Annoying Back To Work Buzzer

Problem: It’s easy to be distracted by the Internet.

Solution: A Back to Work buzzer.

We have a 2006 Honda Accord with a correctly annoying seat belt buzzer. Yes, the little light goes on when you the car is on and the seat belts are not buckled. If you drive off without putting on the seat belts, the car bides its time for about thirty seconds. After all, you might be sipping your coffee, adjusting your phone headset, fiddling with CD Player, and using a pinky and a thin slice of your brain to back into traffic. After a minute or so, the car has had enough and blinks the seat-belt icon and beeps at you. Then it calms down for a minute. Then it starts again. About every minute, the car beeps at you for a few seconds. it is surprisingly effective at reminding us to put on the seat belts.

Now there is a new problem with my computer. It’s connected to all the Internets, which is a complicated series of tubes. Down these tubes come blogs and videos and flash games and all manner of distractions. I don’t want the computer to stop me from following a random link from a mailing list. Still, my will power is weak and the number of videos on YouTube are many. What I want is the annoying Back to Work Buzzer.

If FireFox notices that I’ve been goofing off for too long, a Back to Work Buzzer should buzz at me. Then it should chill for a minute while I finish. Then it should buzz again. It’s my willpower. I just want the reminder to break me out of the infinite Digg crawl.

Implementation is left as an exercise to the reader.