Reading Notes #671

From debugging Docker builds to refining your .NET setup, this week’s Reading Notes delivers a sharp mix of practical dev tips and forward-looking tech insights. We revisit jQuery’s place in today’s web stack, explore AI-enhancing MCP servers, and spotlight open-source projects shaping tomorrow’s tools. Plus, PowerToys gets a sleek upgrade to streamline your Windows workflow. 

Let’s check out the ideas and updates that keep your skills fresh and your systems humming.

Programming

• A quick look at Dev Tunnels (Mike Irving) - This post shares a very cool feature where you can make your local Host available to someone else to reproduce a bug or try an API without having to deploy. Pretty cool,

• 6 Steps for Setting Up a New .NET Project the Right Way (Milan Jovanović) - This nice post provides some simple best practices. It helps to keep the code consistent and efficient when the solution contains multiple projects or when multiple developers are involved.

• Debug Docker Builds with Visual Studio Code (Remy Suen) - Wow! Great update on this extension that will help us debug a dockerfile.

• Why I Still Use jQuery in 2025 (and When Not to) (Aniket Bhattacharyea) - I guess you know jQuery? If you do, this post tells us how to be sure when or not to use it. Nice.

AI

• 5 Essential MCP Servers That Give Claude & Cursor Real Superpowers (2025) (Prithwish Nath) - MCP servers are really powerful and really boost your compilot productivity. I wouldn't say they are essential, but definitely useful

• 9 open-source projects the GitHub Copilot and Visual Studio Code teams are sponsoring—and why they matter - Microsoft Open Source Blog (Stacey Haffner) - Those projects definitely need a look. They are very interesting if you're using mCP servers.

Miscellaneous

• PowerToys 0.95 is here: new Light Switch utility, faster Command Palette, and Peek with Spacebar (Niels Laute) - Lots of very interesting new features and a performance boost in this month's release.

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 #670

Dives into the intersection of AI and development, exploring tools like GitHub Copilot’s AGENTS.md and the MCP Toolkit for automations, alongside .NET 10.0’s performance gains and OpenAI’s recent updates. Whether you’re optimizing serverless APIs with AWS Lambda or mastering the Web Animation API, this post highlights breakthroughs in code efficiency, model customization, and cloud innovation. Dive into these thought-provoking reads to stay ahead in a rapidly changing world.

Have a nice week!

Suggestion of the week

• OpenAI - 2 Updates That Might Change How You Build Software - Many new things from OpenAI. It's definitely a post to read. A lot of new things and changes that will impact our way of building stuff.

Cloud

• Building Fast Serverless APIs With Minimal APIs on AWS Lambda (Milan) - Nice post to get started with the serverless cloud AWS offering aka: lambda

AI

• Developer and AI Code Reviewer: Reviewing AI-Generated Code in .NET - .NET Blog (Wendy Breiding) - Interesting post that suggests a little twist on how to use AI to make code review with a little bit more focus.

• GitHub Copilot's starts supporting AGENTS.md: A step toward unified AI Instructions (Bart Wullems) - Nice move from GitHub to share a common instruction set across all different AI services

• Add MCP Servers to Claude Code with MCP Toolkit (Ajeet Singh Raina) - Very cool way to create automations. I have used a lot of low-code and different alternatives to create automation workflows in the past, but this mCP server interactivity is pretty awesome.

• Low-Rank Adaptation (LoRA) Explained (Ignasi Lopez Luna) - Nice post that shows how we can specialize a model ourselves for a very narrow, specific topic

Programming

• How .NET 10.0 boosted JSON Schema performance by 18% (Matthew Adams) - Another example of the gain in performance just by upgrading to the latest .NET version.

• The Web Animation API (Christian Nwamba) - It's the first time I've read about this web animation API, pretty cool even if we need to be careful, I think that precision offers could be very interesting for some animations.

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 #669

This week explores the synergy between Dapr and WebAssembly for modern microservices, highlights the transformative potential of Wasm 3.0 for .NET developers, and delves into best practices for structuring Rust web services. In the AI realm, we examine the emergence of developer-friendly AI frameworks like Microsoft’s Agent Framework and Google’s Jules Tools, which bridge AI capabilities directly into terminals and workflows. Additionally, we examine AI obfuscation techniques and their implications, alongside updates on Perplexity’s free Comet AI browser and its new background assistant. Whether you’re building scalable systems, optimizing code, or integrating cutting-edge AI tools, this post offers a snapshot of trends shaping tech today.

Cloud

• How Dapr and WebAssembly Team Up for Microservices (B. Cameron Gain) - New and better version of Dapr.

Programming

• Wasm 3.0 for .NET Developers (Sam Basu) - Wasm 3 looks amazing! And that Uno Studio.. I'll have to try!

• The best way to structure Rust web services - LogRocket Blog (Jude Miracle) - I don't code in Rust, but I was curious about the project structure. This is a nice post to learn exactly that.

AI

• Introducing Microsoft Agent Framework (Preview): Making AI Agents Simple for Every Developer - .NET Blog (Luis Quintanilla) - The new SDK was released last week, and honestly, after trying it, it works really well, so more to come on that. This is a great post to get started

• Meet Jules Tools: A Command Line Companion for Google’s Async Coding Agent (Jiahao Cai, AK Kulkarni) - The Google AI is now also available directly from our terminal. More options for the users.

• Obfuscation for AI: How it Works, Best Practices, and Metrics – PreEmptive (preemptive) - It's been a while since I last used a station in my code because I'm doing demos most of the time, but it always fascinated me. I feel I should try it with AI, it looks very interesting and powerful. This post shares a lot about what's possible, the risk, and so much more

• Perplexity’s Comet AI browser now free; Max users get new 'background assistant' (Rebecca Bellan) - Interesting new product from Perplexity

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 #668

This week covers Microsoft’s open-source Agent Framework for agentic AI, prompt-injection risks and mitigations, and the causes of language model hallucinations. It also highlights NuGet package security updates, Azure SQL Data API Builder improvements, Reka’s new Parallel Thinking feature, and the latest in AI benchmarking.

Cloud

• Announcing Aspire 9.5 - .NET Blog (Jeffrey Fritz) - I'm genuinely excited to try it. Aspire is such a great tool 🔥.

Programming

• Publishing NuGet packages from GitHub actions the easy way with Trusted Publishing (Andrew Lock) - Nice post that[explains the details of this new secured process on Nuget (.NET package library)

AI

• MCP Prompt-Injection: The Trust Paradox in AI (Saurabh Davala, Sundeep Gottipati) - This is a good post to learn to start learning about the real danger. To be aware of the potential risk and learning about what we can do.

• Why language models hallucinate - Very interesting post that explains the reason why we still have hallucinations and how it works

• Introducing Parallel Thinking for Reka Research (reka) - New feature released that improves the performance of our web research, fantastic!

• Measuring the performance of our models on real-world tasks - Interesting idea of benchmark looking forward to see how evolves

• Introducing Microsoft Agent Framework: The Open-Source Engine for Agentic AI Apps (Takuto , Shawn , Elijah) - Nice evolution of semantic kernel and AutoGen. It comes hot supporting .NET and Python.

Databases

• Data API builder 1.6: Advanced Behaviors with Special HTTP Headers (Jerry Nixon) - Nice quick post about more advanced features on the data API builder (aka DAB)

Miscellaneous

• We all have a choice (Salma Alam-Maylor) - It's all in the title
  

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 #667

This week post explores the intersection of AI, cloud, and DevOps, featuring updates on Microsoft’s Logic Apps integration, practical .NET tools for system automation, and strategies to enhance documentation for AI-driven workflows. Whether you’re refining enterprise security practices with NuGet’s Trusted Publishing or diving into the ethical nuances of AI through vector databases, this post offers a blend of technical deep dives and thought-provoking discussions. Don’t miss the podcast highlights, from DevOps innovation to the business impact of employee well-being, perfect for developers, architects, and curious minds alike. Let’s connect the dots in a world where code, creativity, and collaboration drive progress.

Programming

• sleep-pc: a .NET Native AOT tool to make Windows sleep after a timeout (Andrew Lock) - Nice post, just like I like them explaining what works, what didn',t building an application, fixing a real-life issue.

• DOCX Meets Markdown: Preparing Enterprise Documents for AI (Bjoern Meyer) - I have been using Pandoc for years, but this also look like an nice tool.

AI

• Prompt Files and Instructions Files Explained - .NET Blog (Wendy Breiding) - One question I often hear is how can I tell Copilot the standard and conventions my enterprise uses. Well, now I can send them to this post. Well done!

• Here’s how to turn off Copilot (Mark Downie) - Thank you Mark for this post. Let me send you some people too😉

DevOps

• New Trusted Publishing enhances security on NuGet.org (Evgeny , Sean) - This tutorial explains how to use the new process with the 1h token for improved security.

Podcasts

• 113. Vector Databases and RAG for Grounding AI in Reliable Data - with Christian Peeters (Betatalks the podcast) - Great episode on tech education and how vector databases/RAG make AI more trustworthy with real data

• ohn Bristowe: The Latest from Octopus Deploy - Episode 368 (Azure & DevOps Podcast) - Loved this episode, I don't know a lot about Octopus. Discussing deployment pipelines, AI integration in DevOps, and the evolution from manual weekend deployments to automated, reliable workflows.

• The business case for employee well-being (Modern Mentor) - Really enjoyed this episode on how workplace wellbeing isn't just about perks but building better work systems that boost both results and employee experience

• Becoming A Podcast Guest Magnet: Sharing The Benefits Of Guesting On A Podcast (Feed Your Brand) - Packed episode on how to make your podcast irresistible to high-profile guests by focusing on what's in it for them and turning your show into a guest magnet.

• Making Video Games in 2025 with Celeste's Noel Berry (Hanselminutes with Scott Hanselman) - Cool episode about the tech-behind-the-scene of building indie games. I had so many WHATS!? listening to this one.

Miscellaneous

• Microsoft Introduces Logic Apps as MCP Servers in Public Preview - InfoQ (Steef-Jan Wiggers) - Interesting idea, I can totally see how an AI agent could use different workflows to start processes or get information and continue pretty cool

• llms.txt: Robots.txt for Docs in the AI Era (Dewan Ahmed) - Oh nice! Let's update this on our websites.

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 #666

Welcome to another edition of my reading notes! This week I've gathered some interesting finds across programming, AI, and general tech topics. From exciting Cake updates to practical AI implementation advice, here are the articles that caught my attention recently.

Programming

• Cake.Sdk 5.0.25257.82-beta released (devlead) - I'm happy to see the new release of this cake version coming to a recent .NET version. I have one of my projects using cake, and I was waiting for it; this is amazing

AI

• Performance Improvements in .NET 10 (Stephen Toub) - There's a lot of good advice in this post. Assuming you're using AI you should definitely read it

• Reka Speech: High Throughput Speech Transcription and Translation Model with Timestamps (reka team) - Because not only should the text be translated into different languages, but the voice too! If it's now possible very easily.

• Vibe coding has turned senior devs into ‘AI babysitters,’ but they say it’s worth it (Dominic-Madori Davis) - True experience of a new ‘AI babysitters’...

Miscellaneous

• 9 Rules for AI PoC Success That Actually Ship (Jim Clark) - Very useful post that shares great advices that are easy to implement and that will have a huge impact on your projects

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 #665

In this edition, we explore modern development's evolving landscape. From Microsoft's .NET Aspire simplifying distributed applications to AI security considerations, Git workflow optimizations, and backlog management strategies, there's something here to spark your next breakthrough.

The tech world never sleeps, and neither does innovation. Let's explore what caught my attention this week and might just spark your next big idea or solve that problem you've been wrestling with.

Programming

• .NET Aspire - Why We Should Consider It And How To Get Started (Barret Blake) - If you didn't try the .NET Aspire yet, just give it a try, create a new project and after the Ooh! and Aah! I'm sure you will want to use it everywhere.

• How to delete all squash-merged local git branches with one terminal command (Salma Alam-Naylor) - Nice tool. The best ones are often the ones you create yourself. But be careful when it deletes stuff.

• Identity and Access Management for .NET (Khalid Abuhakmeh) - This package looks very interesting to add multiple handlers to an HTTP client. The first question that pops in my mind is why this is not already in .NET, I think it should. I'll definitely give it a try.

AI

• Docker Acquires MCP Defender for Agentic AI Security (Andy Ramirez) - Security stays a priority, and Docker made a good move with this acquisition.

• AI Injection Attacks (ericlaw) - Great post that talks about the current risk when using AI and how we should try to do our best to protect the important information.

Open Source

• Prioritizing your backlog (Mark Downie) - So true! Sorting the backlog is not always that simple.

Podcast

• How to Get Things Done, Stay Focused, and Be More Productive (The Mel Robbins Podcast) - This compelling episode (available in audio and video) takes a fresh approach to productivity. Having read their books, I found the conversation particularly engaging and highly recommend it.

~frank

Reading Notes #664

Welcome to another edition of my weekly reading notes! This week's collection brings together some fascinating developments across the tech landscape. From the intricacies of building cross-platform .NET tools to impressive AI breakthroughs like Warp's stellar performance on SWE-bench, there's plenty to explore. I've also discovered some thought-provoking content about leadership, product management, and the art of meaningful communication. Whether you're interested in the latest AI tools, looking for career insights, or simply want to stay current with industry trends, this week's selection has something valuable for every developer and tech professional.

Programming

• Using and authoring .NET tools (Andrew Lock) - Interesting post that shares the behind-the-scenes when you're building a tool for multiple targets and the challenge that it represents. Those also share the new ways of .NET 10

AI

• Warp scores 75.8% on SWE-bench Verified! (Suraj Gupta, Daniel Peng) - New Warp update, great performance.

• Spec-driven development with AI: Get started with a new open source toolkit ( Den Delimarsky) - A new tool that looks very promising. A multi-agent specification driven and compatible with Visual Studio Code. Worth trying it

• Google Gemma3 270M : The best Smallest LLM for everything (Mehul Gupta) - Interesting... It makes sense to have a tiny model available on our phone; smaller devices and much simpler tasks.

Podcasts

• Design at GitHub with Diana Mounter (.NET Rocks!) - Very interesting, discussion about so many things: career, the balance between design and engineering, GitHub, and so much more.

• How to Lead with Value with Dr. Morgan Depenbusch (How to Lead with Value with Dr. Morgan Depenbusch) - I really enjoyed this episode about the little things we can do to shift the way we interact with others.

• 746: How to Make Small Talk with Executives, with Lorraine K. Lee (Coaching for Leaders) - A very rich episode to start improving the way we see and use small talk.

Miscellaneous

• The two-ear Product Manager: Why balanced listening is your superpower (Bart Wullems) - This post shares great insight about how to become a better product manager. It's a good read, I strongly suggest it to everyone.

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 #663

Here are my reading notes for the week: a mix of AI research and evaluation, .NET and Linux troubleshooting, testing framework changes, and JavaScript/TypeScript perspectives, plus a few podcast episodes on C#, work design, and software modernization that I found worthwhile. 

AI

• Introducing Research-Eval: A Benchmark for Search-Augmented LLMs (Reka Team) - One thing that has fascinated me since the beginning of this AI trend is how they test and measure the efficiency of those models. This post is going to go into details and share the benchmark (oss) and the results very interesting

Programming

• Fixing an old .NET Core native library loading issue on Alpine (Andrew Lock) - Great post that not only provides the solution but also explains the process of thought and experimentation to find that solution. I love it!

• Converting an xUnit test project to TUnit (Andrew Lock) - Like Andrew said in this post, changing your test framework is a big deal, but I will definitely consider TUnit for my next project. A very interesting post.

• JavaScript or TypeScript? How To Benefit From the Dichotomy (Ivan Velichko) - Interesting opinion for an interesting question, and the author has a lot of experience in many different types of language so it's a good read

Podcasts

• C# 14 with Dustin Campbell (.NET Rocks!) - Nice episode talking about C# and more precisely things that are related to Razor Pages. Always nice to listen to Carl and Richard.

• 10 Steps To A Manageable Podcast Social Media Plan (For You Or Your Assistant) (Feed Your Brand) - In this episode, she goes over all the steps to do our Podcast Social Media Plan. What to do or not, things to avoid, and this kind of details.

• How work design can reignite tremendous results (Modern Mentor) - Two Modern Mentor episodes this week, I love those shorter, concentrated episodes. This one focuses on ideas to help leaders redesign how work gets done.

• How to learn at work when there’s no time for learning (Modern Mentor) - That one is about bold ideas to spark new ideas and learn from them.

• The Transformation Trap: Why Software Modernization Is Harder Than It Looks (Screaming in the Cloud) - Interesting episode that covers interesting topics like AI in software development and upgrading legacy systems.

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 #662

From Docker's security practices to the latest in GPT-5 discussions, there's quite a mix of topics to dive into. I particularly enjoyed the thought-provoking piece about junior developers in the age of LLMs - it's a conversation we should all be having.

As always, grab your favorite beverage, and let's explore what caught my attention this week!

DevOps

• Practitioner's View: How Docker Enables Security by Default (Pedro Ignácio, Denis Cruz Rodrigues) - Improving the culture can be a challenge, but security is worth the effort. This post lists your first targets if you want to go that way, and explains why it's important.

AI

• Announcing the NuGet MCP Server Preview - .NET Blog (Jeff Kluge) - Oh! That's a cool one, looking forward to trying it and seeing if you can help me when I'm searching for a package but I don't know the name or don't remember the name

• Introducing MCP Support in AI Shell Preview 6 - PowerShell Team (Steven Bucher) - Cool way to have AI into your terminal; amazing good idea

• The GitHub Prompt Injection Data Heist | Docker (Ajeet Singh Raina) - Yes! This post talks about this injection story. But there is more! It shares how to prevent it, and all the things that we need to be aware of those dangers.

Podcasts

• Focus Friend by Hank Green is #1 in the App Store with Bria Sullivan (Hanselminutes with Scott Hanselman) - Cool episode about that very and new mobile App. They talk about how it started and some technical challenges. Very interesting.

• SPI 884: Personal Branding is More Important than Ever with Rory Vaden (The Smart Passive Income Online Business and Blogging Podcast) - Interesting discussion about the personal brand, and how to build it and how it could be use to help you.

• SPI 885: What's Working on Social Media Right Now (The Smart Passive Income Online Business and Blogging Podcast) - Social medias are evolving and this podcast episode talk about how we should adapt and change the way we do business with it.

• 476: GPT-5 Is Here, What's next? (Merge Conflict) - As much as I like the new GPT-5, they made me realized that I was thinking exactly like them! I won't spoil anything but it is a great episode where James is in fire! ;)

Miscellaneous

• The role of junior developers in the world of LLMs (Oren Eini) - This is a great question. AI is definitely affecting the job market. However, this interesting post denies the annihilation of junior roles. What do you think?

• Your Twitch live stream graphics don’t really matter, but they can help (Salma) - Good advice for those who want to start doing videos or streaming. The best advice to get started is still just start and go! But after a little while, here what you can do to improve your setup.

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 #661

This week post collects concise links and takeaways across .NET, AI, Docker, open source security, DevOps, and broader developer topics. From the .NET Conf call for content and Copilot prompts to Docker MCP tooling, container debugging tips, running .NET as WASM, and a fresh look at the 10x engineer idea.

Suggestion of the week

• .NET Conf 2025 - Announcing the Call for Content - .NET Blog (Jeffrey T. Fritz) - It's now open! .NET Conf has been one of my favourite conferences for years. The call for content is now starting get all the details in here.

AI

• 5 Copilot Chat Prompts .NET Devs Should Steal Today - .NET Blog (Wendy Breiding) - Five things that every developer should know; simple but very impactful

• How Docker MCP Toolkit Works with VS Code Copilot Agent Mode (Hamida Rebaï) - Learn more about this nice MCP tool that can be integrated and help you manage your code.

Open Source

• Levelling Up Security with the GitHub Secure Open Source Fund (Martin Costello) - Cool open source project program that definitely helps. Very happy for Poly

DevOps

• 5 Methods to Keep Docker Container Running for Debugging (James Walker) - A post that gives a lot of great tips to examine your container's health and find the cause of issue

Programming

• Running .NET in the browser without Blazor (Andrew Lock) - I never thought about it but it's true we can execute .NET code as WASM without Blazor. This tutorial shows you all the code.

Miscellaneous

• Are you chasing the 10x engineer dream — or building a 10x team? (Anastasija Uspenski) - The legendary 10x developer is it really the solution? This post shares why it's probably not

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 #660

This week’s notes cover GenAI vs agentic AI, fresh Docker and Aspire news, how to run WordPress in containers, and building apps with React and .NET. Plus a few podcasts worth a listen.

Enjoy!

AI

• GenAI vs. Agentic AI: What Developers Need to Know | Docker (Michael Irwin, Yiwen Xu) - Interesting post that compares the two recent AI types and how they can be used for development, and of course, with containers

Open Source

• Does it Make Sense to Run WordPress in Docker? (Lukas Mauser) - Looking at different options to run  WordPress? Check out this blog post. All the code to do it in a docker container is shared and also details the reasons why you should do it or not

Programming

• Building a Full-Stack App with React and Aspire: A Step-by-Step Guide - .NET Blog (Sayed Ibrahim Hashimi) - A great tutorial that goes into all the details, mixing .NET, React, and containers. It explains how to use Aspire to wrap this all in a simple solution

• Aspire 9.4 is here with a CLI and interactive dashboard features - .NET Blog (Maddy Montaquila) - You release of .NET aspire with many features (I love the externalURL), the great CLI is finally GA, and unfortunately it happens (the release) while David Fowler was in PTO 😉🤣

Podcasts

• Stop fixing wellness symptoms, fix the work (Modern Mentor) - Important wisdom, it's simple and impactful

• Is AI ready for DevOps? (Agentic DevOps) - Great new podcast about AI for DevOps, and it starts by asking if it's ready... What do you think? ;)

• My Favorite AI Terminal, Prompt Injection, and More (Agentic DevOps) - Interesting conversation about terminals and what it can become when AI is integrated. Nice evolution of Warp.

Miscellaneous

• Docker Unveils the Future of Agentic Apps at WeAreDevelopers (Michael Irwin) - Cool ideas and services that are now integrated with docker compose I'll have to try that

Reading Notes #659

This week's reading notes cover a variety of insightful topics, from enhancing your development environment with dev containers on Windows to prioritizing open-source bugs effectively. You'll also find helpful posts on integrating MFA into your login process, exploring RavenDB's vector search capabilities, and understanding the differences between Ask Mode and Agent Mode in Visual Studio.

Happy reading!

A wild turkey in my driveway!?

Suggestion of the week

• Supercharge Your Dev Containers on Windows (Mike Evans-Larah) - A great simple tip that can improve your experience while developing.

Databases

• Using Vector Search for Posts Recommendations (Oren Eini) - Cool demo using Raven DB

Programming

• Why You Should Incorporate MFA into Your Login Process (Suzanne Scacca) - You think the answer is simple, think again. Nice post that explains the difference between 2FA and MFA and why you should or should not implement one of those

• Aspire Dashboard (Joseph Guadagno) - Great deep dive about the Aspire dashboard, learn all the features packed inside it

Open Source

• How I Prioritize OSS Bugs (jeremydmiller) - A very instructive post on a real-life issue. It's harder than people think to prioritize. And it may help you write better bug reports...

AI

• Ask Mode vs Agent Mode - Choosing the Right Copilot Experience for .NET ( Wendy Breiding) - Still not sure what mode to pick in VSCode? Here is a quick post to clarify the options.

• MCP server integration in Visual Studio (Mark Downie) - Great update! That security stuff is very important and a good example using get up to store your tokens love 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 #658

This week, we explore the latest insights on AI, Cloud, and software development to keep you informed and inspired.

Cloud

• Azure Durable Functions for .NET Architects: Advanced Patterns for Resilient Workflows (Sudhir Mangla) - Great post about different Azure functions. Great post to get started.

Programming

• Creating a Landing Page in Blazor (Héctor Pérez) - Nice tutorial. Not sure I would do the landing page at the root, but other than that, everything is great

Databases

• 10 Essential Things to Know Before Diving into Database DevOps (Graeme Lilly) - I started my career as a DBA I would say all the suggestions in those posts are really important points read it if you use a database

AI

• Building Your First MCP Server with .NET and Publishing to NuGet - .NET Blog (Jon , Joel , Jon) - Nice tutorial to create your MCP server and learn more about those great tools for .NET developers

• Throwing AI at Developers Won’t Fix Their Problems (Chris Westerhold, Ankit Jain) - Interesting thought about ai and if it really helps developer

• 5 ways to transform your workflow using GitHub Copilot and MCP (Klint Finley) - Interesting post that shares insight to adapt your flow and use Copilot

• 10 Insights from Integrating AI into My Coding Workflow (Dieter Randolph) - Not sure what to do with AI when coding? This post shares 10 good ideas to start using AI when you code

Miscellaneous

• Tech Nostalgia: Commodore is Back, and so is the C64! (Paul Thurrott) - My first computer! Hmmm. Should I pre-order that new version that's the question

• Why Women in Tech isn't enough (Salma Alam-Naylor) - Very inspiring post you must read 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 #657

This week's collection of interesting articles and resources covers AI development, DevOps practices, and open source tools. From GitHub Copilot customization to local AI deployments and containerization best practices, here are the highlights worth your attention.

AI

• Customize AI responses from GitHub Copilot (Matt Soucoup) - I talked many times about it, but now this is it, thanks Matt we have finally a blog post about instruction

• Pondering About Using AI for Coding (Shawn Wildermuth) - Interesting post about AI in our code editors.

• Top 5 MCP Server Best Practices (Ivan Pedrazas) - mCP server is a very hot topic, thinking about riding your own, here are five best practices to make sure you will be successful.

• Local AI + .NET = AltText Magic in One C# Script (Bruno Capuano) - A cool way to use AI locally and nice integration of the new C# feature!

• Containerize Your Apps with Ask Gordon (Steve Buchanan) - I already have Docker desktop on my Windows pc, I should definitely give Gordon a try more to come

DevOps

• Local Deploy with Bicep (Sam Cogan) - A perfect short story, I'll explain why the hell bicep can now deploy locally and how to do it

Open Source

• Introducing OpenCLI (Patrik Svensson) - A standard that describes CLI so both humans and agents can understand how it works. Love it!

~frank

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 #655

Welcome to the 655th Reading Notes. This edition explores embedding Python in .NET, working with stacked git branches, and an introduction to cloud-native. Plus, a quick tip for the Azure Portal and using local AI for code reviews. 

Open Source

• Embed Python in .NET applications to run models with transformers (Anthony Simmon) - Yes you read it right, we can now mix python in our .NET code.

Programming

• Working with stacked branches in git (Part 2) (Andrew Lock) - Second part of the series about using multiple branches when doing a feature very interesting

• Upgrade Your Application and Prepare for the Future with .NET Aspire (Mike Yeager) - Great story of a migration. Disposed share the tools used for that migration the reason why they were used very interesting story thank you for sharing your journey

Cloud

• Introduction to Cloud Native Computing (TNS Staff) - Very complete and interesting article that is the perfect point to get started with clout native application covering what it is the strategy the architecture everything

• Azure Tech Tip: Go to Azure Portal with Specific Credentials (Jani Nevalainen) - Nice and easy tip to ease the login

AI

• Local code review with Docker and smollm2 before pushing to git (Gerardo Lopez) - Great idea to validate our code before pushing using the brand new model feature of Docker.

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 #654

Welcome to another edition of my reading notes! This week, I’ve gathered a selection of insightful articles and resources covering topics like AI, cloud security, open source, and developer productivity. Whether you’re interested in best practices, new tools, or thought-provoking perspectives, there’s something here for everyone. 

Dive in and enjoy the highlights!

Suggestion of the week

• Copilot, The Good Parts: Efficiency (Rob Conery) - I love that post, it's so true! There are good and bad ways to use any tools. And I personally would really like seeing Rob build his stuff. Let's him know If you think like me.

Programming

• Zero-Trust Architecture for Cloud-Based AI Systems (Goodness Woke) - This is a perfect article to get started on zero trust architecture, its complete details and very interesting

• Fantastic Alert Messages Using SweetAlert (Héctor Pérez ) - A great component to manage our alerts in C# instead of having JavaScript. That makes code easier to test when all is in the same language.

• You DON’T Need Microservices for Serverless! (Derek Comartin) - A great post that explained the difference between cold coupling and monolithics versus microservices great post.

Open Source

• How to convince your boss to sponsor Open Web Docs (Patrick Brosset) - Open source is important! And to contribute, it doesn't have to be code. Nice post that shares ideas and explains a few things about OSS.

Databases

• What’s New in MSSQL Extension for VS Code v1.33 ( Carlos Robles) - It's great to have such a nice tool as an extension. I wish it would support more databases.

Miscellaneous

• Local code review with Docker and smollm2 before pushing to git (Gerardo Lopez) - This is a great idea! Definitely a good way to avoid the light of shame and be able to quickly validate that your code looks okay. It's also a great way to experiment free hook.

~frank

Reading Notes #653

Welcome to Reading Notes #653 another packed edition of insights, tools, and updates from the tech world! This week's roundup dives into legendary engineering wisdom, AI controversies, and the latest innovations in Docker, Azure, and VS Code. Whether you're exploring MCP, refining your scripting skills, or gearing up for the newest Azure Developer CLI release, there's something here for every developer.

Let’s get into it!

Cloud

• Azure Developer CLI (azd) - June 2025 (Kristen Womack) - Love that tool, great updates, so many new features and improvements in this version, very looking forward to try all of them, turning them all

AI

• Publishing AI models to Docker Hub (Kevin Wittek) - Running model locally is a lot of people are looking forward to it, so this is good news can't wait to try it

• Build Agents using Model Context Protocol on Azure - MCP is still a thing and can definitely be used in your app, and helps your agents. Learn more about how to get started in the doc.

• The Complete MCP Experience: Full Specification Support in VS Code (Harald Kirschner, Connor Peet, Tyler Leonhardt) - Sweet, looking forward to try it with the URL shortener mCP server that I created but notification scaling everything is looking very exciting

• How to Build, Run, and Package AI Models Locally with Docker Model Runner (Vladimir Mikhalev) - Nice new model feature integrated within docker..

• AI Toolkit for VS Code June Update (junjieli) - Nice update to a great extension, learn more about it

• What humans and Github Co-Pilot have in common (John Hilton) - This controversial tool, is it good or bad? I like the way the author of this post answers that question.

Programming

• Run C# Scripts With dotnet run app.cs (No Project Files Needed) (Milan Jovanović) - Really cool and light way to use C#. Nice post with real scenarios.

Miscellaneous

• Why Legendary Engineers Build Systems, Not Just Code (Peter Smulovics) - So true! It's all a question of time, but maybe not where (or when) you think.

~frank

Reading Notes #652

This week, we explore a variety of topics, from database containerization and AI security risks to the evolving landscape of gaming devices and cloud technologies. We also explore the shift towards security-first development and the integration of .NET Aspire with SQL Server for integration testing.

Let's dive in!

Suggestion of the week

• GitHub MCP Exploited: Accessing private repositories via MCP (Marco Milanta, Luca Beurer-Kellner) - AI tools are very powerful but also pretty new in our lives. It's important to stay up to date and understand the risks. Not scared, but to see the potential flaws and how to avoid them.

Cloud

• Azure Container Apps vs AKS: Which Is Right for Your Enterprise Application? (Chris Pietschmann) - This post answers a common question about those two services.

Programming

• Beyond DevSecOps: The Rise of Security-First Development (Industry Perspectives) - DevSecOps was a wake-up call, and we need to build our app security first. That seems to make sense, right? Have a read of this post to dig deeper into this idea and understand its foundation

• .NET Aspire dev-time orchestration for SQL Server integration tests (Ian Griffiths) - First post of a series about the spire and database, this one just set the initial setup. Stay tuned for more

Databases

• Running a MySQL database in a Docker Container (Mercy Bassey) - Running databases in a container is a real game changer for developers.

Miscellaneous

• SteamOS puts the pressure on Microsoft’s Xbox-branded handheld (Tom Warren) - Gaming devices are in a completely different world, and, normally, all OS need to adapt. A fascinating post about steamOS and the future of Windows in that scope

~frank