https://blog.g9n.com/ g9n Blog https://blog.g9n.com/attention-was-always-the-bottleneck-ai.html https://blog.g9n.com/attention-was-always-the-bottleneck-ai.html Tue, 01 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT In earlier days, we didn't want to spend our attention on machine code or assembly, and later memory management an garbage collection. So we invented tools and abstractions so that we didn't have to… https://blog.g9n.com/make-sure-you-spend-time-with-tech-you-enjoy.html https://blog.g9n.com/make-sure-you-spend-time-with-tech-you-enjoy.html Tue, 01 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT As a developer, something that contributes to feelings of burnout is constantly dealing with faults, and software that has not yet been completed. An antidote to this I find, is to carve out some… https://blog.g9n.com/observations-around-prominent-programmer-sentiment-and-ai.html https://blog.g9n.com/observations-around-prominent-programmer-sentiment-and-ai.html Sun, 30 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT A few months ago, it was easy to find AI sceptics among prominent programmers. Just over a year ago DHH was interviewed on the Lex Friedman Podcast. Now appearing again on the recent episode, DHH's… https://blog.g9n.com/the-skills-i-think-we-might-gain-ai.html https://blog.g9n.com/the-skills-i-think-we-might-gain-ai.html Wed, 24 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT The general consensus, and common sense seem to dictate that the more we lean on LLMs for coding, the weaker our ability to code by hand will become. I feel like it's something all experienced… https://blog.g9n.com/introducing-the-g9n-blog.html https://blog.g9n.com/introducing-the-g9n-blog.html Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT Welcome to my blog. This is where I intend (intend, not promise) to put my (hopefully) regular writings in an effort to be more intentional about what I'm working on and thinking about, communicate… https://blog.g9n.com/introducing-agent-kanban.html https://blog.g9n.com/introducing-agent-kanban.html Wed, 13 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT AI coding agents work inside chat sessions. A chat session is good at local reasoning - you give it a task, it works through the problem, it produces code. But the session itself is ephemeral. When… https://blog.g9n.com/as-notes-vs-code-notes-docs-and-wikilink-markdown-editing.html https://blog.g9n.com/as-notes-vs-code-notes-docs-and-wikilink-markdown-editing.html Mon, 30 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT What is AS Notes? AS Notes brings markdown editing with [[wikilink]] for notes, documentation, blogs and wikis directly into VS Code and compatible editors (e.g. Antigravity, Cursor, Windsurf). With… https://blog.g9n.com/you-need-probabilistic-gates-for-deterministic-ai-agents.html https://blog.g9n.com/you-need-probabilistic-gates-for-deterministic-ai-agents.html Sun, 15 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT Referencing this MCP is Dead; Long Live MCP! (via Hacker News), I wanted to highlight what I think is the key principle behind this that will be true for the future of working with AI Agents: You… https://blog.g9n.com/fixing-agent-llm-context-decay-in-vs-code-with-git-worktrees.html https://blog.g9n.com/fixing-agent-llm-context-decay-in-vs-code-with-git-worktrees.html Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT The extension source is available on GitHub and the extension available on the VS Code Marketplace. Where We Left Off In a previous post, I introduced VS Code Agent Kanban. The key idea in this… https://blog.g9n.com/introducing-vs-code-agent-kanban-task-management-for-the-ai-assisted-developer.html https://blog.g9n.com/introducing-vs-code-agent-kanban-task-management-for-the-ai-assisted-developer.html Sun, 08 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT VS Code Agent Kanban is available on VS Code Marketplace | GitHub Note: VS Code Agent Kanban has had a major update since this post to add an optional Git worktree workflow (detailed here),… https://blog.g9n.com/vs-code-kingfisher-extension-colour-your-vs-code-windows-without-breaking-your-teams-settings.html https://blog.g9n.com/vs-code-kingfisher-extension-colour-your-vs-code-windows-without-breaking-your-teams-settings.html Sun, 08 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT Colour Your VS Code Windows Without Breaking Your Team's Settings VS Code Marketplace | GitHub Repository If you work across multiple projects simultaneously, you'll know it can get difficult… https://blog.g9n.com/debugging-a-sqlite-wasm-heap-fragmentation-bug-in-a-vs-code-extension.html https://blog.g9n.com/debugging-a-sqlite-wasm-heap-fragmentation-bug-in-a-vs-code-extension.html Thu, 05 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT While building AS Notes (A wikilink-based knowledge management VS Code extension - https://github.com/appsoftwareltd/as-notes) - I ran into a subtle and genuinely interesting bug involving… https://blog.g9n.com/an-effective-ai-agent-pattern-plan-tasks-implementation.html https://blog.g9n.com/an-effective-ai-agent-pattern-plan-tasks-implementation.html Tue, 03 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT For source files view the repository: https://github.com/gbro3n/agent-flow The agent-flow repository serves as a template for a flow I've recently been using for agent-assisted coding - with… https://blog.g9n.com/building-a-light-weight-personal-mcp-server-implementation.html https://blog.g9n.com/building-a-light-weight-personal-mcp-server-implementation.html Mon, 02 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT I'd been looking at MCP implementations for accessing my personal Google data in the various AI tools I've been using. Zapier have an MCP offering that leverages their existing tooling to make… https://blog.g9n.com/as-notes-turn-vs-code-into-your-personal-knowledge-management-system-pkms.html https://blog.g9n.com/as-notes-turn-vs-code-into-your-personal-knowledge-management-system-pkms.html Mon, 02 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT If you already live in VS Code, maybe you like managing your notes there too? AS Notes is a VS Code extension that brings the power of wikilink-based knowledge management - the kind you'd find in… https://blog.g9n.com/openclaw-running-a-secure-capable-lowcost-claw-hetzner-tailscale-discord-zapier-mcp.html https://blog.g9n.com/openclaw-running-a-secure-capable-lowcost-claw-hetzner-tailscale-discord-zapier-mcp.html Tue, 24 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT Update: I've since replaced Zapier with a private custom MCP server that handles the Google API integration. It was less convenient than Zapier, since I had to build it, but it gives me control over… https://blog.g9n.com/local-llm-setup-on-windows-with-ollama-and-lm-studio-lenovo-thinkpad-p1-gen-4-with-a-rtx-a3000.html https://blog.g9n.com/local-llm-setup-on-windows-with-ollama-and-lm-studio-lenovo-thinkpad-p1-gen-4-with-a-rtx-a3000.html Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT Introduction This is a walkthrough of my set up of local LLM capability on a Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 4 (with a RTX A3000 6GB VRAM) graphics card, using Ollamafor CLI and VS Code Copilot chat access,… https://blog.g9n.com/building-a-bad-local-ai-coding-agent-harness-from-scratch.html https://blog.g9n.com/building-a-bad-local-ai-coding-agent-harness-from-scratch.html Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT The original document for this post is available with full source code on GitHub This is a walk-through of how I built a terminal-based coding agent in ~400 lines of vanilla Node.js, running entirely… https://blog.g9n.com/a-timeline-of-interesting-takes-on-agentic-ai-capability-in-software-engineering.html https://blog.g9n.com/a-timeline-of-interesting-takes-on-agentic-ai-capability-in-software-engineering.html Wed, 28 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT I'm keeping this post up to date with interesting takes on AI use in a software engineering context, as I find them. Sentiment on the date that I started this post seems to be changing from generally… https://blog.g9n.com/a-centralised-approach-to-ai-llm-agent-instruction-using-git-submodules.html https://blog.g9n.com/a-centralised-approach-to-ai-llm-agent-instruction-using-git-submodules.html Wed, 21 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT A guide to organising and replicating instructions for AI / LLM coding assistants Introduction As AI coding assistants have become increasingly capable, I've developed a structured approach to… https://blog.g9n.com/net-10-and-nuget-audit-identifying-root-packages-for-vulnerable-transitive-dependencies.html https://blog.g9n.com/net-10-and-nuget-audit-identifying-root-packages-for-vulnerable-transitive-dependencies.html Thu, 27 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT As of .NET 10, defaults for NuGetAuditMode in NuGet Audit have changed, and this may mean additional warnings regarding NuGet package vulnerabilities (NU1901, NU1902, NU1903, NU1904, NU1905) in your… https://blog.g9n.com/setting-up-google-antigravity-coming-from-vscode.html https://blog.g9n.com/setting-up-google-antigravity-coming-from-vscode.html Wed, 19 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT This post covers setting up Google Antigravity, the new VS Code fork for agentic AI coding, when coming from VS Code. Primarily I am a .NET / web developer, so some of this post will focus on set up… https://blog.g9n.com/vscode-tasksjson-capturing-nuget-package-vulnerability-warnings.html https://blog.g9n.com/vscode-tasksjson-capturing-nuget-package-vulnerability-warnings.html Tue, 18 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT I ran into a problem today where I was seeing warnings regarding NuGet packages with reported vulnerabilities, but was not seeing the output under the 'Problems' tab in VSCode. In an effort to fully… https://blog.g9n.com/net-10-file-based-apps-demonstration-c-scripting.html https://blog.g9n.com/net-10-file-based-apps-demonstration-c-scripting.html Wed, 12 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT Sample Project (Github ): https://github.com/gbro3n/dotnet-10-file-based-apps-test This simple app demonstrates the new Microsoft .NET 10 File Based Apps capability. Now we can use C# where we might… https://blog.g9n.com/building-reusable-ui-components-with-svelte-5-custom-elements.html https://blog.g9n.com/building-reusable-ui-components-with-svelte-5-custom-elements.html Sat, 01 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT Modern web applications often face a common challenge: how do you add sophisticated, interactive components to server-rendered pages without rewriting your entire application as a single-page app… https://blog.g9n.com/new-free-favicon-icon-generator-available-on-appsoftwarecom.html https://blog.g9n.com/new-free-favicon-icon-generator-available-on-appsoftwarecom.html Sun, 26 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT Introducing Our Privacy-Focused Favicon Generator We've added a new tool to our suite of free web utilities: a favicon generator that processes everything in your browser. If you've ever needed to… https://blog.g9n.com/open-source-tools-and-web-utilities-from-app-software-ltd.html https://blog.g9n.com/open-source-tools-and-web-utilities-from-app-software-ltd.html Wed, 01 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT As developers, we often encounter repetitive tasks that can eat up valuable development time. App Software Ltd has released two powerful open-source .NET tools and three privacy-focused web-based… https://blog.g9n.com/hackers-painters-and-kanban-for-software-as-a-creative-process.html https://blog.g9n.com/hackers-painters-and-kanban-for-software-as-a-creative-process.html Mon, 18 Jul 2022 00:00:00 GMT In Paul Graham's book Hackers & Painters - Big Ideas From The Computer Age. A common theme that runs through the book is viewing software as a creative process, implied by the "Painters" in the book… https://blog.g9n.com/maintaining-a-blog-with-jekyll-github-pages-and-github-codespaces.html https://blog.g9n.com/maintaining-a-blog-with-jekyll-github-pages-and-github-codespaces.html Sat, 02 Jul 2022 00:00:00 GMT These are notes copied from the README.md of my public blog (the one you are reading now). Jekyll and GitHub pages have proven to a be a low friction workflow for curating and publishing posts.… https://blog.g9n.com/managing-code-snippets-using-logseq.html https://blog.g9n.com/managing-code-snippets-using-logseq.html Fri, 01 Jul 2022 00:00:00 GMT Loqseq is an excellent note taking application / outliner that facilitates low friction note taking without breaking flow while retaining control over data by using local storage. Having been wanting… https://blog.g9n.com/api-versioning-and-basic-ui-authentication-with-openapi-swagger-swashbuckle-in-net-core-6.html https://blog.g9n.com/api-versioning-and-basic-ui-authentication-with-openapi-swagger-swashbuckle-in-net-core-6.html Tue, 18 Jan 2022 00:00:00 GMT Introduction This post aims to detail how to implement an OpenAPI (Swagger) configuration in a .NET Core 6 web app that includes two API versioning strategy options (URL / HTTP header) along with… https://blog.g9n.com/a-rough-guide-to-building-a-retro-pie-bar-top-arcade-game-machine.html https://blog.g9n.com/a-rough-guide-to-building-a-retro-pie-bar-top-arcade-game-machine.html Sun, 09 Jan 2022 00:00:00 GMT Over the last few months, working towards an ominous (self-imposed) Christmas deadline, I've been working on building a Retro Pie Bar Top Arcade Game Machine. This is "for the kids", but pretty… https://blog.g9n.com/a-custom-workflow-to-publish-from-obsidian-to-blotim.html https://blog.g9n.com/a-custom-workflow-to-publish-from-obsidian-to-blotim.html Thu, 06 Jan 2022 00:00:00 GMT This is the first post to this blog using a custom workflow that uses: Obsidian for markdown file curation. A custom tag to identify files intended for publication. A Node.js script to copy files and… https://blog.g9n.com/using-github-to-host-images.html https://blog.g9n.com/using-github-to-host-images.html Thu, 06 Jan 2022 00:00:00 GMT For simple image hosting scenarios, you can host images directly out of a public GitHub respository by following these steps: Browse to image on github.com, e.g.… https://blog.g9n.com/uploading-directly-to-s3-from-client-using-pre-signed-urls-javascript-net.html https://blog.g9n.com/uploading-directly-to-s3-from-client-using-pre-signed-urls-javascript-net.html Thu, 06 Jan 2022 00:00:00 GMT Introduction The aim of this post is to demonstrate how you can upload files directly from a client (a web app in this example) to AWS S3. The advantage of doing this is that the file itself does… https://blog.g9n.com/converting-enum-types-by-value-in-c.html https://blog.g9n.com/converting-enum-types-by-value-in-c.html Thu, 01 Jul 2021 00:00:00 GMT If you find yourself having to convert between values in two identical Enums and there is no way that your code base allows you to reconcile those enums into the same type, or if you have enums with… https://blog.g9n.com/how-to-wrap-a-typescript-js-callback-with-async-await.html https://blog.g9n.com/how-to-wrap-a-typescript-js-callback-with-async-await.html Thu, 25 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT I find that at times the standard TypeScript/JavaScript callback pattern can make code hard to read and manage. To alleviate this problem, we can wrap callbacks with promises to synchronise the call.… https://blog.g9n.com/how-to-create-a-deep-copy-of-an-object-in-javascript-typescript.html https://blog.g9n.com/how-to-create-a-deep-copy-of-an-object-in-javascript-typescript.html Thu, 25 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT If you already know the difference between a deep and shallow copy of an object, then you don’t need to read the very good but quite long articles I got from my Google search on the most straight… https://blog.g9n.com/implementing-microsoftextensionsloggingilogger-with-nlog.html https://blog.g9n.com/implementing-microsoftextensionsloggingilogger-with-nlog.html Thu, 25 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT I’ve designed this ILoggerimplementation to solve an issue I encountered today where the code I was working was wasn’t logging errors when the error occurred in a background thread. It was failing… https://blog.g9n.com/sanitizing-html-in-net-core.html https://blog.g9n.com/sanitizing-html-in-net-core.html Thu, 25 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT Looking through options for sanitizing HTML, I found my way to the following library: https://github.com/mganss/HtmlSanitizer HtmlSantizer uses a whitelist approach to HTML sanitization. A whitelist… https://blog.g9n.com/a-utility-class-for-finding-database-deadlocks-in-net-applications.html https://blog.g9n.com/a-utility-class-for-finding-database-deadlocks-in-net-applications.html Tue, 23 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT Database deadlocks were suspected in a large .NET Core project with around 50 transaction blocks. To help pinpoint the source of the transaction as quickly as possible, I designed this set of utility… https://blog.g9n.com/robust-error-handling-in-aspnet-core.html https://blog.g9n.com/robust-error-handling-in-aspnet-core.html Thu, 23 Jul 2020 00:00:00 GMT Error handling in .NET Core is great, but there are some pitfalls if not properly set up that can result in unexpected behaviour. For example - HTTP status codes that appear incorrect, or some… https://blog.g9n.com/how-to-inject-google-adsense-in-article-script-into-your-html-aspnet-core-razor.html https://blog.g9n.com/how-to-inject-google-adsense-in-article-script-into-your-html-aspnet-core-razor.html Tue, 24 Dec 2019 00:00:00 GMT This is how I solved the problem of how to inject a Google Adsense In-Article script within the HTML content of blog articles on a site that I manage. I wanted the in article text to appear once,… https://blog.g9n.com/fail-early-fail-fast-and-why-you-should-throw-exceptions.html https://blog.g9n.com/fail-early-fail-fast-and-why-you-should-throw-exceptions.html Tue, 07 Aug 2018 00:00:00 GMT Debugging is a necessary part of software engineering. All software has bugs, and so debugging goes with the territory. Some are simple to fix. Some are only show up under certain (sometimes unusual)… https://blog.g9n.com/aspnet-file-uploader-with-signalr-progress-bar-and-extended-input-stream-processing.html https://blog.g9n.com/aspnet-file-uploader-with-signalr-progress-bar-and-extended-input-stream-processing.html Tue, 08 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT Note: This is a copy of an old and fairly popular blog post that I have had requests to reinstate the links and source code for. The .sln file has been updated for VS 2015. If you run into trouble…