DEV Community: Stacy Cashmore

Bed Day. Again.

Stacy Cashmore — Mon, 02 Jun 2025 14:47:05 +0000

Today is not the day I was hoping it was going to be.

With my chronic illnesses I don't have many hours a day to get stuff done, and so try to make the most of the time my body gives me.

I had plans today! (Sounds sinister, I like it!)

Unfortunately, those plans are on hold, causing an amount of stress because some of them are quite urgent.

You see, this weekend I did the irresponsible thing of walking to a book shop, and eating an ice cream. Not in the book shop, that would have been irresponsible, but on the way home.

I thought that as I had cancelled other things for that day, and rested the day before, that I would be OK. Ish.

Maybe I'd feel a little lousy the day after. Nope, I was bed ridden.

This morning I thought I had improved! I had a dentist appointment and woke up late (bank holiday so all the alarms were turned off).

That jolt of adrenaline gave me a false sense of health. Whilst the dentist appointment went well, once I got home it hit me hard, and I am yet in bed as I type this.

Why am I sharing this? I don't want "get well soon" comments, more than that, as someone with a chronic illness, I won't get well soon. And I know other chronic illness sufferers who find those words upsetting as I do.

No, I'm sharing this because there are millions of people around the world in the same boat as me, and it's something that is generally not thought about enough.

"I feel you, we all get tired" isn't the comfort people think it is. It minimizes the extreme pain and fatigue that I deal with daily, let alone on days like this.

I hope that tomorrow the flare up will have died down and I can spend 5 hours doing the things that I need to do. But I don't know, I never know.

I'm sharing so that hopefully others can see this and realize that they need to look after themselves. Or see a family member, friend, or colleague struggling and have better appreciation for what they are going through.

Chronic illness is somewhat of a silent destructive force for those who deal with it. Mostly silently, and very misunderstood by the world at large.

Look after yourself people.

Back in the Classroom

Stacy Cashmore — Mon, 03 Mar 2025 18:17:36 +0000

50+ pairs of eyes stared back at me.

No slides (they weren’t ready yet), so no safety net - just me standing in front of a room full of students.

Unlike a conference crowd who actively picks your talk (and so I assume actually wants to be there), these students didn't have a choice about spending their morning listening to me talk about testing.

So, it was even more important to make it worth their time.

This wasn't my first time at De Haagse Hogeschool. For the past few years, I've been fortunate to be part of Delta-N's program, sharing real-world experience with the next generation of developers.

Usually, I talk about pair programming - sharing with students how working together makes them stronger developers is always a highlight of my year.

But this year was different. I wanted something new, and as I was writing a talk about it, I wanted to challenge these students to think differently about testing.

Not just about Test-Driven Development, (or as most people know and do it: "writing tests when you don't know what code you want to write"), but about:

What happens before we write that first test.
Getting out of our developer bubble and talking to actual users.
Getting into the conversation with testers and business stakeholders earlier, when your insights can really make a difference.

I don't know how many I reached, but I saw enough thoughtful eyes, nodding heads, and quizzical looks as they thought it through for themselves to make it all worth it!

Software development is about much more than just implementing code; moving into that space where you can think about the problems that you are solving is a whole lot more fun.

I don't want to make this post too long, so over the next few weeks, I'll be diving deeper into the key ideas from this lecture:

Getting into the flow earlier
Making sure that you understand the why of what we are doing
How to avoid that "How can I write tests when I haven't written any code?"
How to make sure that those tests you write don't come back to bite you in the future!

Stay tuned - this is a wonderful rabbit hole to jump down!

Just what is courage?

Stacy Cashmore — Thu, 24 Oct 2024 13:13:05 +0000

"Wow! They are afraid of nothing! They are so brave!" We often hear these words when we see someone doing something that we would never dare to do. But what is courage? Is it the absence of fear? Is it the ability to face danger without feeling fear? Is it the ability to act in the face of fear?

First off... Lack of fear is not courage. Sometimes that can be foolish, and occasionally we can really regret our decisions. Sometimes instantly. Sometimes later. But that isn't really courage. Courage is the ability to face danger, fear, or change without being overcome by it.

This morning I got my hair styled. I generally get it cut into a bob, and dye it quite deep burgundy. When backlit it looks like it's on fire! I love it. When making the decision to do both of those 8 years ago it was terrifying. And took me years to build the courage for. After all, if it looked awful I was stuck with it until it grew out!

That was 8 years ago. I've had enough compliments to know that it was the right choice. But I've also got a little bored with it. What was scary and new, is now old hat. Now, I've been thinking that I needed a change for a while, but was certain that nothing else would suit me. I wanted an undercut, more red and maybe even something asymmetrical. But who was I to think that I could rock an awesome style like that?!

Going redder was not too much of a problem - I was scared of the damage to my hair, but not the look. The rest... Nope. I was too scared. This morning though I decided to start with the undercut. I can always grow it out if I don't like it. And I can always go asymmetrical later. But I can't do either if I don't start. That was my courage. I was scared, but I did it anyway.

And then, whilst the stylist was washing the dye out I decided "In for a penny, in for a pound!" "What do you think to also making asymmetrical?". She was all for it (I don't know if a customer saying do something OTT on the fly is a hairdresser's dream or nightmare).

The clippers came out, she started shaving the side of my head. It was terrifying! However, I liked it do much that when she asked if it was enough or did I want more off I said "More!".

Here's the end result!

But... This post isn't for me to show off my new haircut, well not just for that...

No, I wanted to write this because it impacts our daily life in more ways than just our style.

I stayed in my previous job for 14 years because I was terrified to look for something else. Now, before my ex-colleagues take offense, I loved working there (that was part of the fear!), but I missed chances to grow both professionally and personally. When I did change in 2020 I learnt so much about myself, and took on so much more!

The same with public speaking. I always looked up to speakers as these rare, special people. They were awesome, and I was not worthy to be in that company. Then a chance conversation at Techorama in 2018 led me to speak at Swetugg in 2019. I was smitten! I first got onto the stage when I was 42. How many years did I waste by not doing it earlier?

Oh, and speakers not these special people. They are people full stop. Some with more experience, some with more confidence. But they are just people. As are you. Well most... Some still make me star struck when I get to meet them 😅

In doing both of these things I have experienced so much, and gained so many new friends. Learning this late in life isn't the best, maybe. And I'm still too scared for some things that I should just be doing. But I'm getting there. And I'm loving the journey.

So, what are you scared of? What are you missing out on because you are scared? Learn that new tool/language/framework. Go for that dream job! Do that thing that you would love to, but are too afraid to do. You never know, you might just love it!

Unleashing My Passion for Azure Static Web Apps! 🚀

Stacy Cashmore — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 13:08:31 +0000

Hey all!

I'm sure that anyone who has seen me talk in the last few years knows that there is on Azure resource that I love talking up: Azure Static Web Apps. I've loved this technology since its early preview days.

No longer needing to deploy several resources just to get a simple app deployed to the web, now you get static content for your SPA (Single Page Application) seamlessly paired with the magic of Azure Functions for the API.

It's like peanut butter and jelly, Batman and Robin, or—dare I say it—like code and caffeine. Azure Static Web Apps made it all possible. No more wrestling with complex setups; just pure developer joy. 🤓

Fast-forward to today and Azure Static Web Apps has evolved, matured, and become the reliable companion we all need. From the simple HTML apps, to full on eventing systems. Static Web Apps have your back 😌

The Spooky Surprise: Our Online Conference! 🎃

Hold onto your keyboards, because this Halloween — October 31st, 2024 — we're throwing a virtual bash! 🎊👻 An online conference dedicated solely to Azure Static Web Apps. Come join us in the chat ask questions, give us your insights, and have fun. And guess what? I won't be flying solo—I've got the incredible Jessica Engstrom organising and hosting with me. 🙌

What's on the Menu?

Our lineup? Oh, it's juicy! We've rounded up some awesome speakers from the community.

Getting Started: New to Azure Static Web Apps? We've got you covered. From code creation to deployment, consider this your crash course.
Deeper Dives: Ready to dive deeper? We'll explore advanced configuration, getting the most out of the CLI, and adding a data driven API using Data API Builder.
Real-World Magic: Lastly, we know that theory is all good (and needed) but what abou case studies? We have 2 talks to end the day solving real world problems using this fantastic technology.

Join the Party!

Curious? Eager? Slightly intrigued? Head over to our conference site (link below) for all the deets. And hey, don't forget to bookmark it! 📅

Azure Static Web Apps Conference Site

The Jitters

Now, here's the anxiety: This is my first time as a conference organizer. Yep, I'm feeling a mix of excitement, nerves, and a dash of imposter syndrome. But hey, it's a live online conference. What can go wrong? So wish me luck — I'll need it! 😅

Keyboards for the win

Stacy Cashmore — Fri, 12 Jul 2024 11:46:54 +0000

YouTube. It's a great way to waste a lot of time. Especially when ill and you can't do anything else.

I've watched loads of car, ASMR cleaning, tech and purely random content over the last 18 months. Recently I've watched a huge amount of 3D Printing content (because of my new toy - I want to learn how to use it right).

And... Keyboards. I'm a geek, unashamedly, and watching people build and mod keyboards is awesome! The difference that you can make to a keyboard just by a few simple things is amazing.

I did want to treat myself to a new keyboard - I've had my current Skarkoon Purewriter RGB for about 6 years now. Whilst it is great to usee, it can be a little finiky, and, well, I just wanted to try something different.

But... My budget is being spent elsewhere at the moment, trying to get a NAS big enough to store our movie collection, so that we can watch them without having to sort through the discs... Ho-hum choices have to be made. Luxury problems, I know.

Instead I started thinking about other options. What changes can I make to my current keyboard to make it better. There are lots of limitations:

It is low profile, so there are limited choices in hardware, and I wasn't sure if I could even change my switches
Sharkoon use Kailh switches which mean my choice of keycaps is limited
I have no money to spend so I have to start off with things around the house before I move onto actually byuing anything

Oh, and my brain means that I don't plan these things. I had the idea at 11am and by lunch they keyboard was in bits - so no pictures I'm afraid (it really should have been a video! I can always take it apart again, let me know if it would be fun to watch).

Dismantling was easier than I expected. I removed all the keykaps (after taking a picture so that I could put them back in the right place) and undid some screws. The top plate then just lifted off and I could see what what inside.

However, this is where the problems started. The switches are soldered, so I couldn't do anything with them. They also seem to be soldered from the other side of the top panel - so I can't even take out the PCB... Hmm...

And lastly, the stabalisers look nothing like I have seen on any keyboard channel - so I assume that they are not interchangable with other sets. My options are looking more and more limited.

Literally the only thing that I could so was add sound deadening material to the base and see if I could change the clacky sounds to more of a thonk.

So I thought about what I could fill it with. I had some sticky door edge draft excluder (rubber foam stuff - technical term) left from some DIY... That covered about half the bottom of the case.

Put it back together and OMG! The difference was night and day. All of a sudden all of the hollow clackyness had gone and some satisfying thonking (more technical terms) had replaced it. All whilst still keeping the clickyness of the clicky switches that I love! But it wasn't perfect. In the spaces wehere I has no rubber foam you could hear the difference in the sound of they keys. So I had another look and... Bubble wrap was all I could find - from some printer parts that were delivered.

So I cut that into rectangles to put into the rest of the keyboard base and BOOM! the rest of it sounded pretty similar. At some point I will get some more draft exluder and stream replacing the bubble wrap - but for now... I'm over the moon with the difference in sound!

Oh, I also took the time to clean the keys with alcohol. Wow, 10 years of grime! Considering that they didn't look dirty, they were actually pretty gross judging by the cotton buds at the end 🫣

For now I'm done with this keyboard. The only other thing I can think of is adding some Modge Podge/PVA glue to the keycaps to make them more solid. But that is for another time.

I do think that I am going to revisit the custom keyboard idea later in the year to see what options there are to really make a personal keyboard! There are some beautiful options out there!

If you want to look at how you can improve your keyboard then here are some awesome channels that I can recomend following:

https://www.youtube.com/c/HipyoTech
https://www.youtube.com/@SwitchandClickOfficial
https://www.youtube.com/@Keybored

Getting there. Ish...

Stacy Cashmore — Tue, 09 Jul 2024 08:39:36 +0000

Since February 2022 I have been on sick leave due to Long Covid, POTS, and Chronic Fatigue. Last week I had an assessment from the government because I have been on sick leave for so long. I have no idea what the result is; I'll find out in time I guess.

It's hard to think that it's been 16 months since I was first ill, and mind blowing that I'm still only working 4 to 5 hours a day.

When I was first ill, I was so tired that I basically just collapsed on the sofa or bed, and did nothing. I didn't even have the energy to get bored at the nothing I could do. Netflix and YouTube were hit hard, but nothing really went in.

The specialist clinic that is treating me in Amsterdam tries new treatments every 6 weeks. After 3 weeks we have a chat about progress, and at the 6 week mark decide whether to continue or not before trying something else.

First they tried to get my POTS under control. So this time last year I was starting to get bored again. But still didn't have the energy, or brain capacity, to do much.

So... I thought a good option would be to work through the book I wrote back in 2022. Seeing as I wrote it, I must be able to do it. At least that was my thought process...

How wrong I was. The brain fog was so thick that I couldn't understand anything (judging from the 4 and 5 star reviews, I'm assuming this is a me now problem, and not a me then problem 😅🫣).

Without a doubt that was the lowest time of the illness. The way that I saw it was:

If I could not even understand my own book then what chance did I have at continuing with my career?

I love technology, and software development! And it's not just a career; it's been a hobby since I was in single digits! At that time I wondered if I'd ever work again.

But since autumn last year I have been slowly getting back into it. I've given some talks, streamed some coding, and other IT stuff. And, whilst it's only 4 to 5 hours a day, I am working now and starting to feel a little useful again.

It's not easy, and sometimes my brain fog means that things that should take an hour or 2 can take me a day or more. But other days I can get more done than I hoped. Ups and downs.

And that book... I can work through it again, I use it for reference for other things that I do now (the best reason to write a book!).

I even reviewed Jimmy Engström's book for him! Both a learning opportunity, and a chance to stretch my brain a little.

I also got some great news about my book. I've gotten the green light for a second edition!

I'm taking my time - it's going to be for .NET 9, so not before the end of the year. I'm updating what is there, looking at where I think I can improve my explanations, and adding some new chapters!

Data API
Making GitHub Workflows for infra as code, building, and deploying the code
Adding a chapter on custom auth using Auth0

I have a long way to go, but it feels awesome to be back!

AI - Do it for the user

Stacy Cashmore — Fri, 26 Apr 2024 07:34:11 +0000

My First Experiences with Computers

Before we can start with the main thread of this post I need to take you back to the early 90s. I was a teenager, and had no access to learning materials for software development. Or a home computer for that matter...

But I did have one awesome teacher who went out of his way to help me with my interest in programming, he stayed late after school and gave me private lessons on his own time. And I was so proud of the things that I made computers do.

However, making computers do fun things didn't quite grab me in the way that I would have hoped. Sure, it was fun - but I wasn't solving anything. So it was all a bit... Superficial.

My First Time Making an Impact

Fast forward a couple of years and I was in 6th form taking an IT class and working on my final project. This is really where I got hooked! Whilst a lot of people picked really cool projects (their development skills were amazing, and the end result looked 🤩), I went to a local bakery where I worked at the weekends and asked if they had a project that I could work on.

In my head I had this amazing stock control system that would count when things were used, tell them when they needed to order new things, and, you know, just be amazing. They shot this idea down pretty quickly. It just wasnt something that they needed. Not only would it be hideously complex, they were so well oiled in their processes that they didn't need it.

What they did need was a way of knowing where their stock was... Stock takes took days to complete because they had to find each item in the stores. Could I write a stock location system instead, and print off a list in order of location that they could use to to manage the stock checks?

Not as "wow", but yes, absolutely. I made an application in turbo Pascal, installed it on their computers (via 3.5" disks 😅) and they tried it out. Their 3 day stock take was reduced to 3 hours. Result!

This is when I became hooked on software development! I could see the value in what I was doing, and I was solving a real problem. I was making a difference. And it's something that I keep to this day.

Making Sure That I Am Doing The Right Thing

So... This is a cute story and all, but what's the point? And what does it have to do with AI?

Well... When I say I keep my mind on how my code will affect a user, I mean it. It causes friction because in my mind my code is not for the people paying me. It's for the users, or even the customers of the people paying me. I will not write code that I think will make an end users life, or that of their customers or society in general worse. As software developers we have a responsibility to make sure that what we are doing is for the greater good. I have had, er, "discussions" with managers and colleagues over the years because of this.

OK, maybe not the best choice of words 🤣, but you get the idea, right?

The AI Hype Train

Now we come to today. Since the rise of ChapGTP, and others, a couple of years ago the amount of AI projects out there has skyrocketed. And I don't think it's for the, er, greater good. I think it's for the greater profit at the expense of the people. And I think that's a problem.

I'm not saying that AI is bad, or that it should be stopped. I'm saying that we need to make sure that it's used for the right reasons. We need to make sure that it's used to make the world a better place, not just to make a few people richer.

Discussions centered around "stop thinking of yourself as a user, think of the money we could save the business" are just not the thing that I want to be involved in. I want to make something that does what my first application did. Take a problem, figure out how to solve it, and then make it happen. Not that saving the business is a bad thing, but it shouldn't be at the cost of making peoples lives worse.

Using AI For Good

So how do I think we should do this? Well... First, I think that we should stop probably trying to shoehorn AI into solutions, and we should definitely stop with the "AI because we need AI" projects.

We should be looking at the problems that we have, and then figure out how AI can help us solve them. We should be looking at the people that we are trying to help, and then figure out how AI can make their lives better.

And doing this we should also be focusing in how we use the AI tools that we have available. The example I always use is Copilot. I've been using it for a while, and I find it a great help in my job and my hobbies.

But it does not write my code for me. It answers some questions I have about my code, especially when I am learning a new framework. It can help translate code from one language/framework to another -I am currently working on changing a Cypress E2E test project to Playwright.NET and it has saved me a ton of work, but even then it does not write my code for me, it generates code and I use what looks good after changing it to make sure that it fits what I want.

I used ChatGPT to help me build a stand for my cordless vacuum cleaner (out of site, out of mind, so having it hanging in my living room means I use it more often). I knew what I wanted and use it to figure out if my idea was going to work, and how I big parts of it needed to be so that it balanced. Awesome!

This is how we should be using AI in our projects. Not because AI is cool, or how much it can save a company at the expense of it's users, but because it can help us solve problems and make the world a better place.

Cover Photo by Clark Tibbs on Unsplash

Guest Lecture for Delta-N at Haagse Hogeschool in Den Haag

Stacy Cashmore — Mon, 11 Mar 2024 15:35:55 +0000

One of the things that I love about being in the developer comminity is that I get the chance to (hopefully) get people excited about software development.

Whenever I take to the stage to talk about my favorite technologies, or ways of working, my whole goal is to try and show what is possible and hopefully inspire someone to give it a try.

When a friend from DeltaN asked me if I would be interested to give a guest lecture at their DevOps course at the Haagse Hoogschool I jumped at the chance!

Back in December 2024 I was invited to give a lecture for the second time - talking about pair programming:

How it can go wrong
Ways to make it go right
Some of the benefits that you get it right

It's a subject close to my heart, after seeing work really well, and also seeing it kind of not 😅 And whilst I know that there are some opposing views on this, I have found that when you can make it work, you can really make the team better than the sum of their indivudual skills.

Getting the chance to share my learnings and experience with students, whilst they were still learing, was a huge honour - I'm so happy that I got the chance to do it!

Even if speaking to a group of about 50 students is so much more nervewracking than speaking to a 1000 people at a developer conference 😅

As well as being invited to give the lecture, I was also invited to see the students final presentations for the course. Split into groups and coming up with an idea for a new web application, work on the design, build and deploy it.

Seeing the ideas that the students came up with was an eye opener. All of them were about, in some way, making the world a better place. Either through services to pepole to allow them to communicate better or ways to reduce our impact on the plannet. I loved the sense of civic responsibility in all of the ideas.

Looking at the quaity of the presentations I was overawed at the presentation skills of the teams, and the solutions that they came up with. Kudos to everyone! Far better than I remember either giving when I was a student, or seeing from others.

And then just to make the day perfect, when I was leaving to go home I ran into one of the teams in the car park and had a great conversation about the work they had done.

It's a long time since I was one of those students, but being involved again was such a refreshing experience!

Back to streaming! Stream 2024-03-06

Stacy Cashmore — Wed, 06 Mar 2024 14:26:13 +0000

After a long time away I finally managed to make it back to streaming today. It felt... Great. But also exhausting!

Which meant that it was also very short, and I saw that what I thought of as OK planning, really wasn't - lesson learned for next time!

Recap

Here is a recap of what I did today!

Where have I been the last 12 months

The last time I streamed was in NDC London with Amy Kapernick. That was more than 12 months ago!

Unfortunately, it was just after that that my long-covid totally grounded me. No work, streaming, coding for pleasure, or talks for most of the year.

I'm slowly adjusting to the new normal. I have some good days and some bad. I am slowly getting back into the community, from speaking at meetups, conferences, and MCing.

And starting the stream again today, even though it is not a "good" day, felt great and seemed a good next step!

Plans for the coming months

Over the coming months, I am planning on a stream every 2 weeks. Hopefully, that won't be too extreme for my health, but will be frequent enough that I can achieve things that I want to. Fingers crossed...

I have a number of projects that I am going to be working on live on stream:

Rebuilding the .NET SDK for my domain provider that I started before I was ill
making a package to make simple SVG graphs - something that I need for work, and want to remake the first graph I ever coded back in 2000!
Showing what can be done with Azure Static Web Apps - not only to help me write the 2nd edition of my book but also to look at the more advanced features!
Building a reference app of some kind using lots of different Azure resources, and asking for help from my friends in the community to help with things that I'm not an expert in

Awful code

Finally, I opened a project that I hadn't touched since I became ill. The current implementation for accessing the API of my domain provider.

It was so old that my new machine couldn't even build it - I didn't install .NET 7 on my new machine.

I wanted to do this as much as a warning to others as anything else. That application was built as temp code. Something that I could use for my Static Web Apps in the Enterprise talk whilst I finished it off.

There is no such thing as temp code. Once you are using it, it becomes production code. Seeing as I have a version that does work for my talk I am considering killing the current code and starting again from scratch - build it properly, and when it gets to parity with what I use in my talk, I'll replace the code there with this one.

At least I could use the stream time to update all the NuGet packages and get it running on .NET 8.0 😅

That's all I had for this stream - actually, I was about asleep by the time I finished - so see you in 2 weeks to actually start to do real coding!

Contact Information in a post-Twitter World Using Azure Static Web Apps

Stacy Cashmore — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 10:25:19 +0000

I need a new contact slide for my presentations. This is because the demise of Twitter has hit me in multiple ways...

It was a place where I met a lot of my online friends, where I talked tech with people, and (because I did my very best not to get onto the wrong side of it) it was a nice place to spend time.

But it was also my primary contact point for the development community. I had open DMs (which was not always great), and had some great conversations there with people who I met at conferences or who saw my content.

These days, I no longer feel that (your mileage may vary, but I no longer like it) and so I spend way less time there.

In fact, the only time I spend there is checking messages. And even then not very often. I need to find new ways of being contacted.

Online I have 3 places where I am present. BlueSky, LinkedIn and Mastodon

The first 2 are the ones where I think that I am best contactable, so those are going to replace Twitter on my slides, along with a link to my personal site

BlueSky is easy as my handle is literally my domain, but LinkedIn is a pain. The URL is long and because of the way LinkedIn search (doesn't) work, you can't rely on the profile name to find it.

So I decided maybe a better way of getting there would be to redirect from my site, and because it's hosted on an Azure Static Web App it's also really easy to do!

Route Management

Azure Static Web Apps have a staticwebapp.config.json file that allows developers to control their app from code. This is used for, among other things:

Authentication/authorization
Navigation fallbacks
Setting the runtime for the Azure Function API
Routing/HTTP Response code overrides

It's this last one that we are going to use today!

By adding the section of code below into my staticwebapp.config.json file I could tell the static web app that when someone tries to load stacy-clouds.net/linkedin it should redirect to my LinkedIn profile

{
    ...
      "routes":[
    {
      "route": "/linkedin",
      "redirect": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/stacycash",
      "statusCode": 301
    }
  ],
  ...
}

With the route property we tell the Static Web App what URL to overwrite, with redirect we say where it should go, and finally, with statusCode we tell the browser that is a permanent redirect.

There is also an option to redirect if you need to move resources within your own site. Don't mix them up or this won't work 😅

A quick redeploy and I have a very simple link that I can put on my slides and people will always get to my profile 😊

If you want to learn about the other options, check out the documentation here

Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio 2 - First Impressions

Stacy Cashmore — Wed, 25 Oct 2023 13:00:00 +0000

Full Disclosure: Microsoft sent me the review unit for me to use. I am not being paid for the review, and opinions here are not influenced by Microsoft

I was lucky enough a week or so ago to have the use of a Surface Laptop Studio 2 (say that 10 times quickly!) for 24 hours. It was a great experience, and actually I wanted to try it a little longer. So... Microsoft kindly sent me a review unit to use for a couple of weeks.

This is my "I've had the machine about 24 hours" review - when I send it back I'll write up my long term thoughts.

Until it goes back... This is my daily driver - I'm not going to be using the XPS 15 at all if I can help it.

TL;DR;

A great small(ish) machine, clear, bright screen, performance to spare (so far), and it doesn't burn my legs when I use the laptop on my lap. Roll on the coming weeks!

Packaging

I love the box that it was delivered in. From what I can see almost everything in there is cardboard or paper. This is something that I'm used to with Apple (my iPhone and MacBook Pro were 100% paper and cardboard), whereas the other devices that I have had in recent years are "mainly" paper with some plastic trays. (Looking at you Dell - there is no need to use a plastic tray in the otherwise great XPS box).

The only plastic that I did see was the cable tidy for the power cord. I'm going to be honest, whilst it's a small slither of plastic in the grand total of things, it's also not needed - Apple uses paper for this, and it works fine. As I say, the amount is minuscule, but hopefully, in the future, even this can be removed.

The packaging for the Slim Pen 2 and Arc Mouse that came with it was 100% paper/cardboard. Awesome!

That use of cardboard hasn't affected the support for the machines though. It was still securely held in place and seems to be well-supported in the box.

Chassis

Once we have the laptop of out the box, what does it look like? Well... Whilst I never used a Surface Laptop Studio (first gen), from the pictures that I have seen, it looks very similar.

The keyboard deck sticks over the base of the laptop on all sides. This is distinctive, I like it, but of course, it's entirely subjective.

Vents are not underneath the laptop, meaning that you can actually use it on your lap (all my machines with vents underneath don't really work well when you block half the vents with your thighs). More about that later.

The screen is about double the width of other laptops I have. There is a sheet of metal, and then a screen underneath. This is needed for the trick folding needed for the conversion from a laptop, to "tent", to a tablet. The screen is also a little smaller than the sheet behind the lid giving a very small lip running around the edge - again, I think it looks quite neat, but this is a totally subjective thing.

Keyboard/Trackpad

When we open that screen we see the keyboard and trackpad. The keys are grey and contrast with the chassis whilst having a definite design aesthetic that looks very high quality.

But, whilst looking awesome is important for a machine in this price bracket, how it works is far more important! This is a workhorse of a machine, and so we need to be able to use it without a problem.

And I'm happy to say my initial impression is great. The design and manufacture of the chassis means that there is zero flex in the keyboard - well none that I could see pushing on!

The keyboard backlight is great too. When I saw the color of the keys my mind went to my HP Spectre x360 (or the Dell XPS 13 Plus in white). That is the keys are light, causing the backlight to get lost in all but totally dark settings making the keys harder to read in most settings.

Thankfully the grey of the keys is just dark enough that they both look smart and the backlight works exactly as you need it.

I'm no expert in key rollover tests, but I managed a maximum of 7 keys recognized at the same time in online tests. 3 on each side of the keyboard plus the space bar. I don't know if this is enough for gaming or not, but for typing it seems fine.

The keys have a definite feel, you can sense with your fingers when they are pressed, so typing is a very tactile experience.

There is just one thing that I think could be improved and that is the overall size.

I haven't measured, so could be wrong, but the keyboard seems smaller than my other machines (Dell XPS Plus 13, XPS 15, and MacBook Pro M1 13"). I can't put my finger on what exactly, but at first it seemed smaller and I was catching keys wrong as a result. It didn't take long to get used to it, and even when I only had the machine for 24 hours I was as fast on this keyboard as my other machines and could switch between them. So a learning curve, but a small one.

The trackpad is just superb! A haptic pad - where there is no movement in the trackpad itself, rather there is a haptic feedback engine under the trackpad that simulates the click.

And it works fantastically here - whilst I have the Arc Mouse to use with this laptop, I find that I am reaching for the trackpad more than the mouse most of the time. It is easily as good as both my XPS 15 and MacBook Pro. And that is high praise. I love it! (The haptic trackpad on the XPS 13 Plus is great until the drivers start playing up - an issue that started after my company forced a clean install on the machine 😒)

Screen

That's half the interaction of the machine taken care of. Now for the other half. What do you see...

Well, we have a 14.4" 3:2 screen (as a developer I love the extra vertical space), with a resolution of 2400x1600 pixels. If you had asked me 12 months ago what I thought of that, I would have said that it was too little. However, my age has caught me up in the meantime and 4K on a laptop screen is now just too small for me, and I generally use it at 125% to 200% DPI depending on how tired I am.

But this resolution feels perfect. I am using it at 100% DPI and it is pin-sharp and looks fantastic! The display is 120hz and has HDR. Both of which make for an excellent viewing experience. Not OLED levels of performance, but more than good enough for a work machine that you may also use for watching streaming video.

Touch wise... I'm not sure what there is to say - it can sense all 10 fingers individually, and seems accurate enough that even at 100% DPI, it's usable - that isn't the case for every touchscreen I have used!

And then we have that trick folding! In the past, I have used a HP Spectre x360. Another laptop that can go from laptop to tent, to tablet. Only that works the same as most other convertibles. The screen flips right over. The problem there is that when you need to use the keyboard you have to fold it all the way back again, which is, let's face it, annoying.

The Surface Laptop Studio 2 works differently. That backplate I mentioned earlier detaches at the base and the screen comes forward - covering the keyboard, but leaving the touchpad usable - in order to go to the tent stand.

And to convert it to a tablet, you fold it completely back on itself. so that it is flat on the keyboard.

I've also got use of the Slim Pen 2 for in tablet mode. The storage/charging for this is awesome. It attaches magnetically under the lip at the front of the laptop, which also charges it. Lots of laptops/tablets attach the pen this way but the pen never stays put. Not so here, the combination of that lip and quite strong magnets means that (so far) I've never accidentally knocked the pen off of the laptop. I cannot say the same for my HP tilt pen or Apple Pencil 2.

There is more of a bezel than on other laptops I've used recently, but still less than a MacBook Pro (I think). On a normal laptop, this would bother me. But on one that turns into a tablet, it makes more sense. After all, you are more likely to fold and unfold the screen, and you don't want to accidentally tap it. This still happens (I've closed way too many applications in the last day of using this laptop), but less than if the bezels were XPS levels of thin 😅.

Speaking of bezels. There is an interesting design choice for the corner of the screens. It's rounded, to match the lid of the laptop. The effect looks great, it makes the screen really seem like a designed part of the laptop rather than just a screen stuck to the machine. But... You do lose some screen in the process - only a few pixels, and nothing that is going to cost usability, but enough that it looks odd when the mouse is in the top corner of the screen.

Camera

In the top bezel, there is a "Windows Hello camera. Logging in is almost as quick as opening the screen 90% of the time - amazingly fast! Which is good, because there is no fingerprint sensor to back it up! Something that I would like to have seen.

Quality wise... I've not checked the specs yet, but it's adequate. In this dreary weather, my living room was slightly dark, and yet the video was perfectly clear. I think that it's on par with the MacBook Pro and light years ahead of both XPS machines.

With this machine there are also some AI effects available - the machine has an NPU on board so background blur etc are both better than normal and without the CPU taking a hit.

Performance

I have the 13800H version of the Surface Laptop Studio 2, that is 14 cores and 20 logical threads.

I've not done anything too taxing yet - the most I have done is run Azure Functions and a Blazor WASM project in Visual Studio 2022 Preview, with the Static Web App CLI running in a terminal and Visual Studio Code open. That said... Even with only 16GB of memory I never felt that it was hitting a problem (you can get up to 64GB - which would be my choice if buying with my own money, because it's not upgradable, which considering the physical size of the device is annoying).

Games wise... Well, I'm not really a PC gamer, but did have a quick play of Cities Skylines in that first 24 hours and it worked well. A gaming machine isn't, but I think that with up to an RTX 4060 (albeit a laptop version) you can play some games on it.

The SSD is Gen4, so the machine feels snappy enough when in use.

In fact, so far there has only been one place where the performance seems lacking. Web browsers. Some animations are not as good as they should be, and opening a downloaded file takes that long you end up assuming that the click didn't happen. In a way that doesn't happen when opening files directly from the File Explorer or in a terminal. It's not the end of the world, but it is noticeable.

The best part of the performance though... It is both cool and quiet! The XPS 15 isn't loud, but you hear the fans often. I've not heard the fan yet! And yet... It's also not hot. I don't know if that is because there is more airflow keeping the components cool, or the chassis is better at distributing the heat, but even when playing a game (something where the fans on the XPS really start blasting) there was barely any noise. It makes the machine an absolute pleasure to use. Especially the cool aspect! Not as cool as my MacBook Pro (but, seriously, what stays as cool as Apple silicon?) but by far the best Windows laptop I have used.

Connectivity

Finally... Connectivity. This is a mixed bag:

2x USB-C with Thunderbolt 4/USB4 and Power Delivery
1x USB A 3.1
1x Surface Connect Port
Headphone jack (YES!!!!)
Micro SD Card Reader

I honestly do not know what the Surface connector is. The power cable uses it - good because it leaves your USB-C sockets available for dongles, bad because it means that it has its own charger in a world where nearly everything has a USB-C charger these days.

That said you can still use your existing USB-C chargers, so you don't need multiple chargers when you travel.

I assumed that the surface connector was going to be for a docking station, but the latest Surface docking station uses USB-4...

Considering the space available in the chassis, I do think that the laptop would have been better with a HDMI port (maybe in place of the Surface connector?). I've presented at enough conferences to know that dongles are a pain in the real world - most speakers carry more than one dongle because you never know what is going to work with the cable/projector the room has. A built-in port doesn't always solve this problem, but it's generally way less of an issue!

Network wise we have WiFi 6E. Sitting 5 meters from my Deco M9 access point I get +- 500Mbps. About the same as my MacBook Pro and more than either XPS, and more than enough for everything that I do.

Battery Life

I honestly don't want to comment here. I have spent the time I've had the machine installing all of my tools as I found I needed them. So what I see right now is not what it should be in real usage. 100 to 22% at just under 50% brightness and the "recommended" performance plan has taken 6 hours. Considering what I have been doing, it's fine. better than the XPS 15 (and easily better than the XPS 13 Plus)

Conclusion

Wow... That was more than I was intending to write for a first peek blog post...

I'm more than happy with the machine so far, I think it's fair to say that I am not going to be struggling day to day replacing my XPS 15 with this. Great screen, great performance, and decent battery life. I wonder if I'll want to give it back 😅

4CEE October Meetup

Stacy Cashmore — Mon, 23 Oct 2023 10:05:06 +0000

Wow! After sooo many months I was finally able to get back in front of an audience and talk about one of my favorite topics: Azure Static Web Apps!

The location was 4CEE - I heard that they were looking for a second speaker for an evening, and as I was about ready to test my stamina I submitted a few talks.

They chose my quick tour talk - I love giving this! Basically, during the talk I write an app from scratch (using Azure Functions and Blazor WebAssembly), deploy it to production with a CI workflow, add a custom domain, and finish by adding authentication and authorization.

I love this talk because it's fast-paced, there is plenty for me to do wrong (meaning that I can also show people how I get around some issues...) and I think it really demonstrates the way that the technology can help you get up and running in no time.

The event itself was so much fun. Well organized, plenty of food and drink before we got started, and so many friendly people.

Before I gave my talk Marc Duiker gave an introduction to Dapr - very interesting, and a technology that I have to start looking into soon now that I am recovering.

Then came Annemarie Pannekoek who gave a lightning talk about accessibility, a subject that I try to catch up on whenever possible at conferences (it's an area that IT really needs to improve on). It was Annemarie's first talk and she did absolutely amazingly! I hope I get to see her talk again in the future.

Then came my turn. I was feeling quite ill - I don't think that I will ever get over stage fright and being away for so long seems to have multiplied it! But, once I started talking it felt amazing. I even managed to throw in the odd joke (especially when I did something wrong 😅)

I'm still not up to traveling, that much I know. And I don't think that I could do this too often. But an occasional talk (say 1x per month) seems like it's on the cards again and I can't wait to get back into it!

Thanks to 4CEE for having me, and Arlean van de Blaak, Jeffrey Bosch and all those behind the scenes for organizing. It was wonderful to be there.

For more information on Azure Static Web Apps, you can go here:

Azure Static Web App Resources: a lot of resources from MS and myself
Example Apps: A few example apps (still .NET 6, but they should show the ideas - they will be updated as I have the time and energy)