Often I've been at conferences sitting near the back and the speaker is a bit boring, some people were using their laptops. I took out my laptop, but then I realized I needed to type my password, surrounded by loads of people.

Or a more common situation, you're at a coffee shop, on a plane/bus/train.

The problem is it's not just one password. It's password after password. Every SSH connection, every encrypted filesystem etc etc. Sudo in this terminal window, sudo in that terminal window.
I would have to do some kind of yoga posture every time to conceal my password and that would REALLY draw attention to myself.

I recall hearing about Julian Assange putting a red hood over his head to type in his passwords. It actually doesn't seem like a bad idea.
It's funny, when I googled password hood on google images, nothing came up.

Which makes me wonder? What practical solutions are there?

These are the two good solutions I've thought of:
1. Password hood (like Julian assange)
2. Learn to use a dvorak keyboard (without changing the stickers on your letters) (this only provides a small measure of security, and in fact it's no real security at all... if they steal your laptop they can just type your password as they saw you type it, and they're in! haha)

Basically only #1 is valid.

Don't bother making dumb non-constructive replies like. "Don't use your laptop in public" or "Don't use passwords." Either make an on-topic suggestion or find another thread.

EDIT:
Okay I got some interesting suggestions

3. Use a yubikey
but hey, it's not perfect yubikey got haxxed

4. Use a password manager. So you only have to type your password once. Then your password manager handles the rest.
That doesn't solve the problem of typing the password the first one or two times.

ideas for this i got from the keypad device at an FBI office ... it randomly arranged the numbers on the touch pad so people watching your finger movements would not get your numbers.

1. a gui app that displays a randomized keyboard
but if someone is watching too close...

2. a cli app that shows a random character mapping for you to type in alternate keys
you have to think and it can make you slow...

also keys and agent for ssh

I think in your constrain requirements everything would look awkward.

Better would be to use a biometric and little hack of your authentication programs.

I read something similar almost a decade ago. Some of the older members may remember this. There was a handheld barcode scanner that was being freely distributed by some grocery franchise or something for checking coupons. They were easily hackable for use on the old ps/2 keyboard ports and you could create your own barcode password. What you did was make the barcode, scan it to a text file so you could view the hash, then enter that hash manually as a password for anything and from then on all you needed to do was scan your barcode when prompted for a password. It was really clever and I wish I could find the articles again.
There are a few computers with biometric locks nowadays so I'm sure that a usb based scanner of some sort could be hacked to work as a keyboard.

Edit: Well my memory is not as bad as it seems, google CueCat

chip card reader. You need to keep the card in the reader (pulled out -> locked laptop)

But the OP doesn't wants to lock the whole laptop. He wants to stop prying eyes looking the passwords he types for various authentication requiring programs.

that can be solved by a password manager program in general, but in some cases there is no other way but type in something (some pw managers can copy passwords to clipboard too)

I use keepassx for passwords. I recommend it wholeheartedly.

One nice feature is that it's cross-platform. It works on Linux, Mac, and Windows, and its databases are compatible with keepassdroid for Android.

1 members found this post helpful.

While things can be partially mitigated with all the efforts above also consider 2 factor authentication where possible and where it's not possible then change passwords on a regular basis.

All you can really do is mitigate against "casual" password snoopers. If someone really wants your password then they'll get it.

1 members found this post helpful.

WiFi is not secure.
Practically solves itself now doesn't it?

Not if you use another layer of encryption, such as a SSH tunnel or tor or some other encrypted proxy.

Also, the root password for the laptop isn't going to go out over WiFi. (If it is, then you've got bigger issues to worry about.)

Never mind.