Evolving the Windows AI platform
In May 2024, Microsoft announced the Windows Copilot Runtime. Targeted at its then-new Copilot+ PCs, it provided a mix of innovations, from on-device small language models to improvements to Windows’ support for NPU (neural processing unit) hardware...
How to add user context to request traces in ASP.NET Core
When working with web applications, you will often want to keep watch on user requests to understand user behavior. Known as request tracing, this process also enables you to monitor the reliability of your applications and to inspect requests and det...
How to use method references in Java
Method references in Java are part of the broader set of features introduced and enhanced in Java 8 and beyond. They are a concise way to refer to methods of classes or objects. Method references are especially useful in the context of lambda expressi...
Red Hat readies Advanced Developer Suite
Red Hat has announced Red Hat Advanced Developer Suite, an integrated suite of tools for developers that includes an internal developer platform, trusted software supply chain capabilities, platform application capabilities, and streamlined tools that...
InfluxDB’s new model for time series workloads
In 2017, I was developing software focused on answering one question: “What happens when this airplane gets struck by lightning?” Not if, but when. On average, every airplane is struck by lightning once per year. And when that moment arrives, mill...
CloudBees unveils AI-enhanced devops platform
CloudBees has unveiled the CloudBees Unify devops platform, which brings an AI-enhanced control plane to existing developer tool chains, providing a modular solution for complex software environments. Announced May 20 and still in an early access phas...
Google releases agent development kits for Python and Java
Google has released agent development kits for the Python and Java programming languages. The Python ADK 1.0.0 and Java ADK 0.1.0 were announced on May 20. The open source tool kits are designed to be used for building and deploying sophisticated AI ...
Microsoft beefs up SQL Server 2025 for AI-driven applications
Microsoft is moving SQL Server 2025 into public preview, adding new features to help enterprises develop AI-driven applications. One of the key new capabilities is vector search, which will enable enterprises to perform semantic search on their data u...
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 adds AI-powered management
Red Hat has introduced Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, featuring Lightspeed, an AI-powered service for building, deploying, and managing Red Hat’s Linux using simplified commands. Available through the Red Hat Customer Portal, RHEL 10 was unveiled M...
Google I/O 2025: The most important new launches
At its annual developer conference, Google presented groundbreaking AI innovations that go far beyond mere product updates. Rather, they outline a future in which artificial intelligence is no longer just a tool, but an omnipresent, proactive companio...
What is Markdown? Lightweight text formatting for human beings
The Markdown text format makes it easy for people—not only software developers but anyone with a keyboard—to write text that can be converted readily into HTML or another rich format. What’s special about Markdown is it uses plain-text syntax fo...
Putting agentic AI to work in Firebase Studio
Agents are the big story in AI now. Putting agentic AI to work in software engineering can be done in a variety of ways. Some agents work independently of the developer’s environment, working essentially like a remote developer. For example, Cogni...
Booleans considered harmful
Booleans are deceptively simple. They look harmless—just true or false, right? What could possibly go wrong? But when you actually use them, they quickly become a minefield. After years of coding, I have learned to tread very lightly when dealing...
Why Microsoft is unifying data and AI within Fabric
Microsoft says that the future of AI-based applications lies in unifying data and intelligence, and that new updates to its data and analytics platform, Fabric, are a step in that direction. Announced at the company’s ongoing Build conference, the u...
GitHub unveils coding agent for GitHub Copilot
GitHub has introduced a new coding agent for its GitHub Copilot AI-powered programming assistant. Embedded into GitHub, the agent launches its own development environment with GitHub Actions to implement a task or issue. Introduced May 19, the GitHub ...
Cloud asset management: A crucial missing ingredient
Most companies are in a race to diversify their cloud resources, motivated by the benefits of scalable, innovative, and effective operational capabilities. Despite dedicating large percentages of the budget to implement migration strategies, hybrid so...
Rust 1.87 shines on anonymous pipes, architecture intrinsics
The Rust Release Team has shipped Rust 1.87, an update to the fast and safe programming language that features accommodations for anonymous pipes and architecture intrinsics. The new release was announced May 15, the same day as Rust’s 10th annivers...
