Reading Notes #646

Welcome to this week's collection of fascinating reads across cloud computing, AI, and programming! As technology continues to evolve at breakneck speed, I've gathered some of the most insightful articles that caught my attention. From securing MCP servers to exploring Rust, there's something here for every tech enthusiast. 

Dive in and discover what's new in our rapidly changing digital landscape.

Cloud

• Azure API Management Your Auth Gateway For MCP Servers | Microsoft Community Hub (PranamiJ) - Why all the fuss about MCP, we must not forget security. This post suggests a simple solution.

AI

• How Azure Copilot Helped Me Quickly Troubleshoot a Demo (David Giard) - That's a good example of how AI can help you not do the job for yourself but avoid mistakes and do it faster.

• Secure Remote MCP Servers With Entra ID And Azure API Management (Den Delimarsky) - Nice solution in Python to secure your MCP servers

Programming

• When ASP.NET Core Identity Is No Longer Enough (Andrea Chiarelli) - Authentication and authorization have an important place in our Apps. This post shares details about how things work and the different processes.

• New Docker Extension for Visual Studio Code (Remy Suen) - This extension was already a must, they made it better, it's a must must! But seriously give it a try and try it by yourself.

• From C# to Rust: A 42-Day Developer Challenge (Chris Woodruff) - Cool tease of an experiment that promises a lot of learning.

• How to Programmatically Create MS Word DOCX Documents with .NET C# on Linux (Bjoern Meyer) - Cool package that helps create Word documents. Perfect when running in a Linux container.

• Preview 2 of the .NET AI Template Now Available (Jordan Matthiesen) - New templates with AI, Qadran and Aspire, oh boy life is good!

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 #645

Welcome to this week's reading notes! I've found some great articles that caught my eye - from security tips for MCP servers to exciting updates in Rust and AI. Whether you're into cloud services, programming tools, or wondering about the future of coding with AI, there's something here for you.

Let's dive in!

 

Programming

• The Aspire Compiler (David Fowler) - I really appreciate Aspire. It's one of the tools that completely changed my experience as a developer. Learning more about it is, without a doubt, interesting.

• Verifying tricky git rebases with git range-diff (Andrew Lock) - Is it possible to really master Git? There is always something new to learn. Nice post going deep.

• Azure SDK for Rust Goes Beta (Nikos Vaggalis ) - Great news for the Rust developer, this is an important milestone.

AI

• Calling MCP Servers in C# with Microsoft.Extensions.AI (Mark Heath) - Many options, new tools, fresh possibilities, it's only missing our ideas.

• If LLMs Can Code, Why Are We Building More IDEs? (Mark Downie) - That's an excellent question, and I agree with Mark.

• Understanding and mitigating security risks in MCP implementations (Sarah Young) - The MCP servers are opening many opportunities, and it's important to know the risk. This post is a must.

• Build MCP Remote Servers with Azure Functions (Matt Soucoup) - A quick post that shows how a serverless MCP server can be hosted Azure and be secure; all code included.

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 #643

In this week Reading Notes, we explore a diverse range of updates and insights from the tech world. From the latest features in the Azure SDK and Developer CLI, to an introduction to .NET Aspire and its innovative approach to Infrastructure as Code, there's plenty to catch up on. 

Jump into discussions on AI productivity, free Azure SQL tiers, and even a refreshing podcast on stress-free living. 

Let's get started!

Cloud

• Azure SDK Release (March 2025) (Hector Norzagaray) - Many languages are supported and now Rust is part of it. There also some new bits for Node and Python.

• Azure Developer CLI (azd) - April 2025 (Kristen Womack) - New features in the CLI, bug fixing and new possibilities in the website to search templates!

Databases

• Are You Azure SQL Database Curious? (Karen Lopez) - What?! Didn't know about that free tier. I could definitely use that; great news!

AI

• Does AI really make you more productive? (Salma Alam-Naylor) - I trust AI as much as I trust any code found after googling.Meaning it might works but to I need to understand what it is doing. There is no trust, is always gambling.

• Microsoft partners with Anthropic to create official C# SDK for Model Context Protocol (Mike , Maria) - New SDK is already available and it works!

Programming

• .NET Aspire - Microsoft's Attempt at Infrastructure as Code (darren horrocks) - This is a quick intro to .NET Aspire, perfect to learn what it is without going deep into the details.

• Making Software Like LEGO: How Aspire Brings the Pieces Together (David Fowler) - I really liked that image with the construction blocs. And also it seems my hobbies didn't change much in the past fifty years.

Podcasts

• Forking around (with the Linux Desktop) and Finding Out with Justin Garrison (Hanselminutes with Scott Hanselman) - Interesting discussion about Linux desktop and everything they can do. More people should know about that

• 359. Rest More, Stress Less, and Live the Life You Actually Want with Courtney Carver (The Greg McKeown Podcast) - Episode with the author of the book Gentle: Rest More, Stress Less, and Live the Life You Actually Want. It seams simple but must be hard to apply in today's word.

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 #633

This edition of Readings Notes covers the synergies between C# and Rust, open-source software licensing challenges, and securing the software supply chain. It also feature a beginner’s guide to programming C# in Visual Studio Code. Finally, we delve into the evaluation process of AI models for GitHub Copilot. 

Enjoy the read!

Programming

• Why Every C# Developer Should Explore Rust (Chris Woodruff) - Even though I heard of Rust I don't think I ever wrote a single line. This post gives a brief list of ideas where we could make a combo c#-rust, and where to get started. Hmmm.

• .NET OSS Projects: Better to Re-license or Die? (Aaron Stannard) - What are the options when a free OSS project changes its license? Nice post that provides an overview of a recent change like this.

• Protecting the Software Supply Chain: The Art of Continuous Improvement (Melissa Sussmann) - This post lists the tools available to help us keeping our app secured and clean.

• How to Program C# in Visual Studio Code (Claudio Bernasconi) - It cost nothing and it is simple to start coding in C#, from .NET as this tutorial shows.

Miscellaneous

• How we evaluate AI models and LLMs for GitHub Copilot (Connor Adams, Klint Finley) - This is an interesting post that shares the methods used to test the different models before they can be included. Testing a model is different than testing a regular piece of code, what are they looking for, and what's important?

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 

~frank

Reading Notes #574

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 Notation Azure Key Vault plugin v1.0 for signing container images (Feynman Zhou) - A nice CLI tool the ease the security validation of our containers. Learn more about this CNCF project.

• OpenTofu Joins the Linux Foundation (Pawel Hytry) - If you used Terraform in your IaC and would like to keep it that way look like this is the way.

Programming

• Creating User Interface Applications with .NET C# and Slint UI (Matheus Castello) - Nice and light new framework, definitely worth a look.

• How I use Docker to deploy my Blazor apps to affordable hosting (Jon Hilton) - Containers make it easier to deploy everywhere, so it great when its easier to contenarize...

Podcasts

• Damian Brady: GitHub Copilot - Episode 258 (Azure DevOps Podcast) - Awesome episode where Damian talks about Copilot how it works, how it evolved.

• Defining Your Role Before Someone Else Does (Ep 81) (Community Pulse) - It's definitely true for devrel roles, but I think it's true for all roles... Communication is key!

• Going Full Time on Open Source with Shaun Walker (.NET Rocks!) - The older will remember the amazing DotNetNuke. That OSS project was create by Shaun a few years ago. In this episode, they talk about his new project and how he is building it.

Miscellaneous

• How AI is generating change in newsrooms worldwide (Charlie Beckett) - An interesting post that look at a important question and impact of AI. I didn't thought about it, but of course news are affected by those generative AI tools.

• What's new in System.Text.Json in .NET 8 - .NET Blog (Eirik Tsarpalis) - Json is such a important medium to express data, it great to see improvements in the tooling.

~frank

Reading Notes #371

Cloud

• How to query Azure resources using the Azure CLI (Neil Peterson) - Nice post that gives a few tips and tricks about how to query Azure resources with Az.
• Setting up Jenkins X on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) (Chee Chan) - A very simple tutorial that explains how to install and get started with JenkinsX with Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS)

Programming

• Using npm's ls command for Fun and Insight (Tierney Cyren) - A useful discovery about a node.js command and how to use it in our different environments.
• Intro to web programming in Rust for NodeJS developers (Bastian Gruber) - Jump aboard this new promising series to learn Rust...

Miscellaneous

• How do You Structure Your Code When Moving Your API from Express to Serverless Functions? (John Papa) - When structured the code is always better. A nice post that explains just that with serverless.

Reading Notes #366

Cloud

• Using Environment Variables in Azure DevOps Pipelines (K. Scott Allen) - A great little tutorial that explains how to use configure our variables.

Programming

• An open source parser for GitHub Actions (Patrick Reynolds) - Looking forward to try those GitHub Actions.
• Code coverage reports for ASP.NET Core (Gunnar Peipman) - Very interesting post to learn more about how to get a useful report about our tests.
• Dependency injection in .NET Core console applications (Gunnar Peipman) - Fantastic and concise post that introduces a way to do simple dependency injection with .Net Core using Autofact.
• Rust Governance: Scaling Empathy (Manish Goregaokar) - A friend recently introduced me to Rust. This post assumed we all already familiar to it, and talk about the current problems of this new language and potential solutions.

Databases

• Migrating your existing on-prem SQL Server database to Azure SQL DB (Angelos Petropoulos) - Are you planning to migrate your app to Azure? If the database is also part of the migration here three different way to migrate it including one that doesn't require downtime!

Miscellaneous

• Benefits of using Azure API Management with microservices (Mike Budzynski) - Nice post that explains how to structure Azure Functions (microservices) with Apim and explains why it's a good practice.
• Designing for Dark Mode (kirupa) - Interesting topic indeed. As I'm migrating one of my blog the timing is excellent.