About Ryan Dube
Ryan has a BSc degree in Electrical Engineering. He's worked 13 years in automation engineering, 5 years in IT, and now is an Apps Engineer. A former Managing Editor of MakeUseOf, he's spoken at national conferences on Data Visualization and has been featured on national TV and radio.
Set Up A Quick IM System On Your Intranet With EZIM
Everyone is pretty familiar with all of the major Internet IM services, but companies and small businesses across the world have a similar need to allow people connected to a protected internal LAN with the ability to communicate via chat, without the need to connect to such outside IM services.
Be The King Of The World With Imperia Online
If you're the kind of person that found yourself addicted to building farms in Farmville or a cafe in Cafeville, then you'll absolutely love Imperia Online. It's the same sort of real-time "building" strategy game where you assign events to happen and then come back later when it's finished.
6 Cool Interactive Sites To Learn More About American History
I hate to come across as a bit ethnocentric here, but I've always loved American history. I love world history too, and of course the stories from the past for other countries are never-ending - probably because there is just so much more history for any other country. America was called the "new world" for a reason. However short it is, it's history has been both amazing, terrible, exciting and uplifting all at the same time.
Beat Your Weird Phobia With These 8 Self-Help Psychology Websites
Have you ever found yourself facing a huge spider in your house, frozen by a fear that set your heart racing and sweat penetrating your clothes? Have you ever hiked up a high mountain, walked up to the edge of a cliff, and found that one glimpse of the dizzying height made it so that you couldn't breathe? Have you ever found yourself sitting in a meeting, and as your turn to speak approached, your heart raced?
How To Write A Windows Script To Change Network Settings On The Fly
In many offices or work environments, you might need to redefine your network settings to connect to different networks. I found myself in this situation often enough, and got so tired of browsing to the network card, opening up the IP settings and making those edits, that I decided it was high time to put together a VB script that would do it all in one or two clicks.
Learn SQL Or Create A Simple Database With SQLite Database Browser
Have you ever found yourself in need of a database, but you can't really afford Microsoft Access, and you certainly can't afford to install and operate an Oracle server at home. Whether your goal is to practice your hand with learning SQL commands on a real, live database, or you just would like to have a simple and highly portable database, the SQLite Browser is exactly what you need.
5 Coolest Places To Find Visualizations On The Web
About a month ago, someone contacted me about whether I wanted to publish one of their infographics on my site. Before then, I had never really had much of an interest in such visualizations of data. For those of you that are regular readers, you know we love infographics here at MUO. I mean, come on, who wouldn't love the Wrath of the Angry Birds infographic that Mark posted?
Monitor Network Devices And Websites With ICMP Ping Manager
Both at work and at home, I often find that I have a need to check the status of my PCs, printers, servers or other network devices. These days, with so many devices making use of home networks, this is something that more homeowners need to do. you may find it useful to use an application with a nice GUI that will do all of the heavy lifting for you. One such application is Ping Manager.
Conveniently Patch Windows & All Programs With Patch My PC
I have to admit that when it comes to keeping a PC completely up-to-date with all of the required patches and updates, I fall far short.
Automate Informative Google Analytics Reports With Custom Reporting
One thing that I've always wanted to get working better with Google Analytics is an automated reporting feature that provides the information that I want and in the format that is easy for whoever needs to see the data, to understand what it means. Recently, Google has made a few changes to Analytics custom reporting that has made it much easier to work with.
Simulate Building & Launching A Model Rocket With OpenRocket
We love making models here at MUO. But one problem with tweaking a model design in the real world is that to test it, you have to rebuild a rocket with new parameters, do a test launch, and then head back to the drawing board to further improve your design. What if you could use a computer to simulate a model rocket launch, with the ability to modify and test all of the possible alterations you can make to your rocket design?
9 Types Of Facebook Status Updates That Your Friends Will Like
One thing that I've noticed when I talk to friends that initially start using Facebook is that "nobody comments on my wall." Sometimes, I'll even try to help them out by letting them show me their Facebook wall and trying to help them understand what they're doing wrong, and why people may not feel encouraged to comment on their status updates. Sometimes, it's just a matter of reciprocating.
5 Things I've Learned About Internet Behavior Through My SEO Work
I have a criteria of about 8 to 10 items that I personally look for when I do SEO analysis, but of course one of the most important is search volume. Having monitored the search volume for thousands of different phrases over the course of time, I have come to recognize a few very large, not insignificant patterns in how humanity around the world tends to use the Internet - or at least how they use the search engines.
5 Reasons You Really Don't Have To Worry If You're Cyberbullied [Opinion]
A lot of cyberbully "gurus" tell kids about making online posts - that what you post online you can never take back. The thing is, that's not entirely true. I'm here to give you a small dose of reality - the world is a heck of a lot bigger than that, and whatever some moron posts about you isn't really as bad as you may think.
6 Ways To Find Out If You Are On The Google List Of Blacklisted Sites
Imagine that you've spent years building a business and growing a website. You launch a promotion to email a list of potential customers with exciting new opportunities to save lots of money by doing business with you. Did you email too many people, or did you email the wrong people? Did someone turn you in as a "spammer" to one of the many spammer blacklist organizations out there?
Set Yourself Apart When Upgrading And Repairing PCs For A Living
Trying to make money by offering tech support with your own small business isn't exactly easy. In this article I'm going to cover 5 really cool tech support services you can offer to your customers that will not only offer you a regular monthly income from maintenance contracts, but it will also help you to get a leg up on the competition.
PeerBlock - Block IP Addresses Of Government Spies Or Evil Hacker Friends [Windows]
When people want to protect their computer from outside threats, the first thing they usually think of is installing antivirus or anto-malware software. Those applications do an excellent job at blocking known viruses and malware from infecting your PC. But what if antivirus and malware-blockers aren't enough?
8 Weirdest Conspiracy Theory Websites On The Planet
Isn't it crazy how few skeptic, fact-checking sites there are out there, yet there is such an abundance of crazy, poorly-researched conspiracy garbage sites ? I've decided to share a few of my top selections of the weirdest conspiracy theory sites out there, with users or bloggers that do a terrible job fact-checking their loony-theories against reality.
5 Worst Examples Of The WikiLeaks Sites Banned Or Censored
At first, the releases coming out of Wikileaks were shocking and exciting. They brought us news of civilian casualties in Iraq, and they brought us embarrassing diplomatic cables. Here let's take a little stroll down memory lane and examine some of the silliest WikiLeaks bans that took place throughout 2009 and 2010.
Create Your Own Home Address Book Server With PHP Address Book
In my entire life, I think I can honestly say that the single most annoying task (and the one I am worst at), is maintaining an updated list of the addresses, phone numbers and birthdays of all of my friends, family and colleagues. Lately I've been looking for an alternative to using a computer application or a mobile app to maintain a contact database. I believe I found the perfect solution.