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by aniketpanjwani 3049 days ago
Chomper is an internet blocker for helping prevent procrastination/mindless web surfing. It's in the same vein as Cold Turkey (https://getcoldturkey.com/) or SelfControl (https://selfcontrolapp.com/).

However, neither of these programs support Linux, and the only similar program hasn't been developed in over 7 years (http://svn.jklmnop.net/projects/SelfControl.html). So, I wrote Chomper. Any feedback is appreciated, but what's most useful is if you try installing it and tell me if you like it!

1 comments

How is it better than any Firefox/Chrome extension (like say Leech block)?
Great question.

1. It's browser independent. You have to import security certificates for each browser, but this is a step which will eventually be automated (https://github.com/aniketpanjwani/chomper/issues/8).

2. In both Firefox and Chrome, you can enter Private Browsing/Incognito mode, where extensions are automatically disabled, so you'll be able to evade blocks. It doesn't matter if you're in incognito mode while Chomper is running - you'll still get blocked.

3. It's usually trivially easy to disable or uninstall browser extensions. Chomper is marginally more difficult to disable when you have root privileges. However, unlike browser extensions, you have the option of tying your hands so that it is entirely impossible to remove a block (https://github.com/aniketpanjwani/chomper#hardcore-mode).

> entirely impossible

You severely underestimate us procrastinators. We'd sooner wipe our disk than work. ;-)