SocketHop: Buckle Down and Type
Hiding in Butler, you’ve got six papers due in ten hours but you’re engaged in a poke war on Facebook. It’s time to buckle down and get some real work done. SocketHop is here to help.
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| Image via Flickr |
Lose the Clutter
There’s a million ways to have distraction-free word processing, but Bwog has two favorites. Dr. Wicked’s Write-or-Die is a website that allows you to set word count and time goals to keep you writing at a consistent speed. Should you fail to keep typing, the website will flash heart-wrenching colors and spout horrible music. Writer is a web application that provides stripped-down editing with .txt and .pdf file export options, as well as limited save options.
Half of writing a research paper is, well, Googling other people’s research papers. And reading all those random articles can be hard on the eyes. In comes Arc 90′s Readability bookmarklet. A bookmarklet is a bookmark you can store on your bookmarks toolbar that performs a function (rather than just linking to a Web site). Readability removes all the clutter from your web-based reading and formats the text with clear fonts in narrow columns. All this can be customized, as well, creating a distraction-free reading environment.
Save Your Eyes
Late nights in Butler mean late nights staring at your bright, white LCD screen. That translates to red, sore eyes by morning. Enter F.lux, a small tray application (Windows and OS X) that solves this problem. In a nutshell, F.lux modifies the color temperature of your screen to match the time of day. This means that as the sun sets, your screen transitions from a blueish hue to a yellowish hue, matching the color of your fluorescent hell. It sounds like a strange idea at first, but once you become used to it, you’ll never switch back.
One more tip and a geek level-up after the jump.
Block Facebook
The major efficiency-stealers when you’re trying to research and write are sites like Facebook. If you have enough self-control to inflict website blocking on yourself, there’s a simple fix.
The Hosts file on your computer (OS X and Windows) is where your computer looks first when it’s trying to translate a website address (e.g., google.com) into an IP address (74.125.45.100) before it asks other computers on the Internet. You can exploit this gateway by having it point the addresses of distracting Web sites to, well, nothing.
On Windows, the file is located in C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\Etc\hosts, and in Mac OS X or Unix, it’s located in /etc/hosts. The file can be opened in any text editor (e.g., Notepad or TextEdit). You’ll need administrative privileges to open it. On OS X, try going via the Terminal (Apps > Utilities) and typing “sudo open /etc/hosts” without quotes.
The files has two columns with numbers and names. At the bottom of the list, add 127.0.0.1 <TAB> facebook.com, where <TAB> is a press of the Tab key. This will redirect Facebook (or any other website) to your own machine, effectively displaying nothing on the page.
If you want to block Gmail but still want to use Google, list “mail.google.com”. It’s important that you not remove “127.0.0.1 <TAB> localhost” from the top of the list, as this can break a lot of web and hardware-related applications. Use extreme caution when editing the Hosts file. Make a backup copy before making changes. The queasy can try this Firefox extension.
–AB
Tags: computers, I Know You're In CC But You Can Be Cool Like SEAS, it's magic!, sockethop
3 May 2009 @ 12:08 PM · 26 comments
nerd-alert!!!!
dear students,
here are some wonderful ways to fuck up your computer when you most need it to work flawlessly.
love,
bwog
since i’m complusively checking my RSS feed instead of writing an essay and this came up.
this is so much f-ing work when you can just download the program “Self Control” and block a whole list of websites. And set a timer for it.
Fail Bwog, Fail.
http://visitsteve.com/work/selfcontrol/
you can block mail servers.
way to tell people how to alter this on their computers…. they can just turn it back.
use “self control”
OMG THANK YOU BWOG! After procrastinating for like 3 days while writing a ridiculous music hum concert report I just used the ‘write or die’ program that you suggested and got 800 words written in 30 minutes!!! It literally took me 3 days to write the same number of words before using this.
BWOG WTF I JusT LOST MY 15 PAGE PAPER BECAUSE OF YOU my comp just BSOD
idiot
just use leechblock with firefox
I just unblocked you (not using your method–too difficult) to thank you for Write or Die. Fabulous for productivity! And now I’m going to re-block you. Bye bye!
the only thing that i need to help me study is a program to block porn duh.
write or die is amazing. I just finished my essay in 30 minutes and now I can sleep. Thanks
…is Clem H. so damn hot and euro?
love it
or die may seem useful, but quite frankly I was so worried about writing fast enough for it, that I’m pretty sure most of what I wrote was crap. Yes, I got a page done in ~10 minutes, but it may have to be completely scrapped when I re-read my paper
i don’t get how f.lux is supposed to help me, my screen is reddish
then quit f.lux. after you pick your eyeballs off the floor and put them back in the sockets, you’ll realize how unnecessarily bright your screen is at night and you can turn it back on.
i don’t understand how screwing up colors and reducing the contrast between text and background is supposed to do anything for me other than make me squint.
especially considering i’m in high color temp fluorescently lit rooms when i’m up late anyway.
unless you’re suggesting i turn my screen red and turn off all the lights? somehow this will do my eyes a favor?
the only use i could ever see for this thing would be for keeping circadian rhythms in check. …but if i’m up late trying to finish something, the last thing i want is to cue my body and mind that it’s time to go to sleep.
this was a really great and helpful article. More like it, please!
Thank you Bwog!
Also, for those who don’t know, there’s a useful little widget in Gmail that helps prevent sending emails without attaching the paper. If you use the words “attached” “attachment” or other words indicating that you intended to send a file along, you get an error message before the email sends if you forgot to attach it. Cheers!!
“Half of writing a research paper is, well, Googling other people’s research papers.”
That’s awful!
l2rite pprz n00b! lulz
I’m definitely loving f.lux after using it for a day… thanks for the link, bwog!
f.lux is THE SHIT. thanks for the post, bwog.