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 #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 #605

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

• Logic App Consumption: How to set an API connection to use Logic Apps Managed Identity inside Visual Studio 2019 (Sandro Pereira) - I love those true life story where the author shares how they solved a real-life problem.

• Use Azure DevOps Pipelines as a Serverless Compute Engine (Chris Pietschmann) - Do you know or use Azure DevOps Pipeline? They can read your code from most source repository and will execute tasks for you. Like CI-CD as explains in this post.

Programming

• Reimagining Pong Wars with C# and MVUX (Uno Team) - This is a very interesting post that details all the architecture and code of this game.

• How to Check Your Docker Installation: Docker Desktop vs. Docker Engine (Jay Schmidt) - A very instructive and useful post that list all details related to Docker Desktop and Docker Engine for Mac, Linux, and Windows platform.

• Empowering Developers at Microsoft Build: Docker Unveils Integrations and Sessions (Vanessa Fournier) - Nice post. You should definitely watched the Build session where they show how to target multiple platforms, and many new features

• Docker Compose Profiles, one the most useful and underrated features (Oskar Dudycz) - Woah! For now on, I shall have a profile in all my docker compose file. We'll probably not all, but I'm definitely using them. This post is the perfect place to get started and understand what are profile and how to use it.

• General Availability of .NET Aspire: Simplifying .NET Cloud-Native Development (Damian Edwards) - Fantastic news! It an amazing tools that simplify local development and give us the opportunity to see what is happening.

• 5 easy tips to improve your personal website performance ( Salma Alam-Naylor) - I accept the challenge, I will review my websites to see how I can improve the performance. Interesting post that shares many great ideas.

AI

• A Quick Guide to Containerizing Llamafile with Docker for AI Applications (Sophia Parafina, Marc Sherwood) - Great post tht goes over how to put our favorite AI model in a container to work locally.

~Frank

Reading Notes #587

It is time to share new reading notes. 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. 

 

If you think you may have interesting content, share it!

Cloud

• Backing up files to Azure blob storage with azcopy (Andrew Lock) - A very interesting solution to a situation we are all facing. Nice to see the OSS project (I didn't know that one) and smart way to use Azure.

Low Code

• Building your own copilot – yes, but how? (Part 1 of 2) (Carlotta Castelluccio) - This is a cool tutorial to build a Copilot codeless style.If you prefer code style watch for part two coming soon.

Programming

• Structuring a Clean Architecture Folder (Adrián Bailador Panero) - Nice quick overview of the folder structure.

• Git Lesson: How to Use .gitignore and .gitkeep? (Rita Lyczywek) - Two important files indeed when using Git.

• Cookies vs Session Storage vs Local Storage (Royal Jain) - Clear post that explains the purpose and differences between 3 useful tools.

• 14 Things To Check Before Deploying a Website 👨‍💻🔥 (Arjun Vijay Prakash) - Quick sanity check before publishing.... It is always a good idea.

• Difference between CultureInfo.Get and new CultureInfo - Gérald Barré (Gérald Barré) - Short post how performance tip with cultureInfo.

• Simpler auth for Blazor Web Apps with Auth0? (Jon Hilton) - A wonderful tutorial very well detailed that explains how to use Auth0 with Blazor server app and search some gotchas so our experience goes smoother.

Miscellaneous

• Azure Communication Services January 2024 Feature Updates (Daysha Carter) - Improved management and a new data channel, great updates to start the year with a bang!

~Frank

Reading Notes #578

It is time to share new reading notes. 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. 

If you think you may have interesting content, share it!

Cloud

• Wolverine and Serverless (Jeremy d Miller) - The secrets is in the details! Wolverine is good with persistent environment, learn how to fine-tune it so its also good in short live (aka serverless) environment.

• What Is Open Source's Role in Platform Engineering? (Pete Lilley) - This post why should we spend time learning platform engineering.

Programming

• Introduction to Git, GitHub, and Version Control​ workshop-o-matic Library () - Git is a powerful tool.This post share a bit of what it is how it works and talk about other source control.

• Creating Animated Login UI in .NET MAUI with Lottie (John Aziz) - Nice post that shows how to make good looking login screen with animation. Because with does it need to be plain?!

• Docker Desktop 4.25: Enhancements to Docker Desktop on Windows, Rosetta for Linux GA, and New Docker Scout Image Analysis Settings (Mihaela Stoica) - Woot woot! Nice performance improvement... Congrats to the team.

• How to Determine URL a Local Git Repository was Originally Cloned From (Chris Pietschmann) - Neat tips and its simple.

Podcasts

• Defining a Database with Tony Baer (Screaming in the Cloud) - I was smiling all along that episode. It's such a great question! There a so many variation of databases these days and different data sources!
• 66. Developing critical thinking skills and choosing different technologies - with Laïla Bougriâ (Betatalks the podcast) - Whatever it's a new project, the middle of it, or the refactoring of an old one, communication ans sharing the information is so important. And listening too! Nice episode.
• Failing Well with Dr. Amy Edmondson (A Bit of Optimism) - It's all about how we can change our relationship with failures and start “failing well”. I like that! She's the author of Right Kind of Wrong, a new addition to my to-read stack.
• J. Tower: Modernization Strangler Fig Pattern - Episode 263 (Azure DevOps Podcast) - Modernization could seams simple... right? But it's not! There are many traps. There many challenges that are waiting for you and you need to to the things for the right reasons. Nice episode.

Miscellaneous

• Discover What's New in PowerToys v0.75.0: Environment Variables, Peek Updates, and More (Kunal Chowdhury) - Oh wow! A lot of pretty cool updates, I need to try the environment variables editor...

~ Frank Boucher

Reading Notes #522

Yep! It's Monday again :) 

 Already time to share new reading notes. Here is a list of all the articles, and blog posts that catch my interest during the week. 

If you think you may have interesting content, share it!

Cloud

• Introduction to DevSecOps on Azure (Daniel Krzyczkowski) - DevSecOps is a real thing and it's accessible for all. This post explains what it is and provides examples of how it could be implemented at a high level.

• Using Azure CLI Authentication within Local Containers (James Dawson) - This post provides two very useful workarounds with WSL and docker to a difficulty we might encounter while using a different platform.

Programming

• #RaspberryPi – Install raspi-config on Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS (Bruno Capuano) - A short post that shows how to get Unbuntu 22.02 on your Pi.

• Adding color to bracket pairs (Mads Kristensen) - A call for feedback on an up common feature of Visual Studio. Rainbow Brackets yes it will colorize the brackets but what should be the options?

• Browser Extension with Blazor WASM - Cross-Browser Compatibility (Justin Yoo) - Nice post in a series that really shows in the details and explains how to use the extension.

• DevOps monitoring: The Why, What, and How of DevOps monitoring (Hiren Dhaduk) - This is an excellent post to get us to think about our first step. It explains the reason why we should care and briefly lists a few tools available today on the market to help.

• Get started with NDepend: Uncle Bob and the Zone of Pain (Dennis) - A nice article that explains how to get started with NDepends.

• Rewrite your git history in 4 friendly commands (Salma Alam-Naylor) - The git trick of the week for when you want to do a major cleaning.

• Working with System.Random and threads safely in .NET Core and .NET Framework (Andrew Lock) - Interesting post about Random numbers in .NET.

Podcasts

• 38. Open source framework MVVM Light, Azure Static Web Apps & timekeeper.cloud with Laurent Bugnion (Betatalks the podcast) - Cool episode about, well my friend! :)
• How to be a great (new!) leader (Modern Mentor) - Really interesting episode for new leaders/ influencers.

~frank

Reading Notes #516

Good Monday, it's time to share new ReadingNotes. Here is a list of all the articles, podcasts, and blog posts, that catch my interest during the week. 

If you think you may have interesting content, share it!

Cloud

• Azure Boards Summer Update (Dan Hellem) - Wow! So many nice improvements.If you are an Azure DevOps user I'm sure you will agree with me.

Programming

• 14 software architecture design patterns to know (Vicki Walker) - This post definitely shares common patterns for different situations or contexts.

• 5 tricks every C# dev should know about LINQPad (Davide Bellone) - Nice tricks! I didn't know the shortcut for writeline.

• Integrated Terminal in Visual Studio: New SSH integration for Linux targeting (Sinem Akinci) - An interesting new feature from Visual Studio.

• Modernize with Azure Migrate (Shiva Shastri) - Inspire, the Microsoft event starts today looking forward to the update in this world to ease the migration and best practices.

• PowerToys 0.60 Arrives with Windows 11 Features - If you never tried Power Toys before now is your cue. So helpful!

• Should I write a new JavaScript framework? (Salma Alam-Naylor) - For the JavaScript developer that may have that idea, here is a website to help you to start on the good foot.

Podcasts

• EP 011 | 2+ Million Subs While Living Off the Grid with My Self Reliance (Matti Haapoja Podcast) - When two of the YouTuber you like meet in a podcast to talk about trends and how you can follow them or not. It was delightful.

• How to overcome common workplace fears (Modern Mentor) - As usual great advice in a concise episode.

• How To Create An Inviting Podcast Intro That Hooks Listeners? (Feed Your Brand) - So true, and I would say that most of those advices also applies to videos.

• SPI 594: How to Heal Burnout with Valerie Hamaker (The Smart Passive Income Online Business and Blogging Podcast) - With so many people around the globe feeling tired and disconnected from themself, it's great to hear that there are tools and people to talk too. Don't wait.

• The future of supply chain with Ox's CEO Charu Thomas (Hanselminutes with Scott Hanselman) - This is inspiring. In my previous life, I did work in the inventory management world, and I was kinda surprised things didn't change much. But I like where it's going.

Miscellaneous

• Shut It Down (Michael Szul) - It's way hard than it looks to make those decisions.

~Frank

Reading Notes #502

Good Monday, Already time to share new reading notes. Here is a list of all the articles, blog posts, and podcast episodes that catch my interest during the week. 

If you think you may have interesting content, share it!

Cloud

• Azure Functions V4 Versus V3 (Mengyang Chen) - Important and interesting short post for all Azure Functions users.

• How to Empty an Azure Resource Group without deleting it? #shorts (Frank Boucher) - Quick Tip in a short video done by myself.

Programming

• 13 Visual Studio 2022 Tips & Tricks (Claudio Bernasconi) - Wow! So many goods ones! How many did you learn in this post?

• Five Reasons To Master Git On The Command Line (zwischenzugs) - I said it in the past and will say it again...I learn a new command each time I read a Git-related post... So powerful.

• How to Access Query Strings in Minimal APIs (Shawn Wildermuth) - Those posts are the best! When we can not only learn the solution but also from the tests along the way. Great post.

• Working on two git branches at once with git worktree (Andrew Lock) - Wow, there are so many things possible with Git. Personally, I think I would just work in containers... But it's nice that other options are possible for other scenarios.

Podcasts

• Running a developer community (Software Engineering Unlocked) - Wow! Very impressed by all that structure and great community. So inspiring.
• How to do an Instagram Giveaway that Actually Works with Derek Videll (Influencer Entrepreneurs: Blogging & Social Media Tips) - That was a good one. Doing a giveaway is way harder than it looks.
• 142: Kevin Evans on Building Your Azure Cloud Career (CloudSkills.fm) - Very interesting discussion.

Miscellaneous

• How to Write Persuasive Technical Content (Karl Hughes) - Interesting post that explains the components and how to write convincing text.

~frank

Reading Notes #489

Suggestion of the week

• How to Use Git and GitHub in a Team like a Pro – Featuring Harry and Hermione (Damian Demasi) - Really good post (story style) to get started with GitHub. There is a little something that makes me think of Project Phenix... And crave Harry Poter.

Cloud

• 5 reasons to attend the Azure Virtual Desktop Master Class (Sue Hartford) - That could be so useful for many now that we are working more from home... A more secure and powerful machine could be easy to reach and maintain.

Programming

• Adventures in Dapr: Episode 1 (James Dawson) - First post of a promising series on Dapr.This one dressed the table, shares the links.....waiting for the next one.

• Compiling sqlcipher (sqlite encrypted) for Windows using Visual Studio 2022 (Dominique St-Amand) - Wow. This post was a big reminder for me of two things: how far we come, and some souvenirs of homework from when I was in school.

• Docker’s Top 10 Most Popular Blogs in 2021 (David Oro) - Nice quick list of great resources.

• Windows, WSL, Docker, and Free Starters (Sm0ke) - Nice quick start tutorial to set up your Django tools on Windows.

Miscellaneous

• Helping team members deal with Imposter Syndrome (Mark Downie) - Interesting post. I think it is really important to talk about it, as it affects us all.

• Tips & Tricks for Query Pagination in Azure Cosmos DB - Azure Cosmos DB Blog (Tim Sander) - This important concept, not only used with Azure Cosmo DB but any database, is very well explained in this post.

• Why Are More Companies Trying Four-Day Workweeks? (David Cassel) - Interesting. I didn't suspect that it was growing so much in popularity.

~frank

Reading Notes #487

It's... Tuesday! Yes I know one day later, but it's still time to share my reading notes. 

Those are a curated list of all the articles, blog posts, podcast episodes, and books that catch my interest during the week and that I found interesting. It's a mix of the actuality and what I consumed. 

You think you may have interesting content, share it!

Suggestion of the week

• 5 DevOps tips to speed up your developer workflow (Damian Brady) - Great post with event greater tips to be more efficient.

Cloud

• Azure Cost Management and Billing updates (Michael Flanakin) - Tracking our costs is important to stay on top of your business. This short post shares the latest updates.

• WTH are Azure Container Apps? (Sam Cogan) - A nice post that really does a great introduction of the new Azure Containers Apps that was announced recently.

Programming

• 
  GitHub Issues Graph with Netlify and GraphQL (Den Delimarsky) - Whaaaat! Awesome idea and execution. I love it!
  

• A Nightscout Segment for OhMyPosh shows my realtime Blood Sugar readings in my Git Prompt (Scott Hanselman) - It's cool that you can add anything in the prompt, and there is such granularity control of how the information is displayed.

• GitHubs magic files (Rob Bos) - Nice some of them I never saw.

• Windows Authentication with HttpClient (Rick Strahl) - He got me at Retro post lol

Podcasts

• Egil Hansen on Blazor Testing with bUnit - Episode 169 (Azure DevOps Podcast) - It's the second time I hear good things about bUnit. This is an open-source library for testing Blazor components that can be paired with many popular test frameworks. I need to try it.

• Podcast Tags: Are They Still Relevant? (Feed Your Brand) - It all makes sense. I am not 100% sure about YouTube however because all captions are indexed... I think. But if you create content listen to this.

• Family with Ari Emanuel (A Bit of Optimism) - The best way to learn and grow is to try and fail ( aka fall). A great episode very interesting.

☁️ Frank

Reading Notes #483

Already Tuesday! Time for a new Reading Notes post; a list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week and that I found interesting. It's a mix of the actuality and what I consumed.

This week is the Cloud Summit (https://azuresummit.live) is an 11-day free conference that focuses on Azure, there is surely a session that will catch your interest.

You think you may have interesting content, share it!

Cloud

• Boost your network security with new updates to Azure Firewall (Gopikrishna Kannan) - Nice, Tons of new possibilities.

Programming

• Azure DevOps GIT with SSH: fetch-pack: unexpected disconnect while reading sideband packet (Dominique St-Amand) - Quick tips about how to avoid an error while pulling.

• [How To Desktop in 2022](Sam Basu) (https://www.telerik.com/blogs/how-to-desktop-2022?utm_source=readingnotes) - Woooo, I didn't realize there were so many options! I think this winter I may start a project with MAUI.

• Join Us for Our Next Docker Community All-Hands! (William Quiviger) - Nice nice... Always interesting.

• Scheduled tasks with the Cron binding in Dapr (Mark Heath) - Interesting Idea. Scheduled tasks are so common as requirements, it's nice to have simple ways to implement them.

• The Magic Behind the Scenes of Docker Desktop (Ben De St Paer-Gotch) - That moment when you understand the magic... Great post that makes us appreciate it even more.

Miscellaneous

• Expanded Feature Availability for Power BI Free License Users (Coming Soon) (Ikechukwu Edeagu) - For those who already try, or use PowerBI you know how nice this news is. For the others... Give it a try it's that nice.

~Frank

Reading Notes #475

Every "Monday", I share my reading notes. Those are a curated list of all the articles, blog posts, podcast episodes, and books that catch my interest during the week and that I found interesting. It's a mix of the actuality and what I consumed.

You think you may have interesting content, share it!

The suggestion of the week

• What makes a good Git commit? (Al Tenhundfeld) - Great post. It's always good to read opinions from others about collaborating as it helps to better understand others, be in their shoes, and then become a better team player.

Cloud

• Azure Service Bus: Queues vs Topics (Davide Bellone) - Most people know about queues but topics is not as well known. This is a great post to understand why, how, and what you need.

• Azure Service Bus and C# - an introduction (Davide Bellone) - This is a nice and detailed post perfect to get started with the service Bus and queues.

• Building and auto-deploying an ASP.NET Core application - Part 7 - Improving your build and release processes ( Imar Spaanjaars) - This series is gold for anyone interested to learn more about best practices when deploying. It covers many different scenarios and got into the details.

• Creating Azure Functions, Custom Connectors and using them inside of Power apps (Charles Sterling) - Quick tutorial that connects two amazing tools.

• Leveling Up Static Web Apps With the CLI (Aaron Powell) - A pretty cool demo running locally. The explanation of the tasks fike is awesome.

Programming

• Best Practices for Microservices (dilshan ukwattage) - 7 best practices to help us building great microservices solutions.

• Conditional compilation for ignoring method calls with the ConditionalAttribute (Andrew Lock) - An interesting post about commands that we don't see that often, or at least that I don't see often.

• How to use GitHub actions and Contentful webhooks to show your latest blog posts on your GitHub profile README (Salma Alam-Naylor) - Wow, This is pretty cool! I didn't think we could do this kind of thing with our page...but I guess we can do all we want; love it.

• Extending HttpClient Testing With Templating (Adam Storr) - A nice quick post that shares unit test pattern

• Exploring .NET interactive notebooks with VS Code (Andrew Lock) - Nice practical utilization of that tech and I love the historic vibe into it.

• Git – What to do when things go wrong (pcmichaels) - Wonderful post...We all been there when we screwed up then not sure how to fix things. This post is packed with helpful commands and explanations on how to use them and the expected result

Miscellaneous

• Diagram as Code with Diagrams (Sam Cogan) - Interesting tool, I use drawio most of the time because it doesn't require any installation, but I am curious to see it.

• Speaking CTO (Gregor Hohpe) - Nive post with really good and simple best practices.

~Frank

Reading Notes #470

Every Monday, I share my "reading notes". Those are a curated list of all the articles, blog posts, podcast episodes, and books that catch my interest during the week and that I found interesting. It's a mix of the actuality and what I consumed.

You think you may have interesting content, share it!

Cloud

• How to Display the Current Azure Subscription in your CLI (Sam Cogan) - This is a game-changer for me. Every time I work in the terminal I was checking what was my current subscription (you don't want to deploy things in the wrong one right?) But know it will always be visible. Wonderfull!

Programming

• Devlead.Statiq - Part 2 - Theme from external web resource (Mattias Karlsson) - That's cool and clever. And cleaner than the modules.

• @devlead - Mattias Karlsson's Blog - Devlead.Statiq - Part 1 - Tabs (Mattias Karlsson) - Cool feature from Statiq the static content generator.

• ASP.NET Core in Action, Second Edition is available now! (Andrew Lock) - Nice update, its a lot of work to keep up with .Net. Great work.

• Chocolatey GUI - The Path to 1 million downloads (Gary Ewan Park) - Congratulation! I love Chocolatey and this little historic review is super cool.

• Take your Windows Terminal and PowerShell to the next level with Terminal Icons (Scott Hanselman) - Nice quick tips, super simple, and yeah way prettier.

• Viewing overwritten configuration values in ASP.NET Core (Andrew Lock) - Nice post that goes deep in debugging and shows how to make things more visible.

• Devlead.Statiq - Part 3 - IncludeCode 🤺 (Mattias Karlsson) - An interesting feature that I didn't know about...

Miscellaneous

• Writing, Editing and Formatting a Technical Ebook in 2021 (Rob Conery) - Interesting post. I knew writing a book was a lot of work, of course, but never thought the formatting was such a challenge.

Reading Notes #468

Every Monday, I share my "reading notes". Those are a curated list of all the articles, blog posts, podcast episodes, and books that catch my interest during the week and that I found interesting. It's a mix of the actuality and what I consumed.

You think you may have interesting content, share it!

Cloud

• Bicep - Why do we need yet another way to deploy stuff in Azure? (Mark Heath) - I still didn't play with bicep, but really looking forward to it. This post just made me even more excited about finally trying g it.

• Why won't you load my configuration Azure Functions? (Adam Storr) - Yes, it can definitely be a little confusing at the beginning, but that way is the secure way.

• Common Misconception #2 – Serverless is good for APIs (Jason Farrell) - Interesting post about lamda and serverless in general.

Programming

• How to make Command Prompt, PowerShell, or any Shell launch from the Start Menu directly into Windows Terminal (Scott Hanselman) - This is just what I was looking for amazing... And so simple!

• Monitoring and Observability in Cloud-Native ASP.NET Core apps | ASP.NET Blog (Nish Anil) - Nice post about this misunderstood topic. There are good examples and references to it. Excellent pairing it Scott Hanselman podcast episode with Tori Wieldt.

• The Windows Terminal made better with the Command Palette plus Multiple Actions in one Command (Scott Hanselman) - Wow, okay this is super cool and even more useful... Let's get started!

• Who Is Responsible For Building Tests? - Redgate Software (Grant Fritchey) - That's an excellent question! What's your answer?

Miscellaneous

• Add Developer PowerShell and Developer Command Prompt for Visual Studio to Windows Terminal (Luise) - Del

• What shall I use for managing tasks? Email? Outlook Tasks? Planner? To Do or even OneNote? (Luise) - Still, using pen and paper and thinking to move digital? This post is for you.

~Frank

Reading Notes #466

Every Monday, I share my "reading notes". Those are a curated list of all the articles, blog posts, podcast episodes, and books that catch my interest during the week and that I found interesting. It's a mix of the actuality and what I consumed.

You think you may have interesting content, share it!

The suggestion of the week

• How do I Navigate GitHub Code? (Brian Lagunas) - Two very simple tricks that make a huge difference when you browse a GitHub repo.Wow.

Cloud

• Prevent exceeding Azure budget with forecasted cost alerts (Adam Wise) - Clients are worry to spend more than plan. But they could avoid many surprises by using this tool.

Programming

• Highlights from Git 2.31 (Taylor Blau) - There definitely new features that I will use. And some that I didn't even know was possible that become better and faster.

• Implement Unit Testing in ASP.NET Core 5 Application – Getting Started (Sanjay) - An extremely complete article with code simple and architecture example.

• Integrating ASP.NET Identity Password Policies with Password Managers (Scott Brady) - A great tutorial that explains how to take control of the strength of the password in our app.

• Learn to build HTTP APIs with .NET (Jon Galloway) - So many great suggestions for blog posts, videos, and even a brand new learning path!

• Use C# to upload files to a GitHub repository (Dave Brock) - This is awesome no need to create a rest wrapper and all those little things.

Miscellaneous

• How to Be Happier Without Really Trying - Barking Up The Wrong Tree (Eric) - Is it tricking your own mind, or is it just taking back control? Well as much as we can take control ...of course. Nevertheless, these are interesting ideas that I will try.

~Frank

Reading Notes #463

Every Monday, I share my "reading notes". This is a curated list of all the articles, blog posts, and books that catch my interest during the week and that I found interesting. It's a mix of the actuality and what I consumed.

Cloud

• Add a Pipeline Expression Value to an Azure DevOps Variable (Jason Gaylord) - Nice quick post/ tips about pipeline.

• Secure Azure AD User File Upload with Azure AD Storage and ASP.NET Core (Damien Bowden) - Great tutorial with all the code.

• Using Azure Key Vault to manage your secrets (Chris Noring) - A nice post from Chris. Azure Key Vault is a fantastic tool. Don't miss it.

Programming

• Free Windows 10 development virtual machines for HyperV, Parallels, VirtualBox, and VMWare (Scott Hanselman) - Cool tips to have a nice dev environment.

• Using source generators to generate a menu component in a Blazor app (Andrew Lock) - Nice post.pretty cool way to avoid hard coding routes or "magic string".

• What I wish I had known about single page applications - Stack Overflow Blog (Michael Pratt) - I totally get it. I found myself in similar situations many times ( I like to learn, and the best way is by building something). Great share.

Databases

• Azure SQL Database or SQL Managed Instance Database used data space is much larger than expected (Sabrin Alsahsah) - A very interesting post. I learn a ton reading it.

• Getting Started with Azure Synapse Link for Cosmos DB (Ron L'Esteve ) - Near real-time analysis without impacting the data source performance... Pretty impressive.

Podcasts

• Game Jam Lessons Learned (Coding Blocks) - Very happy the listen to this follow episode from show 151. I've been tenting to try participating in a Game Jam. Really interesting to learn their experience and how they would do differently.

• Can networking be simple? with Tailscale's Avery Pennarun (Hanselminutes with Scott Hanselman) - Networking is definitely my strength or passion. Nevertheless this episode was extremely interesting. I learned so much!

• How to Make 30k a Month: The System that Took Her from 5k to 30k with Jessie Harris-Bouton (Influencer Entrepreneurs with Jenny Melrose) - NIce episode cool story, because life is life. Love it.

Miscellaneous

• Fix for Elgato Key Light not found by Control Center (Scott Hanselman) - Sorry, but I feel happy to not be alone with those thoughts, and in that situation. My Keylight is now optional in my setup because when I need a light NOW, I don't have time to figure out issues.

~Frank

Reading Notes #456

The suggestion of the week

• Using the latest version of the Azure CLI (Gregor Suttie) - Whaaat! This is a master ninja tricks! Well, at the minimum it is freaking cool and useful. Awesome!

Cloud

• More with Gruut: Use the Microsoft Bot Framework to analyze emotion with the Azure Face API (Dave Brock) - This is a very complete tutorial to build a cool demo. Second in a series.
• 4 common analytics scenarios to build business agility | Azure blog and updates | Microsoft Azure (Kaiser Larsen) - Very interesting post that shares real-life scenarios where businesses used Synapse to create a great solution.

Programming

• Creating a Serverless Docker Image (Jason Robert) - A nice demo/ tutorial using Node.js to help us running things where we want.
• Entity Framework Core 5 free resources (Erik Ejlskov Jensen) - This is wonderful! A curated list of great EF documentation/ tutorials.
• Getting Started with Windows Terminal (Kayla Cinnamon) - Uh! I didn't know the preview version was also that easy to get. Pretty cool.
• Jump Start your Developer Skills with Visual Studio Code Coding Packs (Jen Looper) - So simple and yet so powerful! It's an awesome idea.
• How to Create a Continuous Integration Continuous Deployment (CI-CD) Solution for a Docker Project (Frank Boucher) - Shameless plug. It's a simple solution, but I'm pretty proud of it and it does the job marvelously.

Podcasts

• Épisode 84 - Le bonheur de s’entraîner (Grand écart) - I'm not a runner, but I like (or use to) move and be outside. This francophone podcast is really motivating, and interesting.
• Eating Frogs with Brian Tracy (The Productivityist Podcast) - I just found this podcast. I liked that book when I read it a few years ago. It was nice listening to this episode talking about it. Brought back great ideas.
• Épisode 5 - La Chasse aux Sorcières (Les Pires Moments de l'Histoire) - Okay, THIS IS A MUST. Seriously is yo understand French, it's both educational and funny. Great job!
• 2020 sucked - A year-end wrap-up with Scott's Wife, Mo (Hanselminutes with Scott Hanselman) - I'm so glad Mo accepted to comes on the show once more. This dynamic is very interesting. I need to make my wife listen to this episode and to my daughter too (she studying to be a nurse).
• 628 - How to Be Confident, Not Arrogant (Modern Mentor) - The line between those two is easy to cross. I appreciated the reflection time about it, that this episode offers.
• The Infinite Game with Dr. James Carse (A Bit of Optimism) - The Infinite Game, a great book that I read last year. It was awesome to listen to Simon talk about those ideas with Dr. Carse.
• #187 – Building a $38k/Month SaaS Business as a Solo Founder with Jorda O'Connor of Closet Tools (Indie Hackers) - When you like learning, and that you are not afraid to work hard, a little idea can bring you really far.
• 0251 – Joel Quimper – Microsoft Graph (Visual Studio Talk Show) - Why Microsoft Graph? It's all in this episode (in French). Great show once more.

Miscellaneous

• Attention Matters More than Time (Josh Duffney) - So true. The balance is hard to find, but let's keep trying to be better at it.
• What’s New in Microsoft Teams | December 2020 - Wow, a very impressive list of new features. I'm looking forward to testing a few of them.

~Frank

Reading Notes #451

Cloud

• Migrating to the new C# Azure KeyVault SDK Libraries (Dominique St-Amand) - Learning a new SDK can be challenging and this post can help you lowering the learning curve. So much great feature.

• Tip 295 - What database should you use in your next Azure Functions app | Azure Tips and Tricks - A nice little post that shows different options to connect our azFunctions to a data store.

Programming

• 6 ways to narrow types in TypeScript (Carl Rippon) - This is a nice post that teaches how to avoid a few good exceptions.

• What's new in .NET Productivity (Mika Dumont) - In post offers a nice summary of the new feature available in the latest version of Roslyn.

• Your dotnet outdated is outdated! Update and help keep your .NET projects up to date (Scott Hanselman) - Wonderful! Easy to update and to use. Sold!

Miscellaneous

• Azure DevOps Boards and Excel! (Sarah Lean) - Pretty sweet tips for everyone.

Podcast

• 622 - Why Vulnerability Is a Misunderstood Professional Superpower (Modern Mentor) - First time on this podcast, but definitely not the last. Great show great topic.
• The Shorts -- Backyard Adventures (The Dirtbag Diaries) - One thing keep coming back to my head again and again as I was listening... Yeah, so true! I love it. Let's do small adventure.
• 227: Databases! (Merge Conflict) - So many great questions, a tons of answers, hypotheses, and laughs. Great show guys!
• Growing the next generation of technologists with CodeCrew's Meka Egwuekwe (Hanselminutes with Scott Hanselman) - Very interesting questions. I really like discussion from a different point of view; for me.

Books

A Game Plan for Life: The Power of Mentoring

Author: John Wooden, John C. Maxwell

What a great book. I didn't know John Wooden before, but I am very impressed and inspired by both coach Wooden and the author. There is so much in this book and worth reading it again... But first, let's get prepare :)

Reading Notes #445

Every Monday, I share my "reading notes". Those are a curated list of all the articles, blog posts, podcast episodes, and books that catch my interest during the week and that I found interesting. It's a mix of the actuality and what I consumed.

You think you may have interesting content, share it!

Cloud

• Azure Machine Learning helps customers stay ahead of challenges (Erez Barak) - A nice post to get us inspires to start our journey.

• Azure introduces new capabilities for live video analytics (Jason Hogg) - The custom vision was already as impressive as a service. So easy to use and powerful. But now in a video...that's incredibly cool.

Programming

• How to use, open, resize, and split Panes in the Windows Terminal (Scott Hanselman) - Tabs are so useful! And now it's native...awesome.

• 10 Azure DevOps – Work Items Tips & Tricks that you should know (Abhijit Jana) - Nice post. Did you know all those?

• GitHub Docs are now open source (Janice Niemeir) - Open-source documentation is the best. Faster updated, often more accurate and complete... And all of it at one URL easy to remember fantastic.

• How to use autocomplete at the command line for dotnet, git, winget, and more! (Scott Hanselman) - I love that shell/ terminal series... Learn something new each time.

• Writing JavaScript tools in other languages – a new trend? (Dr. Axel Rauschmayer) - Javascript or not javascript... I'm surprised how the opinions are so strong.

Podcasts

• #23 Fatal Conveniences™: Caffeine: Consuming Coffee With Caution (The Darin Olien Show) - Apparently not a usual episode ( I don't know it was my first one), but really interesting deep dive into the coffee world; the effect, origin and more.
• Podcast Crasher – The Binge Factor: Pat Flynn On Building An Online Business From a Podcast (Feed Your Brand) - This episode it the counterpart of another episode that happens on Pat Flynn show. Really interesting topic I don't think about my content that way... Maybe I should, a little.
• #54: Yihua Zhang - From Fitness to Coding [S03-E12] (The Solo Coder Podcast) - WHen you like what you are doing I think it shows. It doesn't mean you will always be a super start, but at least you will be happy and most of the time it will be really good for your career. Fantastic story, inspiring.
• Microsoft Identity for Developers (CloudSkills.fm) - Nice episode I think Identity/security is a really hard topic to abort, and those guys are doing a great

Miscellaneous

• 40 Microsoft Teams tips and tricks: from novice to expert. - Great tips for beginners to advanced Teams users.

~ Have a nice week!

Reading Notes #440

Cloud

• Azure portal August 2020 update (Angie Doyle) - Wonderful Updates better search, better productivity.Very nice.

• Path based routing in Azure Application Gateway with Azure WebApps (Dominique St-Amand) - Great post that explains how to get the most of our domain name and workaround a little limitation of the portal.

Programming

• How to Develop an ASP.NET Core Application Using Visual Studio Code (Mathankumar Rajendran) - The perfect post to get started without impacting too much (installing heavy software) your computer.

• Configuring Codespaces for .NET Core Development (Justin Yoo ) - This post goes deeper than the usual hello word type of post about Codespace. It really shows an example of configuration.

• Have you built your GitHub Profile README yet? (Mayank Choudhary) - What?! This is super cool, and I didn't know about it.

• How to Work With Client-Side Blazor (Jon Hilton ) - This is a great simple post to get started with Blazor web assembly. Simple enough so all can understand what it is and what's nice about it.

• Introducing Blazor Automatic Kingdom (null) - Interesting of the popular blocky UI/UX with Blazor.

• Introduction to SVELTE (Sohaib Nehal) - As I rediscover JavaScript, it's fascinating to see how much this language as evolve and now have so many great frameworks.

• WSL 2 Support is coming to Windows 10 Versions 1903 and 1909 | Windows Command Line (Tyler) - Yeah! One of my computers is not in the insider program and was still with WSL1... But not anymore.

Podcasts

• 087: Learning Azure with Gwyneth Pena (CloudSkills.fm) - In this episode, you will discover a freshly awarded MVP, a brilliant content creator, and super energetic women. Wonderful.

• Why you should double down on intergration testing with Kent C. Dodds (Software Engineering Unlocked) - Tests are important we all know that (well we should), but there is a shift about the type of tests that are the best one recently... Interesting.

• Working in Public: Open Source Software with Nadia Eghbal (Hanselminutes with Scott Hanselman) - A very interesting conversation about the open-source work today. She is the author of the book Working in Public, which looks fascinating.

• #169 – Thinking One Step Ahead to Grow Your Business through PR with Dmitry Dragilev of JustReachOut.io (The Indie Hackers Podcast) - I think this quote used summarize perfectly: Just because you built it doesn't mean people will come. Great discussion.

• The Shorts -- Twindom (The Dirtbag Diaries) - A really touching story of two sisters and a hiking trip that changed her lives.

~