Reading Notes #714

This week's collection highlights practical advice for managing Azure Service Bus and making more cost-effective choices when selecting AI models. I have also gathered some useful perspectives on layered security for authentication and the nuanced debate surrounding SQL foreign key constraints.

Cloud

• Azure Service Bus - what to watch out for (Dominique St-Amand) - A nice post that shares tips and best practices.

AI

• Getting started with GitHub Copilot Spaces - I confess, I'm one of those who didn't realize (or know) that space was included in my GitHub Copilot subscription. Interesting feature!

• Your work might not need the smartest model - Microsoft for Developers (Waldek Mastykarz) - This post shares thoughts about model requirements and some tips to save money.

Programming

• Your access token was stolen. Now what: three layers of defence in your own OpenID providerty (rinat kozin) - Great post to learn more about security best practices and some patterns (ex: bff)

Databases

• Should your SQL Server database use foreign key constraints? | Simple Talk (Greg Low) - The eternal debate... How do you like your databases?

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.

 ~frank

Reading Notes #712

I’ve put together a few articles that caught my attention this week, ranging from .NET updates and Azure migration paths to the nuances of AI evaluation workflows. These pieces offer practical insights into the tools and design choices we encounter in our daily work.

Cloud

• Azure Service Bus: Migrate topology one event at a time - Nice first post of a Siri about service bus, and this one focuses on migration and the pattern you can follow

AI

• Building Reproducible AI Evaluation Workflows with Docker Sandboxes (Karan Verma) - Wow! Very interesting open-source project that tries to help with the question: before comparing benchmark scores or choosing a judge model, can someone else reliably run the same workflow under comparable conditions? Definitely worth the read.

• What is YOLO Mode? - Yolo mode is the most productive way to use AI. It is better for developer habits and the brain, but it also comes with some risks. This nice post provides clarity on the topic.

Programming

• The best dark mode toggle is probably none (Lea Verou) - You could think that this little theme toggle is a simple thing, but you would be wrong. Interesting post that explains all the thoughts behind that design.

• .NET Conf 2026 - Save the Date (Jon Galloway) - There it is! The date is out; the call for papers is for next week.

~frank

Reading Notes #711

This week’s collection covers everything from streamlined Azure deployment techniques to the practical realities of local versus cloud AI models. I have also gathered several helpful resources for .NET developers and some thoughts on maintaining sharp mental habits in an increasingly automated world.

Cloud

• A simpler way to deploy ZIP packages to Azure App Service from the Azure portal - Perfect for quick simple one shot deployment

AI

• No, local models will not win (sean goedecke) - I agree that local models won't replace cloud ones, but disagree and think local models usage will grow. Not only for niche operations but also for simple tasks.

• v1.2: /wait-what, /writing-for-agents, Claude Code Plugin, and more (Matt Pocock) - Cool update on some skills and new ones. Worth your time!

• AI Governance Is a Developer Experience Problem (Karan Verma) - Part 3 of a series; this post continues to share reasons why it's important to isolate our agent to gain freedom.

• Why the GitHub Copilot app became my daily driver (AJ Bajada) - When the app came out, I was pulled to it that much. Now that I have multiple accounts, and often run multiple sessions... This post shares features I did know GH app had...I have to give it a try

• How to keep thinking (Sam Basu) - Brain push-ups have always been important. But with the bad habits that AI "forces" us to use, it's more than ever.

Programming

• Building Bookmark Studio: bookmarks that belong to the codebase (Mads Kristensen) - Interesting tools! I can see how it can be useful for ourselves but also as a team.

• Multi-Language Support for Cross-Platform .NET (Sam Basu) - Very impressive work from Uno. It looks like they thought of everything.

• Announcing v2.0 of the official MCP C# SDK (Jeff Handley) - This post shares important changes in the new release compared to the previous one; it's stateless.

DevOps

• Docker snapshot tags aren't as static as I thought (Bart Wullems) - There is always something else to learn about containers, nice ha-ah moment.

Open Source

• Am I neglecting my open source projects? (Zach Leat­herman) - Oh! I like that dashboard. I'm both scared and envious to have something like that.

~frank

Reading Notes #710

This week’s collection highlights several key advancements in Azure performance, the nuances of orchestrating multiple AI agents, and critical updates to NuGet security. These pieces offer practical insights for anyone looking to streamline their development workflow while maintaining a more secure infrastructure.

Cloud

• Azure Service Bus: Count your filters (Daniel Marbach) - Great deep post about performance. The architecture and number of filters can and will greatly affect the performance.

AI

• How I Work With 5 Coding Agents Simultaneously (Michael Shpilt) - Getting to multiple agents simultaneously is harder than we think. This post shares a few ideas that could help.

• Why your AI agent likes em-dashes and long sentences (Keith W. Boone) - I'm sure you want to know too, right?

• From generated code to trusted code with a unit-test agent - .NET Blog (Amaury Levé) - A very interesting skill to add to our toolbox.

• Why Empty Sandboxes Break Developer Experience (Oleg Selajev) - That's exactly what I was looking for! It will be much safer than a container.

DevOps

• Strengthening NuGet Supply Chain Security: Reducing API Key Lifetime - .NET Blog - Security first. It's a good evolution for NuGet. I don't publish packages these days but if you do, this is your cue for the upgrade.

~frank

Reading Notes #709

This week’s notes focus heavily on the practicalities of building reliable AI agents, specifically looking at how we manage their memory and governance. I have also included a few notable wins in Azure storage performance and some honest reflections on where our industry is heading next.

AI

• AI Governance: Runtime Enforcement, Not Runtime Advice (Karan Verma) - I'm impressed by our journey of using AI. Not long ago, we barely trusted it, and now it's running independently, and we think more about limiting what it can do. Nice second post o to a series.

• Computer use: How AI agents can automate almost anything | Red Hat Developer - Learn more about the different options that Red Hat AI offers and how they integrate with everything you may already have.

• Native Agent Memory for Microsoft Agent Framework, Powered by Azure Cosmos DB - Azure Cosmos DB Blog (Theo van Kraay) - That seems pretty cool! Attaching a serverless NoSQL database to our agent to get super memory.

• Squad 0.11.0: portable teams and a harder release train · Brady Gaster (Brady Gaster) - I have used Squad from the beginning, and it's great to see it evolving. Thank you for this update post! I wish the release notes (of all projects) were that clear sometimes.

• I've Spent 25 Years in Tech. The AI Gap That Worries Me Most Isn't the One You're Thinking About (Fabrice Lacroix) - Great reflection on AI for our business. Are we ready?

Cloud

• Faster blob copying in Azure Blob Storage (Mark Heath) - Some may think it's trivial, but when you hit big numbers, the way you copy makes a huge difference.
  

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. 

 ~frank

Reading Notes #706

This week's collection highlights several practical upgrades for your workflow, ranging from cleaner C# patterns to more secure ways to manage AI agents. I’ve also included a few podcast episodes and articles that offer some much-needed perspective on productivity and community life.

AI

• Why AI Agents Need Isolation with Docker SBX (Karan Verma) - Power comes with responsibilities. It's well known (at least for Spider-Man fans), but more seriously, AI users have a simple way to stay safe. And now, with "the kits", it looks like it's even easier.

• Using AI to Build a Blazor App 1: Start With the Problem (Jon Hilton ) - It's so true that AI doesn't always do or act the way we expect. In this case, I wonder if a different model would have been better. In my experience, GPT is better at doing things compared to brainstorming.

Databases

• Fundamentals of Azure DevOps with SQL projects - Azure SQL Dev Corner (Drew Skwiers-Koballa) - This post provides all the details and pieces of config/ code required to get an Azure DevOps pipeline to work, no magic.

Programming

• Azure WAF - Never used yet Yarp, but nice to see a great example exists for when I will. Great solution.

• How to match names in C# without exact string comparisons (Nick Harrison) - Excellent post that shares many patterns and strategies (with code snippets) to optimize our research.

DevOps

• New: Versioned CLI and SDK Docs (Cam Soper) - That's a nice feature that more should implement! You pick your API version, and the documentation follows.

Podcasts

• Create a Happier Version of Yourself: Redirect Your Energy for Positive Thinking (The Mel Robbins Podcast) - I think this episode should be listened to by so many! It's a simple discussion between a son and mom, but so helpful for anyone.

• The space between the Commits with Zed and DeltaDB's Nathan Sobo (Hanselminutes with Scott Hanselman) - I was happy to listen to this episode with Nathan and learn more about his projects: Zed and DeltaDB.

• Azure Container Apps with Paul Yuknewicz and Jan Kalis (.NET Rocks!) - Hmm, a very interesting usage of Azure Container Apps! I'll have to try that.

Miscellaneous

• 3 Tricks to Help You Stop Procrastinating (Suzanne Scacca ) - Need tips to improve your time management? This post is for you.

• Goodbye, forever, probably. (Salma) - Sad news for the communities, but at the same time, it's because of those same communities. This post shares a very sad portrait of the online world that affects many people.
  

~frank

Reading Notes #705

This week’s collection features a mix of critical .NET lifecycle updates and practical strategies for optimizing your database interactions. These selected articles offer helpful insights into everything from edge computing deployments to the evolving landscape of AI in modern workflows.

AI

• AI Raised the Bar (And Now We're All Tired) (Golnaz) - It's so true! So much can be done quickly today. An interesting question is: how do we avoid burning out resources and tokens? How, as human we stay smart? After all, life is a marathon, not a sprint!

Cloud

• How to Deploy Azure Local Small Form Factor (SFF) – Bringing Azure to the Edge (Thomas Maurer) - This post shares many information about what is possible to deploy on edge devices. It's not a how-to, however.

Databases

• EF Core LINQ Querying: Filtering, Projections, and Performance (Nick Cosentino) - This is a great post to quickly learn key principles and immediately improve the performance of our interactions with the database when using EF Core.

• EF Core vs Dapper in .NET: When to Use Each (Nick Cosentino) - Great post for developers or architects planning a future project. Both tools are great, so the decision factor depends on the context.

• Optimizing PostgreSQL on Azure directly in Visual Studio Code (Jesse Sullivan) - Interesting new tools in VS Code and Azure for PostgreSQL users. Curious to learn more about that Azure HorizonDB.

DevOps

• WSL container is now available for public preview (Craig Loewen) - This is great news; this will help improve deployment as now people can have an environmental test in WSL.

Programming

• Creating Dual Use Windows GUI and Console Applications (Rick Strahl) - I never thought about that complexity, and you would think that in 2026 it would be much simpler. Good to know!

• SkiaSharp 4.0 is here: announcing the first stable release - .NET Blog (Matthew Leibowitz) - Learn more about SkiaSharp that run under things like .NET MAUI and UNO platform. This new release should improve performance a lot.

• .NET 8 and .NET 9 will reach End of Support on November 10, 2026 - .NET Blog (Rahul Bhandari) - Time flies; it's good to have a reminder. This post includes a helpful timetable and references to help you migrate.

Miscellaneous

• Evaluating performance and efficiency of the GitHub Copilot agentic harness across models and tasks (Shibani Basava & Carlos Castro) - This is a nice post to learn a little about benchmarks.

~frank

Reading Notes #704

This week’s collection highlights practical ways to improve developer workflows, from faster test runs and more manageable pull requests to intuitive new AI integrations. I have gathered a few standout articles on Blazor components, Azure Functions updates, and the nuances of training coding agents for your specific stack.

Suggestion of the week

• Stop overloading your skills - Microsoft for Developers (Waldek Mastykarz) - The post ends with: "In many cases, models don’t need a textbook. They needed a cheat sheet." It's so true! And this post explains why and how to validate it.

Programming

• I built a little Claude that dances when it needs me (Jim Bennett) - I've been thinking about one of those notifications, and I really like what Jim did here. Have a look, it's way more useful than you think

• How to Filter a Blazor Table Control using .NET | ComponentOne (Ashwin Saxena) - Another Blazor component: ComponentOne. It's nice to have options.

Open Source

• How pull request limits are cutting down the noise (Camilla Moraes & Ashley Wolf) - This will help control the flow for many OSS projects. Hopefully, it will be seen positively by the communities.

DevOps

• Distributed Test Runs in the Aspire Community Toolkit | LINQ to Fail (Aaron Powell) - I didn't know all that was possible. This is a great post that shares the optimization iterations to make unit test runs take less time.

AI

• Azure Functions MCP Extension: What's New at Build 2026 (Lily Ma) - An easy win. Simple to write, fast and straightforward to deploy, and serverless.

• Intelligent Terminal 0.1.1 is here: bash support, new slash commands, and more customization (Hamza Usmani) - Finally! I know someone who has wanted this terminal for a very long time. It looks nice, I saw the demo at Build.

• When the model has never seen your code - Microsoft for Developers (Waldek Mastykarz) - A very interesting post, part of a series about how to make AI coding agents work correctly with your technology.

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. 

 ~frank

Reading Notes #702

This week’s compilation explores a mix of critical topics ranging from integrating AI models with SQL Server to navigating the complexities of Azure container troubleshooting. I’ve selected these particular articles because they offer practical ways to streamline your workflow and better understand the latest shifts in cloud infrastructure and software development.

Databases

• How to host an AI text embeddings model for SQL Server using Ollama (Greg Low) - Cool use of Ollama to get free AI with our databases.

AI

• Learn Anything With My /teach Skill (Matt Pocock) - I use AI to learn many times, but I didn't think doing a skill. Looking forward to trying it.

• How AI coding agents actually use your technology - Microsoft for Developers (Waldek Mastykarz) - A very interesting post that explains all the steps executed by VS Code harness when we submit our prompt. The post also provides some insights on why AI could still get bad results even if we provide SDK and MCP servers.

Cloud

• Troubleshooting Azure Container Apps and Jobs for .NET and Django Workloads | Microsoft Community Hub - First post of a series that covers the most frequent issues and provides methods to investigate and resolve the problems.

DevOps

• Open Source Observability: Tools, Setup, and Trade-offs (Spence Taylor) - A post that introduces many different tools used to collect or display information about logs and metrics, with potential challenges and more.

Miscellaneous

• How I made a 45-video course without wanting to die (Salma) - Doing a series that will work definitely requires preparation. Thank you for sharing Salma.

• Working with product managers (sean goedecke) - Was I that lucky all my life that I never encountered those types?

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. 

 ~frank

Reading Notes #692

The tech landscape is constantly evolving, and keeping up with the latest developments can be overwhelming. From AI-powered tools like Ollama and OpenClaw, to new ways of programming with Aspire Docs and Azure CLI, it seems like there's always something new to explore. In this edition of Reading Notes, I'll share some of the interesting things that caught my eye recently, from AI advancements to developer tools and beyond.

Suggestion of the week

• The Future of Tech Blogging in the Age of AI (Mark Heath) - Great post, and the timing is perfect. Personally, I agree to all of it. What are your thoughts?

AI

• Ollama is now powered by MLX on Apple Silicon in preview - Great news for those who bought the new M5 Apple computer, Ollama is now much faster for you!

• The simplest and fastest way to setup OpenClaw - Hard to be easier than this. I wish we could do the same to run it inside a Docker sandbox

• Meet GitAgent: The Docker for AI Agents that is Finally Solving the Fragmentation between LangChain, AutoGen, and Claude Code - MarkTechPost (Michal Sutter) - Another day, another AI tool. It looks interesting, curious to dig in and see it in action.

Programming

• Aspire Docs in Your Terminal (and Your AI's Brain) (David Pine) - Really cool idea, and for sure I will try it. Having options is great, and this is done perfectly here

Cloud

• Azure Developer CLI (azd) - March 2026: Run and Debug AI Agents Locally, GitHub Copilot Integration, & Container App Jobs (PuiChee (PC) Chan) - Nice update from this great deployment tool.

Miscellaneous

• NDI Tools: The Unsung Hero of Video Production (Golnaz) - I started using NDI tools for my stream back in 2020, when I was bringing one of my friends into my stream. Amazing, and you must read this post

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

If you have interesting content, share it!

~frank

Reading Notes #687

Welcome to this new Reading Notes post, a collection of interesting articles and resources I've been absorbing lately! This week's roundup dives into a variety of topics, from practical storage solutions and leveraging AI for code upgrades to exploring the intersection of AI and business value. Get ready for a diverse mix of tech insights and management reflections.

Programming

• Upgrading old code with Copilot (Mark Downie) - In this post, Mark shows one area where AI is really making a huge difference.

AI

• Hosting Declarative Markdown-Based Agents on Azure Functions (Anthony Chu) - A pretty cool idea to make accessible simply and get quick responses. Looking forward to seeing what people do with it.

• Vector Data in .NET - Building Blocks for AI Part 2 (Jeremy Likness) - Instructive post that shows and explains the value of AI.Extensions in our code.

• The Missing Link Between AI and Business Value (Kris Kang) - How do you benchmark or track the efficiency of your AI usage?

• So, you want to run OpenClaw? (Jim Gumbley) - An interesting post that gives us hits where to start searching for more information about how to raise protection.

Books

The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You (Julie Zhuo) - Most management books are written by advanced managers, people with a lot of experience who already have the "manager" mindset well established in their heads. This book feels different, more accessible, closer to a conversational tone. In this book, Julie shares her stories of becoming a manager and the advice she learned along the way. I think it's a good book to get started on this topic, especially if you are new to that position or thinking about it, to understand and be better equipped for the new challenges coming your way.

Miscellaneous

• Active vs Archival Storage: How We Store Petabytes on Pennies (Golnaz) - Storage is always a concern over time. How can you keep years of data without getting ruined.

~frank

Reading Notes #684

Balancing cloud innovation with AI practicality, this week’s notes blend Azure updates, .NET’s AI roadmap, and clever Python hacks. A sharp reminder on burnout prevention anchors the mix, while creative teams and DevOps culture inspire fresh perspectives. From Docker model runners to Git worktrees, every corner here offers actionable insights or a spark of curiosity, no clichés, just tools and truths for developers navigating the stormy seas of tech.

Suggestion of the week

• To Every Developer Close To Burnout, Read This · theSeniorDev (Dragos Nedelcu) - Your friendly reminder to take care of yourself, it's more important than we think. Everyone should read this.

Cloud

• Azure Developer CLI (azd) - January 2026: Configuration & Performance ( PuiChee (PC) Chan) - Happy to see this great tool getting updated, as I will need it soon.

AI

• .NET AI Essentials - The Core Building Blocks Explained - .NET Blog (Jeremy Likness) - A really interesting first post to a series with a lot of promises on .NET and AI

• Unlocking AI's full potential: Why context is everything (Rahul Auradkar) - Learn how to avoid the pitfall of too many enterprises where they are agents are data-rich but are missing context.

• Optimizing Python scripts with AI – Daniel Lemire's blog - Cool idea! This post shares how a Python script was used to aggregate c++ files following some rules.

• Use Claude Code with Docker Model Runner (Dorin Geman) - Short tutorial use use your local model in one more tool.

Podcasts

• 493: Git's most powerful but underutilized tool (Merge Conflict) - Great episode where I finally understood what Git work trees are and how to use them in VSCode. Frank is also hilarious in this episode with all the emojis

• Scott Hanselman: The Future of Software Engineering - Episode 382 (Azure & DevOps Podcast) - The Future of Software Engineering is definitely a hot topic; nice episode.

• 122. How AI Is Transforming Human Resources - with Ana Inés Urrutia (Betatalks the podcast) - AI is affecting ALL domains and is accessible to everyone. I'm always curious to learn more details on how.

Miscellaneous

• How a Creative Team Learned to Love Azure DevOps (Golnaz ) - More teams should take an example from this and bend tools to fully help them. We shouldn't accept the status quo. It's also great to see the synergy between different teams.

~frank

Reading Notes #682

This week’s Reading Notes bring together programming tips, AI experiments, and cloud updates. Learn to build Python CLI tools. Untangle GitHub issue workflows. Try running AI models locally. Catch up on Azure news. And explore ideas around privacy and cloud architecture. Short reads. Useful takeaways.

Programming

• Make a CLI command from your Python package (vast cow) - Nice way to create a CLI. It looks very simple.

• Programmatically Setting GitHub Issue Types (Den Delimarsky) - This post shares a cool workaround to work with types in GitHub

• 5 Minimal API myths and the real truth (David Grace) - Nice post, I really like minimal API, and it's true that people are asking themselves a lot of questions. Here you will find many great answers.

• How does Aspire expose resource connection info to the Azure Functions runtime? (Safia Abdalla) - This post explains how to connect Azure resources.

AI

• Private AI Coding: OpenCode + Model Runner - A very interesting post about how we can use local models in open code, looking forward to trying that.

• All the Azure news you don’t want to miss from Microsoft Build 2025 | Microsoft Azure Blog (Alysa Taylor) - Well, it's all in the title, and yes, this post is packed with news because Build is one of the biggest Microsoft events.

Miscellaneous

• Who Decides Who Doesn’t Deserve Privacy? (Troy Hunt) - A very interesting post about privacy. We should also think about all that when designing systems and applications.

~frank

Reading Notes #673

This week’s notes focus on where AI meets everyday development: Copilot and Azure for tighter, faster workflows, a thoughtful overhaul of Aspire’s deploy CLI, and a hands‑on look at building MCP servers in C#. Security threads through it all with practical DevSecOps and Shadow IT reminders plus podcast picks on teaching, acronyms, and tackling imposter syndrome.

AI

• Introducing the azd extension to configure GitHub Copilot coding agent integration with Azure (Kristen Womack) - That's a great idea! Getting Copilot in this deployment tool will help improve security and pass some blockers.

• Build & Leverage MCP Servers in C# for AI-Driven Development (Sam Basu) - This is a good post for learning the basics of the MCP server. And for C# dev, how to write one.

• How I used AI to redesign Aspire’s deploy CLI command (Safia Abdalla) - A very interesting post that shares the entire process of this refactoring.

Programming

• Cozy Aspire Dashboarding (Victor Frye) - Interesting usage of the properties to customize the dashboard, love it

Podcasts

• GitHub Spec Kit with Den Delimarsky (.NET Rocks!) - Happy to learn more about this Spec Kit, it looks very useful. Looking forward to trying it.

• Mind the Gaps: Teaching Devs, Taming Acronyms, and Surviving Imposter Syndrome with Tim Corey (Coding After Work Podcast) - I really enjoy Tim's content online, and it was nice learning more about him and his passion for helping others.

Miscellaneous

• Stop Shadow IT: Shared Responsibility for DevSecOps (Alison Gunnels) - Nothing new here, to be honest. When people work together, it's always better. And it's good to hear it from time to time.

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 #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 #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 #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