Last Year, Everything was Copilot. This Year, Copilot is Everything. by Jim Wilcox

Copilot’s journey from last year’s star feature to this year’s platform reflects Microsoft’s commitment to AI-powered innovation. Over the coming years, these tools that they are building will rebuild them, and probably us with them. As we discover and embrace these revolutionary AI times, Copilot is the forefront of the user experience in ways that even ChatGPT may be forgotten for. Last year, everything was Copilot. Ready or not, this year, Copilot is everything.

Read More
Jim Wilcox
Semantic Search and RAG - a Powerful Combination by Seth Carney

Semantic search specializes in determining which relevant documents or passages should be fed into a given RAG model based on user’s query. These techniques working in unison allow users to rapidly search through diverse knowledge bases and receive informative responses. Semantic search with RAG integration can provide tremendous productivity benefits at a relatively low cost.

Read More
Seth Carney
Should AI Review Your Pull Requests? Probably. By Ed Lyons

There is a lot of talk about AI being used to help individual coders inside their development environments. Now we are seeing AI tools for reviewing pull requests. Is this the same thing? No. Even though these newer tools use the same underlying technology, a pull request to be reviewed by the team is its own institution in software development, one that is primarily about engineering, yet it involves human considerations.

Read More
Ed Lyons
OKTA Authorization Using Microsoft Active Directory by Yuxin Wang

In recent years, OKTA has been very popular as a preferred solution for integrating security into web applications. A notable observation is the abundance of code examples available online for authentication purposes, whereas resources for authorization are comparatively scarce. In this article, I aim to outline the steps involved in utilizing OKTA's Active Directory integration specifically for authorization purposes.

Read More
Will AI Replace Coders? by Ed Lyons

Just about every programmer has given Generative AI a try in their development environment by this point, whether out of curiosity or fear. The hype around this technology is shouting at us everywhere. “BEWARE CODERS! You will be replaced by AI (you may escape if you subscribe to my paid newsletter.)”

Read More
Ed Lyons
Tactical Documentation During Modernization by Ed Lyons

A modernization project needs lots of new documentation to keep everyone working productively and with good velocity. It will not be the same as the documentation that is there for existing systems. But if it can be done quickly, iteratively, and with purpose, the effort is far more likely to achieve its goals.

Read More
Ed Lyons
Containerization: A Key Strategy for Business Agility by Jim Wilcox

Adopting containerization is a key strategy for supporting business agility. Containerization will enable your organization to accelerate its software development and delivery, empower its developers, enhance security, and reduce costs. Containerization will also prepare your team for the future, as it will facilitate migration to the cloud and reduce friction in adoption of new technologies and innovations.

Read More
Jim Wilcox