Reading Notes #669

This week explores the synergy between Dapr and WebAssembly for modern microservices, highlights the transformative potential of Wasm 3.0 for .NET developers, and delves into best practices for structuring Rust web services. In the AI realm, we examine the emergence of developer-friendly AI frameworks like Microsoft’s Agent Framework and Google’s Jules Tools, which bridge AI capabilities directly into terminals and workflows. Additionally, we examine AI obfuscation techniques and their implications, alongside updates on Perplexity’s free Comet AI browser and its new background assistant. Whether you’re building scalable systems, optimizing code, or integrating cutting-edge AI tools, this post offers a snapshot of trends shaping tech today.

Cloud

• How Dapr and WebAssembly Team Up for Microservices (B. Cameron Gain) - New and better version of Dapr.

Programming

• Wasm 3.0 for .NET Developers (Sam Basu) - Wasm 3 looks amazing! And that Uno Studio.. I'll have to try!

• The best way to structure Rust web services - LogRocket Blog (Jude Miracle) - I don't code in Rust, but I was curious about the project structure. This is a nice post to learn exactly that.

AI

• Introducing Microsoft Agent Framework (Preview): Making AI Agents Simple for Every Developer - .NET Blog (Luis Quintanilla) - The new SDK was released last week, and honestly, after trying it, it works really well, so more to come on that. This is a great post to get started

• Meet Jules Tools: A Command Line Companion for Google’s Async Coding Agent (Jiahao Cai, AK Kulkarni) - The Google AI is now also available directly from our terminal. More options for the users.

• Obfuscation for AI: How it Works, Best Practices, and Metrics – PreEmptive (preemptive) - It's been a while since I last used a station in my code because I'm doing demos most of the time, but it always fascinated me. I feel I should try it with AI, it looks very interesting and powerful. This post shares a lot about what's possible, the risk, and so much more

• Perplexity’s Comet AI browser now free; Max users get new 'background assistant' (Rebecca Bellan) - Interesting new product from Perplexity

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 #668

This week covers Microsoft’s open-source Agent Framework for agentic AI, prompt-injection risks and mitigations, and the causes of language model hallucinations. It also highlights NuGet package security updates, Azure SQL Data API Builder improvements, Reka’s new Parallel Thinking feature, and the latest in AI benchmarking.

Cloud

• Announcing Aspire 9.5 - .NET Blog (Jeffrey Fritz) - I'm genuinely excited to try it. Aspire is such a great tool 🔥.

Programming

• Publishing NuGet packages from GitHub actions the easy way with Trusted Publishing (Andrew Lock) - Nice post that[explains the details of this new secured process on Nuget (.NET package library)

AI

• MCP Prompt-Injection: The Trust Paradox in AI (Saurabh Davala, Sundeep Gottipati) - This is a good post to learn to start learning about the real danger. To be aware of the potential risk and learning about what we can do.

• Why language models hallucinate - Very interesting post that explains the reason why we still have hallucinations and how it works

• Introducing Parallel Thinking for Reka Research (reka) - New feature released that improves the performance of our web research, fantastic!

• Measuring the performance of our models on real-world tasks - Interesting idea of benchmark looking forward to see how evolves

• Introducing Microsoft Agent Framework: The Open-Source Engine for Agentic AI Apps (Takuto , Shawn , Elijah) - Nice evolution of semantic kernel and AutoGen. It comes hot supporting .NET and Python.

Databases

• Data API builder 1.6: Advanced Behaviors with Special HTTP Headers (Jerry Nixon) - Nice quick post about more advanced features on the data API builder (aka DAB)

Miscellaneous

• We all have a choice (Salma Alam-Maylor) - It's all in the title
  

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 #667

This week post explores the intersection of AI, cloud, and DevOps, featuring updates on Microsoft’s Logic Apps integration, practical .NET tools for system automation, and strategies to enhance documentation for AI-driven workflows. Whether you’re refining enterprise security practices with NuGet’s Trusted Publishing or diving into the ethical nuances of AI through vector databases, this post offers a blend of technical deep dives and thought-provoking discussions. Don’t miss the podcast highlights, from DevOps innovation to the business impact of employee well-being, perfect for developers, architects, and curious minds alike. Let’s connect the dots in a world where code, creativity, and collaboration drive progress.

Programming

• sleep-pc: a .NET Native AOT tool to make Windows sleep after a timeout (Andrew Lock) - Nice post, just like I like them explaining what works, what didn',t building an application, fixing a real-life issue.

• DOCX Meets Markdown: Preparing Enterprise Documents for AI (Bjoern Meyer) - I have been using Pandoc for years, but this also look like an nice tool.

AI

• Prompt Files and Instructions Files Explained - .NET Blog (Wendy Breiding) - One question I often hear is how can I tell Copilot the standard and conventions my enterprise uses. Well, now I can send them to this post. Well done!

• Here’s how to turn off Copilot (Mark Downie) - Thank you Mark for this post. Let me send you some people too😉

DevOps

• New Trusted Publishing enhances security on NuGet.org (Evgeny , Sean) - This tutorial explains how to use the new process with the 1h token for improved security.

Podcasts

• 113. Vector Databases and RAG for Grounding AI in Reliable Data - with Christian Peeters (Betatalks the podcast) - Great episode on tech education and how vector databases/RAG make AI more trustworthy with real data

• ohn Bristowe: The Latest from Octopus Deploy - Episode 368 (Azure & DevOps Podcast) - Loved this episode, I don't know a lot about Octopus. Discussing deployment pipelines, AI integration in DevOps, and the evolution from manual weekend deployments to automated, reliable workflows.

• The business case for employee well-being (Modern Mentor) - Really enjoyed this episode on how workplace wellbeing isn't just about perks but building better work systems that boost both results and employee experience

• Becoming A Podcast Guest Magnet: Sharing The Benefits Of Guesting On A Podcast (Feed Your Brand) - Packed episode on how to make your podcast irresistible to high-profile guests by focusing on what's in it for them and turning your show into a guest magnet.

• Making Video Games in 2025 with Celeste's Noel Berry (Hanselminutes with Scott Hanselman) - Cool episode about the tech-behind-the-scene of building indie games. I had so many WHATS!? listening to this one.

Miscellaneous

• Microsoft Introduces Logic Apps as MCP Servers in Public Preview - InfoQ (Steef-Jan Wiggers) - Interesting idea, I can totally see how an AI agent could use different workflows to start processes or get information and continue pretty cool

• llms.txt: Robots.txt for Docs in the AI Era (Dewan Ahmed) - Oh nice! Let's update this on our websites.

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