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Cassie at her 21st birthday in 2007 ✨

I stand with Cassie 🤍

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My name is Abed.

I’m a survivor from Gaza, holding on to hope in a world that has fallen apart around me. 💔

The life I once knew — my home, my family, my sense of safety — has been shattered by war. Today, I live among the ruins, trying to find a path forward through the rubble and heartbreak. 🏚

Every moment is a battle against fear and uncertainty. What was once ordinary — a safe place to sleep, a future to dream of — now feels like a distant memory. 🕊️

I share my story not to seek pity, but to keep hope alive — to believe that even in the darkest places, kindness can still find a way. 🤍

If my story touches your heart, please consider sharing it or offering support. Every voice, every act of care, brings me one step closer to safety. ✨

Thank you for taking the time to listen. 🙏

Post Link

#freepalestine #palestine

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Spanish Grammar Resources

The lovely @studywithbyu​ came to looking for some help with Spanish grammar, so here is a little masterlist! (warning, not so little - long post ahead!) I highly suggest checking out both resources because they cover different things and one may provide the information in a better format for you.

Grammar with SpanishDict

A great resource with reliable translations and instruction! I go here instead of to Google Translate because I know it’s much more helpful and accurate. It also has forums for individual questions. 

Here is a list of all its lessons:

Adjectives

Descriptive adjectives (regular and irregular)

Adjective placement

Nationalities as adjectives

Short form adjectives (apocopation)

Possessive adjectives

Cardinal numbers (0-100)

Cardinal numbers (101+)

Ordinal numbers

Negatives and negation

Asking questions: interrogatives

Comparisons of inequality

Comparisons of equality

Superlatives - the best, worst, most, & least

Using adjectives as nouns

Relative adjectives (cuyo)

Demonstrative adjectives

Exclamatory words

Adverbs

Adverb forms and placement 

Articles

Definite article forms (regular and exceptions)

Definite Article Uses

Indefinite article forms (regular and irregular)

Indefinite article uses

Neuter article

Conjunctions

Conjunctions 

Gender

Masculine and feminine nouns

Professions and other nouns with both masculine and feminine forms

Number

Plural forms of nouns (regular and exceptions) 

Prepositions

Basic Prepositions

Basic por vs. para (motion vs. destination)

Contractions

Advanced por vs. para (DREEMS vs. PRODDS)

Advanced expressions with por and para

Pronouns

Subject pronouns (personal pronouns)

Spanish “you” - (tú, vos, usted, vosotros, ustedes)

Object pronouns (pronouns after prepositions)

Direct Object Pronouns

Direct object pronoun placement

Indirect Object Pronouns

Indirect object pronoun placement

Possessive pronouns

Neuter possessive pronouns

Using direct and indirect object pronouns together

Demonstrative pronouns

Relative pronouns (que, quien, el que, el cual)

Neuter relative pronouns (lo que, lo cual)

Impersonal se

Impersonal se vs. passive se

Passive se

Pronunciation

Spanish Alphabet and Pronunciation

Spanish vowels

Spanish syllables

Word stress

Written accents (tildes)

Spanish punctuation

Verbs

Infinitive forms and finding stems for regular verbs

Other uses for infinitives

Present Participles

Other uses for the present participle (gerundio)

Past participle regular forms and uses

Irregular and stressed past participles

Present perfect - Using haber with past participles

Present Tense Forms

Present tense spelling changes

Stem Changing Verbs

Irregular present tense

Verbs like gustar

Basic ser vs. estar - D.O.T. vs. Lo.Co.

Uses of ser: descriptions

Uses of ser: origins

Uses of ser: time

Uses of estar: Location

Uses of estar: condition

Informal future (ir + a + infinitive)

Imperfect Tense Forms

Spanish Preterite Tense Forms

Spelling changes in the preterit

Stem changes in the preterit

Verbs that change meaning in the preterit

Preterit vs. Imperfect - differences and signifier phrases

Affirmative informal (tú) commands

Negative Tú Commands

Formal Affirmative and Negative Commands

Subjunctive vs. Indicative

Wishes & wants in the subjunctive

Emotions with the subjunctive

Impersonal expressions with the subjunctive

Recommendations & requests with the subjunctive

Doubts & denial with the subjunctive

Ojalá with the subjunctive

Uncompleted or prospective actions with the subjunctive

Present Subjunctive Regular and Irregular Forms

Present Progressive Forms

Saber vs. Conocer

Pedir vs. preguntar (to ask)

Reciprocal verbs and pronouns

Reflexive Verbs and Pronouns

Active vs. passive voice

Nosotros commands

Indirect commands

Imperfect progressive

Simple future regular forms and uses

Simple future irregular and stem changing forms

Hacer with expressions of time

Conditional regular and irregular forms and uses

Imperfect Subjunctive

Future subjunctive forms and uses

Past perfect forms and uses

Preterit perfect

Present Perfect Subjunctive

Future perfect

Conditional perfect forms and uses

Past Perfect Subjunctive Forms

Future perfect subjunctive forms and uses

Verb structures (transitive, intransitive, pronominal)

Ir vs. irse

Verbal periphrasis

Indicative mood

Imperative mood

Copular Verbs

________________________________________________________________

Spanish Grammar @ StudySpanish.com

Nine units full of very useful grammar! I plan to use this one myself for a bit of self-instruction before I go to Catalonia. My favorite part is it gives you flashcard ideas and has review.

Here are the units and their topics:

UNIT ONE

1. Gender of Nouns I

2. Gender of Nouns II

3. Numbers: 1-10

4. Plural Forms of Nouns

5. Def. & Indef. Articles

6. The Verb Form “hay”

7. Subject Pronouns

8. Reg. Verbs I

9. Reg. Verbs II

10. Reg. Verbs III

11. Adjectives I

12. Adjectives II

13. Days of the Week

14. Numbers: 11-30

UNIT TWO

15. Ser and Estar I

16. Ser and Estar II

17. Ser and Estar III

18. Ser and Estar IV

19. Negation

20. Questions

21. Poss. Adjectives

22. Tener, venir

23. Tener que / Hay que

24. Exp. with “Tener”

25. Weather Expressions

26. The Personal “a”

27. Contractions

UNIT THREE

28. Stem-Changing Verbs: o:ue

29. Stem-Changing Verbs: e:ie

30. Stem-changing verbs: e:i

31. Estar, Ir, Dar

32. “Ir a” + infinitive

33. Acabar de

34. Volver a

35. Ordinal Numbers

36. Months, Seasons, and Dates

37. Comparisons of Inequality

38. Comparisons of Equality

39. Superlatives

UNIT FOUR

40. Pronouns as Objects of Prepositions

41. Dir. Object Pronouns I

42. Dir. Object Pronouns II

43. Dir. Object Pronouns III

44. Ind. Object Pronouns I

45. Ind. Object Pronouns II

46. Ind. Object Pronouns III

47. DO and IO Pronouns Together

48. Verbs Like Gustar

49. Present Progressive

50. Verbs with Irregular 1st Persons

UNIT FIVE

51. Saber vs Conocer / Pedir vs Preguntar

52. Numbers: 31-1000

53. Telling Time

54. Por and Para

55. Irreg. Comparatives

56. Demonstratives

57. Time Expressions With Hacer

58. Possessive Pronouns

59. Reflexive Verbs I

60. Reflexive Verbs II

61. Definite Article II

UNIT SIX

62. Pret. vs Imp. I

63. Preterite I

64. Imperfect I

65. Preterite II

66. Imperfect II

67. Pret. vs Imp. II

68. Preterite III

69. Imperfect III

70. Preterite IV

71. Preterite V

72. Preterite VI

73. Pret. vs Imp. III

74. Pret. vs Imp. Review

UNIT SEVEN

75. “Hace …” to mean “ago”

76. Formation of Adverbs

77. Subjunctive I: Introduction

78. Subjunctive II: Conjugating regular and stem-changing verbs

79. Subjunctive III: Verbs that change orthographically

80. Subjunctive IV: Irregular verbs

81. Subjunctive V: Desire

82. Subjunctive VI: Ignorance, doubt

83. Subjunctive VII: Impersonal Expressions

84. Subjunctive VIII: Actions not yet completed

UNIT EIGHT

85. Rel. Pronouns - que

86. Rel. Pronouns - quien

87. Rel. Pronouns - el que and lo que

88. Rel. Adjective - cuyo

89. Rel. Pronouns and Adjectives - Review

90. Formal Commands

91. Inform. Commands - tú

92. Irreg. Commands - tú

93. Using Object Pronouns with Commands

94. Commands Review I

95. Informal Commands - vosotros

96. 1st Person Commands - nosotros

97. Indirect Commands

98. Commands Review II

UNIT NINE

99. Future

100. Past Participle

101. Present Perfect

102. Past Perfect

103. Future Perfect

104. Conditional

I hope this helps! 

________________________________________________________________

Some other good websites:

121Spanish

PracticingSpanish

Rocket Languages

And if you plan to practice writing and don’t have a native speaker or proficient learner to help, here’s a Spanish editor!

Spanish Checker

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Free Resources for Learning Cybersecurity

I created this post for the Studyblr Masterpost Jam, check out the tag for more cool masterposts from folks in the studyblr community!

Free Online Courses

Linux Foundation Cybersecurity Courses - many of their beginner/introductory courses are free

Professor Messer's Security+ Course - a great intro to cybersecurity, gave me the skills to pass my Security+ exam

Khan Academy Cryptography - solid foundations for understanding the math behind encryption

ISC2's new entry level cert & training CC is free, although for a limited time

Linux Journey - learn Linux, the command line, and basic networking

Free CTFs & Ways to Practice

What is a CTF? - HackTheBox isn't a free platform, but this is a good article explaining what a CTF is and how to approach it

OverTheWire Bandit - practice your Linux skills

PicoCTF - this one already ran this year but their website has plenty of resources

Microcorruption - binary exploitation challenges

Hacker101 - web security CTF

Cryptopals Cryptography Challenges

Nightmare - binary exploitation & reverse engineering challenges

Cybersecurity News: follow what's happening in the industry

KrebsOnSecurity - security & cybercrime news, investigative journalism

SANS StormCast - daily 5-minute security news podcast

SANS Internet Storm Center - security blog posts

Cisco Talos blog - security news, threat intelligence & malware investigations

Schneier on Security - security & society

Black Hills Information Security webcasts

Darknet Diaries podcast

Other Free Resources

Trail of Bits's CTF Field Guide

PicoCTF Resources and Practice

SANS Cheat Sheets - all areas of security & tech

OWASP Cheat Sheets - application security & web attacks

LaurieWired's YouTube channel - high-quality videos on low-level tech

LiveOverflow's YouTube channel - binary exploitation

SANS Webinars

Cybersecurity Certifications Roadmap

Cybersecurity Job Supply and Demand Map (for the U.S.)

EFF's Surveillance Self-Defense - guides for how to protect yourself online

Don't Forget the Library!

If you have access to a public or school library, check out their technical books and see what they have to offer. O'Reilly and No Starch Press are my favorite publishers for technical and cybersecurity books, but be on the lookout for study guides for the Security+ and other certifications - these will give you a good introduction to the basics. I wrote more about cybersecurity books in yesterday's masterpost.

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The Best Free Cybersecurity Courses Available Online

In the fast-evolving digital world, cybersecurity skills are more important than ever. Whether you’re a beginner looking to enter the field or a professional looking to sharpen your skills, many online platforms offer high-quality, free cybersecurity courses. Here are some of the best options to get started without spending a dime.   1. Cybersecurity Fundamentals by edX Provider: Rochester…

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Art learning resources 2024

It's been so long since I've posted anything at all. I've been straying away from pixel art since I'm learning digital illustration so I haven't really had anything worth sharing. One of the most challenging parts of being mostly self-taught is to find proper resources so I'll share some fo the ones that have been helpful for me

Courses ---------

Drawabox (Free w/ paid options): Art foundations, perspective, construction etc.

Ctrl Paint (Free w/ paid options): Basics of digital painting.

Proko (Free w/ paid options): Different courses for everything art

Marc Brunet's art school (Paid): Digital art complete course

Youtube Channels ---------

MarcLeone's Drawing DB: Art fundamentals, traditional art

Alan Becker: Animation basics and tutorials

AngryMikko: Digital painting, procreate, tips and tricks

Art by Anabelle: Vlogs, procreate tutorials, artist lifestyle

Art by Caro Oliveira: Speedpaints

Art with Flo: Procreate tutorials

E F F I: (Spanish) Art talk, speedpaints, art theory and basics

Erikathegoober: Digital art, tutorials, speedpaints, tips and tricks

Flasho-D: (Spanish) Tips and tricks, speedpaints

FZDSCHOOL: Concept design for videogames and film industry

Gretlusky: Speedpaints

HABOOK: HowTo's for digital art, procreate, character design

Likelihood Art: Speedpaints

Love life drawing: Traditional art, tips & tricks, HowTo's

Marc Brunet: Art tips & tricks, do's and dont's, fundamentals

Marco Bucci: Art fundamentals, tips & tricks

Procreate: Official Procreate yt channel, procreate tutorials

SamDoesArts: Tips & tricks, do's & dont's

The Art of Aaron Blaise: Animation, HowTo's, tips & tricks

Other resources

Save Loomis: All Loomis' books free

Artbooks drive: Drive with different art books (reference, perspective, lettering, etc.)

References ---------

Bodies in motion: Body poses

Anatomy.app: Anatomy 3D models

Character design references: Huge database with character designs, artwork, challenges, etc.

Line of action: Random reference for daily practices

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dropbox containing linguistics textbooks

contains 34 textbooks including etymology, language acquisition, morphology, phonetics/phonology, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, & translation studies

dropbox containing language textbooks

contains 86 language textbooks including ASL, Arabic, (Mandarin) Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Farsi, French, German, Greek, Hebrew (Modern & Ancient), Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovene, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tagalog, Thai, Turkish, Urdu, Vietnamese, Welsh

dropbox containing books about language learning

includes fluent forever by gabriel wyner, how to learn any language by barry farber, polyglot by kató lomb

if there’s a problem with any of the textbooks or if you want to request materials for a specific language feel free to message me!

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The Nature Method

The nature method textbooks were designed to be read, and if you knew a similar language you were meant to rely on cognates and the pictures to understand the whole textbook. The lessons would gradually introduce new words (around 3000) in context, and new grammar.

I want to share something awesome! A girl tried out the same nature method textbook I did. Her video is short so I recommend just checking it out:

She also linked the nature method resources in her summary, which I will paste below:

Nature Method books (English, French, Italian, German): https://drive.google.com/drive/folder... Similar books for Spanish (for online viewing): https://archive.org/details/pocopocoe... https://archive.org/details/allspanis...   / irish_via_the_nature_method   Audio (English, French, German, Italian): ‪@freetongue‬ Shoutout to Free Tongue for providing all this free, quality audio! French Nature Method playlist:    • Le Français par la Méthode Nature  

I read half of Le Francais par la Methode Nature, years ago, and it helped push me to being able to read graded readers I had and then eventually anything I picked up in French. I loved the book. I loved learning to read BY reading in the language immediately, learning a language BY doing stuff in the language immediately. I love learning through context, so I loved the style of these nature method textbooks and wish there were more modern ones being used. Lingua Latina for Latin is the only nature method textbook I'm sure is still being used in some classes.

I ended up finding print copies of the French version, the Italian version, and a similar styled book called the All Spanish Method.

I used the audio of Le Francais par la Methode Nature made by Ayan Academy on youtube, like her, to work on my listening skills a few years after reading the textbook. I still would like to both finish reading and listening to this textbook. I feel it got me to B1 level and then I just kind of jumped into reading other stuff I was interested in, and my reading skills improved but none of my other skills did lol.

If you like the style of the textbook, I really recommend these nature method textbooks. If you use them, using them the way she describes she studied them in her video is probably the best way. I just read and listened, and it helped my passive skills but I definitely want to go back and do the production exercises one day.

Be aware they're OLD textbooks, 70+ years old at this point, so some information and words may be out of date. I partly read the textbook when I first did because I was curious what differences there were in an older textbook, what things they taught differently, how they spoke about history and values, which is why I have a big collection of old textbooks at home. I'm into looking at that kind of stuff.

(I once had a horrifically bad chinese textbook from right in the middle of the simplification of characters, so some were simplified and some weren't, and the textbook only had a whopping 100 words it taught which really upset me... on the other hand I have an amazing Chinese Grammar textbook from 1930 that uses 了 only ever pronounced as 'liao' and only uses nin for you, but it's grammar and hanzi explanations are some of the clearest I've ever read).

Well the nature method textbooks were used most from 1920s - 1960s, and the older ones are often the Direct Method (mislabeled by someone as Nature Method) which involved a lot of dialogues in the target language but were not necessarily designed to be understandable without a teacher. Nature Method textbooks are designed to be understandable without a teacher, with just the context of the textbook and visuals, and assume the student knows a similar language to the target language already (so it assumes students know Spanish or Italian or French or English or German already).

Nature Method textbooks usually have more context and cognates in the beginning chapters. Direct Method textbooks usually have plenty of dialogues, and sometimes plenty of pictures to teach the words, but ultimately assume a teacher is teaching many words and grammar and so grammar is not explained in the context of long form stories like it is in nature method. I like Nature Method more. Direct method is okay, Poco a Poco is an example of a direct method textbook. Le Francais par la Methode Nature is an example of a nature method textbook.

Anyway I love the nature method textbooks, I wish some newer textbooks were designed in a similar way.

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language learning websites list

Endonym Map: World Map of Country Names in Their Local Languages 

Dropbox - linguistics - Simplify your life 

Dropbox - language textbooks - Simplify your life 

Ethnologue | Languages of the world 

Etymonline - Online Etymology Dictionary 

spanish

Spanish (Mexico) Vocabulary 

spanish_grammar.pdf 

Spanish 1/The Basics - Wikiversity 

portuguese

Portuguese Language/Introduction - Wikiversity 

Portuguese/Contents - Wikibooks, open books for an open world 

asl

Learn How to Sign - YouTube 

American Sign Language 1 - Fall 2023 

other languages

Native American Language Net: Preserving and promoting First Nations/American Indian languages 

Arabic from the Beginning - YouTube 

Urdu/Hindi language and literature: resources for study 

Learn Urdu online, Urdu language & alphabets learning | Aamozish 

translation

DeepL Translate: The world's most accurate translator 

World Free Translators Dictionaries Encyclopedias 

ipa/pronunciation

Interactive IPA 

IPA i-charts (2023) 

IPA Chart 

Forvo: the pronunciation dictionary. All the words in the world pronounced by native speakers 

writing systems

ScriptSource - Writing systems, computers and people 

World Writing Systems 

toki pona

Toki Pona 

sona pona

CEFR Analysis for toki pona

mun! - Learn Toki Pona!

lipu Linku

lipu pi jan Ne

lipu sona pona

sitelen sitelen

Toki Pona Dictionary

lipu lili pona

Wikipesija

lipu pi ijo pi toki pona

printable dictionary

sike pona

nasin toki pona—a good way to speak

lipu nimi

semantic spaces dictionary

toki pona | lipu pi soweli nata

Toki Pona

telo misikeke

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How to Actually Learn a Language (Without Wasting Time)

Polyglots will do anything to sell you something, so here’s the fastest and most basic technique based on my research.

—

Step 1 – Getting the Absolute Basics In

This is where most people already get lost. If you search social media for how to start, the advice isn’t necessarily bad, but it often makes you dependent on a single resource, usually an app that will eventually try to charge you. Duolingo, for example, has turned into a mega-corporation that perfected gamification to keep you on the app.

Remember: free apps make money by keeping you on their platform, not by helping you become fluent.

At this stage, the goal is not to gain conversational skills but to avoid overwhelming yourself and get a feel for what you’re actually getting into. All my recommended resources are free because I believe learning a language should be a basic right. I wouldn’t advise spending any money until you’re sure you’ll stick with it. Otherwise, it can turn into a toxic “but I paid for this, so I have to keep going” mindset that drains all the fun out of learning.

• Language Transfer – Highly recommended for Spanish, Arabic, Turkish, German, Greek, Italian, Swahili, and French.

• Textbooks – Simply search for [language] textbook PDF, or check LibGen and the Internet Archive. Don’t overthink which book to choose—it doesn’t matter much.

• Podcasts – Coffee Break is a solid choice for many languages.

• YouTube Channels – Join r/Learn[language] on Reddit and find recommendations.

—

Step 2 – The 20/80 Principle

The idea is that 20% of words make up 80% of everyday speech.

What you’re going to do:

Search “Most common words [language] PDF”.

This list is now your best friend

For flashcards, I highly recommend AnkiPro. It lets you import pre-made lists for Anki/Quizlet and has an archive where you’ll definitely find the most common words. But it lacks audio. The real Anki program has it, but only on PC (unless you’re willing to pay $30 for the mobile app). Use AnkiPro for now—we’ll come back to repeating phrases later. In the meantime, find a YouTube video with the most common words pronounced, or use Google Translate for audio.

(Knowt is a free alternative for Quizlet if you prefer that)

These lists will spare you from learning unnecessary vocabulary at this stage. Spaced repetition (which Anki uses) can take longer, but it’s worth it because you want these words to stick. Anki will only introduce a small number of new words per day. Once you start new words, write phrases using them. Doesn’t matter if they’re random just try to use them.

—

Step 3 – The First Breakup With the Language

This isn’t really a step, but I have to mention it. For me (and for other language learners I’ve talked to) this is where motivation crashes.

The dopamine rush is over. Your ego boost is gone. You’re stuck understanding just enough to notice how much you don’t understand, and topics are getting more complex. Everything feels overwhelming, and motivation drops.

This is normal. You have to push through it.

I’ll write a separate post on how I manage this phase, but for now:

• Take a step back and make sure you understand the basics.

• Find something that keeps you motivated.

• Consistency is key. Even if it’s just five minutes a day, do it. (Edit: You can search online for inspiration on scheduled plans. I found one that organizes language exercises into different categories based on how much time you have each day, which seems helpful. https://www.reddit.com/r/languagelearning/s/sSGUtORurM

Personally, I used AI to create a weekly plan kind of as a last resort before giving up on the language, but try looking for pre-made ones first.)

I personally enjoyed story learning during this phase. And don’t forget the frequency lists are still your best friend. For story learning check out Olly Richards books!

—

Step 4 – Immersion

Your brain needs active and passive immersion. The earlier steps were mostly active, and now you’ll start the fun part.

How to Immerse Yourself:

1. Join some kind of community.

• I enjoy Reddit/ r/lean[Language]. Do this in your target language, but also in the language you already speak. Post that you’re looking for a chat partner in your target language. The most people are nice, and the mean ones will just ghost you anyway.

2. Watch shows.

• Subtitles only in your target language or drop English subtitles ASAP.

3. Listen to podcasts.

4. Read

I personally dislike media made for kids (except on low-energy days). For real immersion, pick something for adults.

5. Translate, write, and speak.

Before this, you wrote simple sentences using vocabulary. Now, put them to work:

• Translate texts.

• Keep a diary.

• Write short stories.

• Complain about the language in the language.

It doesn’t matter, just use it.

—

Step 5 – Speaking

Start speaking earlier than you think you’re ready. Trust me. This is probably where most people disagree with me. I do think you should start by focusing on input, but the importance of output isn’t talked about enough.

Now, the real Anki (or any program with phrases + audio) comes into play. At lower levels, it doesn’t make sense to just start talking, since you wouldn’t even be able to recognize your mistakes. Here’s what you’ll do:

1. Repeat phrases out loud.

2. Record yourself speaking.

3. Compare your recording to the original audio and adjust your pronunciation.

If it’s a tonal language (or if you struggle with accents), start this even earlier.

Other Speaking Strategies:

• Shadowing – Repeat after native speakers.

• Reading aloud – Your own texts, books, anything.

• Talking to yourself.

• Talking to natives (if you’re brave).

I’m not here to fix social anxiety, but I am here to help with language learning, so just speak.

—

Final Thoughts

• These steps overlap, and that’s fine.

• This is supposed to be fun. Learning just because you’re “too deep in” or because of school won’t cut it.

• If you’re lost, take a step back.

• I’m not a professional. I just think a straight answer is way too hard to find.

—

If you have anything to add, feel free to share.

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spanish resource lists for learners

a list of lists!! levels are estimated.

refold has a crowdsourced resource list for spanish, curated & with notes | A1 to C2

dreamingspanish on reddit has a crowdsourced spreadsheet with over 90 channels geared towards learners | A1 to C2

learn natively has a huge deck of spanish books sorted by difficulty by learners | A1 to C2

prensa escrita has a list of news websites sorted by country & sometimes city | B1 to C1 probably

the CI wiki has an editable list of CI resources and a couple of native content links | A1 to like B2?

comprehensible hub has tons of spanish podcasts for learners | A1 to B2

letterboxd has a ton of very fun #español lists, e.g. movies mentioned in the wild project podcast, latin american female directors, made in puerto rico | ~B2 to C2

there are also a ton of moocs in spanish for intermediate to advanced learners (moocs are online courses, usually free) | B1 to C2

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just ran out of free pre-advanced videos on dreamingspanish.com!!!

you know, even staying completely pure to the method, i could definitely get the rest of my hours from other free resources. the dozens of free intermediate podcasts, the other beginner-level CI-creators on youtube, shows like Extra and Pokemon,,,,, incredibly, wonderfully doable.

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Free Resources for Learning Cybersecurity

I created this post for the Studyblr Masterpost Jam, check out the tag for more cool masterposts from folks in the studyblr community!

Free Online Courses

Linux Foundation Cybersecurity Courses - many of their beginner/introductory courses are free

Professor Messer's Security+ Course - a great intro to cybersecurity, gave me the skills to pass my Security+ exam

Khan Academy Cryptography - solid foundations for understanding the math behind encryption

ISC2's new entry level cert & training CC is free, although for a limited time

Linux Journey - learn Linux, the command line, and basic networking

Free CTFs & Ways to Practice

What is a CTF? - HackTheBox isn't a free platform, but this is a good article explaining what a CTF is and how to approach it

OverTheWire Bandit - practice your Linux skills

PicoCTF - this one already ran this year but their website has plenty of resources

Microcorruption - binary exploitation challenges

Hacker101 - web security CTF

Cryptopals Cryptography Challenges

Nightmare - binary exploitation & reverse engineering challenges

Cybersecurity News: follow what's happening in the industry

KrebsOnSecurity - security & cybercrime news, investigative journalism

SANS StormCast - daily 5-minute security news podcast

SANS Internet Storm Center - security blog posts

Cisco Talos blog - security news, threat intelligence & malware investigations

Schneier on Security - security & society

Black Hills Information Security webcasts

Darknet Diaries podcast

Other Free Resources

Trail of Bits's CTF Field Guide

PicoCTF Resources and Practice

SANS Cheat Sheets - all areas of security & tech

OWASP Cheat Sheets - application security & web attacks

LaurieWired's YouTube channel - high-quality videos on low-level tech

LiveOverflow's YouTube channel - binary exploitation

SANS Webinars

Cybersecurity Certifications Roadmap

Cybersecurity Job Supply and Demand Map (for the U.S.)

EFF's Surveillance Self-Defense - guides for how to protect yourself online

Don't Forget the Library!

If you have access to a public or school library, check out their technical books and see what they have to offer. O'Reilly and No Starch Press are my favorite publishers for technical and cybersecurity books, but be on the lookout for study guides for the Security+ and other certifications - these will give you a good introduction to the basics. I wrote more about cybersecurity books in yesterday's masterpost.

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A Beginner's Guide to Learning Cybersecurity

I created this post for the Studyblr Masterpost Jam, check out the tag for more cool masterposts from folks in the studyblr community!

(Side note: this post is aimed towards the technical side of security, rather than the governance/management side, because the tech stuff is what I'm familiar with.)

Where do I start?

Cybersecurity is a specialization of general tech & therefore builds on some concepts that you'll need to know before you can dive deep into security. It's good to have a background in and understand:

how computers & operating systems work

how to use Linux

computer networking & basic protocols

If you're serious about learning cybersecurity, it can be helpful to look at certifications. Even if you don't want to get certified or take the exam (they can get expensive), they provide you with a list of topics that you can use to guide your self-study. And if you want to find a job, a certification is practically required for getting your foot in the door.

I personally recommend the CompTIA series of certifications, because they're well-recognized and I think they expose you to a good breadth and depth of material to get you started. Start with the A+ certification if you have zero tech background. Start with the Network+ certification if you've never taken a networking course. Once you get your basic computer and networking knowledge down, then you can jump into security. The Security+ is a good starting point.

Do I need to know how to code?

No, but it would be really really helpful. You don't have to be a skilled software engineer, but understanding the basics and being able to write small scripts will give you a solid foundation.

From Daniel Miessler's post How to Build a Cybersecurity Career:

You can get a job without being a programmer. You can even get a good job. And you can even get promoted to management. But you won’t ever hit the elite levels of infosec if you cannot build things. Websites. Tools. Proofs of concept. Etc. If you can’t code, you’ll always be dependent on those who can.

How do I gain skills?

Play Capture the Flag (CTF) games.

Stay up to date with security news via an RSS reader, podcasts, or whatever works for you. Research terms that you're unfamiliar with.

Watch conference talks that get uploaded to YouTube.

Spin up a VM to practice working with tools and experiment on your own computer.

There are lots of brilliant, generous people in cybersecurity who share their knowledge and advice for free. Find their blogs, podcasts, and YouTube channels. Look for local meetups in your area.

I'm still relatively new to the field, but I have a general knowledge of lots of different things, so feel free to send me an ask and I can probably help point you to some resources. We're all in this together!

Previous Cybersecurity Masterposts

An Introduction to Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity Book Masterpost

Free Cybersecurity Learning Resources Masterpost

Masterpost of Study Tips for Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity Tools Masterpost

Thank you so much to everyone who participated in the #StudyblrMasterpostJam this week! It was wonderful to see what other studyblr folks are passionate about. The jam technically ends today but there are no official rules, so if you've been thinking about writing a masterpost, this is your sign!

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A couple interesting resources I've found recently...

HackTheBox - A place to learn about cybersecurity and pen-testing aka hacking. I wanna try this out so badly, but I'm trying to stay focused and not go down every rabbit hole I discover... immediately, at least. Still, way too cool not to share.

A free technical writing course from Google.

Here's an Intro & Advanced Python Programming free from the University of Helsinki.

Here's a free Learn to Code rpg (in visual novel style!)

Here's a massive list of absolutely free classes on a wide range of really interesting topics (not just coding), courtesy of freecodecamp. And tons of other links to websites for free education, too!

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Free resources to learn hacking

- https://www.hacksplaining.com/ (A good site to learn all about different types of vulnerabilities, ways to hack, ways to prevent hacking, etc. with hands on basic labs as well as quizzes and terminology.)

- https://hackthissite.org/ (This site provides in depth hacking challenges for beginners and people of all knowledge sets, there isn't much hand-holding as you progress, but YouTube helps a LOT.)

- YouTube (Content creators such as David Bombal, NetworkChuck, etc. come to mind, although John Hammond I believe is a bit underrated and very well knowledgable as well as less of a snake oil salesman when it comes to his content and his abilities and also do not discount small YouTubers as well, because some can be very knowledgeable from some of the ones I've looked for help with, particularly Chuck Moore and Sean Mancini.)

- https://www.khanacademy.org/ (Now hear me out, it doesn't have a TON of hacking content but when you need help with some stuff, like for me I needed some basics of cryptography and things such as that, it helped a good bit with some fundamentals, so try seeing if it has some content you might like.)

- Keeping up with news also generally helps you see current trends in security which helps as well.

- https://hbh.sh/home (Personally have not tried this yet, but Hellbound Hackers I have heard is a great wealth of information as well as having their own discord I believe for communication which is exciting.)

- https://www.reddit.com/r/HowToHack/ 

Lastly I wanted to say if you are studying for Cybersecurity certs I heard Jason Dion and Professor Messer are quite good and if you download Visual Studio Code - https://code.visualstudio.com/ as well as the extension that you need, learning code such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, etc. can NEVER hurt and can only help (especially when looking over code and connecting the dots), my personal favorites for coding/scripting for software languages that I am learning is Python as well as PowerShell because of the ease of use and ability to create decent projects in a reasonable amount of time (learning Linux and MySQL helps as well but it may take longer to learn, it all depends on your preferences and trial and error, as well as being determined.)

I hope my post helps! (and remember if you are a college student, particularly WGU, you get discounts/free offers for websites such as Udemy, LinkedIn Learning, etc.)

Thanks.

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Free Resources for Learning Cybersecurity

I created this post for the Studyblr Masterpost Jam, check out the tag for more cool masterposts from folks in the studyblr community!

Free Online Courses

Linux Foundation Cybersecurity Courses - many of their beginner/introductory courses are free

Professor Messer's Security+ Course - a great intro to cybersecurity, gave me the skills to pass my Security+ exam

Khan Academy Cryptography - solid foundations for understanding the math behind encryption

ISC2's new entry level cert & training CC is free, although for a limited time

Linux Journey - learn Linux, the command line, and basic networking

Free CTFs & Ways to Practice

What is a CTF? - HackTheBox isn't a free platform, but this is a good article explaining what a CTF is and how to approach it

OverTheWire Bandit - practice your Linux skills

PicoCTF - this one already ran this year but their website has plenty of resources

Microcorruption - binary exploitation challenges

Hacker101 - web security CTF

Cryptopals Cryptography Challenges

Nightmare - binary exploitation & reverse engineering challenges

Cybersecurity News: follow what's happening in the industry

KrebsOnSecurity - security & cybercrime news, investigative journalism

SANS StormCast - daily 5-minute security news podcast

SANS Internet Storm Center - security blog posts

Cisco Talos blog - security news, threat intelligence & malware investigations

Schneier on Security - security & society

Black Hills Information Security webcasts

Darknet Diaries podcast

Other Free Resources

Trail of Bits's CTF Field Guide

PicoCTF Resources and Practice

SANS Cheat Sheets - all areas of security & tech

OWASP Cheat Sheets - application security & web attacks

LaurieWired's YouTube channel - high-quality videos on low-level tech

LiveOverflow's YouTube channel - binary exploitation

SANS Webinars

Cybersecurity Certifications Roadmap

Cybersecurity Job Supply and Demand Map (for the U.S.)

EFF's Surveillance Self-Defense - guides for how to protect yourself online

Don't Forget the Library!

If you have access to a public or school library, check out their technical books and see what they have to offer. O'Reilly and No Starch Press are my favorite publishers for technical and cybersecurity books, but be on the lookout for study guides for the Security+ and other certifications - these will give you a good introduction to the basics. I wrote more about cybersecurity books in yesterday's masterpost.