Tired of pointless, regurgitated viral debris? A convenient, painless way to expand your entrepreneurial mind in 2012 is to get a daily dose of TEDTalks, comprising more than 900 thought-provoking presentations on technology, entertainment, design, sciences, humanities, arts, NGOs, business and more. You’ll gain life-altering insight and inspiration from the globe’s leading thinkers and doers to better your life, your business and your world.

Here’s just a fragment of the wisdom you can gain from TED:

Schools Kill Creativity

Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity.

The Thrilling Potential of SixthSense Technology

Pranav Mistry demos several tools that help the physical world interact with the world of data, including a deep look at his SixthSense device and a new, paradigm-shifting paper “laptop.”

Why Are We Happy?

Author Dan Gilbert challenges the idea that we’ll be miserable if we don’t get what we want. Our “psychological immune system” lets us feel truly happy even when things don’t go as planned.

How Great Leaders Inspire Action

Simon Sinek has a simple but powerful model for inspirational leadership, all starting with a golden circle and the question “Why?” His cases include Apple, Martin Luther King and the Wright brothers.

Try Something New for 30 Days

Is there something you’ve always meant to do, wanted to do, but just haven’t? Matt Cutts suggests: Try it for 30 days. This short, lighthearted talk offers a clever way to think about setting and achieving goals.

Ideas Definitely Worth Sharing

Why not trade in the dancing pets and exercise your brain? While you’re at it, you can spread the good word to help make the world a better place.

As a copywriter and creative type in general, I’m a big fan of the Apple brand and its many polished products. But it hasn’t always been easy to be a member of the Apple faithful. In fact, my loyalty has been tested by two elements: fire and water.

Apple Flambé: What Happened to Compatibility?

About three years ago, my office decided to convert our web copywriting company into a full-fledged Apple operation, complete with MacBook Pros, doc stations, Airport wireless, servers — the whole bit. We made the switch from PC in the hopes of better reliability and to get more in sync with our web designer clients. At the same time, I decided to go ‘all Apple’ at home. Everything was going great until I decided to charge my iPod Shuffle via my new MacBook Pro.

“Daddy, maybe Apple and Apple things shouldn’t go together,” observed my young daughter after watching the iPod Shuffle disintegrate into a bubbling mass of flaming plastic 10 minutes after plugging it in.

Luckily, we were present when the iPod decided to iCombust and were able to quickly extinguish the flames. We tried not to think about what might have happened had the Shuffle decided to meltdown the night before, positioned on the dresser next to photos, brochures and other kindling. (And, fortunately, it wasn’t in anyone’s pocket — check out Hot Pants, another crazy scenario.)

The MacBook Pro seemed completely un-phased by the event (kudos to its aluminum casing), but we hesitated to plug in any other components without having a fire extinguisher handy.

This experience didn’t seem to support Apple’s core values of good design and compatibility.

iPod Shuffle Goes for a Swim

Fast-forward three years. Returning home from the gym, I stuck my current iPod Shuffle in my pocket so I wouldn’t forget to charge it. I got home, tossed my clothes in the wash, started the ‘standard’ 59-minute warm/cold water cycle, and headed to the kitchen to blend a protein shake.

A couple hours later, I realized my iPod was missing. I looked in my gym bag, my car, my home office — and then it hit me. Sure enough, I found the music player in the wash with my freshly cleaned track pants.

I sighed, removed the earphones, placed the player on my desk, and let it sit for a few hours. That night, I tried to turn it on. No light, no response. I tentatively plugged it in its dock to charge. The power light came on. I waited a few more minutes, plugged in the earphones and violà — Foster the People’s Pumped Up Kicks came through loud and clear.

Today, thanks to the wash cycle, my faith in Apple has been restored. I wouldn’t recommend dumping your Apple devices in the laundry, but by all means plug them into your laptop (maybe keep an eye out, just in case). Long live Apple.

No matter the industry, all creative professionals, and even the left-brained ones, need to look outside of our circles of influence for inspiration. By exploring new ideas, images, methodologies or concepts, we expand our minds and fuel our own creativity. This is how innovation happens, and how new products, business practices and ways of living help us grow as individuals and as a society.

Where do you look for creative inspiration? Here are some awesome locations around the Web where you can bask in the creativity of your fellow humans.

The 99 Percent

www.the99percent.com

@the99percent

The “research arm and think tank” of Behance, a network for creative professionals, The 99 Percent is named for the famous Thomas Edison quote “genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.” Consisting of a website, conference and book, The 99 Percent features instructional articles, videos and other resources (even playlists) that help creative types put good ideas into action.

One interesting recent feature described how mundane routines can produce creative magic. In it, the daily routines of some notable creatives (like filmmaker Ingmar Bergman and architect Le Corbusier) are described. The accounts are taken from Daily Routines, which profiles how “writers, artists and other interesting people organize their days.”

Booooooom

www.booooooom.com

@Booooooom

Booooooom is a Vancouver, BC-based “art and photo blog with a soft spot for hand-made work by unknown people,” meaning you won’t be seeing anything conventional here. Featuring works of art covering the spectrum between mesmerizing and bizarre, you’ll find photography, sculpture, music, drawings, paintings and more creative works from around the world posted daily.

One favourite discovery from Booooooom actually came from its Twitter account, where the author tweeted about an internationally acclaimed painter named Cholla (who also happens to be a horse.)

Bajillion Hits

www.bajillionhits.biz

@Bajillionhits

Alex Blagg, the man behind the brilliantly hilarious web marketing guru spoof Bajillion Hits describes himself in this role the best: “Social Media Strat Guru-Ninja-Genius. Bajillionaire. Webeneur. Techspert. Lord of All Social Media. Intergalactic Master of the Internet.” This guy is basically the inside joke of all web marketing professionals in the world who have ever rolled their eyes at the growing mushroom cloud of people claiming to be social media experts. By poking fun at the tech-speak that runs rampant in web marketing circles, Blagg encourages us to make fun of ourselves, and perhaps find new ways of approaching web marketing that aren’t so predictable.

Check out Blagg’s post I’m a Tech Media Douche for his full (and hilarious) bio.

Illusion 360

www.illusion.scene360.com

Illusion 360 is a partner project of the award-winning online film and arts magazine Scene 360, and features amazing art, design, technology and video from around the world. Features are chosen based on their uniqueness, skill, level of creativity and vision, and can include anything from living grass graffiti to human touchscreen interfaces.

One recent post includes the World’s Smallest Post Service, which sends tiny letters to your loved ones.

Hello You Creatives

www.helloyoucreatives.com

@Hellocreatives

Hello You Creatives is a London-based blog run by a collective of creative people in design, illustration and “everything else,” who work together to inspire, showcase and discuss creative works and creativity in general. Admittedly, they don’t discriminate regarding the quality of works posted, giving exposure to both good and bad ones, and talking to the people behind them.

One recent post featured Unicef’s Dirty Water campaign, which placed vending machines selling dirty water (including diseases like malaria and cholera) in major cities to raise awareness for the lack of access to clean drinking water in developing countries. The campaign, credited to the creatives at Casanova, has raised almost $1 million to support UNICEF’s clean drinking water programs.

Laughing Squid

www.laughingsquid.com

@laughingsquid

Laughing Squid describes itself as “an online resource for art, culture and technology” and is also an independent web hosting company. Blog posts feature a wide-reaching range of subject matter including anything from an avocado ukulele, to an interview with Steven Sasson, the inventor of the digital camera, to a recreation of Brooklyn made entirely out of LEGO.

Le Creative Sweatshop

www.lecreativesweatshop.com

Le Creative Sweatshop is a Paris-based creative studio/agency combining the worlds of design, fashion, contemporary art and architecture, with a focus on hand-made works. The site offers the agency’s portfolio of work, which is inspiring in itself.

One example is the agency’s paper scenography installation for airline operator Transavia, which fashioned a suitcase out of colourful paper and wood as both a work of art and communication support.

Sharing Creativity

By sharing new ideas and ways of doing things, we not only inspire one another to do better work, but we push ourselves to innovate and make the world a more enjoyable place to coexist.

What are some of your favourite creativity boosters online? What is your daily routine? Why not share them with your fellow creative professionals and promote the cultural advancement of our species.

Content and design. Written communications and visual communications. When it comes to creating winning websites, which plays a more important role? Our web copywriters reached out to six experienced agency professionals from the US, Canada and England to get their take.

Web content or design — which is more important?

James Archer
Managing Director, Forty

“At Forty, we view words and visuals as inseparably intertwined; they’re just different manifestations of the same message.

“We always assign both a writer and a designer to every project, and our brand strategy work always includes both verbal and visual direction.

“Ultimately, the viewer doesn’t distinguish between the visual design and the verbal message of a piece. They take in the overall experience, and they remember (or don’t) based on what they feel.

“Because we take the approach of focusing on the overall experience rather than a ‘words first’ or ‘design first’ approach, we find it works best when designers and writers work side by side. Not always possible, but certainly the ideal.”

Follow James @jamesarcher

William A. Beachy
President, Go Media Inc.

“When I was in college, there were two bulletin boards in the lobby of my dorm. The first bulletin board was maintained by the resident advisers and was intended for all of the residents. It was a colorful explosion of photos, event fliers, clip-art, logos and decorative trim. Just to the left of that was the second bulletin board; maintained and intended for the engineering club. On it were plain white 8.5×11 sheets of paper with single-spaced black type neatly hung in a perfect grid. There wasn’t a single image, color or graphical element anywhere on the engineers’ bulletin board.

“So, which one was the superior bulletin board? Well, my answer, as it relates to this question of content versus design is — it depends. It depends who your audience is. It depends what your content is. In this specific case, the engineers’ bulletin board was superior — for the engineers, and probably nobody else. As with any website development project, you have to start with understanding the user. And to use this oft quoted design axiom: form follows function. You have to know what the purpose of the site is. Only then can you possibly answer the question of what’s more important.”

Follow William @william_beachy

Christina Calderon
Creative Director, JB Chicago

“I believe that there should be a perfect marriage between function and form. As a visual person, I am naturally drawn to websites that look good, but as a Creative Director I fully understand the value in content and the written language. Words bring clarity and act as the persuasive element to a message.

“Ideally, there should be a call to action and sense of urgency wrapped around a good, compelling design in order to engage and move the consumer, so any good ad contains a combination of the two. The story that is told through visual means is reinforced by the copy — the tagline seals the deal.”

Follow Christina @cryandesign

Jason Hamilton
Director, Digital Marketing, Acart Communications

“If, by design, we are referring to the visual look and feel of a site, and, by content, we are referring to the information that resides on the site, then content wins hands down.

“When someone visits your website, blog or Facebook page, they do not visit to stare in awe of your beautiful design; they visit for one reason: they have a problem that needs solving. Whether that problem is where to find the lowest gas prices, how to measure social media, or discover Charlie Sheen’s latest crazy stunt, they are looking for an answer. Knowing what your audience is looking for and creating quality content around that is the key to effective Web communications.

“Content is not, and should not be, restricted to the written word; video, audio, and infographics are increasingly popular and should be part of any effective content strategy.

“I am not saying that visual design is not important. It is, because effective design supports and enhances (not dictates) content, whereas quality content inspires and guides design.

“Look at Wikipedia, Craigslist, and Google — three of the most successful websites in the world — and ask yourself why you return to these sites?”

Follow Jason @acartcomm

Ben Harris
Managing Director, New Brand Vision Group

“When it comes to the creation of quality website design, text and images should not be thought of in isolation, as a healthy balance of both content and visual communications is essential for a successful approach.

“To begin with, part of your audience will be more visual, while others will respond more proactively to information, and it is therefore vital that you communicate to both sets of audiences.

“It is also important to recognize that content and visuals provide two slightly different functions on a website. Inviting branding will make your website more appealing and memorable, while the right content will demonstrate thought leadership and improve search engine rankings.

“Bold, attractive visuals are what initially attract a user’s attention; while quality content will draw that user into a deeper level of engagement.

“This psychological understanding of user behaviour is critical to a websites success, and must be addressed in the early stages of the planning process. Knowing where to use content and where to use visuals, and how to effectively blend the two is the key to achieving both aesthetic and ergonomic success with your website design.”

Follow Ben @NewBrandVision

Cynthia Passanante
Director, Design & UI, TRAFFIQ, and Blogger, CMYKaboom

“Can you compare a car to its driver? Likewise, to compare design and content is an irrational exercise, as they each serve unique, vital functions in the digital landscape. When used properly, they are two assets that work in tandem to create a holistic, sublime experience, not forces vying for significance.

“Within the industry the phrase, ‘content is king’ is thrown around a great deal. I would position it more as a lesser duke. The goal of a successful site is not only to deliver unique content, but to do so in a way that is intuitive and accessible to the end user. Design is imperative to accomplish this task. It is the vehicle that drives content to the user — without one, the other invariably falters.

“Don’t believe me? I propose an experiment — take your best content, and type it out in black text on a site with a black background. Granted, this is a rather heavy-handed example, but one that summarizes the subtler problem found on countless websites: no matter how sexy the material, if the interface does not offer ease of discovery then the content will rot on the vine, search engine or no search engine.

“The king is dead. Long live the diarchy!”

Follow Cynthia @CMYKaboom

What’s your take on website content versus design?

The value of original, high quality web content continues to rise as Google makes new moves to decrease the visibility of low-quality websites. The search engine giant recently updated its algorithm to suppress the presence of link farms, which generate endless streams of poorly written, regurgitated articles. It’s all in a bid to cater to users who have been complaining about spammy sites appearing in top search results.

While Google reports it makes approximately 500 changes to its algorithm a year, this one’s significant, and SEO types, business owners and users will likely notice changes.

“This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites — sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful,” Amit Singhal, a Google employee, and Matt Cutts, who leads Google’s anti-spam squad, wrote in a Google blog post. “At the same time, it will provide better rankings for high-quality sites — sites with original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on.”

Black Hat SEO Versus White Hat SEO

The updated algorithm, which is initially being unleashed in the US, reinforces the need for marketers and business to avoid black hat SEO techniques — illegal tactics that can get websites penalized or de-listed from search engines altogether.

Just days ago, The New York Times reported on how J.C. Penny was caught with thousands of unrelated websites in the retail industry linking to their site — a common black hat SEO maneuver. While the US-based retailer enjoyed a brief boost in online presence and sales, it’s now in Google’s bad books.

The short-term gains of black hat SEO do not make sense for a business seeking long-term success. Businesses are better off developing links from reputable websites and communities through quality web content, including articles and press releases, as well as videos and social media.

White hat SEO involves hard work and dedication, which can reap enduring results. Black hat SEO is risky business, with a high potential for unhappy endings. J.C. Penny learned this the hard way.

Savvy companies have increasingly been posting videos on their websites to help connect with customers. But, as video technologies continue to advance, there will be implications for web copywriters, marketers and business owners alike. To get an edge over the competition tomorrow, you need to ensure your company’s videos are ‘SEO ready’, today.

Video on the Web

The explosive growth in video web content over the past few years has mainly been attributed to decreasing video production and equipment costs, and east-to-use, DIY gear. Once limited to companies with large budgets, video production is now accessible to many businesses. Consequently, more companies are putting more videos on their sites.

The Internet and its surrounding technologies have also improved to better support video. Greater bandwidth and faster download times mean that clicking “play” no longer means risking a long wait time or crashed computer.

Changes to Google’s search algorithm have also supported the prevalence of video on company websites; Google’s search engine favours websites that contain a mix of media. By having a site that features text, video and other media you may improve your search engine results. However, this advantage is becoming less significant as more websites offer mixed media.

Why Use Video?

Several arguments support implementing video on your company website. Video is sticky — visitors tend to stay on your website longer. In theory, the longer visitors stay on your site the more opportunity to sell and solidify your company’s relationship with the visitor.

Video is also ideal for conveying visual information. It’s often easier to watch a how-to video on assembling a product than read how-to instructions. When conducting a product review, it can be helpful to show the reviewer testing the product rather than describing the experience.

Video and SEO: The View Today

If you choose to employ video on your company website, be sure you include supporting SEO text. Providing context for the video and describing its contents to Google will increase your views and exposure. There is nothing worse for users than sitting through several minutes of video and slowly realizing it’s not going to provide them with the information they want.

Video and SEO: The View Ahead

Video technologies continue to change, and we predict the future existence of widely-used software that automatically transcribes and indexes video. In 2008, Google developed a gadget that used transcription and indexing technology, which was applied to politicians’ videos on YouTube during the U.S. elections. Google’s elections video search gadget used speech recognition technologies to automatically transcribe from speech to text and to index it, making the spoken content searchable. Viewers could search speeches for different words or phrases.

Testing revealed some problems, however. Some words were transcribed incorrectly. The gadget also couldn’t return results differentiated by the context in which words were used. For example, if you searched an Obama speech for “Iran” your results could contain references to the country as well as Obama’s morning exercise routine.

Later in 2008, Google expanded this technology by adding a new transcription and indexing tool to their Labs site. Unfortunately, the current status of the tool, which they called GAudi, is unclear. Google removed GAudi from their Labs site and the Google Elections Video Search gadget is no longer available. Nonetheless, we’re betting that development on these technologies will continue at Google, and elsewhere.

When video content becomes searchable, SEO tactics will come into play. Implications are huge: video script writers and maybe even speech writers will need to write text that’s search engine optimized. If your CEO or client is delivering a speech that is being video recorded and posted on your company’s website, you’ll want to make sure  his or her speech contains words and phrases that will help get desired search engine rankings and presence.

Get Your Videos SEO Ready

What does this mean for video production today? Once transcribing and indexing technology becomes available, companies will scramble to re-shoot SEO optimized video content. Those who have already addressed this issue and ensured their video content is search engine optimized will be well ahead of the game. The next time you are developing video content for a website, give some serious thought to making the content search engine friendly.

Why would copywriters at Webcopyplus pay $4,000 for a digital photo that retails for about $10? Well, frankly, we screwed up. It’s an expensive lesson on copyright laws that we wish to share with other marketers, so you don’t make the same mistake.

Our web copywriters were under the impression that images on the Web without any copyright notices were “public domain” and therefore free to use. Naive? Yes. A notion limited to our copywriting firm? Definitely not. It likely has to do with the fact that works no longer need a copyright notice to have copyright protection (you can read about the Berne Convention Implementation Act, which the US adopted in 1988).

Designers, writers, developers, marketers, business owners, and ironically even photographers, use photos from the Web without permission. Sites like Google make it so convenient. Enter your keywords, do an image search, and you’ve got an endless photo library ripe for the picking. Woman laughing delivers 5.2 million photos. Business man offers 423 million photos. And the keyword kids brings up a whopping 778 million images. You can find pretty well anything, too, from ABBA to zombies.

The Copyright Crime

While we maintained an active stock photo account for our blog with access to an array of suitable photos, one of our copywriters grabbed a photo from the Web. The image: a colour 400 x 300 pixel beach shot with some greenery in the foreground. A nice shot, but nothing spectacular.

We posted it on a client’s tourism blog to add zest to a promotional article — done. Sip some caffeine, get a little Twitter action, and then dive into the next copywriting project. Photo forgotten. That was in May, 2010.

The Lawyer’s Letter

Fast forward a few months, we got a call from the client a couple of days before Christmas, and he wasn’t feeling overly festive. He received a formal letter from a lawyer with the following introduction: “Cease and desist demand and offer to settle copyright infringement claim, and digital millennium copyright act claim, subject to Rule 408, Federal Rules of Evidence.”

Apparently copyright infringement involving images that are registered with the U.S. Copyright Office allows for statutory damages of up to $30,000, or $150,000 if it can be demonstrated it was a willful act.

The Lawyer’s Demands:

1.    Immediately cease and desist all unlicensed uses of the image, and delete all copies from computers and digital storage devices.
2.    Remit almost $4,000 to his trust account.

The image was removed within minutes. Lengthy discussions ensued. Two days later, a letter of apology was emailed to the lawyer to advise the photo had been immediately removed, and to express regret for the “unintentional errant use” of the image.

The lawyer responded that while they appreciated our commitment to remove the image from the blog, “removal of the image from the website will not relieve you from liability for damages arising from your past infringing use of the image on your commercial website.” The letter also stated that any further attorneys’ fees and costs incurred to resolve the matter would be added to the settlement demand.

The Defendant’s Response

With some pro bono legal advice, a copy of the Certificate of Registration and the date that the image was first published was requested. While the letter contained all sorts of legal jargon, it failed to verify the image was copyright registered and that the lawyer’s client, a photographer, owned the rights to the image.

A few notes were exchanged, and by entering a registration number at the U.S. Copyright Office’s website (www.copyright.gov), we were able to confirm the image was copyright registered and the lawyer’s client was the rightful owner. Shortly after, we provided a counter offer of $1,925, which we figured would provide the photographer about $100 per month, and the lawyer three-hours’ pay at a lofty $400 per hour. We felt that was generous and more than fair to make this problem go away.

They declined, and due to the exchange of letters (while respectful in nature and completely reasonable, considering we were merely asking for registration and ownership proof), the lawyer slapped on an extra $2,500 in attorney fees, which he subsequently agreed to remove.

The Dilemma

Had the lawyer engaged Webcopyplus, in which case our client wouldn’t be caught in the middle, we would have had options: ignore the letter; say, “Go ahead, sue us”; or respond, “$1,925 is our final offer,” which there’s a chance they’d accept. We felt — and photographers we spoke to agreed — the proposed settlement amount was excessive.

In fact, you can find articles and discussions online on how lawyers around the globe are capitalizing in technologies and laws to bring in piles of claims for copyright infringement damages. For example, check out Copyright Lawsuits as a Business Model.

The Decision

While we considered the lawyer’s demands abusive, the fact remained that our client was trapped in the ordeal, and it was costing him time and causing him grief. Plus, he’d be the one to get subpoenaed. So we opted to settle for $4,000.

It was a tough pill to swallow, but we were the ones who messed up, and salvaging the client relationship was priority. Moreover, settling the matter would allow us to focus on writing copy to market and sell products and services, and build productive relationships, rather than deal with an aggressive lawyer.

Lesson Learned

As web copywriters, we work with dozens of web designers around the globe. Based on recent discussions, even after we shared our story, some continue to suggest copyright laws are blurry, and insist if you ever run into conflict and get a threatening letter, you can simply delete the image and toss the document in the trash (one designer even labeled it “delete and toss”).

While this might work with some individuals and organizations, particularly if they’re in a different province, state or country, which might make legal costs prohibitive, be aware: you could end up in a lengthy and costly court battle. For those who insist, “It won’t happen to me,” mind the fact that this beach photo was the only one we’ve ever grabbed from the Web for a client’s website. And it cost us almost $4,000. Consequently, we urge others to recognize and yield to a simple fact: If it’s on the Internet and others wrote or created it, do not use it without their permission.

As copywriters, we work with and rely on a range of creative types and specialists, including photographers. We didn’t mean any disregard for this profession and now have a greater awareness and appreciation for the fact that freely using photos from the Web diminishes a photographer’s income and livelihood. We apologize, and it won’t happen again.

Copyright Resources

We’re copywriters — not copyrighters — so this is meant to share our experience, not to provide formal legal advice. However, there’s a lot of useful copyright information on the Internet, which you can check out.

Fair Use — If you’re using copyrighted work for teaching or research, criticism or comment, or news reporting, it may be considered fair use.

Berne Convention Implementation Act of 1988 — The US adopted the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, an international agreement governing copyright that was initially established in Berne, Switzerland in 1886.

10 Big Myths About Copyright Explained — Techie and photographer Brad Templeton touches on common copyright myths.

Free and Commercial Stock Photography Sources

As part of our updated policies, our copywriters are required to only use stock photo websites in a bid to play by the rules, be fair to photographers, and keep lawyers out of the equation. Here’s a list of stock photo sources you might want to consider, where you can get photos starting at $1 per image:

• GettyImages
• iStock
• Pixmac*
• Stock.XCHNG

*For the record, the Pixmac link is an affiliate link (so we can recoup some of the settlement costs and support our caffeine addictions). It’s a relatively new company with 11 million images to choose from, at affordable prices.

Creative Commons

Some photographers let people share and use photographs under Creative Commons licenses, which is an alternative to full copyright (special thanks to Vancouver photographer Kris Krug, who brought this to our attention). You can find millions of Creative Commons photos at Flickr.

Update: Another good information source is the Canadian Intellectual Property Office.

Shortly after writing about Internet addiction, a photographer reached out and told us about a service that blocks the Internet from your computer. While you might pay a small fortune to access the Internet, you can block it for just a few bucks. Sounds too good to be true, right? So we had to look into it.

The site states Freedom is a “productivity application” that locks you away from the Internet on Mac or Windows computers for up to eight hours at a time. The company claims its product “frees you from distractions, allowing you time to write, analyze, code, or create.” At the end of your offline period, Freedom “allows” you back on the Internet.

Allows? Sounds very controlling, like Norton Antivirus, Kim Jong-il, or a jealous spouse. And you’re expected to volunteer and even pay for this? When you’re writing, coding or creating, it’s often those little ‘distractions’ that get you valuable information, tools, ideas and inspiration throughout the day. Plus, humans are no longer expected to focus on one thing for too long — that’s so 20th century!

Seeing Freedom in use wasn’t overly impressive. When our associate was locked out and needed to access a website, cursing ensued. We then gained valuable insight into how you can work around the application. It’s simple: you just reboot your computer. Our copywriters require constant fast lane access to the information super highway, so that would actually be counter productive, not to mention annoying.

Want ‘freedom’? You can download the app for $10, or kick its tires with a free trial. Get Freedom now.

Other Ways to Kill Your Internet Connection

If you’re not into Freedom or a 45-day, $14,000 Internet detox program, another option would be to go with the cheapest Internet provider in town, so your connection will be down half the time anyway. How about dial-up? Unplug your router? In fact, X Ways to Kill the Internet would be a fitting title and topic for The Oatmeal.

Maybe the onus shouldn’t be on vulnerable computer users. Perhaps social media sites should start being forced to feature warning labels, like cigarette companies.

Other Productivity Tools

Here’s a roundup of other app and resource lists to make your day go easier:

Mashable offers an extensive list of tools to help get your work done faster.
Socialbrite provides a range of sources, from academic research to wikis.
Smashing Magazine brings web designers 50 powerful time savers.

Are there helpful tools you’d recommend? Let us know in the comments below. Or, if you’d like to connect, join us on Facebook and Twitter.