News, info, and opinion by Mac users, for Mac users.

April 18, 2008

software

Get temporary Freedom from your Internet shackles

Posted Apr. 18, ’08, 3:24 PM PT by Dan Pourhadi
Category | Software

FreedomApp1.jpgFellow MacUser blogger Cyrus has a great quote in his email signature: “Being a good writer is 3% talent, 97% not being distracted by the Internet.”

I imagine that concept applies to most every job that involves work on a computer. You’re deep in your task, and then…ding.

New email. Hmm, I should probably probably check the weather, see if it’s really gonna rain tomorrow. Well, while my browser’s open, I might as well check up on my Twitter hommies. Oh man, @pourhadi’s tweet is hilarious, I should reply telling him how awesome he is. Hey, a link to YouTube…I dunno, I do have some work to finish…. Meh, it’ll only be a few minutes. [four hours later] Okay, I don’t care what anyone says, R. Kelly’s Trapped in the Closet is freakin’ hilarious. Welp, time to go home.

Yeah. We’ve all been there.

And so, via Andy Ihnatko, I point you to Freedom, a simple anti-distraction tool that fights the siren-song seduction of the Internet so you don’t have to (since you’ll invariably fail).

Freedom is an application that disables wireless and ethernet networking on an Apple computer for up to three hours at a time. Freedom will free you from the distractions of the internet, allowing you time to code, write, or create. At the end of your selected offline period, Freedom re-enables your network, restoring everything as normal.

The only way to stop Freedom and re-enable your Internet access before the time is up is to actually reboot your computer — a definite deterrent to us Lazies who put off software updates for weeks just because it’s too annoying to click the Restart Now button and wait that whole minute for the full boot cycle.

The app is free, though the developer will gladly accept donations. Check it out. Make sure you load MacUser into cache, though, so you’re not totally disconnected from us.


Leave a comment

 



Visit other IDG sites: