Reading Notes #628

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

Cloud

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

Programming

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

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

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

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

Podcasts

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

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

Miscellaneous

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

Sharing my Reading Notes is a habit I started a long time ago, where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week.

If you have interesting content, share it!

~Frank

Reading Notes #627

This week, I stumbled upon some fascinating reads. From the announcement of .NET 9 and its incredible versatility to an intriguing new type of failover for Azure Storage, there's plenty to explore. Discover how to get .NET 9 running on your Raspberry Pi, check out the latest Blazorise update, and delve into the power of GitHub Models in .NET with Semantic Kernel. Plus, don't miss out on the introduction of GitHub Copilot for Azure and a new season of AI-related sessions in Visual Studio. And for my fellow open-source enthusiasts, the .NET Aspire Community Toolkit is a game-changer. 

Dive in and let's geek out together! 🌟

Suggestion of the week

• Announcing .NET 9 - .NET Blog (.NET Team) - You can build anything with C# (aka .NET) and I love it! With runs everywhere, it's open source, it's fast and free!

Cloud

• WTH is Planned Failover for Azure Storage? (Sam Cogan) - Interesting new type of fail over that could help to practice without losing any data.

Programming

• Install and use Microsoft Dot NET 9 with the Raspberry Pi (Pete Codes) - C# everywhere! I love it! I do have some code that run on a Pi as a mini server, bubi need to have a look for a IoT library that could be used.

• Blazorise v1.7 (Mladen Macanović) - New version of a nice looking CSS Framework for our Blazor website with more features and better performance.

AI

• Unlocking the Power of GitHub Models in .NET with Semantic Kernel - .NET Blog (Bruno Capuano) - Super cool, very quick to setup, secure, and perfect why we are "just" developing.

• Introducing GitHub Copilot for Azure (Chris Harris) - After trying it, I can tell that it is pretty amazing! It's like have someone else besides you with the Azure portal answering all you're questions.

• Learn how to create a Client-Server Application in under 45 Minutes in the new Season of AI - Visual Studio Blog (Pablo Lopez) - A lot of AI related session are coming up, it's time to register.

Data

• Integrating .NET Aspire With Azure Storage (Fiodar Sazanavets) - Nice wait to have an emulator for local work. I will have to check this as I'm using Azure table storage in many of my projects.

Open Source

• Introducing the .NET Aspire Community Toolkit - .NET Blog (Aaron Powell) - Very happy (and proud) about this OSS project. .NET Aspire makes things so much easier for developers. And now we can simply add more types of integration thanks to the CF.

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 #626

Kick off your week with this curated list of must-read tech articles. From .NET modernisation patterns and new C# 13 LINQ methods to open-source contributions and thought-provoking reads, there's plenty to explore. 

Enjoy!

Programming

• Microsoft Introduces Modern Web App Pattern for .NET: Accelerating App Modernization to the Cloud (Almir Vuk) - This is a nice post that overviews pattern that Microsoft suggest to use.

• New LINQ methods in C# 13: Index, CountBy, AggregateBy (Tim Deschryver) - Simple and efficient post that shows new command coming up in C#13.

• The Legacy Coder's Guide to .NET Conf 2024 (DeeDee Walsh) - .Net Conf is coming up and how doesn't like some suggestions about wish sessions? This will be a great event for new and experienced developers.

• .NET Upgrade Assistant Now Supports Upgrading to Centralized Package Mangement (McKenna Barlow) - Cool tool that become even better I just wish you had an option to run it from let's say Linux

Open-Source

• .NET MAUI Welcomes Syncfusion Open-source Contributions (David Ortinau) - This is a really exciting news! Very happy to see a great company like Syncfusion investing in Open source like this.

Miscellaneous

• Why Don’t You Fucking Retire Already? (James Whittaker) - Food for thoughts no doubt. It's still a delight to read you sir Whittaker.

• Microsoft Tech Community: Upgrade complete (Allie Thompson) - It was time. I didn't dig too much and looking forward to experience the new features as a writer but also as a reader.

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 #625

Welcome to another edition of Reading Notes! This week, dive into the latest updates on Azure DevOps, Docker best practices, System.Text.Json enhancements in .NET 9, AI innovations from GitHub Universe, and more. 

Enjoy your reading!

Cloud

• Using Entra profile information in Azure DevOps (Andrew Brenner) - This is nice, I will save us to re-enter information and should make more profile more complete at the same time.

Programming

• Docker Best Practices: Using ARG and ENV in Your Dockerfiles (Jay Schmidt) - A nice post that improve how we are using Arg by going through a few examples.

• What's new in System.Text.Json in .NET 9 (Eirik Tsarpalis) - This is a nice post that explains with code sample the new features.

AI

• GitHub Spark (Devon Rifkin, Terkel Gjervig Nielsen, Cole Bemis, Alice Li) - Fascinating news from GitHub Universe. A new spin on the lowcode app but with code. Looking forward to trying it and see what I can build with it.

• GitHub Copilot in Windows Terminal (Christopher Nguyen) - There it is, Copilot making his entrance into our beloved Terminal. It's only in version Canary for now, but I'm sure it will help many of us when no sure what command to use, or the equivalent bash/ PowerShell.

Miscellaneous

• Releasing WinAmp source goes badly for its owners, anyway (Liam Proven) - A true story that looks unreal. It's a bit sad that this OSS opportunity was missed.

Sharing my Reading Notes is a habit I started a long time ago, where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week.

If you have interesting content, share it!

~ Frank

Reading Notes #624

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

Happy reading!

Cloud

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

Programming

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

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

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

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

Podcast

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

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

Sharing my Reading Notes is a habit I started a long time ago, where I share a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week.

If you have interesting content, share it!

~ Frank

Reading Notes #623

Ready for another round of intriguing reads and insightful listens? This week's edition of Reading Notes dives into the seamless blending of Python and .NET, fresh monetisation strategies in open source, AI innovations, and thought-provoking podcast discussions. 

Get comfy and let's dive in!

Programming

• Embedding Python into your .NET project with CSnakes (Anthony Shaw) - Get 2 best of both languages without losing performance... Intrigued? Learn more about it in this post and open your horizons.

• SponsorLink v2: A New Hope (Daniel Cazzulino) - Interesting post about ideas and experiment related to monetisation of open source code.

AI

• Introducing Microsoft.Extensions.AI Preview – Unified AI Building Blocks for .NET (Luis Quintanilla) - Really interesting new library that open the door to many scenarios. Bruno did a great demo of that on the community stand-up have a look.

• Using an AI Assistant to Script Tools (Docker Labs) - First post of a series that looks how different code written uses AI to write code ,script, and other things.

Podcast

• How Simple is as Simple as Possible with Mark Rendle (.NET Rocks!) - How complex your application should be? Is it possible to make great application with a more simple and straightforward approaches? Nice episode that discuss today's status.

• Does Donovan Brown hate retirement? (You're So Quiet) - One year already for Donovan! Well this couple looks good. Learn more about the first adjustment and the current "state of mind".

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 #622

Welcome to this week’s reading notes! In this post, you’ll find a curated selection of insightful articles and tutorials covering various topics in technology and programming. Whether you’re looking to enhance your testing skills with .NET Aspire, improve your code comprehension with GitHub Copilot, or explore the world of Docker for DevOps, there’s something here for everyone. Dive in and enjoy these valuable resources!

If you have interesting content, share it!

Suggestion of the week

• Getting started with testing and .NET Aspire (Aaron Powell) - This is a great tutorial, with a video version if you prefer, to get us started with test when .NET Aspire is part obor solution.

Cloud

• Enhancing Code Comprehension: GitHub Copilot’s Features in Visual Studio 2022 17.11 (Rhea Patel) - This post is a must for all developers. Copilot becomes so much more efficient with those little tips don't miss it.

• How to use Azure Policy to enforce resource naming conventions in your DevOps pipelines (Luise Freese) - Naming is for sure not the most exciting topic,but it is the key to an healthy cloud subscription. Don't miss this post that shares a good way to keep consistent names.

Programming

• Exploring Docker for DevOps: What It Is and How It Works (Todd R. Weiss) - This is a nice post to learn more about Docker and how /why it could be used to improve the DevOps processes.

• .NET Aspire for Data Chatting (Tommaso Stocchi) - Super cool project to query our database without knowing SQL.

LowCode

• How to rotate secrets with Azure Logic Apps, Key Vault and Managed Identity (Luise Freese) - Cool idea o automation to do a important but boring task. And it doesn't required code!

Miscellaneous

• Hosting a (DevOpsDays) Tech Conference (Dewan Ahmed) - I went to this even and you could feel it was prepared with patio and care. It very interesting to learn about the behind the scene and all the work put both before and after.DevOpsDay Halifax you won my heart.

~ Frank

Reading Notes #621

Welcome to this week’s Reading Notes! Dive into debunked Docker myths, celebrate 10 years of Azure API Management, and learn how to enhance your online presence as a developer. 

Suggestion of the week

• 10 Docker Myths Debunked (Jay Schmidt) - This is a very informative post easy to understand that answers or in fact provides more information debunking those myths.

Cloud

• Azure API Management Turns 10: Celebrating a Decade of Customer-Driven Innovation and Success (Vladimir Vinogradsky) - Ten years already! Congrats to the team that always working hard to make this service better and better. I remember the early days.

Programming

• Create a Stunning Github Profile README (Vuelancer) - Communication is always part of the success, and having a good landing page is a great start.

• .NET Aspire Multilanguage (Tommaso Stocchi) - Wow! I really cool example that shows how a mix o languages can be used all together and use .Net Aspire to orchestrated it all.

Miscellaneous

• How to Build Your Online Presence as a Developer (Mangabo Kolawole) - This post is packed with good advice for anyone that want to start a new business, get a job in tech but in other field too. Communication and visibility are the golden keys.

You also read something you liked? Share it!

~Frank

Reading Notes #620

It's Reading Notes time and this week we learn how to improve our experience and security while using AI and containers

 a zip line spider?

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

• Securely Connecting Azure Container Apps to Azure OpenAI Using User Managed Identity (Yoshio Terada) - This is a nice and detailed guide that explains step by step how to leverage manage identity in Azure Container App and stay secure.

AI

• Avoid These 5 Common AI Project Mistakes for Success (Narcosa Admin) - AI is a great tool and with it's new easy accessibility more are integrating it into there services, This post shares tips to give you more chance of success.

• 7 Best Practices for Using GitHub Copilot (Visual Studio Code team) - AI is a great tool, but to enjoy it as much as possible there are a few things we can do, This post shares those tips that could make the differences.

Programming

• Docker for Web Developers: Getting Started with the Basics (Todd R, Weiss) - This is a very well written introduction to container and Docker, From the why should we care to running our first container,

• Building a GraphQL Client in ,NET with JetBrains Rider and StrawberryShake (Maarten Balliauw) - This is a nice post to get started with GraphQL, There is example an many references.

• Improving GitHub Copilot Completions in Visual Studio for C# Developers (Mika Dumont) - Great news! The Semantic Kernel files are now part of the context for Copilot, This improves the experience for the C# developers.

~Frank