Vanishd is a very clever, possibly too clever, free browser based application which lets you hide your work time surfing habits from your boss and colleagues using a sophisticated screen of conventional office type documents. Once registered you simply fire up the service, select which document you want to hide behind – spreadsheet, word-processing and the like – and then use the window to view your preferred subject matter.
The current version won’t let you watch YouTube or other Flash based video from Firefox 3.5, but apart from that restriction you’re pretty much free to roam wherever you want, including the usual jumping off points Facebook and Flickr etc. You can resize your viewing window using the mouse wheel, and scrolling in and outside the viewing window works OK, albeit a little clumsily.
I found it just a little too frustrating to use for long stretches, although if you’re under threat, I guess any tech to help you goof off safely is worth a look. The premium version – at $3.00 a month – offers a stealth mode and password protection.
VANISHD lets you browse the internet in privacy without co-workers, bosses, friends, or family seeing what you are surfing – all without any downloads or plugins. Covered by another web page, your web surfing viewing window is camouflaged. Simply moving the mouse off the browser window or right-clicking instantly hides the viewing window from prying eyes and only the cover web page is left visible. You can very easily adjust the size, shape, and location of the viewing window.
Very smart. A bit like that thing that made Twitter look like Excel …
Just fire the losers who are being paid to do a job, not to screw around.
As a freelance computer programmer, I use similar software to work on multiple client accounts when I’m on site with one client. This works best with LogMeIn (logmein.com) and Atlantis (atlantisprivacy.com).