Reading Notes #619

It's reading notes time! 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. 

You also read something you liked? Share it!

Suggestion of the week

• Easily dock and float tool windows (Mads Kristensen) - Oh my! One of the best post I read since a long time. It cannot me more accurate, funny, nor useful.

Programming

• DevOps for Beginners: A Complete Roadmap to Get Started (Harshhaa Vardhan Reddy) - This post is a really good overview of DevOps. If your are interested to he topic but don't know where to start,that one is for you.

• How to Build Frontend Apps 10x Faster (Anmol Baranwal) - An interesting tools that you install that act as middle man and helps while developing and testing.

• Switch Branches in Git Without Losing Your Work (Asad Bukhari) - Quick little tip to save time with Git.

• Incorporate GitHub Copilot into your daily flow (Rhea,Sinem,Mika) - Copilot go more accessible!This post summarizes how Copilot will be easier to use with suggested code. That's a good example of product feedback well used, everybody wins!

• 5 Must-Have NuGet Packages for .NET Developers: Elevate Your Code! (Ken Fedorov) - Nice post that shares indeed useful packages.

• GitHub Models and .NET: Building Generative AI apps for engineers (April Yoho) - Very easy to use and accessible, those AI models are perfect for developers. GitHub successfully removed many blockers that aloud a fast onboarding experience.

• Semantic Kernel - Multi agent systems (Bart Wullems) - Nice quick post with a lot of to code to helps understand the concept.

~Frank

Reading Notes #618

It's reading notes time! 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.

You also read something you liked? Share it!

Programming

• Announcing .NET Aspire 8.2 – Goodbye Components, Hello Integrations! (Maddy Montaquila) - New release, new name, new functionalities, and one documented breaking change. All in this post.

• C# Dev Kit update brings enhanced Razor IntelliSense, Project Status, and New Config Options (Wendy Breiding) - Wow so many great improvements! I can't wait to enable the experimental ones and open my vsCode again.

• Working with tar files in .NET 8 (Andrew Lock) - A nice post that explored and show what we can to do with tarbal from .NEt and explains some of the limitations.

• Blazor Basics: Testing Blazor Components with BUnit (Claudio Bernasconi) - We all agree that tests are important (or we should). bUnit is specially build for Blazor Applications. If you are using this web frontend you should definitely have a look!This post helps you getting started.

Miscellaneous

• If you’re going to block your time, do this, too (Michael Eaton) - Simple and efficient time blocking is a great way to be productive.

~frank

Reading Notes #617

Less posts and articles this week, I was devouring books! I guess a special "book edition" of the Reading Notes should be coming soon... 

If you are new on this blog, welcome! The reading notes post 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.

 
You also read something you liked? Share it!

Cloud

• Containerising Azure Functions without Dockerfile (Justin Yoo) - Cool post that shares while providing all the required code two way to create containerized .NET Azure Function.

Programming

• The Singleton Pattern in C# Today Is Not Your Dad's One! (Metalama Team) - Learn more about one of the oldest pattern, how it was, how it evolved.

• What Is OpenTelemetry? The Ultimate Guide (B. Cameron Gain) - Learn more about what is,why it's useful, what are the golden points in the nice post.

• Asynchronous HTTP APIs with Azure Container Apps jobs (Anthony Chu) - This is a great post. it explains the long process async pattern and provides the code to so it can be implemented with Azure container app.

Podcasts

• Debug Containers with Mintoolkit (DevOps and Docker Talk: Cloud Native Interviews and Tooling) - Great episode about the intricacy of debugging containers and a tool mintoolkit,before knows as DockerSlim, that could really simplify things for us.

• Fine tuning Products with Stanza System's Stacie Frederick (Hanselminutes with Scott Hanselman) - Do we really need to have that automatic build and deployment x time by week, or day? Are far should we go? Are we trying to solve a real problem or just find a solution we think we need. Great episode that will help you answering those questions.

• Better ways to have tricky conversations at work (Modern Mentor) - It's been many stories I heard from people who quit their job before even talking to their manager... This short episode will provides you a few tips to get more prepare and try different alternative.

~Frank

Reading Notes #616

It's reading notes time! 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.

 

You also read something you liked? Share it!

 

Cloud

• Static Sites on Azure Storage vs Azure Static Web Apps (John Kilmister) - Yes both options are available.Do you know the differences?

Programming

• Easier to fix async exceptions (Mark Downie) - Debugging Asynchronous code as been always more complicated, looking forward to seeing (and using) that new capability in .NET 9.

• Simplify development with Dev Container templates for Azure SQL Database (Carlos Robles) - I love that! Instead or having multiple containers (database, dev environment) we can now have only one. No special configuration, faster into the code.

• The 3 Most Common Security Mistakes Developers Make () - This is an interesting post that shares popular mistakes yes but also some better practices accessible to all.

• How to make your web page faster before it even loads (Salma Alam-Naylor) - To make sure our users have he best experience possible it important to fine-tune some little details. This post goes deep and explains them very well.

Miscellaneous

• How to save your online writing from disappearing forever ( Barbara Krasnoff) - A series of online tools that could keep copies of the blog post you put online.

~ Frank

Reading Notes #615

It's reading notes time! 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.

Back from a two weeks time off it was nice to get back into tech read.

You also read something you liked? Share it!

Cloud

• Azure Developer CLI (azd) – August 2024 (Grace Kulin) - Wow so many new features (many security related) and tons of new templates.

Programming

• Adding .NET Aspire to your existing .NET apps (Jon Galloway) - This great post explains step by step how to add .NET Aspire to your existing app, saying what you gain and how it's helping you to be faster at buildinba better application.

• Bring your AI Copilots to the edge with Phi-3 and Semantic Kernel (Arafat Tehsin) - First post of a very interesting and promising series to build our own local only AI app.

• Combining multiple docker images into a multi-arch image (Andrew Lock) - Another great article from Andrew that explains very clearly a Docker feature: generate multiple image under the same ta to target different OS and infrastructure (ex: x64,arm32)

• Logging in Banana Cake Pop (Pascal Senn) - What a amazing new feature! This will greatly improve development and debugging productivity!

• An Absolute Beginner's Guide to LangGraph.js (Anchit) - A great tutorial that requires not API key and provides detailed steps to learn using Node how to use AI.

• The ultimate guide to developer happiness (Jeimy Ruiz) - Many great tools and solution within GitHub "circle". This post provides best practices to improve developers productivity and announces when the next GitHub Universe is coming up.

• Different Containerising Options for .NET Developers (Justin Yoo) - So many options! The classic one with all the Docker command or the some more embedded... Your choice!

~frank

Reading Notes #614

In this edition of Reading Notes, we delve into a diverse range of programming topics, from stream manipulation in C# to the latest updates in Docker Desktop. Whether you’re interested in adding AI to your .NET apps or understanding the implications of .NET 6 reaching end-of-support, we’ve got you covered. 

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.

Programming

• How to Convert a Stream to a File in C# (Bozo Spoljaric) - Learn more about stream and file manipulation in this useful post.

• Add AI to Your .NET Apps Easily with Prompty (Bruno Capuano) - This is a nice tutorial to build an API using Semantic Kernel to communicate to Prompty and add AI to your project.

• .NET 6 will reach End of Support on November 12, 2024 (Rahul Bhandari) - NET 6 will be reaching end of support, okay but what does that means for you?This post covers it all.

• Disambiguating types with the same name with extern alias (Andrew Lock) - It's always a pleasure to read Andrew's post that goes deeper explains more complex scenarios.

• Docker Desktop 4.32: Beta Releases of Compose File Viewer, Terminal Shell Integration, and Volume Backups to Cloud Providers (Deanna Sparks) - Some great new features and improvement for this new update of Docker Desktop.

• How use a Blazor QuickGrid with GraphQL (Frank Boucher) - QuickGrid is an excellent component that came recently in Blazor. Optimized and compatible with tons of modern patterns to display,sort,filter our data.This post share a few o those things filling the grid with a GraphQL endpoint.

Miscellaneous

• What CrowdStrike teaches us about risks & resilience (Om Malik) - Nice post to learn more about that event,and understand the real risk.

~ Frank

Reading Notes #613

Good Monday! This week Reading Notes are more listening notes 😅 and we go from .NET Aspire and  containers, passing by communication with AI to camping!

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.

Cloud

• Creating an Azure Static Web app (moving from WordPress, part 2) (Michael Eaton) - Yes indeed it is simple to get started with Azure Static WebApp.This post shares a user journey while migrating.

• Windows ARM installing Azure CLI (Jani Nevalainen) - Cool tips to make CLI works on ARM processor device,until the real version comes out.

Programming

• Docker Best Practices: Choosing Between RUN, CMD, and ENTRYPOINT (Jay Schmidt) - Nice post that explains really clearly the differences between those three and provides cheat sheet and examples.

Podcasts

• Introducing .NET Aspire with Damian Edwards (Hanselminutes with Scott Hanselman) - Nice episode where .NET Aspire is really well explained, but yes it's kind of hard to say in a few words what it is.

• 687: Getting Better at Internal Communication, with Roy Schwartz (Coaching for Leaders) - Nice episode that talk how AI can help or harm a good communication. Used smartly it can definitely help...

• Camping Tips for Your Next Adventure with Lestarya Molloy (Wild Ideas Worth Living) - I grow up camping every summer, but for many they didn't have that chance and it's hard to start... But there an App for that!

• CosmosDB and AI with Mark Brown (.NET Rocks!) - AI and data! AI and data! AI and data! It's not a typo, I wrote it 3 times... It's everywhere, evolving fast and you must look at it.

• 86. Power Platform, Blazor and beyond: Maintaining internal apps - with Sophie van den Akker (Betatalks the podcast) - Nice episode about how and where use Blazor, the limits of Power Platform and more.

~Frank

Reading Notes #612

In this week’s Reading Notes, we explore cloud debugging, .NET Aspire, and more. Join us for insights, workshops, and podcasts covering a range of exciting topics! 🚀

 
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.

 

Cloud

• GalaSoft Laurent Bugnion (Laurent Bugnion) - Nice post debugging investigating a bug, that cannot be reproduce locally only in the cloud.... But with the right tools it's much easier.

Programming

• Let's Learn .NET Aspire - Start your cloud-native journey live! - .NET Blog (James Montemagno) - The .NET Aspire workshop is been deliver in many languages and available online. To learn what it is, when should we use it and how it works, join a live session or watch it on demand.

• Exploring docker compose watch in Visual Studio Code (Julie Lerman) - That looks fantastic! And thanks to Julia we will avoid a few gotchas.

• Simplify Your .NET Aspire Caching With Metalama (Metalama Team) - 2 great tools in synergy make the result so much better. This nice post is good to get us started on caching.

• Join Us for .NET Aspire Developers Day – Elevate Your Cloud Native Skills! - .NET Blog (Mehul Harry) - July 23 - Check the date there will be a .NET Aspire event with more advanced stuff like building custom components and more.

• Why and How to Execute GraphQL Queries in .NET (Frank Boucher) - Shameless plug... Did you know GraphQL could improve the performance of your application by avoiding over fetching?

• Apprendre .NET Aspire en français (Frank Boucher) - Another shameless plug for French content this time. I did a 1h45 long video where I explain the basic of .NET Aspire by doing a workshop and providing details.

Podcasts

• Martin Hinshelwood: Migration Azure DevOps Server to the Cloud - Episode 302 (Azure DevOps Podcast) - Interesting episode about migrations and how to approach them. Because so many stories start by a migration.
• GitHub Evolving with Damian Brady (.NET Rocks!) - Great episode to learn all things GitHub... and these days that mean a lot.
• 416: Going Light + How Spatial Video Really Works (Merge Conflict) - Great episode. Is going with two phone is going light however? Hhmmmm...
• Episode 287: Why You As A Developer Must Care About Managing Your APIs (Web Rush) - The 1M questions episode! Answers are optional because the fun is about being curious... right?
• Mitch Denny: .NET Aspire Architecture - Episode 304 (Azure DevOps Podcast) - Learn more about .NET Aspire what it is, because yes it's hard to explain, and what's the road map.
• How to finally have that dreaded conversation (Modern Mentor) - Yes it's hard, but pause, and do those talks.

Miscellaneous

• What is platform engineering? (Julia Kulla-Mader, Chuck Lantz) - Platform engineering is gaining in popularity, but what ibis really. This article gives a good explanation to start our learning journey.

Reading Notes #611

Welcome to this week’s edition of Reading Notes! In this roundup, we explore a variety of topics across cloud, programming, databases, and AI. From understanding Docker’s USER instruction to styling Blazor components with CSS, I’ve got you covered. Let’s dive in!

Suggestion of the week

• Understanding the Docker USER Instruction (Jay Schmidt) - A great post to that explains really clearly the basic usage of user when building our container. After reading this post you should feel confident to follow this best practices.

Cloud

• Azure Static Web Apps–SWA CLI behind the scenes (Bart Wullems) - Cool post to that quickly explains how the CLIworks and a few different tools.

Programming

• Blazor Basics: Styling Blazor Components with CSS (Claudio Bernasconi) - That will solve an issue I was having... Blazor for the win!

• Is Your ASP.NET Core Application Running In A Container? (Adam Storr) - Very neat tip to know when the App is or not in a container.

• Setting up NGINX load balancer for .NET WebApi (Oskar Dudycz) - Very well done tutorial to set a reverse proxy.

Databases

• Automating SQL Deployments using GitHub Actions - Part 2 (Eduardo Pivaral) - That's pretty neat. Of course, there is a SQL option but I never thought about it. Excellent idea to keep everything in one place with versions.

AI

• Updated Documentation for Semantic Kernel (Sophia Lagerkrans-Pandey) - Nice update in the documentation, new content new look.

~frank