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

Neovim Clipboard on WSL: The One-Liner Fix

Every time I set up Neovim on a fresh WSL instance, I hit the same wall: yanking text inside Neovim and pasting it into a Windows app (or vice versa) just doesn't work. "+y does nothing, and Neovim greets you with Clipboard: No provider, try :checkhealth. Nothing flows in or out of the clipboard, not even between files inside WSL.

The root cause is that WSL's Neovim can't talk to the Windows clipboard at all. The fix is a tiny Windows executable called win32yank that speaks the Windows clipboard API from the command line.

I've done this enough times now that I'm writing it down so I never have to search for it again. If you're here for the same reason, this one's for you.

Step-by-Step

1. Download win32yank

Grab the latest release from github.com/equalsraf/win32yank. Download win32yank-x64.zip and extract it to get win32yank.exe.

2. Place it in your WSL PATH

sudo mv /mnt/d/win32yank.exe /usr/local/bin/

Adjust the source path to wherever your browser downloaded it (usually /mnt/c/Users/<you>/Downloads/win32yank.exe).

3. Configure Neovim

Add this block to ~/.config/nvim/init.lua:

if vim.fn.has("wsl") == 1 then
  vim.g.clipboard = {
    name = 'win32yank-wsl',
    copy = {
      ['+'] = 'win32yank.exe -i --crlf',
      ['*'] = 'win32yank.exe -i --crlf',
    },
    paste = {
      ['+'] = 'win32yank.exe -o --lf',
      ['*'] = 'win32yank.exe -o --lf',
    },
    cache_enabled = 0,
  }
  vim.opt.clipboard = 'unnamedplus'
end

4. Done

Now y, "+y, "+p, right-click copy/paste — all of it flows through the Windows clipboard as you'd expect.

Bonus: One-Shot Setup Script

Next time I (or you) need this on a fresh box, run this single script. It downloads win32yank, installs it, and appends the config:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail

WIN32YANK_PATH="/usr/local/bin/win32yank.exe"
NVIM_CONFIG="${HOME}/.config/nvim/init.lua"
TMP_DIR=$(mktemp -d)

# Get the latest release tag from GitHub
echo "==> Fetching latest win32yank release..."
LATEST_TAG=$(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/equalsraf/win32yank/releases/latest \
  | grep '"tag_name"' \
  | cut -d'"' -f4)

echo "==> Downloading win32yank ${LATEST_TAG}..."
curl -fsSL "https://github.com/equalsraf/win32yank/releases/download/${LATEST_TAG}/win32yank-x64.zip" \
  -o "${TMP_DIR}/win32yank-x64.zip"

echo "==> Extracting..."
unzip -q "${TMP_DIR}/win32yank-x64.zip" -d "${TMP_DIR}"
sudo cp "${TMP_DIR}/win32yank.exe" "$WIN32YANK_PATH"
sudo chmod +x "$WIN32YANK_PATH"
rm -rf "$TMP_DIR"

echo "==> Appending clipboard config to ${NVIM_CONFIG}..."
mkdir -p "$(dirname "$NVIM_CONFIG")"

cat >> "$NVIM_CONFIG" << 'LUA'

-- win32yank clipboard for WSL
if vim.fn.has("wsl") == 1 then
  vim.g.clipboard = {
    name = 'win32yank-wsl',
    copy = {
      ['+'] = 'win32yank.exe -i --crlf',
      ['*'] = 'win32yank.exe -i --crlf',
    },
    paste = {
      ['+'] = 'win32yank.exe -o --lf',
      ['*'] = 'win32yank.exe -o --lf',
    },
    cache_enabled = 0,
  }
  vim.opt.clipboard = 'unnamedplus'
end
LUA

echo "==> Done! Restart Neovim and yank away."

Save it as setup-wsl-clipboard.sh, run chmod +x setup-wsl-clipboard.sh and then ./setup-wsl-clipboard.sh.

Stop Writing Git Commits: How AI-Powered GitKraken CLI Accelerates Your Development

As developers, we're constantly looking for tools that can help us stay in the flow and be more productive. Today, I want to share a powerful tool that's been gaining traction in the developer community: GitKraken CLI. This command-line interface brings together several key features that modern developers love - it's AI-powered, terminal-based, and incredibly efficient for managing Git workflows.

(Version française ici)

What Makes GitKraken CLI Special?

GitKraken CLI (accessible via the gk command) stands out because it simplifies complex Git workflows while adding intelligent automation. Unlike traditional Git commands, it provides a more intuitive workflow management system that can handle multiple repositories simultaneously.

Getting Started

Installation is straightforward. On Windows, you can install it using:

winget install gitkraken.cli

Once installed, you'll have access to the gk command, which becomes your gateway to streamlined Git operations.

The Workflow in Action

Let's walk through a typical development session using GitKraken CLI:

1. Starting a Work Session

Instead of manually creating branches and switching contexts, you can start a focused work session:

gk w start "Add Behind my Cloud feed" -i "Add Behind my Cloud feed #1"

This single command:

• Creates a new branch based on your issue/feature name
• Switches to that branch automatically
• Links the work session to a specific issue
• Sets up your development environment for focused work

2. Managing Multiple Work Sessions

You can easily see all your active work sessions:

gk w list

This is particularly powerful when working across multiple repositories or juggling several features simultaneously.

3. Committing with Intelligence

After making your changes, adding files works as expected:

gk add .

But here's where the AI magic happens. Instead of writing commit messages manually:

gk w commit --ai

The AI analyzes your changes and generates meaningful, descriptive commit messages automatically. No more "quick fix" or "update stuff" commits!

4. Pushing and Creating Pull Requests

Publishing your work is equally streamlined:

gk w push

And when you're ready to create a pull request:

gk w pr create --ai

Again, AI assistance helps generate appropriate PR titles and descriptions based on your work.

5. Wrapping Up

Once your work is complete and merged, clean up is simple:

gk w end

This command:

• Switches you back to the main branch
• Deletes the feature branch, locally and on GitHub
• Closes the work session
• Leaves your repository clean and ready for the next task

Why This Matters

The beauty of GitKraken CLI lies in its ability to keep you in the zone. You don't need to:

• Switch between multiple tools
• Remember complex Git commands
• Write commit messages from scratch
• Manually manage branch lifecycle

Everything flows naturally from one command to the next, maintaining your focus on what matters most: writing code.

Multi-Repository Power

One of the standout features is GitKraken CLI's ability to manage multiple repositories simultaneously. This is invaluable for:

• Microservices architectures
• Full-stack applications with separate frontend/backend repos
• Organizations with multiple related projects

Try It Yourself

GitKraken CLI is part of a broader suite of developer tools that GitKraken offers. The CLI itself is free to use, which makes it easy to experiment with and integrate into your workflow without any upfront commitment. If you find value in the CLI and want to explore their other tools, GitKraken has various products that might complement your development setup.

The learning curve is genuinely minimal since it builds on Git concepts you already know while adding helpful automation. I've found that even small workflow improvements can compound over time, especially when you're working on multiple projects or dealing with frequent context switching.

If you're curious about what else GitKraken offers beyond the CLI, you can explore their full product lineup here. For those who decide the Pro features would benefit their workflow, as an ambassador of GitKraken I can share my code to provide a 50% discount for your GitKraken Pro subscription.

The combination of AI assistance and intuitive commands addresses real pain points that many developers face daily. Whether GitKraken CLI becomes a core part of your toolkit will depend on your specific workflow, but it's worth trying given that it's free and takes just a few minutes to set up.

---

The best tools are the ones that get out of your way and let you focus on building. GitKraken CLI aims to do exactly that.

Reading Notes #644

This post gathers my recent reading notes on artificial intelligence, programming, and a few inspiring podcasts. It includes links to articles, tutorials, and fascinating discussions. Whether you're interested in the latest AI developments, .NET tools, or modern architectures, there's plenty here to spark your curiosity. 

Happy reading!

AI

• Microsoft Copilot in Azure is now generally available | Microsoft Community Hub (Ruhiyyih Mahalati) - Oh wow! That was fast! If you haven't tried it yet, you should it's extremely useful and quick. Ask something about your resources or services you would like to use.

• Build a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server in C# - .NET Blog (James Montemagno) - A nice tutorial about the MCP server and how to use one in VSCode

Programming

• Generating architecture diagrams from .NET Aspire resources at publish time (Anthony Simmon) - This is one new feature that will be so useful. How many times did I need to refer to a diagram that was outdated.

• Exploring new .NET releases with Dev Containers - .NET Blog (Mike Kistler) - Really cool trick shared in this post. Yes, trying the new version in a container but how that container is build; that's cool!

• .NET Aspire 9.2 is Now Available with New Ways to Deploy - .NET Blog (Jeffrey Fritz) - This week was the release of Aspire new version, and it's packed with many features. The launch party video is also very interesting.

• Aspire: A Platform for Reusable Infrastructure (David Fowler) - For once, I think Aspire is the perfect name because it's inspiring.

• How we ended up rewriting NuGet Restore in .NET 9 - .NET Blog (The NuGet Team) - A very interesting article that explains how a tool that all .NET developers use got rewritten

• Porting Code with LLMs (Mark Heath) - It's always interesting to see how people use AI to help them do their work. Love it!

Podcasts

• Per Kops: Architecture of Ollama and Local LLMs - Episode 342 (Azure & DevOps Podcast) - An interesting discussion about Olama (local LLMs), .NET architecture, and Semantic Kernel.

• Vertical Slice Architecture with Jeremy Miller (.NET Rocks!) - This episode is about Vertical Slice Architecture, what it is, when it makes sense to use it, and some comparisons with the others that we know.

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 #637

In this edition of my Reading Notes, I've curated some fascinating content that spans across programming, creativity, and enlightening podcasts. Whether you're eager to enhance your coding skills, explore unique ideas, or stay updated with the latest in the tech world, there's something here for everyone. 

Dive in and enjoy these insightful reads and discussions!

Programming

• New Features for Enhanced Razor Productivity! (Leslie Richardson) - I love the new component feature that's one that I will use over and over for sure.

• Abstract vs Interface: Deep dive (Serhii Korol) - You probably know the difference between those two just like me, but do you know how the code is interpreted that's very interesting.

• Riverdam - Feature Gates Finally Made Easy (David Guida) - A cool tool to ease development. This new project definitely looked interesting.

• 11 Must Read Software Design and Architecture Books for Developers (Soma) - I like books. It's a great way to go deeper about a topic at your own pace and when you want. This post has great recommendations, and I really enjoy the authenticity in the comments.

Podcasts

• Static Websites in 2025 with Stacy Cashmore (.NET Rocks!) - It was nice listening to the discussion with Stacy about how are Azure Static Websites are evolving.

Miscellaneous

• Typing tests were boring, so i built TypeTheLyrics. (Arjun Vijay Prakash) - Cool idea! It's true that music always has a big impact on everything.

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 #628

For this week reading notes, I have some exciting blog posts and podcast episodes. Covering topics including .NET scaffolding, Visual Studio updates, the Builder Pattern in C#, and OpenAPI in .NET 9. Plus, tips on validating identity with GitHub, improving Azure Identity, and podcast highlights on GitHub Universe and presentation skills. 

Cloud

• Better Azure Identity authentication support and performance during local development with .NET Aspire (Anthony Simmon) - A cool demo/tutorial with all the code snippets and explanations.

Programming

• dotnet scaffold - Next Generation Content Creation for .NET - .NET Blog (Sayed Ibrahim Hashimi) - Yay! Scaffolding CLI and it looks well done too! It's time to try it and if you are interested it's an OSS project.

• Making you more productive with Visual Studio v17.12 - Visual Studio Blog (Mads Kristensen) - Mad's blog post are always synonym of fun and happiness as it means Visual Studio has new cool features that ease or day and make us more productive. I love that that simple copy error message one.

• The Builder Pattern in C# [2024] - This is a very nice post that explains clearly with code different scenarios where that pattern would make sense.

• OpenAPI document generation in .NET 9 (Mike Kistler) - This is a great new feature in NET9 when building APIs. The post shares how to update existing APIs to get it. I'm looking forward to migrating my stuff.

Podcasts

• 435: GitHub Universe Recap + M4 is here with a NEW Mac mini!!! (Merge Conflict) - Cool summary and nice news for iOS user about xCode.

• How to prepare for a nerve-wracking presentation (Modern Mentor) - Good strategies for new or experienced speakers.

Miscellaneous

• Validate your identity on Bluesky with your GitHub account (Mark Downie) - That's a neat trick, sir!

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 #624

Dive into this week's fascinating mix of tech insights, troubleshooting tales, and productivity tips. From the latest in Azure Dev tools to real-world debugging adventures and cutting-edge .NET innovations, there's something for everyone.

Happy reading!

Cloud

• Azure Developer CLI (azd) – October 2024 (Grace Kulin) - Quick post to share about the most recent features like customizing our API version when deploying our containers.

Programming

• Webcam randomly pausing in OBS, Discord, and websites - LSVCam and TikTok Studio (Scott Hanselman) - Weird technical issues are so unpleasant and it's worse when I imply an external devices.Is it a driver, the cable, some software.. In this post Scott shares about how he investigated and found a workaround.

• 3 more productivity tips for .NET developers (mtmattei) - Interesting tips to be and stay productive by different people.

• How we build GitHub Copilot into Visual Studio (Anson Horton) - It is so interesting to read how things happens and the different interactions. If you use vs code or Visual Studio, you should read this article.

• Introducing the New .NET MAUI Kanban Board (Saravanan Madheswaran) - I'm always impressed when I see components build be third parties. The quality, the customization, the look... It's a lot of work make one in your app with half the features; wow.

Podcast

• Microsoft Playwright Testing with Debbie O'Brien (.NET Rocks!) - Great tool to help making tests on our websites. It's open source and now support .NET.

• Inspektor Gadget (DevOps and Docker Talk: Cloud Native Interviews and Tooling) - THe first time I heard about Inspektor Gadget was in an episode of Open at Microsoft. I don't use much Kubernetes, but that will be part of my toolbox when I do. Great security, troubleshooting, and observability utility.

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 #585

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

• Announcing the Azure Migrate application and code assessment tool for .NET - .NET Blog (Olia Gavrysh) - Neat tools that can be added via CLI (cross platform) or as Visual Studio extension.

Programming

• Using the CLI to Build and Run .NET Applications (Dusko Mirkovic) - This is a short tutorial that shows the basics functionalities of the command dotnet... Its very useful and it works on al platforms.

• Docker whale-comes AtomicJar, maker of Testcontainers (Scott Johnston) - Great news! Anythings to facilitate testing.

• Development slowness in big and legacy applications [and how to hurry it up] (Michael Shpilt) - Great post. Feels like years of experience in many different places.... Worth your time reading it for sure.

• What User Interface Framework Should You Choose for .NET Desktop Applications? (Claudio Bernasconi) - I didn't know all the frameworks, it is always good to be aware of the options we have.

• Building a Critter Stack Application: Asynchronous Processing with Wolverine (Jeremy D. Miller) - This post show a cool implementation using wolverine.

• Functional Programming With C# - Scan and FindIndex (Simon Painter) - Nice post that explains three C# function.

• Scanning Uploaded Files for Malware in C# (Vladan Petrovic) - This post shows how to use a pretty neat tools to improve security in our C# app. And there is a free version.

~Frank

Reading Notes #541

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

• Learn Azure DevOps from Zero to Hero (April Edwards) - Nice series of videos to learn Azure DevOps.

Programming

• Jan. Extensions: Deploy Kubernetes and Run Cloud Apps Locally (Amy Bass) - I like those extension of the month post. It makes you discover little gem that you have not be interested at first.

• 5 .NET MAUI Features for Building Great Desktop Apps (James Montemagno) - Nice top five that shows us one more time how .NET MAUI is a great idea when it's time to create an application UI.

• Announcing .NET Community Toolkit 8.1! Better, faster MVVM source generators, .NET 7 support, and more! (Sergio Pedri) - Great new toolkit with many honestly very cool features.

• Generating Sample Data with Bogus (Shawn Wildermuth) - We all need seed data, test data, temp data... Bogus seams sample and efficient. I'm definitely trying it, in my next project.

• How to Get an Enum Member as a String in C# (Code Maze ) - This post provides a nice overview, with code samples, of three different ways to get the text value of an enum.

• Generating argument expressions for minimal APIs (continued): Behind the scenes of minimal APIs - Part 5 (Andrew Lock) - Another nice post in that series that explains how things works under the hood for Minimal API.

Books

Digital Body Language: How to Build Trust and Connection, No Matter the Distance 

Author: Erica Dhawan 

It's been a while since I had so many "ah-ah" moment while reading a book. Digital body language is about communication using many different technologies by different culture, generations and individuals... 

It a must if you care about how your message are received.

Miscellaneous

• 6 Things The Most Productive People Do Every Day (Eric Barker) - A nice post that reminds us of simple things to regain or productivity.

• How I Use Stream Deck (Brian T. Jackett) - Its always interesting to see how others are using some tools. It provides inspiration for our own setup.

~frank

Reading Notes #536 (Book edition)

Good first Monday of 2023!

As a way to close the Reading Notes of 2022, I changed a little today's post by sharing the books I read during the year. I didn't include the novel and thriller as I'm not sure they would be relevant in this kind of post.  However, if you are interested, find me at goodreads.com/fboucheros.

Let's make this new year a better one, and as usual, I'm always happy to receive your blog post and recommendations.

Books

Listen Like You Mean It: Reclaiming the Lost Art of True Connection  
Author: Ximena Vengoechea

I like the stories and examples in this book. I mean it's 'easy' to say listen carefully but demonstrating how the opportunity was missed, and how to correct it is way more complex. Nice book.

Making Numbers Count: The Art and Science of Communicating Numbers
Author: Chip Heath, Karla Starr

I really enjoyed reading this book. Data is in the middle of everything, and when communicating that information it's often translated into numbers. To have an impact, the way we communicate those number is crucial. A book to read and probably read again after a while to refresh our memory.

Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

Authors: Chip Heath, Dan Heath

This book oversimplifies a really complex topic, but I believe it was important to make each point clear. Nice read, it will help to be less afraid of making changes.

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World

Author: Cal Newport

A nice book that mixt great advice and more 'easy' ones. Nevertheless, it was interesting to revisit what I already knew and to learn new things. With so many distractions around us, focusing is important.






Slaying the Dragon: A Secret History of Dungeons & Dragons 

Author:  Ben Riggs

Big fan of D&D and this book is a great read. It is a history of the game and the people behind it. It is an excellent read for anyone who is interested in the game or its history of it. I had no idea of all the "drama", and honestly even I didn't know either what it takes to create those books/games.

It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work 

Authors: Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson

The important message here where we can achieve a lot more with less. The book shares many examples and breaks them down into simple principles. I recommend it to anyone who is looking to improve their work-life balance.





Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds 

Author: David Goggins

The mind is incredible. Goggins pushed it to not eleven... to twelve! We all encounter difficulties in our lives, and the lesson here is that the real limit is way past what we think. Great book and he just published a new one.

Anti-Time Management: Reclaim Your Time and Revolutionize Your Results with the Power of Time Tipping 

Author: Richie Norton

The first time I heard of that book it was in a podcast and it seems very promising. Even though I didn`t fall in love with that book the ideas are interesting and definitely worth the time to learn them.

~Frank

Reading Notes #504

Good Monday, Already time to share new reading notes. Here is a list of all the articles, blog posts, and podcast episodes that catch my interest during the week. 

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

Cloud

• Azure Automation Run Books – Setup (Paul Michaels) - Automation is so powerful... Think about it as a Cron job in the cloud...

Programming

• 4 ways we use GitHub Actions to build GitHub (Brian Douglas) - I love it. Dog fooding your products or services will always improve them. Nice post.

• ASP.NET Core CRUD with NoSQL: Part 2 (Matthew Groves) - In this second post of the series, we learn how to set an index and how to prepare our select to read our data.

• An Introduction to JSON (Jack Wallen) - I thought it was a bit older than that. Nice post th o learn more about something we all use.

• Building a WebAssembly-powered serverless platform (Colin Eberhardt) - Very interesting post about different web assembly possibilities and a cool tutorial in Rush.

• How to prevent Email HTML injection in C# and .NET (Niels Swimberghe) - An accessible solution to a very important and frequent problems in web development. Very instructive post.

• 10 Things I (Still) Love About Programming (Al Tenhundfeld) - I love it. All those things are so true!

Miscellaneous

• MySQL Query Optimization + Forgetting To Run EXPLAIN = Full Table Scan (Ben Nadel) - Optimization is one of the most satisfying tasks to do, particularly when it's a query. Great post that explains how to search and see what needs to be changed.

• The Importance of Scheduling Nothing (Jeff Weiner) - So simple and powerful, I do the same but often fail at defending those zones.

~Frank

Reading Notes #482

Another Monday, a new reading notes; a 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!

Cloud

• Azure Cost Management and Billing updates – August 2021 | Azure blog and updates (Michael Flanakin) - Pretty nice updates this month to better see the info from inside the portal or outside with new downloadable options, and Power Bi.

• Deconstructing Azure PowerShell APIs with Fiddler (Developer Support) - I love seeing those behind the scenes, and this one explains how we can do it ourselves.

Programming

• How WebAssembly Could Streamline Cloud Native Computing (Mary Branscombe) - Interesting post. I didn't play a lot of work kubernetes yet, so I will say the idea seems brilliant.

• My Ultimate PowerShell prompt with Oh My Posh and the Windows Terminal (Scott Hanselman) - This is the perfect post to get started. You have everything to build a pretty decent customized prompt and from there you just tweak it for your preferences... Don't be scare everything is very well documented.

• Boost your productivity with Productivity Power Tools Extensions in Visual Studio 2022! (Leslie Richardson) - This next VisualStudio is looking so promising....very excited

Podcast

• How to Earn More Keynote Speaking Opportunities From Your Podcast (Feed Your Brand) - Interesting discussion on this episode. We could also summarize it by saying just be good to your host.

• SPI 502: All Things Live Video (the Best Way to Connect to Your Audience) with Luria Petrucci (The Smart Passive Income Online Business and Blogging Podcast) - That's a hot topic: live! Yep, it is indeed different from recorded content, so what do we need to do to be better at it? Very nice episode.

~frank

Reading Notes #380

Suggestion of the week

• Azure Pipeline YAML Templates and Parameters | LINQ to Fail (Aaron Powell) - An awesome post that will save you hours (or days) of trials and errors. A must.

Cloud

• AZIdentity | Getting It Right: Key Vault Access Policies (Matt Small) - Great post that explans how to use keyvault and sets security correctly.
• 
  Creating a Free Web Site with Elixir and Redis using Docker Compose (Rob Conery) - Great videos continuing our journey in the linux/ azure / docker aventure.
• 
  Which of the 295,680 platform combinations will you create on Microsoft Azure? (Richard Seroter) - Interesting post that explains why enterprises see the cloud differently and what they are looking at.

Programming

• Containers? Images? An introduction to Docker in Rider (Rachel Appel) - This post shows how well-integrated Rider is to Docker and demo how easy and powerful it is to do side with that setup.
• Visual Studio Code Remote Development may change everything (Scott Hanselman) - So many aaahs and oohs while reading this post. I don't have the insider version installed ... But this might be the reason I needed for.

Miscellaneous

• The Pomodoro Technique and other methods to get more done (with tools to help) (Geoff Stevens) - For new developers or older ones, it is always good to revisit the time tracking or tools to help us get better and more productive... There is almost always something new.

~

Reading Notes #284

Cloud

• Azure TLS Certificates changes (Rashmi Jha) - Because security is always a big concern, I thought it would be nice sharing this post.
• Deploying Visual Studio 2017 Function Projects with VSTS (Donna Malayeri) - This tutorial explains in simple steps how to configure our build in vsts, a reel time saver.
• Docker for AWS and Azure: Secure By Default Container Platform - Docker Blog (Riyaz Faizullabhoy) - Like they say build it ship it run it.
• Kicking The Tires On This Serverless Thing (Rob Conery) - Very interesting post that introduces many different flavors of serverless.
• New sample model for Azure Analysis Services (Josh Caplan) - Nice little post that gives everything we need to get started.
• What is Azure PowerShell? How It Works, Installation, Best Practices, and More (Angela Stringfellow) - The perfect post to get started. It a really good source of references.

Programming

• .NET and Docker (Scott Hanselman) - Very interesting post that clarifies the purpose of all those dotnet container.
• Connecting Power BI to your Visual Studio Team Services Account (Charles Sterling) - It't always cool (and potentially useful to get better) to visualize our data like that.

Miscellaneous

• How to buy and read e-books in Windows 10 Mobile Creators Update (Cale Hunt) - Nice tips. However, I do read from tine to time books on my Surface, but I simply use the App from my e-book reader.
• Pomodoro Technique – the Good, the Bad and the Tomato | Rubik's Code on WordPress.com (Nikola Zivkovic) - Interesting method. Simple and yet efficient.
• The humble checkbox (OneNote Team) - Nice to see how a simple checkbox could change your work.

Reading Notes #245

Cloud

• Application Insights: Track an Analytics query in a dashboard (Dan Hadari) - Nice quick intro to Azure analytics.
• Logging and Error Handling in Logic Apps - Interesting post that shares a solution for real-life problem, by using document DB.
• Visualizing your Azure enterprise costs with Power BI - PowerBI is fantastic to visualize data consumption, this post explains how EA subscription owner can now use it easily.

Miscellaneous

• 5 Reasons Your Daily Scrum is Boring - So simple and so hard to achieve. This post explains how to avoid common mistakes.
• How Do I Write Good Code? (Erik Dietrich) - Simple tips that will make our code rocks.

Reading Notes #241

Cloud

• Announcing the release of the Azure Usage and Billing Portal (Chris Risner) - I have been waiting long time to get a tool like that. I will definitely clone it this week.
  
• Azure Infographic: Cloud Design Patterns - Wow! A fantastic infographic that shows many different patterns that should be used when developing with Azure.
  
• Azure Search Suggesters: Helping users to find search keywords - Nice demo that shows the power of suggesters and how to implement them.
  
• Create your first botframework bot in Azure! (Robin Osborne) - This post is a nice tutorial that gives a lot of ideas about what you could do with the botfrmework.
  
• Writing simple REST-client for Azure Search (Gunnar Peipman) - Quick demo to show how developing with Azure Search is easy.

Programming

• 5 Impeccable Reasons Node.js is Great for Startups (Keval Padia) - It all makes sense, but I didn't think about it before reading those five reasons.
  
• Visual Studio Code, your new Markdown editor - Another post that affirms how VisualStusio Code is great. It must be true... ;)

Miscellaneous

• 3 Significant Flaws in the Concept of Googliness (Melissa Burns) - Interesting point of view about what look first as good idea that could turn out as bad ideas...
  
• New Microsoft and Open Source Partner Community (Openness Team) - Nice ne community that just begins.
  
• The Anti-Meeting Culture (James Whittaker) - Very interesting thoughs about meetings and an even more interesting ways to make them more productive.

Reading Notes #207

Suggestion of the week

• A Beginner’s Mind - A very inspiring article, especially for the younger, but also for the more experienced, that want to keep their interior flame.

Cloud

• Build it, Use it, Destroy it! - Interesting thoughts about a different approach when working with VMs.
  
• Public Cloud Anxiety – Dealing with maintenance & failures of VMs (marc) - Very nice pot that explains how Azure can be stable even during "bad" events.
  
• How to Incorporate Application Insights into a JavaScript Web App (Mansib Rahman) - An incredibly detail and precise tutorial about Application Insights.
  
• Playing with Azure Connectors (Adarsha Datta) - Twilio IFTTT and Logic App are incredible connectors.

Databases

• How to create a MySQL Database on Azure (Susan Ibach) - Excellent post that explains how to have a MySQL database in Azure.
  
• October update for Azure SQL Data Warehouse (Matt Usher) - Learn more about the latest improvements.

Programming

• Lazy Loading Images on the Web - (Brian Rinaldi) - Very cool post that share (and explains) a lot of tools and frameworks to implement a lazy loading process.
  
• Integrating Visual Studio Code with dnx-watch to develop ASP.NET 5 applications - Cool task in VsCode to auto-refresh asp.net website.
  
• It's happening - OpenSSH for Windows...from Microsoft - Great news for any and every PowerShell user. We are moving forward!
  
• An Introduction to the new TFS/VSO Build System (Lachezar Arabadzhiev) - Great video that will give you everything you need for doing your next project in VSO.
  
• ASP.NET - ASP.NET 5 Anywhere with OmniSharp and Yeoman - Amazing post, the perfect starting point to all developers on Mac... or Linux.
  
• Visual Studio - Bower: Modern Tools for Web Development - Fantastic post that demystify bower and an excellent tutorial.
  
• How to use Visual Studio Online to Streamline Your Application Development with Agile Methodology (Mansib Rahman) - Great tutorial that gives us a little tour of VSO work section.

Miscellaneous

• My Story: How I work, the services I use (Simon May) - Interesting post where the author shares his favourite tools and how he uses them.

Reading Notes #203

 

 

Suggestion of the week

• Adding Insights and Telemetry to Logic Apps through Power BI (Jeff Hollan) - Fantastic post that explains how to integrate Logic Apps and Power BI. And for the lazy one that doesn't want to read, check the first haft of this video.

Cloud

• September update: Azure Preview Portal improvements (Leon Welicki) - The portal is changing again, and you can see how Microsoft is really listening to his users.
  
• Azure Service Fabric 101 - This video explains in only ten minutes, what is service fabric and why we should care.
  
• Azure Service Fabric 102 (Scott Hanselman) - You know our bases or you watch the 101; this post goes the code and explains how it can work.

Programming

• Battle of the Free Code Editors (Brian Rinaldi) - Nice post that compares three free, popular, and powerful code editor.

Databastes

• Easily Transform JSON Data When Importing to Azure DocumentDB (Stephen Baron) - Great post that explains powerful ways to import our data in DocumentDB.

Miscellaneous

• Going Back to One (Alexandre Brisebois) - Organize our work to become a performer, could be easily done in Windows. 10.

~Frank 

Reading Notes #134

Cloud

• Speak to the Lonely Cloud Data Center Workers (Bill Wilder) - Smiley.
• PowerShell Remoting with Azure Windows VMs (Ravikanth C) - This post contain all the useful code we need to improve our Powershell scripts.
• BUILD 2014 day 1 Keynote recap (Laurent Duveau) - Great one page summary of the build day 1.
• BUILD 2014 day 2 Keynote recap (Laurent Duveau) - Nice quick recap of what was as been presented on day 2 of the //Build.

Programming

• C# Extension Methods Demystified - This tutorial explains the extends methods with simple code sample.
• Git for Team Foundation Developers–Branches (Kirk Evans[MSFT]) - Clear 101 tutorial, that bring TFS users more comfortable with Git.

In my previous post, Git for Team Foundation Developers , I showed how to create a project in Visual Studio Online,

• Azure Mobile Services in Project Siena (James Quick) - Very cool tutorial that play with mobile services in a Windows app.

Miscellaneous

• Scott Hanselman’s Complete List of Productivity Tips (hanselman.com) - If you didn’t have the chance to see this talk here is your chance to have a summary of the content.
• Drive Productivity by Limiting Work in Progress - Interesting reading suggestion.
• Nouvelles | Bière + l’entraînement = un bon mélange? - Interesting facts about a beer after doing sports.
• What to Do When You Don’t Feel Like Writing and You Have Nothing to Say (John Sonmez) - Really interesting and motivating post about how overcome the inercy when it’s time to write.
• Video Tutorial and Screenshots: Windows 8.1 Update 1 (hanselman.com) - Great recap of all the features in the new Windowws 8.1 update. It also include a useful tutorial video.

~Frank