Reading Notes #693

I'm always on the lookout for innovative ways to enhance my coding experience, and this week's Reading Notes are filled with exciting discoveries! From cutting-edge UI libraries to secure sandbox environments for AI agents, I've curated a selection of articles that showcase the latest programming trends and technologies. 

Whether you're interested in harnessing the power of Docker sandboxes or exploring the potential of smart glasses integration, there's something on this list for everyone.

Programming

• What's new for the Microsoft Fluent UI Blazor library 5.0 RC2 (Vincent Baaij) - V5 already! Wow, time flies! Tons of features in this release, looking forward to try the pinned column from the grid.

AI

• Docker Sandboxes: Run Agents in YOLO Mode, Safely (Eric Jia, Srini Sekaran,Timir Karia) - From what I saw, it is very secure, and it is that simple to set up. Looking forward to do more with it.

• Running AI agents safely in a microVM using docker sandbox (Andrew Lock) - This post answers so many questions! I heard a lot about those sandboxes and tried a few things, but had so many questions. Great post Andrew.

• Experimenting with AI subagents (Nicolas Fränkel) - An interesting story with what seems to be a good vision of the future.

• Old Protocols, New Pipes (Mark Downie) - Well said! And I hope you had a good time doing it.

• I Recorded 13 Hours of My Day With Smart Glasses for AI. Here's What I Built and What I Learned (tash-2s) - A really cool project that uses AI to make a pile of videos into some kind of dataset. A new to do daily journaling.

Miscellaneous

• Claude Code Windows Migration Guide: Move Your Setup (Dirk Strauss) - There is always a part that is easy in starting a new computer and a part that requires more effort.

~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 #691

This week’s notes bounce between terminals, copilots, and the shifting shape of AI tools in our daily work. From real-world experiments in large .NET projects to small quality-of-life improvements that just make coding smoother, there’s a lot to chew on. A few links stood out more than expected and might change how you approach your setup or your workflow.

All ready the end of the month!

Open Source

• Windows Terminal Preview 1.25 Release (Dustin Howett) - Nice to see a new update for our beloved terminal.

AI

• Ten Months with Copilot Coding Agent in dotnet/runtime - .NET Blog (Stephen Toub) - A real and big project, 10 months of experiments, 1 takeaway and a lot of details with numbers to explain it all.

• Claude Code with Docker: Local Models, MCP, Sandboxes (Yiwen Xu) - Short jump-post. It contains the references needed, including a video, to package Claude Code locally.

• OpenAI is planning a desktop ‘superapp’ (Jay Peters) - Interesting to see the result of this app merge.

• You no longer have to wait for Copilot to finish thinking (Bart Wullems) - Amazing! I love it! Another scenario where this is useful is when you press the wrong new-line key combination, and it sends your request instead of adding a new line.

• My 'Grill Me' Skill Went Viral (Matt Pocock) - After trying grill me, I knew I couldn't do without it. It is a great skill as it forces us to really flesh out our idea.

• Product management on the AI exponential - Interesting post where we learn more about the day-to-day of a PM at Anthropic

Miscellaneous

• DevRel Is Not Measured Like Other Roles — And That Needs to Change (Dewan Ahmed) - This in between role is are to define and to measure.

~frank

Reading Notes #690

AI keeps changing how we build, think, and even feel about software. This batch of posts & episodes mixes practical agent skills, vibe coding, and faster shipping with a bit of reflection on the old internet and why it still sticks with us.

AI

• 5 Agent Skills I Use Every Day (Matt Pocock) - This post shares really useful and impactful skills and explains how they work.

• A beginner's guide to vibe coding (Jessica Wachtel) - A nice and light post that describes the rules or the freedom of vibe coding.

• How VS Code Builds with AI (Pierce Boggan) - From shipping monthly to weekly, this post explains how the VS Code maintainers achieved that.

• Let your Coding Agent debug your browser session with Chrome DevTools MCP | Blog | Chrome for Developers (Sebastian Benz, Alex Rudenko) - That's a nice one! Really useful MCP

• 9 Ways AI Coding Has Rewired My Brain (Matt Pocock) - An interesting post that not only describes an efficient way to code with AI but also to stay relevant.

Podcasts

• Your Images are Out of Date (probably) - The Silent Rebuilds problem (DevOps and Docker Talk: Cloud Native Interviews and Tooling) - Very interesting episode. I guess I never realized how true it is that as soon as you download your image, they are outdated. This episode talks about the concept of silent rebuilds and tools to help us solve that issue.

• 503: Welcome to Tiny Tool Town (Merge Conflict) - With a name like Tiny Tool Town, my head always goes to Looney Tunes. No idea why, but this episode is not about that. It's about the collection of open source tools named: Tiny Tool Town, and they also talk about different models in GitHub Copilot.

• Building Software using Squad with Brady Gaster (.NET Rocks!) - Turn your Coplot to 11 with Squad. Carl and Richard talk to Brady Gaster about Squad, a tool for creating an AI development team using GitHub Copilot.

• Daniel Ward: AI Agents - Episode 393 (Azure & DevOps Podcast) - In this episode, they talk about the different AI tools used by developers and DevOps people, and the trends.

• Everything Is a Graph (Even Your Dad Jokes) with Roi Lipman (Screaming in the Cloud) - Nice episode about different database and most obviously about graph databases. Very interesting to learn more about all that explosion of database types.

Miscellaneous

• Kill Your Ego, Ship Your Work (Golnaz) - Great advice from Golnaz in this post. This is why so many people want to work with her.

• I Think a Lot of Developers Are Quietly Grieving the Old Internet (NorthernDev) - I think this feeling is real and I hope it won't stay long.

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 #689

Another week, another batch of interesting reads. This edition covers AI video experiments, extending coding agents with .NET skills, open source contributions, and a few podcast episodes worth adding to your queue.

AI

• I Spent $50 on AI Video Generation and Got Nothing Usable (Golnaz) - Interesting to see how a prof3esional video studio sees AI and what they can and cannot do with this tool.

• Extend your coding agent with .NET Skills - .NET Blog (Tim Heuer) - New repo and vscode extension to give us access to a bank of managed skill files for our agents.

• Reka Edge: Frontier-Level Edge Intelligence for Physical AI -  Launch of the latest version of Reka Edge, a vision language model that you can run locally.

Programming

• We are still engineers (Mark Downie) - Just like Mark, many engineers feels the same way.

Open Source

• How to make your first contribution to an open source project (Salma Alam-Naylor) - Another great post from Salma, this time sharing her experience about open source projects and how to get started in the lowest stress way.

• OpenWebUI + Model Runner: Zero-Config Local AI (Ignasi Lopez Luna) - I'm a fan of OpenUI, and seeing this synergy between projects is awesome! This post is a must if you are thinking of running some AI locally, which will save you some pain.

Podcasts

• Run your AI Agent in a Sandbox, with Docker President Mark Cavage (Hanselminutes with Scott Hanselman) - Very nice episode about all the more AI features that Docker have and more precisely Sandbox.

• The Rise of The Claw with OpenClaw's Peter Steinberger (Hanselminutes with Scott Hanselman) - Finally! The OpenClaw that we all needed. Peter has been interviewed many times, and many people have written about OpenClaw, but this episode was exactly what I needed.

• Paul Duvall: AI-Driven Development - Episode 390 (Azure & DevOps Podcast) - Another great discussion with a real DevOps expert about the impact of AI on our processes, and how we can use 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, podcasts and books that catch my interest during the week.

If you have interesting content, share it!

~frank

Reading Notes #688

I'm always on the lookout for innovative ideas to streamline my development workflow. This week, I stumbled upon some fascinating reads that caught my eye, among them, an article about building an AI-powered pull request agent using GitHub Copilot SDK, and another demonstrating the secure use of OpenClaw in Docker sandboxes.

AI

• Building an AI Pull Request Agent for Azure DevOps using GitHub Copilot SDK (Dominique St-Amand) - That's a cool idea to have your custom agent.

• Run OpenClaw Securely in Docker Sandboxes (Oleg Selajev) - Now that looks much safer! I just need to decide what I would connect it to, and I could finally try it. Nice tutorial.

• What's new with GitHub Copilot coding agent (Andrea Griffiths) - Oh wow, I didn't know we could continue our session from the cloud to the CLI and the other way around ,pretty cool

• Subagents and web search in Claude Code - A short post showing how to use the sub agent from Claude code running on Obama.

Programming

• WebAssembly is everywhere. Here's how it works (Jessica Wachtel) - This post explains all the magic of wasm, and it's maybe more than you think.

• A minimal way to integrate Aspire into your existing project (Tim Deschryver) - I really like this post that explains how to add an existing solution to Aspire. On top of that, this solution contains JavaScript and .NET products awesome.

• Cleaner switch expressions with pattern matching in C# (Bart Wullems) - My first reaction when I read the code in this post was: Wait, what? That works?! So, I guess I also forgot that C# has evolved; it's so much clearer.

~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 #686

This week's Reading Notes is packed with AI insights, open-source discoveries, programming tips, and podcast episodes that will leave you eager to dive in. From Ralph Wiggum's coding secrets to the dangers of one-shot glamour, we've got it all covered. So grab your favourite beverage, settle in, and get ready to level up your tech game!

AI

• Run NanoClaw in Docker Shell Sandboxes | Docker (Oleg Selajev) - I like that sandbox idea. That might be enough for me to try Clawbot... Or not, but the sandbox, hell yeah!

• 11 Tips For AI Coding With Ralph Wiggum - This post is a gold mine of best practices and really good advice to start using the Ralph loop in safety.

• Getting Started With Ralph (Matt Pocock) - Nice idea that loop. Very well explained tutorial.

• Solve Context Window Limits With Context Packing (Philippe Charrière) - A very interesting post that explains in detail, with code samples, how to compact.

• The danger of glamourizing one shots (Scott Hanselman) - Very well said Scott!

Open Source

• I replaced Windows 11’s default apps with these open-source tools (Mauro Huculak) - A cool list of tools that, on top of everything, are open source

• Microsoft Launches winapp to Simplify Windows App Development (Aminu Abdullahi) - A new CLI to help set our environment and other things. I like the idea, I will have to try it out.

Programming

• Aspire—Your Stack, Streamlined - Cool nice free event coming up!

Podcast

• 499: Going Full Ralph, CLI, & GitHub Copilot SDK?!?! (Merge Conflict) - Really fun episode to listen to, the explanation of the Ralph loop pattern and hearing Frank panicking (sorry Frank) with all the emojis, it was a fun and very instructive episode.

• How Homebrew Became Mac's Package Manager with Mike McQuaid (Screaming in the Cloud) - As a user of Homebrew, I was really happy to learn more about its history and how it became what it is today.

• Married, Dating, or Single: The Best Relationship Advice You Will Ever Recieve (The Mel Robbins Podcast) - Because we are all in relationships with the community, our co-workers, families, and maybe lovers. Great episode to listen to.

• Making Reliable Software in 2026 with Damien Brady (.NET Rocks!) - An interesting conversation about how to make software reliable. It was very nice to hear from Damien again.

• What Grit Really Teaches Us About Happiness with Professor Angela Duckworth (A Bit of Optimism) - I've had her book on my reading list for a while, but listening to that passionate discussion on grit and happiness has reignited my interest and motivated me to bump it up my stack.

~frank

Reading Notes #685

This week's collection of interesting articles, blog posts, and insights from the world of technology, programming, and AI. From the latest developments in Claude code and AI models for coding to discussions on the security of AI assistants and the future of the craft of programming, there's something for everyone in this edition of Reading Notes. 

Enjoy!

zebra snow

AI

• 8 Things You Didn't Know About Code Mode (Rizel Scarlett) - A nice post that teaches us a few things about Goose and its new code mode feature.

• Claude Code for Fullstack Development: The 3 Things You Actually Need (Vinny) - I've been using Claude models for a while, but I should try to spend more time in Claude code. It looks pretty neat.

• The Best AI Models for Coding: Accuracy, Integration, and Developer Fit (Conrad Schwellnus) - An interesting post that suggests an answer but also helps us to find our own answers.

• Choosing the Right Model in GitHub Copilot: A Practical Guide for Developers | Microsoft Community Hub (Nithyasree Kusakula) - I think this post will help many people. There are so many different models, it's hard to pick. That said, it's always changing

• Is a secure AI assistant possible? (Grace Huckins) - In short, if it's connected, there is always a risk. That's rule no. 1 for a long time.

Programming

• Is the craft dead? (Scott Hanselman) - Good question! What do you think? Is it still there? I'm personally sure it still is.

Miscellaneous

• What Came First: The Content or the Platform? (Golnaz) - Continue to learn about how Microsoft used and uses those platforms to create its video content.

~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 #683

A lot of good stuff crossed my radar this week. From Aspire’s continued evolution and local AI workflows with Ollama, to smarter, more contextual help in GitHub Copilot, the theme is clear: better tools, used more intentionally. I also bookmarked a few thoughtful pieces on leadership and communication that are worth slowing down for. Plenty here to explore, whether you’re deep in code or thinking about how teams actually work.

Programming

• Distributed apps platform Aspire supports JavaScript, Python (Loraine Lawson) - This stack of news brings Aspire rebranding explanations, details on the last Rust update with its great network improvement, and a hackathon for useful apps

• Aspire 13.1 Brings MCP Integration, CLI Enhancements, and Azure Deployment Updates - InfoQ - Quick post about what is new in this release.

AI

• How to Run Claude Code With Local Models Using Ollama (Vladislav Guzey) - Interesting, curious to see more in detail how it works.

• Bringing work context to your code in GitHub Copilot - Microsoft for Developers (Kayla Cinnamon) - That looks really cool. Being able to connect non-code information to the contest. I need to watch those videos.

• Practical Ways AI Can Help You Today with Minimal Setup (James Sturtevant) - Nice post with real-life tips sharing what works and what doesn't. A good read.

Open Source

• The end of the curl bug-bounty (Daniel Stenberg) - I didn't know about this effort, and it's sad to learn about it too now, of course, but I'm glad those programs exist.

Miscellaneous

• Why I Still Write Code as an Engineering Manager (James Sturtevant) - There is still hope, everyone! But more seriously, an inspiring post that managers should read.

• The Art of the Oner (Golnaz) - Another great post from Golnaz talks about how to help the message to land. How and why one takes are helping when presenting and the effort it represents.

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 #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 #681

This week’s reads blend cutting-edge tech with practical insights, like how Aspire elevates JavaScript to a first-class citizen in modern development, or why AI’s push toward typed languages might just be the future. From building a self-hosted model registry to uncovering AI’s surprising role in video

production (who knew Adobe had a sound AI gem?), there’s plenty to unpack. And if data-driven wardrobe experiments count as quirky, this week’s got you covered too.

Programming

• Aspire for JavaScript developers (David Pine) - JavaScript and all its frameworks are now first citizen in Aspire. This post explains what it means and what the benefits are for developers.

AI

• Why AI is pushing developers toward typed languages (Cassidy Williams) - This post shares the evolution of which AI uses languages. I would agree, as I noticed TypeScript was used in more and more blog posts and videos I was seeing online

• Self-hosting a MCP Registry for discovery using modelcontextprotocol.io registry (Dominique St-Amand) - Nice real-life story about how to build a full app to help manage all those MCP servers

• What AI Has (and Hasn't) Taken Over in Video Production (Golnaz Alibeigi) - As someone who creates a lot of video content, I agree with Golnaz and was surprised by the Adobe sound thing. I didn't know about that.

Miscellaneous

• I tracked everything I wore in 2025. Was it worth it? - I never thought about data related to my wardrobe, but playing with data and trying to understand what it means and how it can be used, that's always a fun thing. Thanks for sharing

~frank

Reading Notes #680

In this edition of Reading Notes, I’m sharing articles about the evolving tech landscape, exploring WebAssembly’s potential through Blazor, uncovering the simplicity of .NET’s file-based apps, and reflecting on how 2025 reshaped software development. From podcasts dissecting 2026’s challenges to a heartfelt tech community milestone, this round-up blends cutting-edge tools with practical wisdom, proving innovation thrives in unexpected corners.

Ready to geek out? Let’s roll.

DevOps

• WASI 1.0: You Won't Know When WebAssembly Is Everywhere in 2026 (B. Cameron Gain) - It's through Blazor that I discovered WebAssembly, and since then, I keep an eye on that. It's a world of possibilities.

Programming

• File-based apps - .NET - Amazing source of information. It's all in one place. I used to call it projectless, but from now on, it's file-based

AI

• 2025 Recap: The Year Software Development Changed Shape (Srini Sekaran) - Great recap! It made me smile and cry at the same time. All so true...

Podcasts

• 5 moves to beat uncertainty and build a better 2026 (Modern Mentor) - Five tips to help us focus on what we have control on, and that should make our work better.

• Package Management in 2026 with Gary Ewan Park (.NET Rocks!) - Nice episode about Chocolatey, a great package manager. It was nice to hear from Gary again!

Miscellaneous

• Year 15: Why I'm Finally Hitting Publish (Golnaz Alibeigi) - Looking forward to read this blog.

~Frank

Reading Notes #679

Exploring the intersection of AI and code this week, I stumbled on a treasure trove of practical insights, from building AI agents in n8n to Meta’s groundbreaking SAM Audio model. The blend of low-code tools, IDE integrations, and deep dives into .NET profiling shows how innovation is bridging creativity and technical rigor. Whether you’re automating workflows or decoding audio separation, there’s something here to spark curiosity and curiosity-driven coding.

AI

• 15 Practical AI Agent Examples to Scale Your Business in 2025 - This post contains many very good ideas of low-code agents that can really help you go through many different types of data

• Introducing SAM Audio: The First Unified Multimodal Model for Audio Separation - An insightful post about how AI could be used in audio

• How to Build an AI Agent in n8n for Beginners: Complete 2025 Guide (Snaplama) - I'm a fan of integration tools, and n8n is obviously part of those great tools. That AI node is very useful, and there are numerous ideas and applications you can explore with it. This post shares how you can do it as an agent, and I think a lot of people should try it

• When AI Amplifies Your Bad (and Good) Habits | The JetBrains AI Blog (Kris Kang) - Another post that helps us picture AI, giving us references to better understand how to use it to achieve the desired result.

• Bring your own AI agent to JetBrains IDEs (Sergey Ignatov) - This post shares many news, yes, you can bring your agent into writer, but also a collaboration with Zed and many new features related to those agents, looking forward to dig into those novelties

Programming

• Aspire 13.1 - Our holiday gift to you (David Fowler) - Nice update for Aspire!

• Creating a .NET CLR profiler using C# and NativeAOT with Silhouette (Andrew Lock) - A deep and very interesting post that plays with the unmanaged function.

• Aspire—Your Stack, Streamlined - Great release. There are breaking changes with Redis, so totally worth the 2 minutes of reading.

~frank

Reading Notes #678

In the ever-evolving tech landscape, this week’s reading notes blend cutting-edge tools with timeless insights. From Python’s growing role in .NET ecosystems to hands-on experiments with AI-powered data ingestion, there’s plenty to explore. Meanwhile, reflections on community, confidence, and finding our “second place” in a fast-paced world add a human touch. Jump into how developers are pushing boundaries, embracing new editors, and learning that growth starts with choosing courage, even when it’s scary.

Programming

• Python is First Class in Aspire 13 (Eric Erhardt) - As a .NET developer, I can totally see myself using that... In the near future

• .NET Conf 2025 Recap - Celebrating .NET 10, Visual Studio 2026, AI, Community, & More - .NET Blog (.NET Team) - The event is done, but the content is still there. I'm still going through myself, there's so much! All the slides, presentations, so much content available, everything about what and where to find

• Introducing Data Ingestion Building Blocks (Preview) - .NET Blog (Luis , Adam) - Pretty cool example using this new data block in C# file and AI to play with data.

• Trying out the Zed editor on Windows for .NET and Markdown (Andrew Lock) - I heard of Zed and was planning to try it, but this post saved me some time. The current unsupported razor pages is a show-stopper for me. But maybe later, if things changed.

Podcasts

• The 4 ways to rebuild your "second place" for belonging (Modern Mentor) - Did it all start because of a TV show?! Nevertheless, an interesting episode to help us find our spot and make those "first day work buddy" a better experience.

• Why you need to choose confidence (even when you're afraid), with Juan Bendaña (Modern Mentor) - Confidence isn't a character trait you're born with; it's a muscle you develop. I like the idea.

• World Leading Therapist: Why You Feel Stuck in Life & How to Get Unstuck (The Mel Robbins Podcast) - We talk to ourselves so much that what we say and how we say it can make a big difference. That's the topic of this very interesting episode.

Miscellaneous

• All good things must come to an end (Salma Alam Maylor) - I totally understand, but it is sad news to see her go out of the streaming business. She is amazing, I'm sure she's still rocks whatever she does.

~frank

Reading Notes #677

This week I'm looking at some interesting .NET stuff like Typemock's architecture and how Copilot Studio uses WebAssembly to boost performance. There's also a good reminder about why setting up CI/CD early (when your app is tiny) saves you tons of headaches later. Plus, I found a couple of great podcast episodes on building modern SaaS products and what actually makes a personal brand different from just having a reputation.

the toughther salad resisting to snow 

Programming

• ⭐ Typemock Architecture: How the .NET Isolation Engine Works Under the Hood (Eli Lopian) - An interesting framework with a lot of promises.

• Background tasks in .NET | Microsoft Community Hub ( riturajjana) - Short post with all the code.

• How Copilot Studio uses .NET and WebAssembly for performance and innovation - .NET Blog (Daniel Roth) - Nice real-life example of how to use technology to improve the user experience.

DevOps

• Why you should set up CI/CD from day one for your apps - LogRocket Blog (Lewis Cianci) - And I suppose that gives many reasons to start with the cicd, but on top of that, I would say when your app is super small ,it's much easier to create that cicd that at the end when it's super complex

AI

• Introducing GPT-4o Audio Models in Microsoft Foundry: A Practical Guide for Developers | Microsoft Foundry Blog (Allan Carranza) - New model.

Podcast

• 118. Designing Smarter SaaS Workflows: Rethinking Legacy Constraints - with Yasen Dinkov (Betatalks the podcast) - Great episode talking about what it means to build a Software As a Service (SaaS) today and what you need to do for it to grow.

• 757: The Key Elements of a Powerful Personal Brand, with Goldie Chan (Coaching for Leaders) - I really like this episode explaining the difference between personal brand and reputation and so much more.

~frank

Reading Notes #676

This #rd explores practical insights on leveraging GitHub Copilot for enhanced .NET testing, the rise of AI-driven documentation solutions, and the importance of security in coding agents. From dissecting Docker’s MCP servers to debating the merits of Minimal APIs, we cover a mix of .NET updates, developer workflows, and emerging best practices. Whether you’re refining build processes, optimizing codebases, or staying ahead of security trends, these notes offer a curated selection of ideas to spark your next project or refactor.

Let’s unpack what’s new and impactful in tech!

AI

• A New Approach for Coding Agent Safety | Docker - Security must be part of our top priorities, and it's very interesting to see docker's effort in this area

• Supercharge Your Test Coverage with GitHub Copilot Testing for .NET ( McKenna Barlow) - It's only in the insider version for now, but I'm looking forward to trying it and seeing if it's really better than the one prompt

• Are There Any Good AI Documentation Apps Out There? (Rachel Kaufman) - Great question! I believe there is a simple way to do that. More to come.

• 6 Must-Have MCP Servers (and How to Use Them) | Docker - Nice list of tools that can help your agents.

• Ask AI from Anywhere: No GUI, No Heavy Clients, No Friction (Frank Boucher) - A cool little tools that you can call from any terminal (yes it works via ssh too!) that call AI and ask a question or does a web research for you. The post and the video explains how it works and where to find the code.

Programming

• Reinventing how .NET Builds and Ships (Again) (Matt Mitchell) - This post is not a 30-second read, but it's a detailed story that explains all the facts and how it was built. That great new version 10 in terms of the build.

• Fetching GitHub content from C# (Thomas Ardal,) - Yes, those APIs are pretty cool.

• Why you must use Minimal APIs over Controllers for new apps (David) - I really like minimal API, but don't get in a rush to convert all your existing projects; the controller approach is also very valuable.

~frank

Reading Notes #675

Here’s a compact roundup of links and highlights I found interesting this week. You’ll find updates on Git, Chrome DevTools tips, C# 14 and .NET 10 coverage, Blazor upgrade notes, a practical Copilot + Visual Studio guide, plus a few useful tools and AI announcements. Enjoy, and tell me which item you want me to explore next.

AI

• Building for an Open Future - our new partnership with Google Cloud (Jeff Boudier, Simon Pagezy) - Cool 😎 news! Let's see what we can do...
• Check-In Doc MCP Server: A Handy Way to Search Only the Docs You Trust (Frank Boucher) - Cool little project. It's already done you just have to add it. It let Copilot (or agent) search in your favorite documentation website for you!

Programming

• Highlights from Git 2.52 (Taylor Blau) - I'm probably repeating myself, but I'm so surprised how little I know this fantastic tool. This post shares the last update, it's all very impressive.

• Six Things I Bet You Didn't Know You Could Do With Chrome's Devtools, Part 1 (Rachel Kaufman) - As most of my projects are web this post was very interesting. I'm looking forward for part two

• Introducing C# 14 - .NET Blog (Bill Wagner) - You would think that at version 14, there's not much to add or change? Well you couldn't be more wrong be prepared for a long and detailed post.

• Blazor and .NET 10: Breaking Changes, Fixes, and New Features (Simon Foster) - There's always a little risk when you're upgrading to a new version. Of course, .NET 10 could bring some... In this post, the author shares a problem had and the link where he found the breaking changes good read

• A step-by-step guide to modernizing .NET applications with GitHub Copilot agent mode - .NET Blog (Mika Dumont) - A great integration of Visual Studio and Copilot to help you upgrade or modernize your application. This post is a nice tutorial.

• Release v3.2.0 · basecamp/omarchy (basecamp team) - Nice! A lot of fixes and some nice new features: Ghostty new default (I was already using it), new key bindings (looking forward to try the workspace-related ones), and a new project named: try... Ooh! I love it!

Miscellaneous

• ZoomIt v9.21 | Microsoft Community Hub (Alex Mihaiuc) - If you are on Windows, please do you do yourself a favour and try Zoom it. Since I switched to Mac and Linux, it's the thing that I miss the most.

Reading Notes #674

This week: Cake v6.0.0 is out, Docker Desktop adds helpful debugging tools, and .NET 10 brings a ton of changes worth exploring. Plus some thoughts on working with AI coding assistants and a great cybersecurity podcast.

AI

• Treat Your AI Assistant Like an Overconfident Junior Developer (Marko Crnjanski) - I really like that I meant, I think it's pretty close to reality, and this post contains a lot of good tips.

• AI Vision: Turning Your Videos into Comedy Gold (or Cringe) (Frank Boucher) - A cool demo in Python that leverage AI Vision to watch your video and generate a funny roast.  

DevOps

• Cake v6.0.0 released - Great news! I will have to upgrade my pipeline. Hopefully, the upgrade will be smooth.

• Docker Desktop 4.50 Release (Deanna Sparks) - Nice update, and oh wow! I'm looking forward to try that debug, that's great news

Programming

• Get Ready for .NET Conf 2025! (Jon Galloway) - 3-day event and all about that net dispose chair, what is happening each day, so a good way to plan your listening

• ReSharper 2025.3: Day-One C# 14 Support, Visual Studio 2026 Compatibility, and Major Performance Gains | The .NET Tools Blog (Sasha Ivanova) - Great to see that those tools are ready for .NET so quickly

• Announcing .NET 10 - .NET Blog (.NET team) - There are so many changes. This post list a lot of things that just change with that .NET 10, and I really looking forward to watch in that video and read a more specific article to see demos and try it myself

Podcasts

• 116. The Evolution of Cybersecurity - with Paula Januszkiewicz (Betatalks the podcast) - What a great episode! Yes, about Cybersecurity but also about how to talk about a topic and share.

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