Just Five Mins!

🧠 What RAG Actually Does RAG enhances LLMs by retrieving relevant external information (e.g. from documents or databases) at query time , then feeding that into the prompt. This allows the LLM to answer with up-to-date or domain-specific knowledge without retraining. 💸 Is RAG Expensive? Yes, it can be — especially if: * You repeatedly reprocess large documents for every query. * You use high tok...

Design for UI/UX is obviously an art form, but can AI do as good a job or better? or as the case may well be, using AI to help with the tedious stuff? UX Pilot Figma Hey, this is a free podcast. However, if you feel you want to support me then check out Patreon . I will have some more detailed deep dives for Patreon members as well as one-to-one sessions. Or just buy a unicorn a coffee here! Oh, a...

Okay, AI agent automation is everywhere and so are MCPs (Model Context Protocol) to allow you to connect to anything and everything via AI. However, this still needs some technical know-how, even in the low-code offerings. But what if you have a complete virtual AI employee? and better yet, where it can work with your existing applications seamlessly - even older ERP systems or applications that h...

So, a slightly boring episode but surprisingly useful, I think. Hey, this is a free podcast. However, if you feel you want to support me then check out Patreon . I will have some more detailed deep dives for Patreon members as well as one-to-one sessions. Or just buy a unicorn a coffee here! Oh, and yes, I have ended up on YouTube (doesn’t everyone eventually?): https://www.youtube.com/@justfiftee...

Oh dear, so many meme phrases! Hey, this is a free podcast however, if you feel you want to support me then check out Patreon . I will have some more detailed deep-dives for Patreon members as well as one-to-one sessions. Or just buy a unicorn a coffee here! Oh, and yes, I have ended up on YouTube (doesn’t everyone eventually?): https://www.youtube.com/@justfifteenmins but don’t worry, no ugly fac...

Using VS Code (free and open source) along with the AI Toolkit extension allows you to play with several different AI models as well as local models - all from one user interface. Yes, you can run AI models locally! (okay, not the larger online ones!) and certainly the SLM (small language models) models like PHI-4 from Microsoft. You can even get into building AI agents visually and generate actua...

What does all this mean? Microsoft AI Extensions: An abstract set of classes to enable a c# .Net developer to talk to different AI models/platforms instead of specific individual frameworks. Also allows you to create and interact with MCP (model context protocol). MCP: Model Context Protocol - soooo many resources out there now. I did an episode on MCP a few podcasts ago if you want to take a look...

How easy is it to create AI agents? without code (or at least minimal!)? Take a listen as we refresh our memories with n8n.io . Build automation workflows but specifically AI agent-based ones! all this locally or on your infrastructure too! Hey, this is a free podcast. However, if you feel you want to support me then check out Patreon . I will have some more detailed deep dives for Patreon members...

Well, I have been trying to settle on some day-to-day tools i.e. OneNote for my note taking (don’t shoot me!) and I did have Todoist for tracking my endless lists of things to either “really do” or attempt to capture for later (yeah right!). Although there are lots of choice, and that is a good thing, I thought with Todoist I had found the perfect “ToDo” app (or just a large bucket of broken dream...

So, are you “vibe coding”? or just asking AI to help with some code? Have you come across custom instructions for VS Code ? Windsurf and Cursor AI etc. all of their options too. Provide a preset app requirements and/or product requirements document (PRD) and you can make building apps with AI a bit more predictable and follow your guidelines about the tech stack you want to use, testing approach e...

Well, just a ramble as advertised! Some links mentioned in the show: Microsoft Build 2025 Google IO Anthropic Google Stich Hey, this is a free podcast. However, if you feel you want to support me then check out Patreon . I will have some more detailed deep dives for Patreon members as well as one-to-one sessions. Or just buy a unicorn a coffee here! Oh, and yes, I have ended up on YouTube (doesn’t...

Firstly, I am not sure what AI did to generate that title image! As mentioned in the shameless plug, I will be starting to do some further deep dives/one-to-one things soon via Patreon… if you are interested of course! (see links below). Anyway, plugging aside, I did a video a few months ago about Cursor AI (a VS Code based AI editor) and using local LLMs. Although you can use local LLMs (via Olla...

So, if you code (including “Vibe Coding” if you must!) or are just a “fiddler” (like myself!) then you have no doubt used some sort of code editor. Because I mostly live in a Microsoft world, Visual Studio (as of this recording, v 2022) has been my mainstay. But what about cross platform editors (and indeed IDEs - Integrated Development Environments)? and, given all of the choices around us, what...

Oh yes, jumping on the band wagon again! Open AI released a whole lot of updated models and so on last week . But one tool (in preview) jumped out. Open AI Codex CLI. Now, from first impressions, this looks and feels a lot like Anthropic Claude Code that I looked at a few weeks back. But hey, everyone copies everyone right? Anyway, it is more of a “technical” thing to use but you really don’t have...

I have already burdened you with an episode about MCP. Now, I am digging into some actual code examples in dotnet (maybe I will try other languages later). What the heck is an MCP host? MCP client? MCP server? Well, take a listen to find out more! A few links mentioned in this episode: Microsoft partners with Anthropic to create MCP SDK GitHub Repo of the MCP SDK and examples Hey, subscription to...

Indeed! Azure Functions has been around for some time. Like AWS Lambda, it allows you to create the smallest piece of functionality for whatever code you need to build i.e. an API, a timer-based execution function and so on. Although you can build an extensive system with Azure functions, you can quickly become embroiled in some spaghetti code and communication between functions (similar to micros...

Well, love it or hate it, consumer-based AI app building is here. I haven’t had chance to try Loveable as yet, but for today, we have Replit. Replit is a new kind of online app building environments that you can use in your browser (or even from a mobile phone) without having to download any editor/development environment. Replit also takes the app building further by hosting your app and even all...

Who would have thought? Tron Unicorns! oh yes! The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard designed to connect AI models with external tools, data sources, and services. Think of it as a "USB-C for AI applications"—a universal interface that simplifies how AI systems interact with various resources. MCP enables seamless integration, making it easier to build workflows and enhance AI capab...

What to say? Well, thanks to Tim Abell for all of the JFM suggestions - I will get to them I am promise! You can also take a listen to software should be free (and actually, part of this ramble is about just how much free resources there is!). Hey, subscription to this podcast is FREE if you want to subscribe! I hadn’t realised before it forced you to pay ;) Of course, if you wish to or must pay,...

I hadn’t realised “ Play misty for me ” was a crazy phycological thriller (apparently, the first film Clint Eastwood directed). But I just remembered the song actually! Anyway, similar to Ollama , LM Studio , Msty looks like a very easy option to run LLMs locally (as well as accessing larger models up in the cloud like Open AI etc.). Hey, subscription to this podcast is FREE if you want to subscri...

Well, another day another AI tool - for coding anyway. I had a go at building a cross-platform mobile app using GitHub Copilot. It did eventually build something I wanted and better still, using best practices. But it did take some patience! I have the fortunate (or unfortunate) position to not know when to give up ;) So, also tried Claude Code . Bit more of a developer tool being a command line t...

Well, do you want your own private VPN? Network all of your devices (including mobile!) together? oh, and yes for FREE? Tailscale is definitely worth a look - take a listen to learn more! FREE! Yes, indeedy for personal use . Hey, subscription to this podcast is FREE if you want to subscribe! Of course, if you wish to or must pay, then please feel free with a paid subscription or via Patreon Or ju...

JSON is all around us. How do you make sense of all of that JSON data? JSONata A suggestion from a good friend of mine Tim Abell - he also has a fab podcast from properly in the dev trenches! I’m just waiting until Tim just takes the next leap and becomes a symbol ;) Hey, subscription to this podcast is FREE if you want to subscribe! I hadn’t realised before it forced you to pay ;) Of course, if y...

Well now, the explosion of vector databases is overwhelming (yes, not just “whelming”). I have been playing around with PostgreSQL pg-vector but if you use Microsoft SQL for your main day-to-day stuff, then vector support is coming! It is in preview for Azure SQL databases as well as SQL 2025 (preview). Okay, if you are not sure what a vector even is (in AI terms) then: In artificial intelligence...

Well, why would you use Docker when Podman is free/open source? It is a good question! Hey, subscription to this podcast is FREE if you want to subscribe! I hadn’t realised before it forced you to pay ;) Of course, if you wish to or must pay, then please feel free with a paid subscription or via Patreon Or just buy a unicorn a coffee here! Oh, and yes, I have ended up on YouTube (doesn’t everyone...