Reading Notes #721

Here's a fresh collection of links and quick takes from my recent reading, and this one has a nice mix worth your time. The big highlight for me is seeing both Syncfusion and Infragistics bring their component libraries to Blazor under the MIT license, but there's also plenty on serverless Azure, Docker sandboxes, and the practical realities of going AI-first at work. 

Grab a coffee/tea and let's get into it.

Open Source

• Blazor Welcomes Open-Source Contributions from Syncfusion (Daniel Roth) - Amazing graphics components that will now be free under the MIT license.

• Blazor Welcomes Open-Source Contributions from Infragistics (Daniel Roth) - Voila! Both giant component companies now offer amazing components for Blazor for free under the MIT license

Cloud

• Serverless Compute Operations with Azure Functions (Mark Heath) - Shirt post announcing an Azure function Pluralsight course.

• Everything released in October 2026 for Azure Developer CLI - Azure SDK Blog (Kristen Womack) - Lots of nice improvements in those releases.

Programming

• Docker Sandboxes: Where Should Your Code Live? - I like that Docker sandboxes can adapt to different scenarios. I will have to try the clone one.

Miscellaneous

• From Cloud-First to AI-First: Productivity-Maxxing or Token-Maxxing? (Dewan Ahmed) - Using AI globally and safely at work requires governance and some agreement on roles and permissions... Just like a migration. This post summarizes sessions that help with planning and that approach

~frank

Reading Notes #720

Another week, another batch of links that caught my attention, and this one covers a lot of ground. From AI agents on Kubernetes and a security incident that should make every developer pause, to the authentication changes coming in .NET 11 and a sharp argument that slow software is a design problem rather than a language problem. Here's what I found worth sharing.

AI

• Is Kubernetes ready for AI agents? - The New Stack (Dan Ciruli) - Interesting! I use a lot of containers, but not yet Kubernetes and I would have assumed it was a perfect system for it.

• Everything Is An API Now - There is, most of the time, an API, yes. Integration for the win!

• Designing an AI serving harness built to last - Short post that asks many questions to highlight what should be the thing we should focus on

• 30 Popular AI Agent Skills Ranked by GitHub Stars - I used many of those skills and just discovered others that look promising.

Programming

• PHP2Shell and eMudhra Patched - It happened to PHP developers last week, but it could be any of us. So true, that's our wake-up call

• What's new in ASP.NET Core authentication in .NET 11 - Nice detailed post that compares .NET 10.0.1 - 10.0.13 to .NET 11 RC2

• Are You Getting Everything You Can from Your Visual Studio Subscription? (James Rempt) - All developers using Visual Studio should check out how to qualify and explore all those extra goodies!

Miscellaneous

• Software is slow because of bad design, not slow languages - AI isn't magic, and for optimization, there are ways to do 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. 

 ~frank

Reading Notes #719

Welcome back for another round of Reading Notes, the weekly list of links I wish I had found sooner. This edition leans into .NET performance with CBOR and NativeAOT, includes what you need to know before touching Xcode 27 in your MAUI apps, and answers the question everybody keeps asking about the Copilot SDK. Skim the headings and jump straight to whatever catches your eye.

Programming

• An introduction to Compact Binary Object Representation (CBOR) in .NET (Andrew Lock) - When space or resources are limited, it's nice to see there is something smaller than JSON.

• Stripping extra dependencies in .NET NativeAOT apps using linker substitutions (Andrew Lock) - Nice post that shares many lessons learned while trying to reduce a package's size.

• Get Your .NET MAUI App Ready for Xcode 27 - .NET Blog (Gerald Versluis) - Looks like things have changed with Xcode 27, but the good news is we have the CLI and the skills to help us migrate easily.

AI

• Bring Your Own Model to the GitHub Copilot SDK with C# - .NET Blog (Bruno Capuano) - This post answers the most-asked question about the Copilot SDK. After reading this, you are set to go.

• Azure MCP Server 3.0 stable release: More tools. More possibilities - Azure SDK Blog (Sandeep Sen) - Nice New version!

LowCode

• Making n8n Workflows Testable and Maintainable with Runtime Variables (Caleb Jenkins) - Testing is important. This post shares how to use dependency injection in workflows.

Miscellaneous

• Swipe, Match, Cook! (Alexandre Brisebois) - Really cool app that solves a real problem. Love it!

~frank

Reading Notes #718

This week’s Reading Notes covers key updates ranging from new Blazor AI components that handle agent UIs to Docker announcements you definitely shouldn’t have missed at the recent WeAreDevelopers event. I also recommend checking out resources on why SDK integrations like Squad now support HydraFusion and how MCP servers might help restore our speed with Aspire infrastructure work today.

Programming

• Build Agentic UI with the new Blazor AI components (Daniel Roth) - A second set of AI-packed components for Blazor. Just like the first time, it looks very useful, assuming they match the scenario in your applications

AI

• How to be more ambitious: A tutorial for humans with models - Four different ways to use AI, and you probably already use one. Learn how else you could approach the next task

• Docker Cloud Sandboxes: Recap from WeAreDevelopers | Docker - This post recaps all the announcements made at the WeAreDevelopers event, and oh boy, I wish I hadn't missed it.

• Coming in Squad 1.1.0: you won't have to choose between Squad and HydraFusion anymore (Brady Gaster) - I really like those posts that explain the why. Why the version number? Why this change now?

• AG-UI Protocol now has a first-class .NET SDK - .NET Blog (Daniel Roth) - Nice native way to orchestrate agent connections.

Miscellaneous

• Console and worker apps | Aspire - I used to spend my days around Azure resources and IaC files, but much less recently. This MCP server is, I believe, what will help me get back to my speed
  

~frank

Reading Notes #717

This week we have a collection of tools and articles that genuinely improve how we build software and manage our daily workflows. From automating pre-push checks to refining SQL formatting, these notes share practical wins for the modern .NET developer. Give them a read through before your next commit or sprint starts.

Databases

• I Built My First VS Code Extension: Meet Rainbow SQL (Frank Boucher) - A simple but very useful VS Code extension that helps when writing SQL. And yeah, a shameless plug.

Programming

• A faster, lighter C# Dev Kit - .NET Blog (Drew Noakes) - Understand better all the goodness in this upcoming new release of our beloved VS Code extension, C# Dev Kit

• Should I break down my Blazor page into multiple components? - I will have to try that Blazrlytics, and I know exactly which project to use it for.

• Use C# unions and closed hierarchies in ASP.NET Core (Dmitrii Korolev) - Really nice way to use a union to make a C# type accept both int and string. Like Kubernetes maxUnavailable, which accepts 3 or 42%

DevOps

• Before you push or deploy: Automate nine .net project checks with the spargine dev tool (David McCarter) - Interesting script, curious to see the output on some of my projects

Open Source

• Why every .NET library deserves a proper start Dennis Doomen - A really cool series of templates to help us start writing.NET package. It brilliant and customizable

Miscellaneous

• Volunteers Don't Quit. They Fade. (Henk Boelman) - Communities are so important; would it be in person or online. We really need to learn how to be better at keeping a healthy balance

• Anti-Patterns in Software Blogging · Refactoring English - Love it! So much best practices in a single post. I'm guilty of doing some of those patterns, but will do my best to change that right away.

Reading Notes #716

This week’s highlights bring together some practical programming improvements, thoughtful reflections on the craft of coding, and a few interesting ways to work with AI. From open-source Blazor controls and smarter CSS optimization to Claude Code routing, Docker Sandboxes, and better secrets management, there’s plenty here to explore and put to use.

Programming

• Syncfusion Releases First Set of Open-Source Blazor Controls - That's good news, free components together us started faster

• Improving site performance by shipping more CSS - The GitHub Blog (Josh Black, Marie Lucca) - Nice performance tuning story. It makes me think we should all do the exercise more often.

AI

• Route every Claude Code message to the right model with Jev | Pulumi Blog (Engin Diri) - A really cool project that features the new JEV model. It's an OSS project and can be found on GitHub.

• Docker Sandbox Kit Spec: Authority as Code | Docker - This post shares the evolution/stabilization of the kit for Docker sandboxes

• Auto-accepting AI edits in VS Code - There is, most of the time, a setting in VS Code to tweak it just the way you prefer. Nice share.

• One Gym Session, One Cell Phone, One Working App ( jamie maguire) - Fun little experiment. There are things like this that you can safely one-shot because they’re well-known and predictable.

DevOps

• From API Keys to Access Control: Rethinking Secrets Management (Aanchal Mishra) - Security must stay a priority. I like what Postman did here.

Miscellaneous

• Something About Coding Stopped Feeling Good — and It Took Me a While to Figure Out What - We all noticed it, but only a few of us talk about it, and this post does a good job of putting words to feelings

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 #715

This week's reading notes cover a nice mix of AI, programming, and databases, with a few pieces that stuck with me longer than I expected. On the AI side there's a new kind of model, a book about Nvidia and Jensen Huang that I thoroughly enjoyed, and an experiment where coding agents chose Azure SQL. On the .NET side, Stephen Toub is back with his annual performance post, and I finally found the Swagger vs. Scalar comparison I'd been looking for.

It is still green

AI

• Introducing System One Models & Jev - The release of a new type of model JEV looks interesting, at least on paper.

• A summer of AI optimization (Daniel Lemire) - Every medal has two sides; this is the story of the bright one.

Programming

• Docker at WeAreDevelopers: Partner & Customer Sessions (Leon Jones, Eli Aleyner) - WeAreDevelopers event occurred 23-25sept and there were many interesting sessions .Will some of them be available online? Or maybe I need to remember for next year.

• Performance Improvements in .NET 11 - .NET Blog (Stephen Toub - MSFT) - It always takes me more than one sitting to read those benchmark posts from Stephen, but it's always nice.

• Device Bound Session Credentials in ASP.NET Core (Maarten Balliauw) - An interesting experimental feature to improve the security of our browsing sessions.

• How to Port a Jekyll Blog Theme to Python: Lessons From Actually Doing It - Cool project, very nicely done.

• Swagger vs. Scalar: A comparison for ASP.NET Core developers - I've been looking for a post like this, eventhought writing it at some point. It's great to see a side-by-side implementation: code, UI, all of it.

• 7 Document Automation Tasks Every .NET Application Should Handle Server-Side - I really like that it's ONE unified package that lets us do all that. No office installation required, and on top of that, it works on Linux. Bravo!

Databases

• Coding agents are picking Azure SQL Database - Azure SQL Dev Corner (Anna Hoffman) - That's a neat experiment, having an AI persona create a project that requires a database and analyzing the results.

Books

The Thinking Machine: Jensen Huang, Nvidia, and the World
Author: Stephen Witt


I enjoyed learning about Nvidia's backstory and the entire semiconductor/chip industry. Jensen Huang is clearly a smart man with a keen sense for business.

~Frank

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 #713

This week’s collection explores the practical side of AI, focusing on governance in multi-model environments and the security advantages of robust sandboxing. I’ve also included some foundational perspectives on and organizational goals, along with a look into the history of one of my favorite tools, VS Code.

AI

• James Shore: Are You Getting Your Money’s Worth from AI? (James Shore) - Interesting first post of a series. This one focuses on what we should or shouldn't measure to see and understand the performance of our teams using AI.

• Project HydraFusion: Frontier quality via multi-model orchestration - The GitHub Blog (GitHub Staff) - That looks very interesting, and it's available in the CLI via the experimental features.

• Below the Harness: Governing a Multi-Model, Multi-Harness World | Docker - Interesting thought about the future (probably not that far because it's about AI) and how we will interact or work with it.

• 6 Benefits of Sandbox Environments (Kevin Wittek, Srini Sekaran) - I really like how this post explains the security issues, how Docker sandboxes address the weaknesses, and how its sandboxes differ from others.

Programming

• The Story of VS Code | Official Documentary - A ninety-minute documentary about VS Code. From where the idea started to what we know it as today.

Books

Measure What Matters 

by John Doerr 

That book has been on my to-read list for a very long time. As someone who worked at Microsoft using many OKRs, I was comfortable with the topic. Nevertheless, it was interesting to learn how other people use it in many different contexts.

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 #708

I’ve gathered a few insightful pieces this week exploring smarter ways to manage AI costs, practical hardware setups, and the foundational logic behind better programming. Each link offers a different perspective on how we can refine our workflows and think more intentionally about the tools we use every day.

AI

• MCP Beyond the Chat Window: Build Diagnostics in CI (Jan , Yuliia) - Instead of copy-pasting the log, the promises of this MCP server are very interesting.

• Why Reusing AI Instructions Costs You More Tokens (Ken Muse) - This post shares great advices on how we must think when writing or planning skills and queries.

• Set up OpenClaw on your Raspberry Pi (Lucy Hattersley) - Tease about a very interesting post (available in the Raspberry Pi Official Magazine) more to come

Databases

• Learning a few things about running SQLite (Julia Evans) - Nice post sharing some useful lessons learned.

Programming

• The Power Of “Why?” (codemanship) - A great post that reminds us that asking the right question helps us understand the real need and build better solutions.

Miscellaneous

• The Knowledge You Give Away (Mark Downie) - A quote that hopefully makes us think.

• Microsoft reveals 15+ products losing support in 2026, check if you're affected (Abhijith M B) - It's worth having a look while you have time to plan something. Products will continue to work, but no more updates or support.

~frank

Reading Notes #707

This week's highlights bring together insights on evolving API security, the realities of integrating AI into your workflow, and tools that can help streamline the testing process. I selected these pieces for their practical advice on simplifying everyday development tasks while building more robust and resilient infrastructure.

Programming

• Web Application & API Protection: An Overview (John Brawner) - I knew many security tools existed, and obviously I use some. But I learned a lot in this post. WAAP emerged because WAF alone was not enough to address APIs, bots, DDoS, and modern cloud traffic patterns in a single runtime protection model.

• How to Turn a Postman Collection into a Maintainable pytest Suite (Mikhail Golikov) - Tests are important, so keeping them clean should be too. This post gives us a great example of how to build reliable tools to do exactly that.

• OpenAPI Code Generation with Corvus: Typed HTTP Clients (Matthew Adams) - Who doesn't uses APIs?! I need to try that today!

AI

• A new way to reflect on how you use Claude - This post shares a reporting tool to visualize our Claude utilization.

• Better tools made Copilot code review worse. Here's how we actually improved it. (Napalys Klicius) - Interesting story that shares experiments to improve AI when doing code review. How it failed and how it work, and how the same fix didn't do great in a different context.

Miscellaneous

• Your Laptop Is the New Production Environment (Karan Verma) - The title definitely caught my attention, and it's so true. First post of a promising series.

• AI is ready. Your APIs probably aren't (Matt Gray) - Postman has always been an interesting tool. I've been using something else for a while but am thinking about exploring it again!

• How GitHub gave every repository a durable owner - A nice behind-the-scenes story where GitHub shares the issues, failures, learning and success.

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 #703

I spent some time this week tracking new developments in the AI and DevOps space to see what was worth a closer look. These notes highlight several interesting pieces regarding new model releases, infrastructure shifts, and more efficient ways to manage your project files.

DevOps

• Migrating Your GitHub CI to Hugging Face Jobs (Abubakar Abid) - Interesting, it's the first time I've read about HF jobs.

AI

• Introducing North Mini Code: Cohere’s First Model For Developers (Cohere Code Agents Team) - I feel like those new model blog posts are never simple to read. They are packed with numbers, statistics and comparisons with things you may not have known before. But that's what makes them interesting; they are a deep source of information. And yes, that model looks great!

• Your API is Already an MCP Server (Marin Pavelić) - Very interesting idea that could make all of us save time and money.

Programming

• Exploring the SLNX Solution File Format (Dave Brock) - The new format has been out for a while now, and I use it in more and more projects. Much easier to read.

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