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."

Comments

Workaround

[freeze128]

Hello Knoppix boot CD....

It works! But...

[mcpkaaos]

Apparently it locks you out of this thread, too.

use the internet

[twistedfuck]

But I use the internet to _get_ work done! This would only help me slack and smoke more.

Re:use the internet

[interiot]

The script provides for custom firewall rules, so it's meant to be able to selectively block... random guess here... Slashdot, but leave google still accessible.

Re:use the internet

[gardyloo]

Oh, good. I hope google caches the Slashdot pages. Then I'm not totally screwed.

Work Habbits

[DarkElf109]

Sure, I'll get my work done MUCH faster, now that I can't use the internet...or the computer...

This should be run on ....

[UnidentifiedCoward]

production servers for sure. I personally think this is a rather stupid idea. Why on earth you would allow this to run is beyond me. You have bigger issues than time management if you run this that is for sure.

Re:This should be run on ....

[nucal]

He procrastinates by web surfing. This makes him upset, since his work does not get done. He must stop surfing. So he uses the procrastinator's method to deal with this, that is, is to further procrastinate by spending time developing a script to prevent access to the web. This way, he feels like he has accomplished something, yet still has not done any work.

Not that I would ever do that ...

Easy!

[phraktyl]

The obvious answer is to always log in as root, so you'll never have to worry about getting locked out!

Now, I haven't RTFA (I wouldn't feel good keeping my Slashdot ID if I did), but what if your job depends on your access to the internet? As in, a problem comes up at work, and you have to search google, or groups.google to find a quick answer?

Masochism

[otisg]

This is software for masochists. There is a less painful solution, which can also come with some nice 'features', if you choose wisely: get married.

Re:Masochism

[FlopEJoe]

And anyone who shows this to my GF and/or PHB is a dead man! Dead, I tells ya!!

Re:Masochism

[javaxman]

There is a less painful solution, which can also come with some nice 'features', if you choose wisely: get married.

You call that *less* painful !?!

I call shenanigans ! You're not married !

Re:Masochism

[bergeron76]

Actually, a much better solutions exists. I call it Aluwishusdeverdanderabercombie, but most people simply call it "discipline".

You should try it sometime.

Heck, since you're married you can probably even try it on your wife. ;)

Re:How does one get around it?

[mothz]

Why not just reach behind the machine and unplug the ethernet cable? Won't do much for people on wireless connections, of course....

Of Course...

[Mr Bubble]

there is still the small matter of the porn that's ALREADY been downloaded.

In order news.....

[thewldisntenuff]

Slashdot reports a 68.9% drop in server traffic in the hours of 9-5.....

-thewldisntenuff

If this seems a little extreme

[djeca]

Gnome (2.6) has an 'typing break' program built in. Find it in the Keyboard control panel applet.

It only locks you out of the current X session, though, so it's easy to work around... still, it works well as a reminder to leave the computer for a while.

Get some self control, dammit..

Prank software

[prostoalex]

This is not really comparable to the utility described and is not supposed to teach you discipline, but here's some prank software for Windows. Advanced Clippy is the best-sounding one.

Wow

[number]

I think it'd be a better idea to build some discipline, than intentionally crippling your PC. What if you need access to some internet-bound information during your work?

Just pick an activity (jogging, gym, studying, whatever) and involve a friend in it - if two people , however slack, are depending on each other at a set time to show up, they'll have much better luck sticking to it than if they were alone. Not wanting to let a friend down and all that.

Re:Wow

[tod_miller]

I actually YESTERDAY thought about this, because subconsciously I keep checking emails, IM's, I have a veritable cornucopia of Internet fed distractions that clutter my day.

For any brain job, you need a good 3 hour stint to warm up and cool off a thought process. I like a 3 hour morning slot of work, so I can have a nice long break, and try for a 2-3 hour slot in the afternoon.

5 hours of concentration is it in a 8 hour day, that would be fun if I worked 8 hours, but 10-12 is the norm, because you can;t leave the job with that

"It shouldn't be *able* to do that, look I can prove it mathematically that this bug can not exist"

still in your mind. The funny thing is, my job gives me freedom, I mean, if I don't want to go in, I say, I am not in today. No holiday required, I am just working flexibly for 0 hours today.

I do actually right click and disconnect my network connection sometimes (and then no my next build curse because oracle is fsk'd)

Those little 'you can mail' and anyone remember ICQ's oh oh sound? At uni this used to echo at all hours of the night across the courts... aaah.

I firefox plugin for, disallow this page between 9-5 etc etc, just to make you double check yourself, at the end, it is always personal willpower (although this script is pretty hard to bother and stop it when you have done it, like a kill button) that makes you work hard, and of course, liking you job!

Re:How does one get around it?

[Coneasfast]

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.

There is an easier solution

[flossie]

Just disconnect your network cable and give it to your boss telling him that you can't work with the internet distracting you. Problem solved. Unfortunately(!), I don't have the discipline to do even this.

Lockout....Business edition

[eclectro]

is called -- "Getting Fired!!!"

Re:Lockout....Business edition

[DaCool42]

EGAD! I hope you aren't a parent. All using this on your kid is going to do is teach him/her that:

- You don't respect them (won't even give them 2 minutes to finish that email?!)
- You have no backbone (can't enforce anything with out a program that makes it very difficult for you to go back on your word)
- You spend way to much time on /.

Silly

[toxic666]

Learn a little bit of self-discipline if you are a work time web junkie. Do you really need this on your machine? Sure, lots of safeguards to prevent it from irretrievably changing your root password (yeah, I RTFA'd), but how about this for two last sentences:

"Worst case scenario is that you have to reboot your computer. Well, that's not really true: worst case scenario is that things fail badly and you end up not knowing your root password. "

Well, you won't be browsing the web for quite some time while you restore from backup. Ooops, I forgot, you don't have enough self-discipline to keep from browsing the web and need a script to lock you out. Guess backing up would be asking way too much.

Re:Silly

[Leebert]

Learn a little bit of self-discipline if you are a work time web junkie.

As a non-diagnosed ADHD guy (self-diagnosed?) I've found that if I schedule my time in tiny increments with tiny breaks inbetween, it helps me to focus.

I tell myself that I will focus exclusively on a particular task for 15 minutes, then allow myself 5 minutes to do something else before returning for another 15 minutes, etc. It works great most of the time. Once my thoughts start to wander, I can remind myself that I only have to think about this for another 8 minutes.

Are you guys kidding me?!

[adolfojp]

This will decrease my productivity even further!

Now I will not only waste my time reading and trolling in slashdot, but also by trying to hack this application.

And if I succeed, I will waste even more time bragging about it!

You see, I haven't even downloaded it, and I am already posting on slashdot!


Cheers,
Adolfo

I tried to Download it but...

[mr_don't]

But i was running Lockout, and I couldn't access port 80

I need those...

[Everleet]

I need the internet AND my root account (and several others) to do work. It sounds like it would only get people hard-rebooting to recover, perhaps doing more harm than good...

the new Philip Morris? ... er, 'Altria'

[fishbert42]

So, has Slashdot recently been forced to comply to some kinda of legal settlement terms similar to that of big tobacco?
You know: "Our product ruins your life; here's how to stop yourself from using us."

Some fun stuff and some serious stuff

[Entropy248]

This sounds like fanastic fun at my old school...

This could also be great for some computer labs, as long as you could still access network resources like printers. Type the paper at home, print it in the lab (or dorm shared computer, or whatever).

Something like this is terrific for secure environments too. Guaranteed no internet connection or root powers, even with physical access. It's only a printer, calculator, or data entry computer for practical purposes.

I bet that in the days of free AOL minutes this could've saved me hundreds of dollars...

That's what HOSTS files are for

[RatBastard]

My work computer has a HOSTS file with several hundred sites on it that I absolutely do not want to visit at work. Somehow I misspelled slashdot.org and I can still get here. :(

Re:How does one get around it?

[Lord Kano]

Of course he didn't read it, how else was he supposed to make the FP?

LK

Dangerous thing in the hands of a BOFH

[leathered]

Let's face it, it'll only give them time to develop new ways to terrorize their users. If they're not web browsing they'll only be reading people's email or planting porn in home directories.

For gods sake keep them occupied.

Um

[kc0re]

If you are distracted that much that you must have a program that not only locks you out of the internet, but also locks you out of root, then you seriously need some sort of procrastinators anonymous.

Re:Um

[pclminion]

If you are distracted that much that you must have a program that not only locks you out of the internet, but also locks you out of root, then you seriously need some sort of procrastinators anonymous.

And on the first day of Procrastinators Anonymous, they will probably give you a program exactly like this to aid you in developing self-discipline.

Seriously, what exactly do you think goes on at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting? Do you think they all sit around and criticize each other for lacking self discipline? "Bill, you fucking loser, I can't believe you need help to recover from your alcoholism!"

Re:How does one get around it?

[lacheur]

The Fine Article mentions that a reboot will restore root, but that brings up an interesting point. A system like this MUST have a way to turn it off if you need to, so what's preventing you from doing that when you want to slack?

Really all this is good for is a reminder that you should be working...and for that, simpler methods (PostIt?) would probably suffice.

Too Late For Me

[scoser]

I was gonna do something like this a while ago, but then I found a really cool site I just had to read...

Re:NO I didnt read the article

[Anonymous Coward]

How do you think I got First post?

Shoot first, read later...

... er, by being prepared to post yet add absolutely nothing to the conversation and by being prepared to look like a complete loser to the rest of the community perhaps? Oh, I don't know - I'm just guessing.

Re:How does one get around it?

[carpltunl]

Take a coffee break and wait for it to come back.

i need internet

[Tom7]

LILO: linux single

Pshaw...

[mcrbids]

How about this in /etc/hosts?

127.0.0.1 localhost slashdot.org www.slashdot.org

Soooo much easier...

Re:Age old problem

[Anonymous Coward]

Prioritization is often easy when you have well defined goals. Problems with sticking to this most likely occur when you have other goals that you haven't included in the plan, perhaps because you have an internal conflict about whether these goals are worth seeking or not.

Re:How does one get around it?

[bman08]

This is better for me. I compulsively check this and other sites all day long (doing it now), but I wouldn't waste the time to reboot.

Usually when i have to work I xinit the word processor and at least make cheating a little harder on myself.

Now back to work for 5 minutes.

Slashdot

[t_allardyce]

All i need is for this on slashdot, can this go in the slash-code? In my settings i could set daily quotas/limits and my account would just be locked out from posting or my IP banned for x hours. Locking out root and taking your internet connection away isnt going to help most people since their work needs the internet and maybe root. I got through most addiction problems by just getting rid of all my games, after 2 days you don't even miss them although damn soldat, those assholes have to make it only 10mb! i just download it when ever i want it and then delete it. Of course there were afew times when i got weak and tried to recover things from my HD but i got wise to that and overwrote. Now slashdot is pretty much my only distraction from work, damn i hate slashdot you are ruining my life you hear!?! must stop using slashdot! the reason this would work best in slash code is that there's pretty much no way to by-pass it. Of-course it will never happen, the page-views for adverts would just go down the drain.. maybe a subscription only option? really you guys would have that happy feeling of knowing that you had increased productivity in the entire world geek community!

Re:NO I didnt read the article

[tuba_dude]

You wouldn't happen to be a Marine, would you?

What a dilemma!

[osho_gg]

To read about a utility that does not allow you to read Slashdot on Slashdot or To work ?

Life is full about little dilemmas. :).

Osho

Bill yourself and, uh, save

[huskerdoo]

When I was biking around Australia in 2002-2003, I was having to shell out $5-12 AUD per hour for net access ($24 AUD an hour at the WA/SA border on the Nullabor!). I found myself to be insanely productive when it came to programming, answering email, etc when it was costing me by the minute. No Slashdot, random looks at IMDB.com for a movie I saw 15 years ago, etc.

So I've half joked with billing myself for time on the internet, with the money going into a jar or some thing like that...now that I'm back and messing around on the net when I should be working. I would be more productive, and be quite rich at the end of the year!

Don't need this tool

[AppHack]

I already offer this service. Just send me your root password and I'll make sure you're locked out of your root account as well. That way you don't have to worry that a bug in this program will keep you locked out. You'll be able to rest easily knowing that your system is in my capable hands. Just trying to do my part.

init=/bin/sh

[DarkMan]

... 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.

First Post!

[codewritinfool]

This was going to be the first post... Damned Lockout!

Re:How does one get around it?

[gad_zuki!]

> SO when you ABSOLUTELY HAVE to get on line what do you do?

What you always do when your connection is down: use your neighbor's wireless access point.

attempts at "self-discipline" during college

[FleaPlus]

I remember I'd sometimes end up doing a "apt-get remove mozilla" in order to get more work done. Then I'd find myself using lynx to procrastinate, so I'd have to "apt-get remove lynx". Then I started ssh'ing into the University servers and running mozilla off those machines...

Sigh.

Incidentally, I also gave up Slashdot for Lent last year. I actually managed to hold out for a few weeks, but eventually my will collapsed.

Re:How does one get around it?

[davidsyes]

"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

Abend

[lgbarker]

Maybe. But marriage can abnormally ternminate too. It might not be your PC that you get locked out of.

I'll recommend something similar...

[rinkjustice]

it's called Discipline. Try it. Or you can try Getting Off Your Fat Ass which is also free for non-commercial useage.

Re:I'll recommend something similar...

[pclminion]

Get off your goddamn pedestal.

Discipline is a learned skill. I'd say that a person who is willing to install a piece of software like this one to improve their self-discipline is already showing a great degree of it.

If discipline could simply be called up from the depths of your being at will, like a fart for example, we'd have no need for military boot camps.

Help

[ponds]

I can't figure out how to turn on this pro

Re:How does one get around it?

[Jad LaFields]

Yeah, this would be great for me too. I already do all my work in Linux partially because it actually doesn't play most videogames. I don't have wine installed or any linux games, so to play a game I have to reboot my computer and wait for Windows to load up. Now of course, if I really am set on slacking this wont stop me, but for those "just a 10 minute break and then back to work I swear moments", its great. Now with this program, I'll be even more productive! Bye bye slashdot!

Re:AIM Anonymous

[suwain_2]

This is Slashdot. We don't RTFA here.