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.
Organize Everything In One Place & Link To Files On Your Computer With KeyNote NF [Windows]
One of the most difficult aspects of having so many projects going at once - between being a writer, blog owner, engineer and programmer - is keeping everything sorted and organized. The one thing that consumes a lot of my time is not so much tracking the tasks that I need to do, but re-locating the text files and word documents where I kept notes or created my to-do lists.
Create a Really Useful Personal Information Dashboard Page With Google Sites
Creating webpages used to be such a tedious process. Aside from the hassle with deciding where to publicly host the page, you needed to learn HTML and then figure out how to program the page so that it didn't look like some amateur threw it together. These days, there are countless websites that will let you create a webpage in mere minutes, without any knowledge of HTML whatsoever.
How To Edit Thousands of Wordpress Posts With Just One SQL Command
Growing a blog takes years, and a whole lot of pain and struggle. Then there are the major transitions, when you realize that you have to make some major changes, and it's going to take a whole lot of work. There are a number of major changes I've had to make on my own blog, but one of the most difficult was that I had used a certain manual method to insert Google ads into my blog articles.
Using Facebook Insights To Better Understand Your Blog Readers
A big part of blogging is understanding your reader base. What is it that your readers are interested in? What type of articles do they prefer? What blog posts are they more likely to share with all of their friends? Getting a good understanding of your readers is a big part of growing any blog. It gives you the insight to focus on those topics that the audience within your niche find most valuable and interesting.
How Facebook Advertising Works & How To Place An Advert
If you've ever considered advertising on Facebook, but assumed it was completely unaffordable except for the largest companies and corporations, you may want to think again. If you've ever advertised on Google, using the pay-per-click advertising model, then you are more than prepared to pay for advertising on Facebook.
Give Yourself Or Your Kids A Hearing Test With Ear Test [Windows]
Recently, my wife and I started getting concerned because our eleven year old can never seem to hear us when we are talking to her. After suffering through several years of hearing "what?" from her, and having to constantly repeat ourselves, we're starting to think that maybe there's more to this phenomenon than selective hearing.
3 Ways to Integrate Google Plus Into Your Blog
Well, I finally caved in and adopted Google Plus. It wasn't willingly - with most new fads, I like to wait it out to see if, like 90 percent of most new and exciting online phenomena, it fades away into the ether of cyberspace. In the case of Google Plus, I was instantly reminded of so many other failed projects in the past - Google Wave, Google Video Player, Google Notebook....the list goes on and on.
PRTG Monitor - A Free Bandwidth Meter For PCs In Your Home Network
Have you ever been in a situation where your Internet is just dragging along, while you know that you're the only person on your network, and you're hardly using any bandwidth? There are plenty of tools out there that will help you with analyzing your home network and assist you with increasing your Internet speeds on that network.
10 Occupy Movement Websites You Have To Check Out
Unless you've been living under a rock, then the odds are pretty good that you've heard a little bit about the "Occupy" protests that started in New York City on Wall Street and then spread like wildfire across the country and across the globe. There are actually some very cool "Occupy" websites that have launched since the protests began in October, and I wanted to share a few of them with you.
The 5 Best Ways To Easily & Quickly Encrypt Files Before Emailing Them [Windows]
Earlier this year, I was faced with a situation where I had a writer working for me overseas in China, where we were both certain that all of our email communications were being monitored. I resorted to using a fully-fledged encrypted email system called VaultletSuite where both of us had to install the client on our PCs. While it appeared to be very secure, it was also a bit cumbersome.
How To Automate & Schedule Regular Windows 7 Backups
Far too many PC users fail to properly back up their systems and their data. Because of that, I've often found myself in the position of having to tell family and friends that all of the family photos and financial information they've stored on their computer is completely lost. There are so many free and inexpensive ways to set up regular backups, that there is really no excuse.
Write VB Windows Scripts Easier & Faster With VbsEdit
Writing a script to automate various tasks on your system that you would normally have to do manually is something that I've become infatuated with recently. Maybe it's the automation engineer in me, but the idea of having a computer intelligently do what I don't have time to do is very appealing. That is why I've recently started offering some tips on how you can automate your own computer.
5 Programs To Enhance Your Windows Experience
Running Windows 7 for the last few years, and then installing and using the latest version of Office apps like Word and Excel, I've started to accept change a little more easily. I've realized that while change can be difficult sometimes, ultimately it can make accomplishing things a lot easier, and it can really boost productivity.
9 Ways To Make Thunderbird Load Your Email Faster
If you asked anyone for the first words that comes to mind when they think of me, they'd probably say laid back. I really don't get very uptight unless something really, really ticks me off. There is a recent phenomenon that has been occurring with my desktop Thunderbird client that has been doing just that. It loads messages slower than a turtle on marijuana, and once it loads messages, it won't let me delete them.
Create A Freaky Possessed Computer With Windows Script For Halloween
There are a lot of fun pranks you can play on your friends with a computer. You've probably seen all of those creepy YouTube videos that people forward to each other for a good scare. Not long ago, Justin covered a few really funny ways to prank your parents with a computer too. All of those ideas are fun, but this year, how about creeping out your friends a bit with your very own programming skill?
3 Ways To Open Applications & Windows Maximized With VB Script [Windows]
If there is one thing I love to do, it's write VB scripts. Whether it's a Windows Script file or a VBA script inside an application, scripting provides the ability to add functionality to applications where most other people would find limitations and roadblocks. One of the most common functions that I've found I use in many of my scripts is maximizing a window.
5 Ways To Clean Up Your Computer With An Automated Script [Windows]
Computer maintenance isn't exactly something that most people remember to do. For the general user that isn't exactly tech savvy, when a computer doesn't work, they either call for help or simply buy a new computer. If you have family members or friends that are always calling you for help with a slow computer, I'm going to offer you a solution that you can use to stop those phone calls right now.
Create Webpages Five Times Faster Using the Bluefish Editor [Cross-Platform]
Websites are now powered by blog platforms like WordPress, or WYSIWYG editors like Kompozer, but the bottom line is that most hardcore web designers will always find it necessary to pop open a text editor to tweak the style a little bit here, or to realign the template a bit more there. I think that text editors are going to be around for a very long time.
Check Bad Links On Your Site Automatically With Linkchecker
When it comes to keeping your website or your blog healthy and strong in search engine listings, regularly checking for broken or otherwise bad links on your website is a very good idea. Not only is it good for your site's overall standings in search listings, it's also good for your visitors. No one wants to encounter broken links on a site - it's a sign of a poorly cared for website.
Browse Your Website Files Without FTP Using AjaXplorer
If there is one thing that really annoys me about working with a remote web server is the fact that it is still a bit inconvenient to explore and edit those files remotely. Commercial servers offer a much more user-friendly, graphical interface to remotely access your web files. So, it's high time you start upgrading those servers with a few bells and whistles.