How to Get Wget for Your Mac
Macs are great, with their neat UI and a Unix back-end. Sometimes you get the feeling you can do just about anything with them. Until one day you’re trying to do something simple and you realise what you need is just not available natively. In this case, I’m talking about wget, an incredibly useful command-line tool to download whole webpages, including media and as much link depth as you require.
Dropbox Automator Sends Emails, Converts PDFs, Downsizes Files & More
For many computer users, Dropbox is the quintessential online storage and file sharing service for accessing files between computer devices. If you're heavy user of Dropbox like I am, you might be interested in a new online service, Dropbox Automator, that can automatically perform all sorts of tasks when you add files to your designated Dropbox folders.
Make Your Dumb Phone Smart With ifttt
With If This Then That (ifttt) and SMS I can teach my dumb phone all kinds of smart tricks, from updating social networks to adding events to my calendar. What makes ifttt so good at educating your dumb phone is SMS messaging. Here are a few ways you can use it to your advantage from your dumb phone.
How To Create A Data Backup Tool With SyncToy & VB Script
We've covered a lot of backup solutions here at MUO, and all of these solutions are great, but if you're working in an environment that is wary about free 3rd party software packages, or companies that want to stick with Microsoft products only, then you may find yourself without a good solution. Enter SyncToy and VB Script.
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.
10 Great ifttt Recipes To Automate Your Web Life
We’ve already introduced you to ifttt in a previous post and there have been several improvements made and new channels added to the web application since then. Automation and synchronization are two points that have to be stressed if you’re very involved in social web and GTD. To save you even more time and effort, I’ve assembled a list of 10 of the best Recipes that are currently available.
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 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.
How to Automate Telnet Commands Using VB Script
Writing batch jobs and more recently Windows scripts is an activity that really makes up the bulk of how the large majority of network and system administrators do their jobs faster, and simplify what would otherwise be time-consuming, complex tasks. Using batch jobs, you can automate installing and uninstalling applications and a multitude of other queries and jobs.
Automate SMS Replies & Schedule Messages With Auto SMS [Android 2.1+]
Texting has become a common and very popular method of communicating with friends. Shooting off a quick text is much quicker and easier than calling, and it’s possible to text while distracted by other tasks. Of course, those other tasks sometimes need to take priority. Fortunately, the Auto SMS app for Android makes texting possible even when you’re not available.
Schedule Daily Tasks With Tasks Till Dawn [Mac]
Let's say you just want to schedule a few little daily or weekly tasks on your Mac and you don't feel like hauling out Automator or figuring out a script in AppleScript. Well, a small utility called Task Till Dawn might well do the trick. You can use Task Till Dawn to set up and run daily tasks for automatically opening files or scheduling iTunes to download the newest Podcast at a specified time.
Automatically Transfer Your Instagram Photos to Your Facebook Account Using InstaFB
One of the most popular photo sharing apps is Instagram. It combines the ability to take and share candid snapshots to the world and the wide range of unique image filters. Unfortunately, Instagram is only available for the iPhone and other iOS devices with a camera. For those who really love to share, the Instagram world might not be big enough.
How to Automatically Keep Windows 7 Clean of Obsolete Files
Windows has a way of collecting virtual dust, a circumstance that has not changed considerably in Windows 7. These obsolete files take up space and contribute to hard drive fragmentation. While neither of this is a big issue, it is an annoyance, one that you can easily take care of.
Getting Started with the Internet of Things eBook [Giveaway]
How cool would it be if your computer could talk to your sprinkler system and tell it to water your plants if the past few days have been really hot according to Weather.com? It would be friggin' awesome! And you can actually make this happen, if you know the bits and bobs involved and have a knack for programming. This week, we'll be giving away 25 copies of Getting Started with the Internet of Things by Cuno Pfister from O'Reilly Media. Jump in for a quick description of the book and join the giveaway!
How To Turn Off GPS In Private Places Using Tasker [Android]
With the plethora of amazing gadgets people own these days, it's really easy to overlook privacy concerns which, upon reflection, are quite obvious. One of the simplest of these is geotagging photos. While it's an incredibly handy tool for sight-seeing and worldwide data collection, it can be a pretty serious privacy threat.
Use Llama To Automate Your Android Phone With Location Profiles & More
On a scale of one to ten, how smart is your smartphone? It may be smart enough to handle email, or help you navigate unfamiliar urban landscapes. But is it smart enough to turn off the GPS when you plug it back in at home? Or does it have the brains to turn on the ringer once you've left work? Here at MakeUseOf, we only write about free applications and tools... and this is where Llama for Android comes in.
Move, Copy, Open, & Remove Files With File Sorter [Mac]
Much of our purpose with computers is to get work done faster and more efficiently. there’s a free option that might make a useful introduction to bulk file and folder automation; it’s called FileSorter—a free download in the Mac App Store.
Automate Your Wordpress Backup With Simple Shell Scripting & CRON
Last time we talked about Wordpress backups, I showed you how incredibly easy it was to backup your entire database and files though SSH with only a few commands. This time, I'm going to show how to automate those commands, giving you fresh backups of your entire site every week, with very little effort.
3 More Ways To Manage Your Dropbox Files You May Not Know About
Our favorite, all-time file sharing service, Dropbox, generously provides up to 2 gigs of file space for free. For many users this might be enough, but now that Dropbox is becoming the central cloud syncing service for shuffling and sharing stuff between computers and mobile devices, the allotted free space may fill up rather quickly if it's not probably managed and organized.
How To Use Microsoft Word Mailings To Automate Emails
While there are a lot of things I don't like about Microsoft Word, there are many more things I love about it. In particular, I love the ability to automate many of the tasks that you do often. One of those tasks is sending reports or emails. Most of us are faced with a job where you have to send a report to an entire team of people, so you find yourself spending hours writing up email after email.