I’m an author (well, an engineer who writes about what I do). And when I’m writing I need privacy, peace and quiet – so I can focus. I recently realized that I write the best on airplanes where there’s no wireless, no Internet and no calls. I can just put on my headphones and sit with man pages and virtual machines and crank away. Now there’s an app that can help me to mirror that experience. Self Control allows me to block access to mail and the web, almost mirroring (minus the phone and baby and other distractions) that which I have on an airplane.
So why not just unplug the Ethernet and disable wireless? Well, if I do that then I won’t be able to test LDAP, mass deployment, etc. Which led me to think about writing a little shell script to restrict access to items and then allow access, either by editing the hosts file or using IPFW. But Self Control has tie-ins with the hosts file, IPFW, a timer and a GUI – and best of all, I don’t have to write it. It’s a nice little app that I hope will allow me to stay focused so I can finish my third book (more on said book shortly) in time for 10.6. Hope ya’ll enjoy it as much as I am thus far.