John Kilmister

Setting Up Your Own Android Work Profile Discover how to create a separate, easily managed work environment on your Android device—even if you're self-employed or outside a corporate setup—with

It has been a little while since I last wrote a blog post, and today's is on a slightly different topic; however, hopefully others will find it useful.

This post covers how to set up an Android work profile yourself without Intune configured.

www.blueboxes.co.uk/setting-up-y...

Top 10 Azure Mistakes and Pitfalls to Avoid Avoid these common pitfalls when working with Azure to ensure a smoother experience and better outcomes for your projects.

I have a new blog post out today as part of Azure Back to School looking at my 10 Azure Mistakes and Pitfalls to Avoid.

www.blueboxes.co.uk/top-10-azure...

#AzureBacktoSchool2025 #Azure

Replacing SendGrid Free Tier with Azure Communication Services for Emails via SMTP We look at how to replace SendGrid's free tier with Azure Communication Services.

I have a new blog post out today. After SendGrid removed its free tier, I explored replacing SendGrid with Azure Communication Services, particularly in cases where I wanted to send Emails via SMTP.

www.blueboxes.co.uk/replacing-se...

Comic. SALESMAN [pointing at dehumidifier on sale]: This dehumidifier model features built-in WiFi for remote updates. PERSON 2: Great! That will be really useful if they discover a new kind of water.

Dehumidifier

xkcd.com/3109/

I am pleased to share that I passed the Azure AI Fundamentals exam yesterday.

I was surprised that learning for this exam brought back skills I have occasionally used over my 20+ years of coding, along with a set of more recent skills.

We should probably start to consider what the impact of using AI coding tools *all the time* will result in for:

- Very experienced software engineers
- Somewhat experienced folks (e.g. "mid-level")
- Entry-level folks

What is the good? The bad? The ugly of all of this?

Free SQL Managed Instance offer is now generally available Try Azure SQL Managed Instance for FREE now! Get a SQL Managed Instance free for up to 12 months, supporting up to 100 databases.

Free SQL Managed Instance offer is now generally available by Strahinja Rodic techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/azure-sql...

Free Azure Weekly Newsletter. Sign up now! Distributed every Sunday at 6pm GMT since 2014. Powered by endjin.

The @azureweekly.endj.in #MSBuild special is finished. What a whopper! Over 250 links in this week's newsletter! Sign up at azureweekly.info before 6pm BST tonight if you want your copy!

Navigating Running Containers in Azure There are so many ways to run containers in Azure. In this post we will look at the options and how to choose the right one for your needs.

I have a new blog post today, writing up a presentation I have done several times. In this post, we go through 8 ways to run a container on Azure.

www.blueboxes.co.uk/navigating-r...

#Azure

Elizabeth Holmes and Billy Evans, sitting closely on a couch. A headline reads: "Elizabeth Holmes’s Partner Has a New Blood-Testing Start-Up" Photo by Philip Cheung for The New York Times

Elizabeth Holmes is in prison for defrauding investors through her blood-testing company, Theranos. Her partner, Billy Evans, is now trying to raise money for a company that describes itself as “the future of diagnostics.” nyti.ms/3FbtZm9

spot art. text reads: 🎉 Visual Studio 2022 v17.14 is now generally available! See what's new, and don't forget to download it.

Visual Studio 2022 v17.14 is now generally available! ✨ Dive into AI-assisted development with GitHub Copilot's new agent mode, enhanced debugging tools, and more. Update today and experience the future of coding! Check it out. https://msft.it/6186SZGgq
#VisualStudioNews #GitHubCopilot #AI #DevTools

Goodhart's Law - when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.
sketchplanations.com/goodharts-law

Many people asked me how I highlighted lines in VS code and the "flashy slides" as @dddsouthwest.com yesterday.

I am very grateful to @eliostruyf.com for the DemoTime VS Code extension. It's a great tool, and you can read more and try it yourself here: demotime.elio.dev

What a Day slide at the end of DDDSW

Had a great day yesterday at @dddsouthwest.com and watched many great talks. Thank you to all the speakers and organisers.

Thank you also to everyone who attended my talk. The extra resources for the talk can be found here: gist.github.com/blueboxes/c6...

#DDDSW2025

Authorization - Model Context Protocol

MCP just got a huge update so you can delegate the authorisation server to a third party like Entra, a massive security improvement.

What a fab community effort @anthropic.com ! 👏

modelcontextprotocol.io/specificatio...

Presentation room at ddd southwest

Just starting @dddsouthwest.com with @kevsoft.net talk on Fixing a broken Messaging

Exploring Container Sidecars on App Service Plans In this post we take a look at the sidecar pattern and how it can be used with Azure App Service Plans. We will look at the history of sidecars on app

I have a new blog post, Exploring Container Sidecars on App Service Plans on Azure.

www.blueboxes.co.uk/exploring-co...

#Azure #Cloud

I have just finished listening to it on audible. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did, great story.

A Developers Guide to getting the most out of continers

It will not be long until DDD South West, and I am looking forward to it.

I hope to see many of you there!

Introducing the Azure MCP Server Announcing the Public Preview of the Azure MCP Server, bringing the power of Azure to your AI agents. The Azure MCP Server allows AI agents to take advantage of Azure resources for key workflows such as file storage, database and logs querying, and CLI commands. The Azure MCP Server is open-source on GitHub.

🚀 Introducing the Azure MCP Server!

Now AI agents can interact with Azure services like Cosmos DB, Storage, and Log Analytics using natural language—context-aware and powerful.

Learn more 👉 devblogs.microsoft.c...

New batch of tickets released! We've just released another round of 50 tickets, so go check out the page on Ticket Tailor below to join us at #DDDSouthWest

www.tickettailor.com/events/dddso...

❤️
DDDSW

🚀 Demo Time v1.1.0 is live!

🎬 New slide animations:
- fade-in
- typewriter
- highlight

📊 Mermaid diagram support is here too!

Make your live demos shine ✨
👉 demotime.elio.dev

#VSCode #DemoTime #DevTools #MermaidJS #LiveCoding

Sending Emails with MCP and Azure Communication Services | luke.geek.nz Learn how to use the Model Context Protocol (MCP) to connect GitHub Copilot to Azure Communication Services for sending emails directly from AI interactions.

Sending Emails with MCP and Azure Communication Services

Today, we will use the MCP protocol to connect to Azure Communication Services and send an email from an MCP client and server running on a GitHub Codespace from GitHub Copilot.

#mvpbuzz #azure

luke.geek.nz/azure/m...

Build Remote MCP servers using Azure Functions in C# & .NET In this video Matt Soucoup shows us how to build Remote MCP Servers with this new experimental preview feature in Azure Functions!Get Started: https://aka.ms...

Build Remote MCP servers using Azure Functions in C# & .NET | with Matt Soucoup.

www.youtube.com/watch?app=de...

#dotnet #mcp #csharp #azure #cloud #azurefunctions #ai #aimodels

I have been looking at them this week as well and agree. Thinking of so many great use cases.

Demo Time Script your coding demos to perfection with this VS Code extension - no typos, no missteps, just flawless, stress-free presentations every time.

Slides? ✅
Code? ✅
Commands? ✅
Automation? ✅

All in one place: #VSCode

With Demo Time, your next presentation won’t need PowerPoint or Keynote.

It’s the PowerPoint killer for developers.

👉 demotime.elio.dev

#VSCode #PublicSpeaking #DeveloperExperience

Nothing beats a second set of eyes.

Get a code review from Copilot so your teammates never see the silly mistakes.

Copilot does not judge.

Export as Bicep is fully available today! 💪

Test it out yourself in the portal, instructions can be found here: learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/...

Announcing the Microsoft AI Skills Fest: Save the date! | Microsoft Community Hub The best way to learn something new is by taking it one step at a time. We know all this talk of AI can be overwhelming, so how about we take it one skill at...

Announcing the Microsoft AI Skills Fest: Save the date! techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/microso... #AI #MicrosoftLearn #MVPBuzz

I have found that custom instructions have been a game changer when using copilot on a large existing codebase.