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Hello! My name is Susan and I make clear, to-the-point coding videos and guides.

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Videos & Guides

Light theme in ChatGPT Mac Desktop App - Overwrite default behavior so ChatGPT’s Mac Desktop App has a light theme even if your system is set to dark mode.

Run ChatGPT in RStudio with chattr - How to integrate a ChatGPT window directly into RStudio using the R package chattr.

Travel Area Exceeds Print Volume - OctoPrint / Ender-3 / Cura - Address the error “Travel area exceeds the print volume” in OctoPrint when printing with an Ender-3 and G-code sliced in Cura.

Completely delete RStudio from Mac - How to completely delete RStudio as well as any of its settings and configurations from a Mac computer.

Coding Psych Experiments (FULL COURSE) - Introduction - Learn how to build online psychological experiments using JavaScript and jsPsych.

Simple setup for R in VSCode instead of RStudio (Mac) - How to configure VSCode as a development environment for R, integrating features such as code completion, linting, and syntax highlighting. Offers a more versatile and performance-focussed alternative to R Studio.

Add a new empty track in ScreenFlow - How to create a new empty track at the top of your timeline in ScreenFlow.

Run PsychoPy experiments online w/ GithubPages + OSF for free - How to self-host PsychoPy experiments for free on Github Pages and have the data sent to OSF.io

Run PsychoPy online experiments on your own server - Run PsychoPy experiments and collect data on your own web server. Alternative to the paid Pavlovia service.

CodeIgniter & Laravel Herd - Local development (Mac) - Install and run CodeIgnitor locally on a Mac using local development environment Laravel Herd and DBngin (for MySQL database).

DaVinci Resolve - Fix washed out exports (iPhone footage on Mac) - Color profile settings to address videos exported from DaVinci Resolve having washed out colors

Builder View (lexical decision task) - In Part 4 of this PsychoPy series, we will build a lexical decision task using the Builder View.

Coding Experiments (lexical decision task continued) - Part 3 of this PsychoPy series continues with our lexical decision task, adding features such as importing external conditions, recording reaction time, writing results to a CSV file, and more.

Coding Experiments - Part 2 of this PsychoPy series zooms in on the Coder View as we learn how to program a lexical decision task.

Overview - Part 1 of my series on working with PsychoPy. This intro provides a general overview of designing experiments using the Coder and Builder view.

Migrate from Laragon to Laravel Herd - Steps for migrating a Laravel application and MySQL database from Laragon to Laravel Herd on Windows.

Uninstall Laravel Herd on Windows - Completely uninstall Laravel Herd on Windows (including any of its configs and dependencies). Allows for a fresh slate re-install.

VSCode New Features Highlight - A highlight of three useful features added in the latest VSCode update. 1) Customize file tabs, 2) Add markers to mini-map, 3) Update extensions without restarting VSCode.

Completely uninstall VSCode (Visual Studio Code) on Windows - To get a fresh install of VSCode on windows you have to delete not only the program itself, but some config files on your computer related to VSCode.

MySQL with Laravel Herd on Windows - Manually install and use MySQL in conjunction with Laravel Herd on Windows as an alternative to paying for Herd’s Pro features which includes MySQL.

Laravel Herd released for Windows - Easy PHP local development - Laravel Herd is now available on Windows.

Miniconda / Conda for Python - Install and use Conda, a command line tool for managing Python packages and environments.

Simplest command line program for Windows - Git Bash - Work with Unix-based command line on Windows via Git Bash.

PsychoPy - Manual install via Conda (PsychoPy in VSCode) - How to install and use PsychoPy via Conda without the standalone PsychoPy program.

Getting started with Anaconda and Python on Windows - How to download and install Anaconda on Windows, set up an environment, and run a Python program.

Getting started with Anaconda and Python on a Mac - How to download and install Anaconda on a Mac, set up an environment, and run a Python program.

What is Anaconda for Python? - What Anaconda is, what it includes, and why you would want to use it.

Web Developers - How good are your backups? - A PSA for anyone who manages web servers or sites: not only should you have backups in place, you should make sure you understand how to use those backups if needed.

Run Laravel via a subdirectory on an Apache server - Apache site configs for running a Laravel application via a subdirectory, e.g. http://yourdomain.com/admin.

Run Laravel via a subdirectory on a Nginx server - Nginx site configs for running a Laravel application via a subdirectory, e.g. http://yourdomain.com/admin

Multiple Laravel apps on a single Nginx server - Deploy unique Laravel applications on a single Nginx server, accessed from separate domains.

Multiple Laravel apps on a single Apache server - Deploy unique Laravel applications on a single Apache server, accessed from separate domains.

Setup PHP CS Fixer in VSCode (junstyle php-cs-fixer) - Format PHP code with php-cs-fixer into VSCode using the junstyle.php-cs-fixer plugin.

New Laravel app on Laragon - How to set up and run Laravel applications with Laragon, an all-in-one server management program for Windows.

8 development server options for Laravel - Summary of development server options for Laravel including: PHP's built-in server, Valet, Herd, Homestead, Docker, Sail, Laragon, XAMPP, MAMP, and WAMP.

Send emails in Laravel without a Mailable class - How to send emails in Laravel without using a Mailable class. Includes details for raw plain text emails as well as HTML emails.

YouTube API and Laravel - Building on my YouTube API & PHP series, this guide covers how to communicate with the YouTube API from a Laravel application.

dompdf - View PDF in browser instead of downloading - A fix for PDFs generated using DOMPDF downloading instead of streaming in the browser.

VSCode - Disable code hint and hover popups (IntelliSense code completion) - Settings for disabling VSCode’s code hint popups that appear when typing or hovering text

Using Composer in a plain PHP project (No frameworks) - How to set up and use Composer in a plain PHP project that isn’t using a framework.

Generate PDFs in Laravel - Generate PDFs from View files in Laravel using the package laravel-dompdf

Git delete commits and reset code base to a specific commit - How to reset a git code base to a specific commit, deleting all commits made since

YouTube API & PHP - Edit video details (google-api-php-client) - Edit a video’s details with the YouTube Data API using the google-api-php-client

YouTube API & PHP - OAuth Connection (google-api-php-client) - Set up an OAuth connection with Google and the YouTube Data API using the google-api-php-client

YouTube API & PHP - Get all videos from a channel (google-api-php-client) - How to get all the videos from a YouTube channel using the YouTube data API, PHP, and google-api-php-client package. Covers paging through the results using tokens.

YouTube API & PHP - Get video details (google-api-php-client) - How to retrieve information about a video from the YouTube Data API using google-api-php-client.

YouTube API & PHP - Initial setup (google-api-php-client) - How to query the YouTube API using PHP. In this setup video we’ll create and configure a new project in the Google Cloud console, install the package google-api-php-client, and query for the details of a video.

Google API OAuth - Local URLs for authorized redirect - Using local redirect URLs when connecting to Google APIs.

Dynamic environment configs in Laravel Dusk (duskapiconf) - Change application configs on the fly during Dusk tests using the package duskapiconf.

Rounded corners in Photoshop (2024) - Create rounded corners / edges in Photoshop using the rectangle tool and a layer clipping mask.

SSH Remote development with VSCode - Using VSCode’s Remote SSH extension, you can do development work directly on a remote server. Learn how to set up a new connection and troubleshoot any connection issues.

VSCode Remote SSH Keeps disconnecting FIXED - Fix for VSCode SSH Remote Development plugin stuck with errors Disconnected Attempting to reconnect or Setting up SSH Host Initializing VSCode

VSCode PHP CS Fixer: executablePath not found (junstyle) - Solutions for using the VSCode extension php cs fixer by junstyle and seeing the following error: PHP CS Fixer: executablePath not found. Try setting `php-cs-fixer.executablePath`: `${extensionPath}/php-cs-fixer.phar` and try again.

Create a freeze frame in DaVinci Resolve - How to create a freeze frame of part of a clip in DaVinci Resolve

Blur background for vertical videos in DaVinci Resolve - Fill the background of vertical videos - DaVinci Resolve with a blurred background (Blanking Fill effect)

Blur something out in DaVinci Resolve - How to blur something out in DaVinci Resolve. Includes tips on blurring something that moves off screen.

Export a still image in DaVinci Resolve - How to export a still image from a frame in a video in DaVinci Resolve

Change the speed of multiple clips in DaVinci Resolve - How to change the speed of multiple clips at the same time in DaVinci Resolve.

Record a voice-over in DaVinci Resolve - How to record a voice-over in DaVinci Resolve.

Run phpMyAdmin on a Mac (Herd / DBngin) - How to run phpMyAdmin on a Mac with Apache or Nginx and MySQL.

Laravel In a Nutshell - Conclusion (#9) - Series wrap-up and suggestions on what you should do next as you continue your path to learn Laravel.

Laravel In a Nutshell - Form Processing (#8) - Form processing and validation in Laravel with some additional practice using Eloquent models to create new data in a database.

Laravel In a Nutshell - Eloquent & Collections (#7) - More examples of working with Eloquent and coverage of Laravel’s Collection data type.

Laravel In a Nutshell - Eloquent Models & Seeding (#6) - Interact with database tables in Laravel using their Eloquent ORM (Object Relational Mapping) system.

Laravel In a Nutshell - Database & Migrations (#5) - Set up a MySQL database and create tables for our demo application using Migrations.

Laravel In a Nutshell - Views & Blade (#4) - How to use the Blade templating language to simplify the process of writing our Views.

Laravel In a Nutshell - Controllers (#3) - What are Controllers, how to create them, and how to invoke their methods from our Routes.

Laravel In a Nutshell - Routes (#2) - Laravel’s routing system is used to define all the URLs used in your application. With each route, you’ll specify a URL that will trigger that route and define what should happen when that route is requested.

Laravel In a Nutshell - Intro & Installation (#1) - In this series I’ll provide a broad overview of working with Laravel. In Part 1 we’ll start off with installation.

New Laravel application with Herd and DBngin - How to set up a new Laravel application with Herd and DBngin.

Migrating Laravel site from XAMPP to Herd and DBngin - How to migrate an existing Laravel site and MySQL database from XAMPP to Herd and DBngin.

VSCode - Backup and Reset to Default Settings (Mac) - How to reset VSCode on a Mac to its default state after backing up settings, keybindings, and extensions.

Laravel error: Integrity constraint violation - foreign key constraint fails - How to fix a foreign key constraint fails database error in a Laravel application.

Sequel Ace - Connecting to a Forge managed databases - These are the settings you need to enter into Sequel Ace to connect to a MySQL / Maria database system on a Forge managed server.

Deploying Laravel - MySQL / MariaDB database setup (Ubuntu) - As a follow-up to my guides on setting up Laravel on an Ubuntu server, this guide covers creating and configuring your MySQL (or Maria) database.

Forge Under the Hood - Databases (MySQL / MariaDB) - In this guide, I’ll explain how to manage MariaDB/MySQL databases directly via MySQL command line instead of via the Forge interface. You can use this information when troubleshooting or if you decide to cancel your Forge subscription and manage your own servers.

Forge Under the Hood - Scheduler (Cron) - Laravel’s server management service, Forge, has a Scheduler feature which allows you to schedule commands to be run on your server at a set time. This Scheduler feature is just a nice interface for your server’s underlying Cron program. In this guide we’ll learn how to work directly with Cron. You can use this information when troubleshooting or if you decide to cancel your Forge subscription and manage your own servers.

Forge Under the Hood - Daemons (Supervisor) - Forge uses the Supervisor process control system to manage and monitor daemons. Daemons are used to keep long-running scripts alive on your server. In this guide I‘ll break down how Forge is managing Supervisor on your servers. You can use this information when troubleshooting or if you decide to cancel your Forge subscription and manage your own servers.

Configuring subdomains on Apache web servers - How to set up a subdomain on a Ubuntu server running Apache. Includes steps to set your DNS settings and configure the server to process the incoming subdomain traffic.

Configuring a subdomain on a Nginx web server - How to set up a subdomain on a Ubuntu server running Nginx. Includes steps to set your DNS settings and configure the server to process the incoming subdomain traffic.

Copy files from a server to your computer using command line / SSH SCP - How to use the SCP (Secure Copy) command to move files or directories from a remote server to your computer (or some other server) via SSH.

Laravel fix for 419 Page Expired - CSRF Tokens - If you submit a form in a Laravel application via POST and see the error 419 Page Expired, it’s typically because there was a CSRF token mismatch. This guide shows you how to fix this error and explains the role of a CSRF token.

Laravel permissions for storage and bootstrap/cache (Apache or Nginx) - How to identify your web server user and set the correct permissions for Laravel’s storage and bootstrap/cache directories.

mysql_secure_installation Failed! Error: SET PASSWORD has no significance for user root - What to do when you run mysql_secure_installation and receive the error `SET PASSWORD has no significance for user root`.

Migrate from MySQL to MariaDB (Ubuntu) - Walk through of migrating from MySQL to MariaDB. Includes steps to backup MySQL, uninstall MySQL, install and secure MariaDB, and then import MySQL data.

Install and configure MySQL / MariaDB (Ubuntu) - Install and configure a MySQL (MariaDB) database service on an Ubuntu server.

Deploy Laravel on Ubuntu Apache server - How to deploy a Laravel application to a Ubuntu server running Apache.

Deploy Laravel on Ubuntu Nginx server - How to deploy a Laravel application to a Ubuntu server running Nginx.

How to fix SSH WARNING: REMOTE HOST IDENTIFICATION HAS CHANGED! - Understanding and fixing a “SSH WARNING: REMOTE HOST IDENTIFICATION HAS CHANGED!” error when connecting to a remote server.

Understand DNS settings for email sending (MailGun) - An explanation of the various DNS records you create when configuring a domain with a email sending service like MailGun.

How to configure a domain and DNS settings with MailGun - A quick run through of configuring a domain’s DNS settings to work with MailGun email sending. Shown with Namecheap.com as the domain provider, but the same instructions should work for most domain providers.

VSCode - Customize your keyboard shortcuts - How to customize your keyboard shortcuts in VSCode using both the Keyboard Shortcuts interface and the keybindings.json config file.

VSCode - Keyboard shortcuts to increase font size instead of zooming window - Learn how to override the default zoom behavior in VSCode so your zoom keyboard shortcuts (Cmd +, Cmd - on Mac or Ctrl +, Ctrl - on Windows/Linux) will zoom in/out just the code pane, not the entire interface.

Safely run commands you find online - Blindly running commands you find online can lead to trouble. In this guide I expound on this and offer some tips on how to quickly research commands before you run them.

Install Composer on a Mac - PHP dependency management - How to install Composer on your Mac with just a few commands.

Upgrading to PHP 8.2 (Ubuntu with Apache) - Upgrading PHP on an Ubuntu server running Apache.

Upgrading to PHP 8.2 (Ubuntu with Nginx) - Upgrading PHP on an Ubuntu server running Nginx.

Composer require a forked repository - How to use a forked version of a Composer package on Github. Useful as a temporary solution if you identify a bug or issue in a package you’re using and the package maintainer is slow to address the issue.

SSH Keys and Github - Learn how to communicate with Github from your computer/server by authenticating with SSH key pairs.

Coding Rock, Paper, Scissors with a math equation - How to programmatically determine the winner of Rock, Paper, Scissors using math."

Common Laravel Installation Issues (500 Server Error) - Run through of five common system-level bugs that might be preventing your Laravel application from loading.

Fix for SSH Permission Denied (Public Key) - In this guide I’ll go through troubleshooting steps for when you attempt to SSH into a remote server/system using SSH keys as your authentication method and it fails with the error Permission denied (publickey).

Creating a SSH key connection with a server - How to connect to a server using SSH key authentication which provides a more secure and convenient way of logging into a server versus using a password.

Enable Swap Space an Ubuntu server - Easy Backup RAM Memory - One way to increase the responsiveness of a server and prevent out of memory errors is to add swap space. Swap space designates an area of your hard drive where your operating system can temporarily store data that it can no longer hold in RAM.

PHP Configuration - Locating and Editing php.ini (Apache, Nginx, PHP FPM) - How to identify and edit PHP’s initialization file (php.ini) which is responsible for configuring many of the aspects of PHP’s behavior.

Upgrading with Laravel Shift - Full process with useful troubleshooting tips - Upgrading an application with Laravel Shift.

Local email testing in Laravel - Four approaches to handling emails in a Laravel development context: logging, MailHog, MailTrap, and routing all outgoing messages to an email of your choosing.

Quick Guide to Custom VSCode Snippets - Snippets in VSCode provide a way to easily inject commonly used code “snippets” into your files. In this guide, I will quickly show you how to create your own custom snippets."

DevTools & Wrap-up (#15) - Discussion of Vue DevTools and resources to check out after completing this series.

Composition API (#14) - Learn how to work with Vue.js’s Composition API which allows you to organize your Vue instances by an applications features.

Single File Components (#13) - In Vue.js, Single File Components allow us to organize together all the JavaScript, HTML, and CSS of a specific entity or component of an application into one file. Within the JavaScript, you will define all the Vue options (data, computed properties, methods, watchers, etc.) necessary for that component, and each component will be set up as its own Vue instance.

Working with Vite and Vue (#12) - In Part 11 of this series, we set up a new Vue application using the Vite build system. Now, let’s take a tour of this application so we can understand how we’ll customize it and integrate our existing FlashWord functionality.

Vite Build System (#11) - Let’s take things up a notch by setting up a Vue project using the Vite build system. This will have several benefits including Hot Module Replacement, the ability to work with Vue SFC (Single File Components) and more.

PATH Variable (Mac) - Learn how to edit Mac’s PATH variable - a setting that contains a list of directories your computer should look in when executing programs via command line.

PATH Variable (Windows) - Learn how to edit Window’s PATH variable - a setting that contains a list of directories your computer should look in when executing programs via command line.

Building FlashWord (#10) - In this part of the series we’ll pull together all the skills we’ve covered so far into building an actual iteration of our FlashWord game.

Computed Properties & Watchers (#9) - In this guide we’ll learn about Vue’s Computed Properties which allow us to compose new data derived from other data. Additionally, we’ll learn about Watchers which allow us to define functions that watch for changes to existing data properties. Finally, we’ll discuss use cases for Computed Properties, Watchers, and Methods.

Form Input Binding (#8) - Earlier in this series we saw how the v-model directive can be used to create a two way binding between a data property and a text input. In this guide, we’ll dig deeper to learn how v-model can be used on other form elements including checkboxes, radios, dropdown, and textareas.

Attribute Binding (#7) - Dynamically set HTML attributes in Vue.js using the v-bind directive.

List Rendering (#5) - Let’s look at rendering lists of values using Vue’s v-for directive. When working with v-for, you can iterate through arrays, objects, numbers, and/or strings.

Conditional Rendering (#4) - Run through of Vue’s conditional rendering tools including v-if, v-else-if, v-else, and v-show.

Behind the Scenes (#3) - Before we dig further into working with Vue.js, let’s pause to highlight a couple of key points that are helpful to understand when working with Vue.

The Basics (#2) - In Part 1 of this series, we learned what Vue.js is and why you’d want to use it. Now let’s start with a simple example that will allow us to sample some of Vue’s key features. Later in this series, we‘ll dig deeper into each feature so consider this a broad introduction to start.

Introduction (#1) - In this series, we’re going to learn about the JavaScript framework, Vue.js. To guide our learning, we’re going to build a small application called FlashWord, a flash card game used to practice vocabulary of another language. This series will discuss both Vue’s Options API and Composition API, with a focus on the latter. (If you have no idea what this means, no worries, it will make sense later.)

Event Handling (#6) - Run through of event handling in Vue using the v-on directive. Covers inline handlers, method handlers, event arguments, modifiers, and shorthand syntax.

Command Line Basics for Web Developers (Terminal / Git Bash) - Learn what command line is and why it’s an important tool every web developer should know. We’ll look at setting up command line programs on Mac and Linux (Terminal) and Windows (Git Bash). Finally, we’ll walk through some basic commands for working with files and directories.

MySQL Command Line - Database and User Creation - In this guide I show how to create a new database using the MySQL command line console. I also demonstrate creating a new user to manage this database and how to confirm a web application can connect to the database. Because MariaDB is operationally the same as MySQL, these instructions would work the same on systems running MariaDB.

HTTPS / SSL via “Let’s Encrypt” on a Nginx Web Server - Learn how to configure HTTPS on a Nginx web server using a free certificate obtained from LetsEncrypt.org.

HTTPS / SSL via “Let’s Encrypt” on an Apache Web Server - Learn how to configure HTTPS on an Apache web server using a free certificate obtained from LetsEncrypt.org.

What is HTTPS (SSL) and why every site should use it - What is HTTPS, how to set it up, and why it’s important your site uses it.

Configuring sites/URLs on an Apache web server - How to configure a new site/URL on an Apache web server. Includes steps on configuring your domain’s DNS and setting up an Apache VirtualHost.

Simple Command Line Text Editing with Nano - Create/edit files directly in command line via the simple to use command line editor, Nano.

Configuring sites/URLs on a Nginx web server - Learn how to configure a new site/URL on an Ubuntu server running Nginx. Steps include: Configuring your domain’s DNS settings, creating the site config in Nginx, and testing/debugging your new site.

Remote Development with VSCode (SSH) - Using VSCode’s Remote Development extension, you can do development work directly on a remote server. This offers a lot of benefits versus the traditional approach of running a development server on your own computer.

HTTP Basic Authentication - Password Restrict an Entire Site (Nginx) - Use HTTP Basic Authentication to quickly ”lock down” and entire site on Nginx, making it inaccessible to the general public."

Custom Laravel Helpers - Use custom Laravel helpers to create your own globally accessible functions, just like the built in helpers that Laravel provides.