Reading Notes #656

This week, we're exploring a wide range of topics, from .NET 10 previews and A/B testing to the latest in Azure development and AI. Plus, a selection of insightful podcast episodes to keep you informed and inspired.

Cloud

• Please Don't Write Your Own MCP Authorization Code · Den Delimarsky (Den Delimarsky) - Security is important and deserves to be done right. learn how to use in this post and save a lot of time

• Azure Developer CLI (azd) - June 2025 (Kristen Womack) - More features, response to the community's request, and more in this announcement.

Programming

• .NET 10 Previews: Blazor Performance Monitoring, JS Interop (Jon Hilton ) - Cool new features are coming for Blazer WASM

• A/B testing in .NET using Microsoft Feature Management (Bart Wullems) - Great tutorial that shows how to implement those tests for a website. I didn't expect it would be that simple!

Open Source

• Patrik Svensson (Patrik Svensson) - An interesting way to structure the flow that provides more detailed issues and PR with a clear purpose.

AI

• How to convert code with GitHub Copilot, can AI really help? (Frank Boucher) - A post and video that answers the question: Can AI really help when we are trying to convert code? 
  
  
  

Podcasts

• The Open Source Maintenance Fee with Rob Mensching (.NET Rocks!) - A really cool idea to help maintainers of open source projects.

• Docker Model Runner ( DevOps and Docker Talk: Cloud Native Interviews and Tooling) - I tried the new model feature of Docker and had many questions. All of them were answered during this episode.

• 09. Semantic Kernel to Raspberry Pi: Building Smart AI Solutions - with Jamie Maguire (Betatalks the podcast) - An interesting episode talking about AI and low-powered devices; is it possible?

• Michael Washington: The Nature Of Data - Episode 353 (Azure & DevOps Podcast) - Interesting discussion about data, and a bit more about a really cool project, Michael's Data warehouse, because sometimes we need something that runs locally.

• The Extraordinary Magic of Ordinary People with author Brad Meltzer (A Bit of Optimism) - A motivating episode for ordinary people. Fail and fail fast, learn and repeat!

• Neverending support for open source with Hayden Barnes (Hanselminutes with Scott Hanselman) - Interesting enterprise for open source project maintainers.

~frank

Reading Notes #647

This post is a collection of my latest reading notes, highlighting interesting articles and resources on AI, programming, databases, and more. Each link includes a brief summary of what I found valuable or noteworthy.

AI

• Getting Started with Azure MCP Server: A Guide for Developers (Lee Stott) - Quick post about this new feature.

• Protecting against indirect prompt injection attacks in MCP (Sarah , Den) - Security must be in our list of priorities in all types of projects. This post explains how we can secure them.

• How to build and deliver an MCP server for production (Colin McNeil) - That makes sense doctor is known to encapsulate and simplify the portability of application

Programming

• Set the default file encoding - Visual Studio Blog (Mark Downie) - Nice tip! As a developer who works daily on different operating systems, I know to well this issue.

• 4 real-life examples of using reflection in C# ( Ali Hamza Ansari) - Very interesting and useful post that go over 4 scenarios

• Microsoft Extends SLNX Solution File Support in .NET CLI - InfoQ - Have you tried yet the new format? It's still on my to-do list.

Databases

• DuckDB in Depth: How It Works and What Makes It Fast (Barry Smart) - This is a very interesting post that explains a little bit more how a vectoral database works and why it's so performant with documents

Miscellaneous

• Help yourself to thrive (Salma) - The human body is an extraordinary machine, extremely strong and conciliant, but it also requires a fine turning. Great post, we must learn from it.

Sharing my Reading Notes is a habit I started a long time ago, where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week. 

If you have interesting content, share it!

~Frank

Reading Notes #646

Welcome to this week's collection of fascinating reads across cloud computing, AI, and programming! As technology continues to evolve at breakneck speed, I've gathered some of the most insightful articles that caught my attention. From securing MCP servers to exploring Rust, there's something here for every tech enthusiast. 

Dive in and discover what's new in our rapidly changing digital landscape.

Cloud

• Azure API Management Your Auth Gateway For MCP Servers | Microsoft Community Hub (PranamiJ) - Why all the fuss about MCP, we must not forget security. This post suggests a simple solution.

AI

• How Azure Copilot Helped Me Quickly Troubleshoot a Demo (David Giard) - That's a good example of how AI can help you not do the job for yourself but avoid mistakes and do it faster.

• Secure Remote MCP Servers With Entra ID And Azure API Management (Den Delimarsky) - Nice solution in Python to secure your MCP servers

Programming

• When ASP.NET Core Identity Is No Longer Enough (Andrea Chiarelli) - Authentication and authorization have an important place in our Apps. This post shares details about how things work and the different processes.

• New Docker Extension for Visual Studio Code (Remy Suen) - This extension was already a must, they made it better, it's a must must! But seriously give it a try and try it by yourself.

• From C# to Rust: A 42-Day Developer Challenge (Chris Woodruff) - Cool tease of an experiment that promises a lot of learning.

• How to Programmatically Create MS Word DOCX Documents with .NET C# on Linux (Bjoern Meyer) - Cool package that helps create Word documents. Perfect when running in a Linux container.

• Preview 2 of the .NET AI Template Now Available (Jordan Matthiesen) - New templates with AI, Qadran and Aspire, oh boy life is good!

Sharing my Reading Notes is a habit I started a long time ago, where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week. 

If you have interesting content, share it!

~Frank

Reading Notes #584

It is time to share new reading notes. It is a habit I started a long time ago where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week.

If you think you may have interesting content, share it! 

Cloud

• Avoiding Accidental Function Name Collisions (Sam Cogan) - Making sure names or unique is a tricky things.Great post that will make us save time.

• Getting Started with Infra for Developers in Azure (Andreas Helland) - The ease of creating and managing virtual desktop is very useful in many scenario as this post shows. And Aspire looks just as amazing... What's your top favorite from the recent past events?

• How To: APIM Asynch to Synch Pattern (Jeffrey Chilberto) - Interesting challenge, and definitely interesting solution.

• Azure Durable Entities Revisited (Ken Ross) - Durable functions are a great tools in integration and long process activities.This post is a very nice introduction on the topic.

Programming

• Redacting sensitive data in logs with Microsoft.Extensions.Compliance.Redaction (Andrew Lock) - Another excellent post! Its great to be able to remove (aka redact) some information from the logs, and not lost all our hair in the process.

• Named Entity Recognition Using Azure AI (Carl Layton) - A cool little post from an advent series.

Podcasts

• Building a better internet with Cloudflare's Rita Kozlov (Hanselminutes with Scott Hanselman) - Just like Scott said: I'm a user of Cloudflare for years, but didn't gave you any money yet, is it okay? Learn if it is and why in this nice episode.

• 388: Developer to Manager, Hybrid Success, & Capacity for Innovation (Merge Conflict) - Interesting discussion between James and Heather (in replacement of Frank) to talk about management in a tech company.

• KubeCon Live with Friends 2023 (DevOps and Docker Talk: Cloud Native Interviews and Tooling) - A review of KubeCon, what's hot what's new and more.

• Maarten Balliauw: Developer Tools - Episode 273 (Azure DevOps Podcast) - I really enjoy this episode with Maarten where he talks about Riders, and their vision of this IDE, and other different tools.

• A Curious Mind with movie producer Brian Grazer (A Bit of Optimism) - Stay curious what ever says people around you, that could be an advice learn from this episode.

• 70. The future of global Azure: Sharing knowledge and growing the community - with Rik Hepworth (Betatalks the podcast) - Aaaah... I didn't know why the named change! Global Azure (aka Global Azure Boot Camp) will be in April. Are you planning to do something?

• Blogging with guest Andrew Lock (Weekly Dev TipsWeekly Dev Tips) - Why should you blog, I mean now in 2023/2024? Listen to Andrew answering to this question. He knows what he is talking about, he blog every weeks and he is an author (love the book too btw).

Miscellaneous

• It's The Holiday Season, Which Means I'm Goofing With My Site (Rob Conery) - Lovely! What ar your plan / side project you are planing to work on (if you have some time off)?

~ Frank

Reading Notes #562

It is time to share new reading notes. It is a habit I started a long time ago where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week. 

If you think you may have interesting content, share it!

Cloud

• Getting Started with API Management: A Beginner's Guide for Developers (Neha Hafeez) - This a very interesting post that explains why and how those tools are useful for us.

Programming

• Top 14 Game-Changing Websites Every Developer Should Know About 🚀🔥 (Arjun Vijay Prakash) - An interesting list indeed of website-tool.

• Comparing MVVM and MVUX for building a Multi-Platform Application using .NET, C# and XAML with the Uno Platform (Nick) - A detailed comparison of those two models with Uno platform.

Open Source

• How to write a perfect README for your GitHub project (Marc Seitz) - This is a nice and simple guide to make sure your readme help visitor to land well on your project.

• 5 Ways OpenTelemetry Can Reduce Costs (Morgan McLean) - Great tools from the open-source community to help save money.

• Open at Microsoft – OmniBOR (Aeva Black) - Did you know there is a tool that can help you see the security flaws or your dependencies? Learn more about this project in this post and video.

• Dapr (AugustaUd) - Learn more about Dapr with this series of 3 videos that each contains short demos. With a very active community, there is no dough that OSS project is healthy.

Low Code

• How to get ready for Microsoft 365 Copilot (Zachary Cavanell) - Learn more about the best practices and how to prepare your enterprise.

Miscellaneous

• Building Your DevRel Resume with Open Source (BekahHW) - A different journey for each of us for the best devRel teams.

• Accountability for Effective Teams (Jessica Joy Kerr) - Interesting thoughts. Measuring and staying trustful is so hard.

~Frank

Reading Notes #492

Good Monday, 

Already time to share new reading notes. It is a habit I started a long time ago where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, podcast episodes, and books that catch my interest during the week. 

You think you may have interesting content, share it!

Cloud

• General availability: Azure API Management updates in January 2022 (Azure API Management team) - Nice new update coming up our way.

• Rightsize to maximize your cloud investment with Microsoft Azure (Diana Gao) - A very nice post to help us save money when deploying our resources in Azure.

Programming

• 7 Features of Blazor That Make It an Outstanding Framework for Web Development (Nishani Dissanayake) - I already liked Blazor, but the more I learn about it the more I love it.

• Authentication in ASP .NET Core (Chris Noring) - This is a nice tutorial with code and very clear explanations.

• CRUD operations on PostgreSQL using C# and Npgsql (Davide Bellone) - This post is a very good tutorial about how to make a simple query with all the code and explanation required for a great start.

• How to get the optimal image size for web (Joel Hans) - So many options are possible. This post explains the impacts of different contexts and provides guidance on how we could improve, or what we should look at.

Podcasts

• Ximena Vengoechea On How To Hear What Really Matters (What's Essential) - Very interesting conversation. Ximena is the author of the book Listen Like You Mean It. Well... It's just get added to my to-read list.
• L'intuition... pas juste une affaire d'alimentation! (Grand écart) - It's in French but really interesting. I think now I understand the intuitive idea about nutrition and exercise... Now it makes sense.
• Languishing? Here’s How to Turn it Around (Modern Mentor) - There is a name for feeling "meh"! And there are also things we can do to feel better. Very captivating, and now I want to learn more about it.
• My True Crime Episode with David Mittelman (A Bit of Optimism) - When I saw the title of the episode I was a bit confused... True Crime? WHat's the connection? But it was fascinating, so much passion!
• 139: Cloud Strategy, Tactics, and Leadership with Andrew Wertkin (CloudSkills.fm) - So much information and great ideas about leadership and mentoring, I love it.

Miscellaneous

• Dual-screen gaming on Microsoft Surface Duo - Surface Duo Blog (Nguyen Thanh Tung) - This is an interesting post from an established game developer who shares how they thoughts adapting their games for a dual-screen.
• Microsoft PowerToys 0.55.0 gets three new utilities ( Kunal Chowdhury) - This new release is packed with so many fixes and improvements. And the thing that is even better is that community works!
• Windows Terminal Preview 1.13 Release - Windows Command Line (Kayla Cinnamon) - Amazing post, yes we learn about the new features, but we also read about the learning and experimentation of this team and collaborators involvement. Great work.

~frank

Reading Notes #459

Every Monday, I share my "reading notes". This are a curated list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week and that I found interesting. It's a mix of the actuality and what I consumed.

You think you may have interesting content, share it!

The suggestion of the week

• The benefits of Infrastructure as Code (John Downs ) - A great post that lists and explains all the benefices of using infrastructure as Code in our business. This is the perfect post to read to learn all about it.

Cloud

• Learn How To Do Java On Azure (Nikos Vaggalis) - Great news for Java people free learning content and a video channel too.

• Connecting an Azure Logic App to a local Web API (Developer Support) - A short post that explains/ references a cool demo.

• How to choose the right Azure Event Hubs .NET client library type for your application | Azure SDK Blog (Squire) - Very complete post about EventHub. The perfect place to refresh or get started with this tech.

Programming

• Improvements to the new Razor editor in Visual Studio (Daniel Roth) - Looking forward to trying it.

• Integration Tests for ASP.NET Core Web APIs using MSTest (Changhui Xu) - Interesting post that bridges some gaps missing in the doc and explains how to do integration testing.

Miscellaneous

• Hack a TV into a Teams and Zoom Computer with EpocCam and Miracast (Scott Hanselman) - A nice post that proposed a variety of ideas to change/improve your experience f online meetings.

~Frank 

Reading Notes #366

Cloud

• Using Environment Variables in Azure DevOps Pipelines (K. Scott Allen) - A great little tutorial that explains how to use configure our variables.

Programming

• An open source parser for GitHub Actions (Patrick Reynolds) - Looking forward to try those GitHub Actions.
• Code coverage reports for ASP.NET Core (Gunnar Peipman) - Very interesting post to learn more about how to get a useful report about our tests.
• Dependency injection in .NET Core console applications (Gunnar Peipman) - Fantastic and concise post that introduces a way to do simple dependency injection with .Net Core using Autofact.
• Rust Governance: Scaling Empathy (Manish Goregaokar) - A friend recently introduced me to Rust. This post assumed we all already familiar to it, and talk about the current problems of this new language and potential solutions.

Databases

• Migrating your existing on-prem SQL Server database to Azure SQL DB (Angelos Petropoulos) - Are you planning to migrate your app to Azure? If the database is also part of the migration here three different way to migrate it including one that doesn't require downtime!

Miscellaneous

• Benefits of using Azure API Management with microservices (Mike Budzynski) - Nice post that explains how to structure Azure Functions (microservices) with Apim and explains why it's a good practice.
• Designing for Dark Mode (kirupa) - Interesting topic indeed. As I'm migrating one of my blog the timing is excellent.

Reading Notes #341

Cloud

• Pushing Node.js to Azure While You Make Your Coffee (John Papa) - Didn't know that command... I should try it with my Ghost blog.
• Azure Application Insights warned me of failed dependent requests on my site (Scott Hanselman) - That's the nice thing with application insights, it never stops to surprise you, in a good way of course.

Programming

• .NET Core Application Development in Visual Studio Code (VS Code) (Damir Arh) - This article is an impressive tutorial/introduction and would definitely help you to get started on the good path.
• Building the Ultimate Developer PC 3.0 - The Parts List for my new computer, IronHeart (Scott Hanselman) - Woooh! That's A machine...
• NuKeeper for automated NuGet Package Reference Updates on Build Servers (Scott Hanselman) - Nice tool.

Integration

• Azure API Management Feature: SOAP pass-through (Bill Chesnut) - Because everything cannot be written with that last and shining language, this post explains how to make them compatible.

Miscellaneous

• Standing desks vs sitting: why sitting ISN'T slowly killing you (Aytekin Tank) - Ahh ahh ah ! Of course, it isn't but like always the reel solution is simple...

Books

• Vaporized: Solid Strategies for Success in a Dematerialized World (Robert Tercek) - I really loved that book. In this world of digital transformation where everything goes so fast, this book explains why you should care. In fact, it asked so many good questions and related facts. I like to pretend I'm aware of the new technologies. That I'm on the edge, that I'm aware of the trending stuff... But guess what?! I got surprised, and even a bit scare at one point. This book is a must. Enjoy! ASIN: B01F9G31H8

Reading Notes #298

Cloud

• Yo Team, meet Azure Container Instances (Donovan Brown) - Yep now Yo Team support ACL. This post also shares how quickly get your container IP address.
• #LogicApps – Introduction and main differences with Microsoft Flow #MSFlow | El Bruno on WordPress.com (El Bruno) - Great post that gives a very clear view of the differences... Now I have a post to refer to when people are asking me that.
• .NET Rocks! Azure Event Grid with Dan Rosanova (Carl Franklin, Richard Campbell) - I really liked that episode with Dan. It was nice listening to him talking an making reference to Biztalk and Logic App.
• Azure Functions and Lazy Initialization with Couchbase Server (Matthew Groves) - Nice hack, that could potentially save a lot of initialization if the function is called often.
• Azure Tips and Tricks Part 20 - Working with Files in Azure App Service (Michael Crump) - I'm always impressed by how many people don't know Kudu. Well, if it's your case, this post is for you... at least to get started.
• How to import a Postman collection into your Azure API Management – SANDRO PEREIRA BIZTALK BLOG (Sandro Pereira) - Pretty useful tips that import process.

Programming

• OpenAPI is not what I thought (Darrel Miller ) - I hear you my friend, loud and clear. Let's use OpenAPI the way it should be. Very interesting post for an inside man sharing his thoughts about the purpose of the tool.
• Serverless and Auth0 Webtasks, hop on the bullet train (Glenn Block) - Cool tool in the Node.js world.
• What is a Default Parameter in a JavaScript function? | Dhananjay Kumar on WordPress.com (Dhananjay Kumar) - Aaaah Javascript so powerful but at the same time so demanding.
• What would a cross-platform .NET UI Framework look like? Exploring Avalonia (Scott Hanselman) - I didn't know where WPF came from, and it's interesting to see the open-source project inspired other projects and to see that they continue to evolve.

Miscellaneous

• #222: Patrick Lencioni—Getting Hiring Right (EntreLeadership Team) - It was my first episode of this podcast, but definitely not the last one. Very interesting speakers... nice books referenced... loved it.
• Why Your Boss Makes You Punch a Time Clock (Suzanne Lucas Suzanne Lucas is a freelance writer who spent 10 years in corporate human resources, where she hired, fired, managed the numbers, and double-checked with t) - Most of us have to do timesheets... I'm sure that at one point, you asked yourself the reason about it. It's time read an answer, in this post.

Reading Notes #273

Cloud

• Analyze your data with Application Insights Analytics (Dan Hadari) - Nice sample that really shows the power of that tool.
  
• Announcing Azure Service Fabric 5.5 and SDK 2.5 (Vaclav Turecek) - Nice updates in the SDK, and now supports Asp.Net Core.
  
• Azure IoT Suite adds device management capability updates (Sam George) - Nice little post that lists the new features available with the last update.
  
• Azure API Management, Release Notes – March 17 (Vlad Vinogradsky) - This post lists the details about the new features.
  
• Short introduction to serverless architecture (Gunnar Peipman) - Great agnostic overview of was are these serverless services.

Programming

• Using Azure AD with ASP.NET Core (Gunnar Peipman) - A cool tutorial that explains very clearly how to use AD.
  
• Using Dependency Injection in Multiple .NET Core Projects (Juergen Gutsch) - An interesting tutorial that explains how to implement one of the most-used patterns with the new .Net Core.
  
• Visual Studio 2017 can automatically recommend NuGet packages for unknown types (Scott Hanselman) - Nice little post that shares cool tricks with VS that you probably didn't know.

Miscellaneous

• Introducing Microsoft Data Amp (Mitra Azizirad) - All we need to know about this new online event.

Reading Notes #262

Cloud

• AzCopy 5.1.1 Release (Michael Curd) - New version more secure.
  
• Azure Portal UI now generally available including a preview of new APIs experience ( Anton Babadjanov) - Looking forward to doing more in the new blade of ApI Managemennt.
  
• Azure Region Pairs Explained (Chris Pietschmann) - This post clarifies an important architecture point that could affect our solution monthly fee.
  
• Free Training! Azure Day is coming to Montreal January 17th 2017 (Stéphane Lapointe) - Nice free training for Montreal people.
  
• Invoke Azure LogicApp over HTTPS with HTTP triggers (Christos Matskas ) - This tutorial that explains how to play with Azure Logic App to manage http calls.
  
• Using Key Vault Secrets in PowerShell (Chris Clayton) - Great tutorial that explains clearly how to use keyvault in our deployment.

Programming

• 4 Easy Steps to Custom Sections In web.config (Eric Sanner) - Good little tutorial to help us keeping our web.config clean.
  
• Cloud Scale, means Out, not Up (Chris Pietschmann) - Nice clarification post. So many people still use one term when talking about the other.
  
• Free Intermediate ASP.NET Core 1.0 Training on Microsoft Virtual Academy (Scott Hanselman) - Because you saw the beginner course or just because you want more... Fantastic!
  
• ReSharper Interactive Tutorials | ReSharper Ultimate Blog (Alexey Totin) - I just started to use Resharper, and I find it.... huuuuuuuge! I found this nice tutorial that help to get started... enjoy!
  
• Securing Web Applications - Simple Talk (Vishwas Parameshwarappa) - Security should be in our priority in this time of APIs and IoT.... Excellent post to get started with multiple security breaches and how to fix them.
  
• Tuples In C# (Mahesh Chand) - Tuples are one feature introduced in .Net 4.0 that can simplify our life a lot. Learn how in this post.

Databases

• SQL Server Extension for Visual Studio Code (Robert Green) - Awesome!

Miscellaneous

• Identity vs Permissions (Dominick Baier) - Good post that demystifies some point between two distinct but very often mixed concept.

Reading Notes #177

Suggestion of the week

• The Modern JavaScript Developer’s Toolbox  - If you eared about those buzz words: Grunt, Gulp, Sublime, LESS, Angular, want to know more, This is THE post you are looking for.

Cloud

• Get Your Reading On: Azure eBooks (Jonathan Rozenblit) - 8 free books, what else to say... Thanks of course.
  
• Cloud Computing Can Make Any Old Beater a Connected Car (Alex Davies) - Interesting article about the close future.
  
• Azure API Management Part 1: An Introduction - Nice introduction about the APIM, nice warm up.
  
• Free ebook: Microsoft Azure Essentials: Azure Automation (Kim Spilker, Mark) - Nice free ebook.

Programming

• Getting Started with TypeScript – Classes, Types and Interfaces - Very nice and clear introduction wit also a video.
  
• Welcome Back! - The AJAX Control Toolkit March 2015 Update (Vittorio Bertocci) - Yeah! A long wait but it's here now... Learn all the nice features of this new release in this post.
  
• Comprendre et maîtriser npm - Introduction - The perfect post to get started, for whom read French.

Miscellaneous

• How Leaders Should React When Someone Disappoints (Peter Bregman) - Interesting post about how we should react, simple and efficient.