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Freedom is an application that disables networking on an Apple computer for up to eight 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.

Freedom enforces freedom; a reboot is the only circumvention of the Freedom time limit you specify. The hassle of rebooting means you're less likely to cheat, and you'll enjoy enhanced productivity. Freedom is free, but if you find Freedom useful, please consider a donation of ten dollars to fund continuing development.

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Freedom in Yahoo’s “Decade on the Internet”

As 2009 winds to a close, Yahoo! news is rolling out an interesting project reviewing the decade.  In the section “A Decade on the Internet,” Freedom is cited as a tool changing the “way we talk.”

Is this the future of how we communicate with each other? Telling your spouse you want a divorce … on Facebook? Inflicting 25 Things That People Don’t Want to Know About You on unsuspecting friends? In exchange for the “six degrees of separation,” we may have just created a new level of navel-gazing.

But leave it to the Internet: There’s now an app that will help you save yourself from … yourself! Can’t stop yourself from tweeting, updating or blogging? “Freedom” will do it for you: The program, developed by grad student Fred Stutzman, will block your Internet access for up to eight hours.

Stutzman told The New York Times, “We’re moving toward this era where we’ll never be able to escape from the cloud. I realized the only way to fight back was at an individual, personal level.”

Cool!  In other news, I am working on a version 0.5.2 of Freedom that I hope to release in the next few weeks.  It has some features that will make a number of you happy!

SETI Interview

This week, Peggy Orenstein and I appeared on SETI’s (yes, that SETI!) public radio program to talk about Freedom.  Other guests on the program include Ray Kurzweil and Stephen Wolfram.

Link to the show (direct MP3 download)

The segment on Freedom is about 30 minutes in.  I enjoyed hearing Peggy talk about her work on the article, and her use of Freedom.

Brilliant

Via Academic Productivity

Download Freedom

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Current Version: 0.5.1


Freedom is free to use. Download and open Freedom.dmg, then drag Freedom.app to your Applications folder. Mac OS X only, tested through 10.6.1.

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Writers on Freedom

Jason Snell, legendary Mac journalist and editorial director, Mac Publishing (publisher of MacWorld): "There may be no bigger boon to Mac productivity.."


Rebecca Traister, writer, Salon and New York Magazine: "I have gotten an immense amount of work done.."


David Sirota, author of New York Times Bestsellers Hostile Takeover (Three Rivers) and The Uprising (Crown): "The greatest tool for work efficiency in Apple programming history."


Dennis Cass, journalist and author of Head Case (HarperCollins): "To say that it’s changed my life is an understatement."


Doree Shafrir, author of Love, Mom: Poignant, Goofy, Brilliant Messages from Home (Hyperion) and writer/editor New York Observer, Gawker, Philadelphia Weekly: "45 minutes of Freedom=844 words written. It's a miracle, I tell you!."


Leo Babauta, editor of Zen Habits and author of The Power of Less (Hyperion): "When I need to do serious work, I try to remove distractions by closing the browser to do actual work. If I find myself opening the browser too much, I’ll use a utility (such as Freedom) to shut off the Internet altogether."


All quotes unsolicited, and sourced from content posted to the web. No endorsement implied.