Sarcasm-as-a-Service: Five Years Later

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 07:00:01 +0000

Rory Preddy, Author, Travelling

TLDR; Demo App https://aka.ms/ttsazure, Repo: https://github.com/roryp/ttsazure

I am 4 foot 1, and I have achondroplasia (dwarfism). Following spinal surgery, I was in a coma for three months and woke up unable to speak. I longed to tell my family that I loved them. That experience changed everything. A voice is not just sound; it is identity, emotion, and memory.

As a Developer Advocate at Microsoft, my role blends equal parts influencer and engineer, with a constant supply of questions from younger generations. When I first presented this talk in 2019, my career took off—audiences laughed at my demos, my jokes, and occasionally at me. Many assumed I was joking when I promised to revisit the project. Yet here I am, in a country where perpetual load shedding inspired this talk’s subtitle: “The power is out again. Fantastic.”

Tts on JAVAPRO International

Sarcasm-as-a-Service: Five Years Later