyfile, showing how I set the header directive in my Caddyfile for lynndotpy.dev:

lynndotpy.xyz {
  header {
    Permissions-Policy "interest-cohort=(),browsing-topics=()"
  }
}

To confirm the header is set, you can use a Firefox or Chrome's devtools, open the networking tab, and look for the Permissions-Policy response header. More context below the cut.