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Learning

Longer guides, explainers and cheat sheets, for when you want to learn a tool, not just copy a fix.

A padlock with a lime shackle in front of a website, under a glass shield that bounces off spiky attacks while envelopes pass through

Lesson Guides Cloudflare 101: set up the free plan, step by step Swap your nameservers to Cloudflare, turn on the orange cloud for your website records and set SSL to Full (strict). You get free speed, SSL and protection. October 7, 2026 11 min read

A globe with glowing lime server pins on several continents, linked by thin lines

Lesson Explainers When you need a cloud server, and why Vultr is a smart pick Need a server for a week, in another country or with more power? A Vultr cloud server starts in seconds, from 32 cities, billed by the hour. September 29, 2026 4 min read

A man at a desk scratching his head, looking at three cards on the wall that read WordPress, Shopify and Webflow

Lesson Explainers WordPress, Shopify or Webflow: which one do you need? Shopify if selling is the main job. WordPress with WooCommerce if content and control matter. Webflow if design comes first and your range is small. September 28, 2026 3 min read

The folder layout Deployer creates on the server

Lesson Guides Deployer, the PHP deployment tool: get started Deployer puts PHP sites live with no downtime and rolls back with one command. Install it, write a deploy.php, deploy a Laravel or WordPress site and roll back. March 21, 2020 3 min read

Apache config code example from this post

Lesson Guides MAMP: set up a local site with a virtual host Give each local project its own address, like mysite.test, in MAMP on a Mac. I turn on virtual hosts, add the site, map the name in /etc/hosts and restart. September 6, 2019 3 min read

SQL code example from this post

Lesson Cheat sheets MySQL JOINs explained: INNER, LEFT, RIGHT, FULL, CROSS, self What each MySQL JOIN returns, shown with two small tables and the real rows that come back. Plus how I build a FULL OUTER JOIN, which MySQL doesn't have. August 21, 2019 7 min read

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PHP code example from this post

Lesson Explainers What is Laravel Blade? Templates, layouts and components Blade is Laravel's template language. It gives you HTML files with {{ }} for safely escaped output, @ directives for loops and conditions, layouts and components. May 13, 2019 4 min read

The start of a README.md template

Lesson Explainers Add a README.md to every project (with a template) A good README tells the next developer what a project is, how to run it and how to deploy it. What I put in mine, a template to copy and the Markdown you need. February 22, 2019 3 min read

Bash code example from this post

Lesson Guides Shopify theme development: get started with Shopify CLI Build Shopify themes on your own computer with Shopify CLI. I install it, start from the Skeleton theme, preview with theme dev, then push and pull. January 16, 2019 4 min read

Bash code example from this post

Lesson Guides Set up Git on your server and deploy with a push Install Git on a Linux server, connect with SSH keys, and deploy with git push. I use a bare repository and a hook, or let the server pull from GitHub or GitLab. February 22, 2017 3 min read

CSS code example from this post

Lesson Cheat sheets Flexbox cheat sheet: every property, value and default Every flexbox property on one page, with its values and defaults. Plus gap, the layouts I build every week, and why the old -webkit-box prefixes can go. February 20, 2016 5 min read