Filed under: Utilities, Macintosh, Productivity, Apple, Freeware
Freedom frees you (and your Mac) from the horror of the internet
by Jason Clarke Aug 5th 2008
If you're anything like me, you're probably at least a little bit addicted to your internet connection. The first thing I do when I wake up is check my email and RSS feeds, and it's also the last thing I do before going to sleep. But that addiction can sometimes be a problem. Staying on-task these days is not easy, particularly if you work at an internet-connected computer. The possible distractions are virtually limitless. So what is a geek to do? One option is to simply pull the plug. The network plug, that is.
But of course, these days almost all computers have wireless capabilities, so turning off your internet connection isn't quite as simply as just pulling the plug. If you're on a Mac, you can use Freedom.
Freedom will turn off all of your Mac's wireless and ethernet networking for a set amount of time. So if you need to put your head down for an hour and get some work done, you can set Freedom to an hour, and know that you won't be tempted by any distractions.
If you absolutely need to get back online before the chosen duration is up, the only way to do so is to reboot your computer.
This is one of those apps that will be a life saver for some people, and seem totally ridiculous to others. Which are you?
If you live in Portland, Oregon or Oakland County, Michigan you could soon be surfing at high-speed from the comfort of a parkbench without paying a dime. Microsoft has teamed with JiWire to begin testing municipal wi-fi deployment with ad revenue as it's primary funding source. 
With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet.
They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...
