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Software For Slackers: Lockout
Matijs van Zuijlen writes "Having trouble getting work done? Reading Slashdot too much? Lockout will enforce some dicipline. It will lock you out of your internet connection, and then lock you out of your root account so you can't unlock it. For a limited time of course. Use at your own peril."
didn't read the article did ya?
A @reboot entry in root's crontab file ensures that rebooting your machine will put the original root password back in place.
Marge, get me your address book, 4 beers, and my conversation hat.
... and whatever the equivelent is in other bootloaders.
I.e. with physical acess to the box (which, in the case of this software, you will), you can always recover a lost root password, by booting single user, and then changing it.
In the event that you've locked up your bootloader with a password, this util doesn't change that.
If you've really locked it up the wazoo with crypto all over the place, I think it's recoverable with a boot disc (as you'll have the bios password, or be able to wipe it, to re-enable booting from CD). Mind you, if you've done that then you're not likely to be the sort of person who needs this util.
Frankly, I'd agree with you about self-discipline - there are very few cases where an externally imposed discipline is useful as anything other than a tempory measure. This is not one of those cases, in my opinion.
It is, however, always worth knowing how to recover from any problem, where it is possible. Backups not needed in this case.
"Affect", not "e"ffect...
But, it is a common foible. Another is where people use "rather then" instead of "rather than"...
By levying this shot across your bow, I leave myself open to scrutiny/attack, too.
Bon-word-a-tit
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"