That batch script is exactly what I needed. Thanks

Great idea, all i would suggest is that you some how make it so you cant unblock it untill the timer runs out, but then of course what if you desperatly need digg.com ?

Nice script, I find myself procrastinating by surfing the net - it requires a bit of will power even with this type of script. I envy your ability to stay focused!

THis is a very good idea, I’m going to be using this to help with my motivation. Thanks for the neat script!

man….thats ingenius!

I will have to agree with 43%…Since all the digg links lead me on other excursions as well.

Really nice script… thank you!

Excellent thought. I discovered digg some 2 months ago, and am finding myself spending more and more time on digg. I usually visit Digg every 2-3 hours, to see the updates. Now I call that addiction. One question though: Does your script work on mac/linux too?

I understand all to well…

Awesome. I had something like that in mind that but a lot more manual where I was renaming a block/unblocked hosts file. Made my life easier, and hopefully more productive. Thanks.

Even if that 43% was made up I would still bet its pretty close to reality. In fact.. i am at work right now making this post.. because I saw it on ..Digg… hmmm

Hehe, that’s a funny script, but very helpfull for those who can’t hold themselves when they have work.

Anyway it is funny that an “anti-digg” program is on the front page of digg

[...] In case you didn’t read on the blog created by Mister Jangles, the figure 43% (as in that’s how much digg decreases productivity on the job) is made up. Mister Jangles’ post actually reveals that he feels he’s spending “entirely too much time” on digg as of late. [...]

Wow, 2 hours later and I just got hammered by digg front page! pair networks is the bomb - site is still running like a trooper!

@SoleAngelus - yes exactly the problem, what if I absolutely need to get to digg! At this point I have a feeling if there was no way to unblock it before 5pm, I might just run down to the Internet cafe or something. I need help!

Don’t forget to add it to “at” via command line (like cron)
at 08:00 /every:m,t,w,th,f c:\domain_blocker\block.bat
at 17:00 /every:m,t,w,th,f c:\domain_blocker\unblock.bat

do we have a linux version of this script ?

Great idea. I’ve noticed that Firefox seems to cache DNS translations so even after running block.bat I can still see certain web pages. Any way to reset them in the browser as well?

Thanks, it will help for my digg addiction too :~

one suggestion, in case someone has a customized hosts file already.

block.bat-
copy %systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts %systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts.bak
copy /a blockedhosts.bat+%systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts %systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

unblock.bat
copy %systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts.bak %systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

I find digg saves me time by not surfing randomly, but nontheless this is a great idea in general to focus back on my work.

I am totally addicted to Digg…

Hey Moe, I noticed the same thing. Firefox must be caching DNS. But, it seems to expire after about 10 minutes or so.

@arnott, you could write one easily for Linux. Linux uses a hosts file as well located at /etc/hosts - the batch scripts could be converted to a simple shell scripts (just change copy to cp and update the paths). then you would use cron to schedule it. The concept is exactly the same on both systems.

Hah, great post. Is there some sort of blocker batches to coffeine addicts as well?

Here is mine. I already had a modified host file, so this works better for me. Also, this is just one batch file that does both the blocking and unblocking.

REM Remember to include the blockedhosts.txt

TITLE Bock and Unblock Hosts

IF EXIST %systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts.bak (

COPY %systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts.bak %systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

DEL %systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts.bak

CLS
ECHO Hosts have been successfully returned to normal
PAUSE
EXIT

) ELSE (

COPY %systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts %systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts.bak

COPY %systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts+%systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc\blockedhosts.txt /A %systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

CLS
ECHO Hosts have been successfully blocked
PAUSE
EXIT

)

[...] A lot of the people voting on stories (especially voting that continues on even though content on the other side of the link is unavailable) are doing so because they want to bookmark the link to either read it when they have time, or to read it when the website is not down because of a sudden surge of traffic. [...]

Thanks Erik. More complete than mine - I like it!

Mu Life - you can’t judge a book by it’s cover, but we do it on digg all the time anyway!