Jason Haley

Ramblings from an Independent Consultant

Boston Code Camp 36 Sessions

Yesterday was Boston Code Camp 36 hard to believe it has been going on for 20+ years now. For me it is one of those regular events for the Boston tech community that is well worth spending a Saturday attending.

It was nice to see a lot of regular faces and meet some new people.

Talk: Getting Started with Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG)

RAG Slide 1

I was surprise the room was full, it was good to see so many developers, students and architects - mostly with .NET backgrounds looking to get started with RAG applications.

Posted by Jason on Sunday, March 24, 2024

Demo Review: Azure Vector Search AI Assistant

Demo Review: Azure Vector Search AI Assistant

This is the fourth C# demo in The RAG Demo Chronicles (Blog Series) and is the first demo so far that saves its history to a database.

This Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) demo is a little different than the last three because it primarily uses data from a database as the content to search instead of documents. It also uses Semantic Kernel more than other demos have, which is neat to see too.

Posted by Jason on Monday, February 26, 2024

Demo Review: Azure Search OpenAI Demo (Python)

Demo Review: Azure Search OpenAI Demo (Python)

This is the last in the family of Azure Search OpenAI demos that I’m covering (I’m not looking at the Java version). I reviewed the C# version and the Javascript/Typescript version earlier this month. Of the three I’m covering, this one seems to be the most active, popular and have the most documentation.

At the beginning of this month, the Hack Together: The AI Chat App Hack used this demo at the sample repository, marking it as a solid reference implementation for RAG.

Posted by Jason on Friday, February 23, 2024

Demo Review: Azure Search OpenAI Javascript/Typescript

Demo Review: Azure Search OpenAI Javascript/Typescript

This is the second in the family of Azure Search OpenAI demos that I’m reviewing. Last week I reviewed the C# version. As you’ll see below, the Javascript version is a bit different.

The user interface (UI) functionality is provided by a set of web components that you can add to about any web application (ie. React, Angular, Vue, etc.) - in fact the web application in the demo is written in React. Also the chat communication is written to match the HTTP protocol for AI chat app which means the frontend can communicate with any backend that matches that protocol.

Posted by Jason on Monday, February 19, 2024

Demo Review: Azure Search OpenAI Demo C#

Demo Review: Azure Search OpenAI Demo C#

If you are looking for Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) demos that utilize Azure Search and Azure OpenAI (along with several other supporting Azure services), then there is a set of related demos that do just that in GitHub.

This family of RAG demos consists of:

  1. azure-search-openai-demo-csharp - written in C#.
  2. azure-search-openai-demo - written in python.
  3. azure-search-openai-javascript - written in javascript/typescript.
  4. azure-search-openai-demo-java - written in java.

This post is about #1 above, I will cover #2 and #3 in later posts, but I will leave the Java version to someone else to review.

Posted by Jason on Wednesday, February 14, 2024

Demo Review: Simple RAG using SQL Server, OpenAI and Function Calling

Demo Review: Simple RAG using Blazor, SQL Server, Azure OpenAI and Function Calling

If you are like me, a full stack C# developer who is attempting to get up to speed on how GenAI technologies are going to show up in our business applictions - then after you get the first demo up and running, this demo (also by Michael Washington) is a great next step.

RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) applications typically have the following steps:

Posted by Jason on Sunday, February 11, 2024

Demo Review: Simple RAG using SQL Server and OpenAI

Demo Review: Simple RAG using Blazor, SQL Server and Azure OpenAI

Are you a full stack C# developer attempting to get up to speed on all this GenAI stuff? Are you typically a relational database developer (ie. SQL Server) wondering what all the hoopla is around vector databases and more importantly how all this stuff relates to some type of functionaly that you have a chance at really using in your day-to-day work? Oh and you probably have not had time to dig into this pattern named Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) due to being too busy implementing web application or service code.

Posted by Jason on Wednesday, February 7, 2024

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ABOUT ME
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Jason is an experienced developer and solutions architect focused on helping companies provide real business value with custom software development using the Microsoft stack of technologies. This includes C#, .NET, Azure and AI services. In 2024, Jason was awarded a Microsoft MVP in AI - highlighting his latest focus on AI and specifically Generative AI technologies in real world business applications. The prior seven years, he was a Microsoft Azure MVP.

Let's work together to find solutions that fit your needs. Reach out today to discuss how I can support your goals—I'm here to help!

Jason Haley MVP