Reading Notes #721

Here's a fresh collection of links and quick takes from my recent reading, and this one has a nice mix worth your time. The big highlight for me is seeing both Syncfusion and Infragistics bring their component libraries to Blazor under the MIT license, but there's also plenty on serverless Azure, Docker sandboxes, and the practical realities of going AI-first at work. 

Grab a coffee/tea and let's get into it.

Open Source

• Blazor Welcomes Open-Source Contributions from Syncfusion (Daniel Roth) - Amazing graphics components that will now be free under the MIT license.

• Blazor Welcomes Open-Source Contributions from Infragistics (Daniel Roth) - Voila! Both giant component companies now offer amazing components for Blazor for free under the MIT license

Cloud

• Serverless Compute Operations with Azure Functions (Mark Heath) - Shirt post announcing an Azure function Pluralsight course.

• Everything released in October 2026 for Azure Developer CLI - Azure SDK Blog (Kristen Womack) - Lots of nice improvements in those releases.

Programming

• Docker Sandboxes: Where Should Your Code Live? - I like that Docker sandboxes can adapt to different scenarios. I will have to try the clone one.

Miscellaneous

• From Cloud-First to AI-First: Productivity-Maxxing or Token-Maxxing? (Dewan Ahmed) - Using AI globally and safely at work requires governance and some agreement on roles and permissions... Just like a migration. This post summarizes sessions that help with planning and that approach

~frank

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

Reading Notes #717

This week we have a collection of tools and articles that genuinely improve how we build software and manage our daily workflows. From automating pre-push checks to refining SQL formatting, these notes share practical wins for the modern .NET developer. Give them a read through before your next commit or sprint starts.

Databases

• I Built My First VS Code Extension: Meet Rainbow SQL (Frank Boucher) - A simple but very useful VS Code extension that helps when writing SQL. And yeah, a shameless plug.

Programming

• A faster, lighter C# Dev Kit - .NET Blog (Drew Noakes) - Understand better all the goodness in this upcoming new release of our beloved VS Code extension, C# Dev Kit

• Should I break down my Blazor page into multiple components? - I will have to try that Blazrlytics, and I know exactly which project to use it for.

• Use C# unions and closed hierarchies in ASP.NET Core (Dmitrii Korolev) - Really nice way to use a union to make a C# type accept both int and string. Like Kubernetes maxUnavailable, which accepts 3 or 42%

DevOps

• Before you push or deploy: Automate nine .net project checks with the spargine dev tool (David McCarter) - Interesting script, curious to see the output on some of my projects

Open Source

• Why every .NET library deserves a proper start Dennis Doomen - A really cool series of templates to help us start writing.NET package. It brilliant and customizable

Miscellaneous

• Volunteers Don't Quit. They Fade. (Henk Boelman) - Communities are so important; would it be in person or online. We really need to learn how to be better at keeping a healthy balance

• Anti-Patterns in Software Blogging · Refactoring English - Love it! So much best practices in a single post. I'm guilty of doing some of those patterns, but will do my best to change that right away.

Reading Notes #716

This week’s highlights bring together some practical programming improvements, thoughtful reflections on the craft of coding, and a few interesting ways to work with AI. From open-source Blazor controls and smarter CSS optimization to Claude Code routing, Docker Sandboxes, and better secrets management, there’s plenty here to explore and put to use.

Programming

• Syncfusion Releases First Set of Open-Source Blazor Controls - That's good news, free components together us started faster

• Improving site performance by shipping more CSS - The GitHub Blog (Josh Black, Marie Lucca) - Nice performance tuning story. It makes me think we should all do the exercise more often.

AI

• Route every Claude Code message to the right model with Jev | Pulumi Blog (Engin Diri) - A really cool project that features the new JEV model. It's an OSS project and can be found on GitHub.

• Docker Sandbox Kit Spec: Authority as Code | Docker - This post shares the evolution/stabilization of the kit for Docker sandboxes

• Auto-accepting AI edits in VS Code - There is, most of the time, a setting in VS Code to tweak it just the way you prefer. Nice share.

• One Gym Session, One Cell Phone, One Working App ( jamie maguire) - Fun little experiment. There are things like this that you can safely one-shot because they’re well-known and predictable.

DevOps

• From API Keys to Access Control: Rethinking Secrets Management (Aanchal Mishra) - Security must stay a priority. I like what Postman did here.

Miscellaneous

• Something About Coding Stopped Feeling Good — and It Took Me a While to Figure Out What - We all noticed it, but only a few of us talk about it, and this post does a good job of putting words to feelings

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 #715

This week's reading notes cover a nice mix of AI, programming, and databases, with a few pieces that stuck with me longer than I expected. On the AI side there's a new kind of model, a book about Nvidia and Jensen Huang that I thoroughly enjoyed, and an experiment where coding agents chose Azure SQL. On the .NET side, Stephen Toub is back with his annual performance post, and I finally found the Swagger vs. Scalar comparison I'd been looking for.

It is still green

AI

• Introducing System One Models & Jev - The release of a new type of model JEV looks interesting, at least on paper.

• A summer of AI optimization (Daniel Lemire) - Every medal has two sides; this is the story of the bright one.

Programming

• Docker at WeAreDevelopers: Partner & Customer Sessions (Leon Jones, Eli Aleyner) - WeAreDevelopers event occurred 23-25sept and there were many interesting sessions .Will some of them be available online? Or maybe I need to remember for next year.

• Performance Improvements in .NET 11 - .NET Blog (Stephen Toub - MSFT) - It always takes me more than one sitting to read those benchmark posts from Stephen, but it's always nice.

• Device Bound Session Credentials in ASP.NET Core (Maarten Balliauw) - An interesting experimental feature to improve the security of our browsing sessions.

• How to Port a Jekyll Blog Theme to Python: Lessons From Actually Doing It - Cool project, very nicely done.

• Swagger vs. Scalar: A comparison for ASP.NET Core developers - I've been looking for a post like this, eventhought writing it at some point. It's great to see a side-by-side implementation: code, UI, all of it.

• 7 Document Automation Tasks Every .NET Application Should Handle Server-Side - I really like that it's ONE unified package that lets us do all that. No office installation required, and on top of that, it works on Linux. Bravo!

Databases

• Coding agents are picking Azure SQL Database - Azure SQL Dev Corner (Anna Hoffman) - That's a neat experiment, having an AI persona create a project that requires a database and analyzing the results.

Books

The Thinking Machine: Jensen Huang, Nvidia, and the World
Author: Stephen Witt


I enjoyed learning about Nvidia's backstory and the entire semiconductor/chip industry. Jensen Huang is clearly a smart man with a keen sense for business.

~Frank

Reading Notes #712

I’ve put together a few articles that caught my attention this week, ranging from .NET updates and Azure migration paths to the nuances of AI evaluation workflows. These pieces offer practical insights into the tools and design choices we encounter in our daily work.

Cloud

• Azure Service Bus: Migrate topology one event at a time - Nice first post of a Siri about service bus, and this one focuses on migration and the pattern you can follow

AI

• Building Reproducible AI Evaluation Workflows with Docker Sandboxes (Karan Verma) - Wow! Very interesting open-source project that tries to help with the question: before comparing benchmark scores or choosing a judge model, can someone else reliably run the same workflow under comparable conditions? Definitely worth the read.

• What is YOLO Mode? - Yolo mode is the most productive way to use AI. It is better for developer habits and the brain, but it also comes with some risks. This nice post provides clarity on the topic.

Programming

• The best dark mode toggle is probably none (Lea Verou) - You could think that this little theme toggle is a simple thing, but you would be wrong. Interesting post that explains all the thoughts behind that design.

• .NET Conf 2026 - Save the Date (Jon Galloway) - There it is! The date is out; the call for papers is for next week.

~frank

Reading Notes #711

This week’s collection covers everything from streamlined Azure deployment techniques to the practical realities of local versus cloud AI models. I have also gathered several helpful resources for .NET developers and some thoughts on maintaining sharp mental habits in an increasingly automated world.

Cloud

• A simpler way to deploy ZIP packages to Azure App Service from the Azure portal - Perfect for quick simple one shot deployment

AI

• No, local models will not win (sean goedecke) - I agree that local models won't replace cloud ones, but disagree and think local models usage will grow. Not only for niche operations but also for simple tasks.

• v1.2: /wait-what, /writing-for-agents, Claude Code Plugin, and more (Matt Pocock) - Cool update on some skills and new ones. Worth your time!

• AI Governance Is a Developer Experience Problem (Karan Verma) - Part 3 of a series; this post continues to share reasons why it's important to isolate our agent to gain freedom.

• Why the GitHub Copilot app became my daily driver (AJ Bajada) - When the app came out, I was pulled to it that much. Now that I have multiple accounts, and often run multiple sessions... This post shares features I did know GH app had...I have to give it a try

• How to keep thinking (Sam Basu) - Brain push-ups have always been important. But with the bad habits that AI "forces" us to use, it's more than ever.

Programming

• Building Bookmark Studio: bookmarks that belong to the codebase (Mads Kristensen) - Interesting tools! I can see how it can be useful for ourselves but also as a team.

• Multi-Language Support for Cross-Platform .NET (Sam Basu) - Very impressive work from Uno. It looks like they thought of everything.

• Announcing v2.0 of the official MCP C# SDK (Jeff Handley) - This post shares important changes in the new release compared to the previous one; it's stateless.

DevOps

• Docker snapshot tags aren't as static as I thought (Bart Wullems) - There is always something else to learn about containers, nice ha-ah moment.

Open Source

• Am I neglecting my open source projects? (Zach Leat­herman) - Oh! I like that dashboard. I'm both scared and envious to have something like that.

~frank

Reading Notes #707

This week's highlights bring together insights on evolving API security, the realities of integrating AI into your workflow, and tools that can help streamline the testing process. I selected these pieces for their practical advice on simplifying everyday development tasks while building more robust and resilient infrastructure.

Programming

• Web Application & API Protection: An Overview (John Brawner) - I knew many security tools existed, and obviously I use some. But I learned a lot in this post. WAAP emerged because WAF alone was not enough to address APIs, bots, DDoS, and modern cloud traffic patterns in a single runtime protection model.

• How to Turn a Postman Collection into a Maintainable pytest Suite (Mikhail Golikov) - Tests are important, so keeping them clean should be too. This post gives us a great example of how to build reliable tools to do exactly that.

• OpenAPI Code Generation with Corvus: Typed HTTP Clients (Matthew Adams) - Who doesn't uses APIs?! I need to try that today!

AI

• A new way to reflect on how you use Claude - This post shares a reporting tool to visualize our Claude utilization.

• Better tools made Copilot code review worse. Here's how we actually improved it. (Napalys Klicius) - Interesting story that shares experiments to improve AI when doing code review. How it failed and how it work, and how the same fix didn't do great in a different context.

Miscellaneous

• Your Laptop Is the New Production Environment (Karan Verma) - The title definitely caught my attention, and it's so true. First post of a promising series.

• AI is ready. Your APIs probably aren't (Matt Gray) - Postman has always been an interesting tool. I've been using something else for a while but am thinking about exploring it again!

• How GitHub gave every repository a durable owner - A nice behind-the-scenes story where GitHub shares the issues, failures, learning and success.

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 #706

This week's collection highlights several practical upgrades for your workflow, ranging from cleaner C# patterns to more secure ways to manage AI agents. I’ve also included a few podcast episodes and articles that offer some much-needed perspective on productivity and community life.

AI

• Why AI Agents Need Isolation with Docker SBX (Karan Verma) - Power comes with responsibilities. It's well known (at least for Spider-Man fans), but more seriously, AI users have a simple way to stay safe. And now, with "the kits", it looks like it's even easier.

• Using AI to Build a Blazor App 1: Start With the Problem (Jon Hilton ) - It's so true that AI doesn't always do or act the way we expect. In this case, I wonder if a different model would have been better. In my experience, GPT is better at doing things compared to brainstorming.

Databases

• Fundamentals of Azure DevOps with SQL projects - Azure SQL Dev Corner (Drew Skwiers-Koballa) - This post provides all the details and pieces of config/ code required to get an Azure DevOps pipeline to work, no magic.

Programming

• Azure WAF - Never used yet Yarp, but nice to see a great example exists for when I will. Great solution.

• How to match names in C# without exact string comparisons (Nick Harrison) - Excellent post that shares many patterns and strategies (with code snippets) to optimize our research.

DevOps

• New: Versioned CLI and SDK Docs (Cam Soper) - That's a nice feature that more should implement! You pick your API version, and the documentation follows.

Podcasts

• Create a Happier Version of Yourself: Redirect Your Energy for Positive Thinking (The Mel Robbins Podcast) - I think this episode should be listened to by so many! It's a simple discussion between a son and mom, but so helpful for anyone.

• The space between the Commits with Zed and DeltaDB's Nathan Sobo (Hanselminutes with Scott Hanselman) - I was happy to listen to this episode with Nathan and learn more about his projects: Zed and DeltaDB.

• Azure Container Apps with Paul Yuknewicz and Jan Kalis (.NET Rocks!) - Hmm, a very interesting usage of Azure Container Apps! I'll have to try that.

Miscellaneous

• 3 Tricks to Help You Stop Procrastinating (Suzanne Scacca ) - Need tips to improve your time management? This post is for you.

• Goodbye, forever, probably. (Salma) - Sad news for the communities, but at the same time, it's because of those same communities. This post shares a very sad portrait of the online world that affects many people.
  

~frank

Reading Notes #705

This week’s collection features a mix of critical .NET lifecycle updates and practical strategies for optimizing your database interactions. These selected articles offer helpful insights into everything from edge computing deployments to the evolving landscape of AI in modern workflows.

AI

• AI Raised the Bar (And Now We're All Tired) (Golnaz) - It's so true! So much can be done quickly today. An interesting question is: how do we avoid burning out resources and tokens? How, as human we stay smart? After all, life is a marathon, not a sprint!

Cloud

• How to Deploy Azure Local Small Form Factor (SFF) – Bringing Azure to the Edge (Thomas Maurer) - This post shares many information about what is possible to deploy on edge devices. It's not a how-to, however.

Databases

• EF Core LINQ Querying: Filtering, Projections, and Performance (Nick Cosentino) - This is a great post to quickly learn key principles and immediately improve the performance of our interactions with the database when using EF Core.

• EF Core vs Dapper in .NET: When to Use Each (Nick Cosentino) - Great post for developers or architects planning a future project. Both tools are great, so the decision factor depends on the context.

• Optimizing PostgreSQL on Azure directly in Visual Studio Code (Jesse Sullivan) - Interesting new tools in VS Code and Azure for PostgreSQL users. Curious to learn more about that Azure HorizonDB.

DevOps

• WSL container is now available for public preview (Craig Loewen) - This is great news; this will help improve deployment as now people can have an environmental test in WSL.

Programming

• Creating Dual Use Windows GUI and Console Applications (Rick Strahl) - I never thought about that complexity, and you would think that in 2026 it would be much simpler. Good to know!

• SkiaSharp 4.0 is here: announcing the first stable release - .NET Blog (Matthew Leibowitz) - Learn more about SkiaSharp that run under things like .NET MAUI and UNO platform. This new release should improve performance a lot.

• .NET 8 and .NET 9 will reach End of Support on November 10, 2026 - .NET Blog (Rahul Bhandari) - Time flies; it's good to have a reminder. This post includes a helpful timetable and references to help you migrate.

Miscellaneous

• Evaluating performance and efficiency of the GitHub Copilot agentic harness across models and tasks (Shibani Basava & Carlos Castro) - This is a nice post to learn a little about benchmarks.

~frank

Reading Notes #704

This week’s collection highlights practical ways to improve developer workflows, from faster test runs and more manageable pull requests to intuitive new AI integrations. I have gathered a few standout articles on Blazor components, Azure Functions updates, and the nuances of training coding agents for your specific stack.

Suggestion of the week

• Stop overloading your skills - Microsoft for Developers (Waldek Mastykarz) - The post ends with: "In many cases, models don’t need a textbook. They needed a cheat sheet." It's so true! And this post explains why and how to validate it.

Programming

• I built a little Claude that dances when it needs me (Jim Bennett) - I've been thinking about one of those notifications, and I really like what Jim did here. Have a look, it's way more useful than you think

• How to Filter a Blazor Table Control using .NET | ComponentOne (Ashwin Saxena) - Another Blazor component: ComponentOne. It's nice to have options.

Open Source

• How pull request limits are cutting down the noise (Camilla Moraes & Ashley Wolf) - This will help control the flow for many OSS projects. Hopefully, it will be seen positively by the communities.

DevOps

• Distributed Test Runs in the Aspire Community Toolkit | LINQ to Fail (Aaron Powell) - I didn't know all that was possible. This is a great post that shares the optimization iterations to make unit test runs take less time.

AI

• Azure Functions MCP Extension: What's New at Build 2026 (Lily Ma) - An easy win. Simple to write, fast and straightforward to deploy, and serverless.

• Intelligent Terminal 0.1.1 is here: bash support, new slash commands, and more customization (Hamza Usmani) - Finally! I know someone who has wanted this terminal for a very long time. It looks nice, I saw the demo at Build.

• When the model has never seen your code - Microsoft for Developers (Waldek Mastykarz) - A very interesting post, part of a series about how to make AI coding agents work correctly with your technology.

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 #703

I spent some time this week tracking new developments in the AI and DevOps space to see what was worth a closer look. These notes highlight several interesting pieces regarding new model releases, infrastructure shifts, and more efficient ways to manage your project files.

DevOps

• Migrating Your GitHub CI to Hugging Face Jobs (Abubakar Abid) - Interesting, it's the first time I've read about HF jobs.

AI

• Introducing North Mini Code: Cohere’s First Model For Developers (Cohere Code Agents Team) - I feel like those new model blog posts are never simple to read. They are packed with numbers, statistics and comparisons with things you may not have known before. But that's what makes them interesting; they are a deep source of information. And yes, that model looks great!

• Your API is Already an MCP Server (Marin Pavelić) - Very interesting idea that could make all of us save time and money.

Programming

• Exploring the SLNX Solution File Format (Dave Brock) - The new format has been out for a while now, and I use it in more and more projects. Much easier to read.

Reading Notes #701

Modern infrastructure and AI agent development move fast, requiring a sharp eye on both backend stability and frontend polish. This week’s curated notes highlight critical shifts in observability, security best practices for autonomous agents, and practical updates for .NET MAUI apps. Check out these essential reads to stay ahead of the curve.

AI

• Build 2026: From observability to ROI for AI agents on any framework | Microsoft Foundry Blog (Sebastian Kohlmeier) - Foundry offers observability features and has many other whistles. There were a few sessions about that during Build. This post provides an overview and session names for demos.

Programming

• Give Your .NET MAUI Android Apps a Material 3 Makeover - .NET Blog ( Gerald Versluis) - So simple that it's hard not to try it

DevOps

• Why Choose Pulumi Over Terraform? (Pablo Seibelt) - I have never tried Pulumi or terraform, but they look great, and after reading this post, I'm very interested in learning more about ballooning

Data

• AI observability vs monitoring: What's the difference? (Jesse Sumrak) - Do you know the difference? You understand both, but where one ends and the other starts? Good post to clarify that.

MS Build

• How to Secure AI Agents: A Practical Overview (Srini Sekaran) - This post suggests grounded practices and explains the reasons behind them.

• Microsoft Agent Framework at BUILD 2026 | Microsoft Agent Framework (Shawn Henry) - List of Microsoft Build event sessions about the Agent framework.

~frank

Reading Notes #699

This week's reading notes bring you the latest insights into AI, .NET, open-source development, and even a few social hacks! From exploring background tasks in Blazor to the fascinating debate on Markdown vs. HTML for AI output, this roundup has something for everyone.

Let me know if you find anything particularly interesting; I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Programming

• Running background tasks in Blazor with Web Workers: Exploring the .NET 11 preview - Part 1 (Andrew Lock) - This web worker role looks promising. This post explains the what, why, and how.

• NuGet Package Pruning: Cleaner Dependencies and Actionable Vulnerability Reports - .NET Blog (Nikolche Kolev) - This post explains one feature that is now turned on by default in .NET that will improve our dependency graph.

AI

• Anthropic Engineer Debates Use of Markdown vs. HTML in AI Agent Output (Paul Thurrott) - Interesting debate. Initially, I was hell no! But the more I think about it, the less certain I am. But we can always ask to generate HTML, so I guess it's okay to keep it lighter and more minimalist by default.

• Using Azure Local Foundry CLI with PowerShell (Olivier Miossec) - A nice short tutorial to get local AI.

Open Source

• GitHub for Beginners: Getting started with OSS contributions (Kedasha Kerr) - Short tutorial that provides tips to find a project and start your first contribution

Podcasts

• 513: Agents Over Chat: The Future of Developer Workflows (Merge Conflict) - James and Frank discuss token optimization, model choices, and the workflow; do you make one master big plan or do you do multiple passes...

• How to Stop Being Socially Awkward (According to Science) with Behavioral Scientist Vanessa Van Edwards (A Bit of Optimism) - I really appreciated this episode, and I wish many others would find it. It's packed with little gems that will make you feel better.

Miscellaneous

• If You Didn't Capture It, Did It Really Happen? (Golnaz Alibeigi) - Will people attend an in-person event if it's available online? That's what this post answers.

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 #696

This week's collection highlights the rapid evolution of AI agents, exploring their asynchronous capabilities, deployment journeys, and their impact on DevOps and video editing. On the programming front, we explore new Git features and API versioning with OpenAPI in .NET 10. We also dive into some fascinating podcast discussions ranging from the GUI vs. CLI debate to generational perspectives in the workplace. 

Enjoy the reading!

AI

• All your agents are going async — /dev/knill (Zak Knill) - An interesting solution is explained in this post to ease our communication with AI agents.

• AI Didn't Kill Video Editing (It Made Some Nice Motion Graphics) (Golnaz) - It's so easy and convenient to think that AI is doing the work and could replace humans if you don't know what really is the tasks.

• From Local to Production: The Complete Developer Journey for Building, Composing, and Deploying AI Agents | Microsoft Foundry Blog (Takuto , jeffhollan) - Finally reaching v1! Hurray! And a new name for a VS Code extension.

Programming

• New features in Git 2.54: easier rebasing, hooks, and statistics (Andrew Lock) - A nice post that explains how to rebase correctly with the new features included in the last release

• Combining API versioning with OpenAPI in .NET 10 applications - .NET Blog (Sander ten Brinke) - There is a lot in this post. Close to the end, she explains how to configure SwaggerUI or Scalar to visualize your API. Nice, since now API doc is generated by OpenAPI.

Podcast

• 510: AI Agents: Claws, Copilot, GUI vs CLI Debate (Merge Conflict) - In this episode, James is put in the spotlight and needs to talk about this phone situation. Honestly, interesting discussion and they finally end up talking about the AI agent, you know, CLI versus UI.

• The Real Reason Young People Don't Have 'The Hunger' for Work (And What Leaders Need to Hear) with Generations Expert Dr. Eliza Filby (A Bit of Optimism) - I'm sure, like me, you heard about "the Gen Z are doing this" or "the millennials are like that". It's interesting to go deeper than this and understand the reason why the Boomer, the Gen X, all those generation they do what they do, and also understand the phase, the years, like why all those generations seems to get closer and closer.

• Can AI Agents Safely Become DevOps Engineers? (Agentic DevOps : AI + Infra Ops) - I read and consume a lot of AI as a developer, it's interesting to see the DevOps side waking up and are building AI agents that focus on DevOps.

• Chet Husk: .NET Tooling - Episode 399 (AI DevOps Podcast) - I never thought about that competition, the human versus the machine, related to the consumption of the output of a CLI. This was a very interesting episode about the performance and the priorities.

~frank

Reading Notes #694

A fast-moving mix this week: AI tooling, ARM readiness, Docker sandboxes, and real-world lessons from agents. Practical insights across .NET, DevOps, and local-first workflows.

Suggestion of the week

• Token Exhaustion: What Three AI Coding Agents Taught Me in a Single Week (Alexandre Brisebois) - Great post! Everyone needs to learn this lesson. Now you have an alternative instead of the hard way.

AI

• How Intelligent is AI? (Shawn Wildermuth) - Interesting thoughts about the current situation between code, developers, and AI

• How to Analyze Hugging Face for Arm64 Readiness (Ajeet Singh Raina) - This is a great tutorial that explains in detail how, in 7 steps, you can produce a stable arm container image.

• Foundry Local is now Generally Available (sam kemp) - Interesting solution when you need to stay local.

• Copilot CLI vs VS Code - When I Use Each (Golnaz) - Learn when some prefer using a CLI or an editor. There are so many different angles and things to do.

Programming

• Running AI agents with customized templates using docker sandbox (Andrew Lock) - The post have been waiting for! This post goes further than the happy path. Shows how to add the tools you want or the os you need.

• Why .NET MAUI Popups Lag and How to Fix Performance Issues (Kompelli Sravan Kumar) - Good to know performance as such a huge impact[on the user experience.

DevOps

• Reclaim Developer Hours through Smarter Vulnerability Prioritization with Docker and Mend.io (Adam Dawson, Dor Hayun) - Understand better the vulnerabilities with the new integration of mend.io to Docker

Podcasts

• Our Favorite Agent Setups (Agentic DevOps) - Nice discussion that goes through many AI harnesses, agents, models, and what they are playing with right now. OpenClaw, OpenCode, Claude Code, Copilot, and all of it.

• Michael Perry: AI-assisted Development - Episode 397 (AI DevOps Podcast) - Interesting discussion about AI-assisted Development (or can we say programming?) with a focus on skills and how they could be defined.

Reading Notes #693

I'm always on the lookout for innovative ways to enhance my coding experience, and this week's Reading Notes are filled with exciting discoveries! From cutting-edge UI libraries to secure sandbox environments for AI agents, I've curated a selection of articles that showcase the latest programming trends and technologies. 

Whether you're interested in harnessing the power of Docker sandboxes or exploring the potential of smart glasses integration, there's something on this list for everyone.

Programming

• What's new for the Microsoft Fluent UI Blazor library 5.0 RC2 (Vincent Baaij) - V5 already! Wow, time flies! Tons of features in this release, looking forward to try the pinned column from the grid.

AI

• Docker Sandboxes: Run Agents in YOLO Mode, Safely (Eric Jia, Srini Sekaran,Timir Karia) - From what I saw, it is very secure, and it is that simple to set up. Looking forward to do more with it.

• Running AI agents safely in a microVM using docker sandbox (Andrew Lock) - This post answers so many questions! I heard a lot about those sandboxes and tried a few things, but had so many questions. Great post Andrew.

• Experimenting with AI subagents (Nicolas Fränkel) - An interesting story with what seems to be a good vision of the future.

• Old Protocols, New Pipes (Mark Downie) - Well said! And I hope you had a good time doing it.

• I Recorded 13 Hours of My Day With Smart Glasses for AI. Here's What I Built and What I Learned (tash-2s) - A really cool project that uses AI to make a pile of videos into some kind of dataset. A new to do daily journaling.

Miscellaneous

• Claude Code Windows Migration Guide: Move Your Setup (Dirk Strauss) - There is always a part that is easy in starting a new computer and a part that requires more effort.

~frank

Reading Notes #692

The tech landscape is constantly evolving, and keeping up with the latest developments can be overwhelming. From AI-powered tools like Ollama and OpenClaw, to new ways of programming with Aspire Docs and Azure CLI, it seems like there's always something new to explore. In this edition of Reading Notes, I'll share some of the interesting things that caught my eye recently, from AI advancements to developer tools and beyond.

Suggestion of the week

• The Future of Tech Blogging in the Age of AI (Mark Heath) - Great post, and the timing is perfect. Personally, I agree to all of it. What are your thoughts?

AI

• Ollama is now powered by MLX on Apple Silicon in preview - Great news for those who bought the new M5 Apple computer, Ollama is now much faster for you!

• The simplest and fastest way to setup OpenClaw - Hard to be easier than this. I wish we could do the same to run it inside a Docker sandbox

• Meet GitAgent: The Docker for AI Agents that is Finally Solving the Fragmentation between LangChain, AutoGen, and Claude Code - MarkTechPost (Michal Sutter) - Another day, another AI tool. It looks interesting, curious to dig in and see it in action.

Programming

• Aspire Docs in Your Terminal (and Your AI's Brain) (David Pine) - Really cool idea, and for sure I will try it. Having options is great, and this is done perfectly here

Cloud

• Azure Developer CLI (azd) - March 2026: Run and Debug AI Agents Locally, GitHub Copilot Integration, & Container App Jobs (PuiChee (PC) Chan) - Nice update from this great deployment tool.

Miscellaneous

• NDI Tools: The Unsung Hero of Video Production (Golnaz) - I started using NDI tools for my stream back in 2020, when I was bringing one of my friends into my stream. Amazing, and you must read this post

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

If you have interesting content, share it!

~frank