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