Alvin Ashcraft
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Alvin Ashcraft
@alvinashcraft.com
2.8K followers 2.1K following 24K posts
Sr. Content Developer at Microsoft on the Microsoft Foundry docs; Writer of WinUI and .NET Concurrency books for Packt; Philadelphia area; Mets fan; TechBash organizer.
alvinashcraft.com
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alvinashcraft.com
Don't fall into the anti-AI hype | by Simon Willison

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#ai #trends #softwaredev #devcommunity
Don’t fall into the anti-AI hype
I'm glad someone was brave enough to say this. There is a lot of anti-AI sentiment in the software development community these days. Much of it is justified, but if …
buff.ly
January 12, 2026 at 10:01 PM
alvinashcraft.com
Enterprise Patterns for #ASPNETCore: Front Controller and MVC Pattern | by Chris Woodruff

buff.ly/a6ZjeAm

#dotnet #webdev #enterprisedev #softwaredev #designpatterns #mvc
Enterprise Patterns for ASP.NET Core: Front Controller and MVC Pattern - Chris Woody Woodruff | Fractional Architect
If every controller in your system does its own authentication, logging, and error handling, you do not have an architecture. You have a crowd of small frameworks pretending to cooperate. Front…
buff.ly
January 12, 2026 at 9:01 PM
alvinashcraft.com
Introducing Agent Skills in VS Code | with James Montemagno

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JepV...

#vscode #ai #githubcopilot #agents #agentskills
Introducing Agent Skills in VS Code
Unlock the power of Agent Skills in VS Code! In this video, we break down what Agent Skills are, why they’re game‑changing for developers, and how to create your first skill in minutes. 🔎…
www.youtube.com
January 12, 2026 at 8:00 PM
alvinashcraft.com
Collection Expression Arguments in C# 15+

buff.ly/0d7cOSA

#dotnet #csharp #programming
Collection Expression Arguments in C# 15+
There is a nice proposal which would make collection expressions a bit better - Giving the users the ability to pass in arguments to the creation.
buff.ly
January 12, 2026 at 7:01 PM
alvinashcraft.com
AI Won't Kill Open Source - It Will Amplify It

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#ai #opensource #oss #softwaredev #devcommunity
AI Won't Kill Open Source - It Will Amplify It
Why the doomsayers are wrong: npm, PyPI, and NuGet downloads are exploding
buff.ly
January 12, 2026 at 6:01 PM
alvinashcraft.com
Use Agent Skills in VS Code | Visual Studio Code Docs

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#vscode #githubcopilot #agents #agentskills
Use Agent Skills in VS Code
Learn how to use Agent Skills in VS Code to teach GitHub Copilot specialized capabilities that work across VS Code, GitHub Copilot CLI, and GitHub Copilot coding agent.
buff.ly
January 12, 2026 at 5:01 PM
alvinashcraft.com
AI-coding trick: ask it how it knows

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#ai #softwaredev #programming #prompting
AI-coding trick: ask it how it knows
Here’s the conversation I want: Me: What do we have to work on?Claude: [checks its issue tracker] Oh look at these nice issues that are ready for work… But the issue tracker (Beads) is …
buff.ly
January 12, 2026 at 4:01 PM
alvinashcraft.com
Generate an Open Graph Profile Image with C# | by Joseph Guadagno

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#dotnet #csharp #apis #softwaredev
Generate an Open Graph Profile Image with C#
Learn how to create dynamic Open Graph profile images using C# and .NET in this step-by-step guide.
buff.ly
January 12, 2026 at 3:00 PM
alvinashcraft.com
31 Days of Vibe Coding - Day 12: The Common AI Mistakes File | by Jeff Blankenburg

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#ai #vibecoding #prompting #promptengineering #softwaredev
Day 12: The Common AI Mistakes File
AI makes the same mistakes over and over. Document them once, reference them in prompts, stop repeating corrections. Here’s how to build your mistakes file.
buff.ly
January 12, 2026 at 2:00 PM
alvinashcraft.com
The Complete Guide to Building Agents with the Claude Agent SDK

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#ai #claude #aiagents #agentsdk
The Complete Guide to Building Agents with the Claude Agent SDK
The fast path to get up and running your own custom AI Agents.
buff.ly
January 12, 2026 at 1:00 PM
alvinashcraft.com
Dew Drop – January 12, 2026 (#4580)

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#dotnet #webdev #ai #windowsdev #visualstudio #mobiledev #cloud #csharp #database #dewdrop
Dew Drop – January 12, 2026 (#4580) – Morning Dew by Alvin Ashcraft
Morning Dew by Alvin Ashcraft
www.alvinashcraft.com
January 12, 2026 at 12:40 PM
alvinashcraft.com
The Best Alternatives to WinGet: Windows Package Managers Compared

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#windows #windowsdev #winget #packagemanager
The Best Alternatives to WinGet: Windows Package Managers Compared
We compare WinGet vs. other Windows Package Managers and offer a full guide to discover the best alternative to WinGet.
buff.ly
January 10, 2026 at 4:00 PM
alvinashcraft.com
How Google Got Its Groove Back and Edged Ahead of OpenAI | by Simon Willison

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#ai #google #openai #gemini #trends
How Google Got Its Groove Back and Edged Ahead of OpenAI
I picked up a few interesting tidbits from this Wall Street Journal piece on Google's recent hard won success with Gemini. Here's the origin of the name "Nano Banana": Naina …
buff.ly
January 9, 2026 at 10:00 PM
alvinashcraft.com
31 Days of Vibe Coding - Day 9: Git Is Your Undo Button for AI Mistakes | by Jeff Blankenburg

31daysofvibecoding.com/2026/01/09/g...

#ai #vibecoding #softwaredev #git #prompting
Day 9: Git Is Your Undo Button for AI Mistakes
AI changed 15 files and broke everything. Without Git discipline, you’re screwed. With it, you’re one command away from a working state. Here’s the workflow.
31daysofvibecoding.com
January 9, 2026 at 9:00 PM
alvinashcraft.com
VS Code December 2025 Release (version 1.108)

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#vscode #programming #terminal #githubcopilot #webdev #visualstudiocode
December 2025 (version 1.108)
Learn what is new in the Visual Studio Code December 2025 Release (1.108).
buff.ly
January 9, 2026 at 8:01 PM
alvinashcraft.com
Scaling AI Agents with Aspire: The Missing Isolation Layer for Parallel Development

devblogs.microsoft.com/aspire/scali...

#aspire #ai #softwaredev #aiagents #cloudnative #cloud #mcp
Scaling AI Agents with Aspire: The Missing Isolation Layer for Parallel Development
Learn how to run multiple Aspire AppHosts in parallel using Git worktrees, port isolation, and an MCP proxy to unlock scalable AI agent workflows.
devblogs.microsoft.com
January 9, 2026 at 7:01 PM
alvinashcraft.com
The Modern .NET Show S08E10 - NDepend with Patrick Smacchia: Scaling .NET Code Quality

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#podcast #dotnet #ndepend #devcommunity #csharp #codequality
S08E10 - NDepend with Patrick Smacchia: Scaling .NET Code Quality
Jamie Taylor chats with Patrick Smacchia from NDepend about mastering large, complex .NET codebases. Discover how NDepend, a static code analyser, can help you identify and quantify technical debt,…
buff.ly
January 9, 2026 at 6:01 PM
alvinashcraft.com
How to get started with PowerToys Command Palette on Windows 11 — an answer to macOS Spotlight for Windows PCs

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#powertoys #windows #devtools #windows11 #cmdpal
How to get started with PowerToys Command Palette on Windows 11
Is Windows 11 Search not good enough for you? Try PowerToys Command Palette, and here's how to get started.
buff.ly
January 9, 2026 at 5:00 PM
alvinashcraft.com
Building effective AI agents with Model Context Protocol (MCP)

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#ai #mcp #aiagents #softwaredev #modelcontextprotocol #redhatai
Building effective AI agents with Model Context Protocol (MCP) | Red Hat Developer
Move beyond RAG to agentic AI with Model Context Protocol. See how Red Hat OpenShift AI secures and scales MCP servers for reliable enterprise automation
buff.ly
January 9, 2026 at 4:01 PM
Reposted by Alvin Ashcraft
gcaughey.bsky.social
As a very long-time techie myself, I'm really enjoying @karaswisher.bsky.social's "tech love story" Burn Book. It's on Amazon here: www.amazon.com/s?k=kara+swi...
Amazon.com : kara swisher burn book
www.amazon.com
January 9, 2026 at 3:58 PM
alvinashcraft.com
My @codemash.bsky.social lightning talk submission, "My Favorite Windows PowerToys", was accepted. We'll see how many I can cram into a six-minute timeslot next Wednesday evening.

See you there!
January 9, 2026 at 3:50 PM
alvinashcraft.com
VLC 3.0.23 Release – Updates codecs, adds a dark mode option on Windows and Linux, support for Windows ARM64 and improves support for Windows XP SP3
buff.ly
January 9, 2026 at 3:01 PM
alvinashcraft.com
Blazor Scheduler Localization: Add Multilingual Support and Culture Switching

www.syncfusion.com/blogs/post/m...

#dotnet #blazor #ref #aspnetcore #webdev #syncfusion #localization
Blazor Scheduler Localization: Add Multilingual Support and Culture Switching
Implement multilingual support in Blazor Scheduler with dynamic culture switching and resource-based localization for global-ready apps.
www.syncfusion.com
January 9, 2026 at 2:00 PM
Reposted by Alvin Ashcraft
borowitzreport.bsky.social
“We lost the colonies because our King went insane,” Charles said. “But now the shoe’s on the other bloody foot, isn’t it?”
King Restores British Rule Over U.S.
“We lost the colonies because our King went insane,” Charles added. “But now the shoe’s on the other bloody foot, isn’t it?”
www.borowitzreport.com
January 9, 2026 at 1:43 PM
Reposted by Alvin Ashcraft
codemash.bsky.social
We’ve worked hard with the Kalahari to create what we hope is a great menu for our conference.

Click on the link for a list of what you will find for each meal at the buffet:
zurl.co/6Farv (What’s on the CodeMash 2026 menu?)

#CodeMash2026 #CodeMash #TechConference2026
January 9, 2026 at 1:07 PM