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If you’re a developer in the PHP world, it’s likely that you’ve come across Laravel Valet. Laravel Valet is a very easy way to spin up multiple local development environments, by linking a folder name to a {folderName}.test domain.

Browsersync is a tool to make developing easier. It offers handy tools, of which the most important is automatic browser reloading on file change. Unfortunately Browsersync doesn’t work out-of-the-box with Laravel Valet, but luckily it requires only a little configuration.

There are roughly two ways to install Browsersync: install it via Laravel Mix in a Laravel project (or in an other PHP-project if you required Laravel Mix as a package) or install Browsersync without Laravel Mix, but with npm.

Installing Browsersync with Laravel Mix

A very handy feature of Laravel Mix is that it supports Browsersync straight out-of-the-box. Open up your webpack.mix.js file, paste the below code in and edit the first line, so that it contains the correct url.

const domain = 'yourdomain.test'; // <= EDIT THIS
const homedir = require('os').homedir();

// The mix script:
mix.browserSync({
      proxy: 'https://' + domain,
      host: domain,
      open: 'external',
      https: {
        key: homedir + '/.config/valet/Certificates/' + domain + '.key',
        cert: homedir + '/.config/valet/Certificates/' + domain + '.crt'
      },
      notify: true, //Enable or disable notifications
  })

This setup assumes an https:// configuration, so you might need to run the following command in order to create an SSL certificate and allow to run the website on https://:

valet secure

To start using Browsersync, just run npm run watch and your browser will automatically open the following url: https://yourdomain.test:3000.

npm run watch

As long as the above command keeps running, your browser will automatically refresh when it detects a file change.

Installing Browsersync without Laravel Mix

The other way to install Browsersync is without Laravel Mix. This means that it can be installed in almost any project. For example, you could use it to reload your local WordPress website when you make a change to a theme file.

Install Browsersync via npm

First, you need to install Browsersync. Installation is global and done via npm.

npm install -g browser-sync

Create a Browsersync configuration file

Next, navigate to the folder with your website files. When using Laravel Valet, this is the folder that is linked to the domain you visit in your browser, like so: {folderName}.test.

Run the following command to create a configuration file. This will create a bs-config.js configuration file in your directory.

browser-sync init

Use Browsersync with npm

Open the Browsersync configuration file and add the following code at the top of the file (below the first comment block):

const domain = 'yourdomain.test'; // <= EDIT THIS
const homedir = require('os').homedir();

Next, make sure that the following lines look like this:

"files": "**/*", //Change this line. It means that it watches for file changes in this everywhere.
"proxy": 'https://' + domain, //Change this line 

    // Add these lines:
"https": {
    "key": homedir + '/.config/valet/Certificates/' + domain + '.key',
    "cert": homedir + '/.config/valet/Certificates/' + domain + '.crt'
},

    
"host": domain, // Change this line

Again, this setup assumes an https:// configuration, so you might need to run the following command in order to create an SSL certificate and allow to run the website on https://:

valet secure

And.. you’re done!🎉 Now, run the following command and enjoy✨ Your browser will automatically open after running this command and will automatically reload when you a file is changed. Pure magix

browser-sync start --config bs-config.js

Conclusion

As you can see, installing Browsersync with Laravel Valet is not difficult: you just need the right configuration. Once properly installed, it can save you hours of time.

And did you know that there are many more options to configure, like disabling the Browsersync notification every time the page reloads? Make sure to check out all the available configuration options on the Browsersync website.

Laravel Mail Export is a simple mailable trait and interface to export emails to a storage disk once sent. This package works by exporting any mail sent as a .eml file to a filesystem disk, which is useful for archival purposes.

Here’s an example from the readme of how to use this package, which includes implementing the ShouldExport interface and use the Exportable trait:

 1namespace App\Mail;
 2 
 3use Illuminate\Mail\Mailable;
 4use PodPoint\MailExport\Concerns\Exportable;
 5use PodPoint\MailExport\Contracts\ShouldExport;
 6 
 7class OrderShipped extends Mailable implements ShouldExport
 8{
 9    use Exportable;
10 
11    // ...
12}

You can also configure the mailable disk, path, and filename via a class property, or more flexibly, using methods:

 1public function exportDisk(): string
 2{
 3    return 'some_disk';
 4}
 5 
 6public function exportPath(): string
 7{
 8    return 'some_path';
 9}
10 
11public function exportFilename(): string
12{
13    return time() . '_some_filename';
14}

You can learn more about this package, get full installation instructions, and view the source code on GitHub.

There comes a time in every Christian’s life when he must make an important decision: What kind of firearm should I buy? Well, here’s a guide to help you know which gun is right for you.

Glock: What if you miss on the first shot? What if you miss on the second shot? What if you miss on the next ten shots? Fortunately, you can fit like 1,000 bullets in a Glock. And it’s made of plastic; make sure to recycle it after you’re done. We don’t want a landfill full of Glocks.

Perfect for: People too lazy to reload

Walther PPK: Look at this little gun. And it has such a cute little name. What an adorable thing to put in your purse.

Perfect for: British secret agent or a small American child

Civil War Cannon: Why waste all that time shooting a bunch of little tiny bullets when you can shoot one big bullet the size of a coconut? This is a great option for the gentleman connoisseur of fine-aged weaponry.

Perfect for: Those with mutton-chop facial hair and a love for exploding things

.44 Magnum: Do you feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk? More importantly, do you feel like shooting through a car windshield? The .44 magnum is the most powerful handgun in the world… or it was like back in the ’70s. There are a lot more large, unwieldy guns to pick from now, but this is a classic.

Perfect for: Cops who get the job done even if they don’t follow all the rules

Shotgun: Are you not very good at aiming? Maybe you have bad eyesight. You can’t really see what you want to shoot, but you know you want it dead. Then a shotgun is right for you. It’s great at close range (though the CDC doesn’t recommend shooting people at close range during a pandemic).

Perfect for: Farmers who need to force people to marry their daughters

Plasma Rifle: If aliens invade, you need a plasma rifle, since, as everyone knows, shooting aliens is way cooler with a plasma rifle. You can also use them to light cigars and heat casseroles at potlucks. Very useful.

Perfect for: Space Marines, Ellen Ripley, and people who smoke cigars 

1911: An old, old design (the name refers to how it was first made 500 years ago in 1911). This gun is for people who are stuck in the past and don’t care for newfangled things like TikToks and Twitters. No, you shoot those things — you shoot them with your 1911.

Perfect for: Old men who long for the good old days when men were men and there weren’t any of these other fake genders.

Desert Eagle: It’s big. It’s shiny. It’s not really practical for anything. But it’s big. And shiny.

Perfect for: People compensating for something

AR-15: The AR stands for “Assault Rifle” and the 15 stands for how many people you can assault with it at once. Deadlier than the AR-14 (but not quite as deadly as the AR-16), the AR-15 is a fun gun everyone enjoys. I have six because I’m always misplacing them.

Perfect for: Absolutely everyone

Why would anyone spend money to reduce the recoil of an AR-15 rifle? That’s the question some will ask given the fact that a .223/5.56 round doesn’t produce a whole lotta recoil. Fair enough. For most shooters, it won’t make enough of a difference to matter. But if you’re a competitive shooter or are just sensitive to recoil, a recoil-reducing buffer makes sense.

The Miculek Magnetic Buffer System isn’t the first recoil reducer. Buffers using springs or hydraulics have been around for years. But the Miculek is a unique design using magnetic polarity to dampen the recoil impulse.

That means there are no moving parts to make noise or fail. With no springs or hydraulic seals, the Miculek Magnetic Buffer System (MMBS from now on) is damn near foolproof.

When you’re not using it in your rifle, the MMBS can double as a handy fridge magnet. But seriously folks . . .

Here you see the MMBS next to a standard M4 buffer. There are a couple of difference besides the recoil-reducing piston action. First, the MMBS weighs a tad more…3.2 oz versus 2.9 oz according to my kitchen scale. Also, the MMBS doesn’t rattle when you shake it like the standard buffer does.

I talked to the folks at JDAS enterprises who produce the MMBS with Jerry Miculek. They make the comps for Jerry, too, and tell me more Miculek designs are coming in the future.

JDAS said they’ve tested the buffer under more that 100,000 rounds without failure. They hooked it up to an accelerometer to objectively measure recoil and tested it for barrel deflection to see what it does for muzzle rise.

They told me that the MMBS is a significant improvement over a standard buffer and measurably better than either sprung or hydraulic designs.

Since I don’t have access to any of that equipment, the only way to tell if the MMBS does what they say it does is to shoot it.

Installing it takes all of 30 seconds. Just depress the buffer retention pin in your rifle’s lower — be sure to have your thumb over the sprung buffer or it will launch — and remove your standard buffer and spring. Slide the old buffer out of the recoil spring and install the MMBS. Reinstall it in your lower and you’re ready to go.

The strength of the dampening action of the MMBS is selectable with a screw that adjusts how much force is needed to depress the magnetic piston. The farther in your adjust the screw, the more force it takes to compress it. That lets you can tune your rifle as needed.

JDAS recommends tuning with a single round in a magazine. Shoot your rifle and if the action doesn’t lock back on the empty magazine, adjust the buffer with a counter-clockwise half-turn of the adjustment screw to lighten the tension. I didn’t have to do that as my rifle cycled just fine with the MMBS right out of the box.

First I shot two rifles side by side, one with a standard buffer and one with the MMBS. The rifle with the MMBS was slightly softer-shooting than the standard buffer. But while I was shooting the same ammo from each gun, the two rifles weren’t the same (different accessories, different weights, different muzzle devices. It wasn’t really a fair comparison.

Next I shot both with the same rifle, alternating between the two buffers. That’s a little tricky because you have to take the rifle down to replace the buffers between magazines. Still, there is a perceptible reduction in felt recoil when using the MMBS. It’s not a lot and it probably won’t make much of a difference to some shooters. But it’s there.

The MMBS has an MSRP of $119 and sells for $99 retail exclusively through Big Daddy Unlimited. That makes it less expensive than hydraulic buffers. Will it be worth it for you? That depends on how you shoot and how recoil sensitive you are. But if you want to do everything you can to reduce as much of the felt recoil your AR-15 rifle produces, the MMBS is well worth a try.

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