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18 Mar 2026

Building an NLWeb AI Chat on Azure Static Web Apps: Every Lesson Learned

I recently rebuilt my personal site from scratch — blog, podcast, knowledge graph, and an AI-powered chat feature using Microsoft's NLWeb protocol. From the first architectural decision to the moment it all worked, this is the full engineering story, including 13 hard-won lessons.

azure

azure-static-web-apps

azure-functions

13 Mar 2026

From Mainframes to Microchips, from LLM's to Local AI - The shrinking footprint of intelligence.

It is difficult not to miss the fact that a large portion of the current conversation around AI has been focused on the race to build/improve frontier models. That focus has started to shape the ph...

llm

generative-ai

26 Feb 2026

Dave's Notes - Microsoft AI Tour for Partners, London 2026

I spent the day at the Azure AI Tour in London. The day started with a somewhat tortuous queue(!) and once in, the realisation that finding/meeting folk will be a thing of chance rather than intent...

event-notes

microsoft-ai-tour

19 Aug 2025

A Week in Ibiza and What a Stack of Books Quietly Changed

A week away from the usual cadence of work, a stack of books, and an unexpected progression from structure, to perspective, to execution, to systems thinking.

reading

holiday

learning