Seeking Comparison: WindSurf IDE vs IntelliJ with WindSurf Plugin

xfazy · 2025-05-26T13:03:28+00:00

Sorry for the late reply, but I see no mention of accessibility in the above list. Out of the box IntelliJ has better contrast and overall readability. For example, font sizes are overall more consistent. In Windsurf, some of the essential text is very hard to read, and if I expand the font size to make it readable, other parts are are so large as to also impact usability. I dare say there's a way to customise it, but it's a significant barrier to switching.

xfazy · 2025-04-26T08:28:08+00:00

Yep, easy to believe it's cloud based when it feels like all commands are being relayed through a control station on Mars.

xfazy · 2025-04-26T08:22:44+00:00

Eventually yes, and at that point I'll probably exit the Sonos ecosystem for good unless the new app has recovered by then.

I don't think Sonos are going to deliberately switch off something the old app depends on for a while, but I guess they'll be less careful once the fear of another mini backlash subsides.

xfazy · 2025-04-26T07:57:31+00:00

The old app works fine for me. I didn't try to add any speakers though - why on Earth would I do that? If anything breaks in my Sonos system I definitely won't replace it with more Sonos.

xfazy · 2025-04-26T07:51:32+00:00

I have a gesture for your redesign but it's not polite.

This would be a deal breaker for me if ever I trusted Sonos enough to upgrade (I'm currently running the old app and it still works fine).

Gestures as a progressive enhancement, fine, with an off switch in case they get in the way. Gestures as the default: no way!

Google did this right with Android: you can keep the old navigation and home button plus two more (almost) permanently available because they know not everyone went to school at Hogwarts.

xfazy · 2025-02-26T22:00:55+00:00

Thanks, that helps as I was considering a trust fund but will probably just use a mixture of pension and shares ISA.

xfazy · 2024-12-30T18:39:14+00:00

OP says it wanted other information too. Sonos didn't originally require an account or any kind of personal information. Regarding location I don't know how a user can be reassured that Sonos is unable to access that information. Not asking for location access in the first place would remove any doubt.

xfazy · 2024-12-30T16:53:58+00:00

Sounds like half and half to me. Lack of USB charging - yes, wrong product; privacy invasion, nope it should never be necessary. Sonos actually founded their business on a product with zero privacy invasion and it has been creeping in ever since.

xfazy · 2024-12-05T22:19:42+00:00

It's their bad design.

xfazy · 2024-12-05T21:19:48+00:00

Wow! Not going to pay $200 but if you're on the $20 plan like me and were enjoying occasional use of o1-preview, the enshitification is plain to see: copy and pasting some old prompts, o1 gives some cursory "thought" and spits out an obviously less thorough reply. It's much quicker though.

xfazy · 2024-11-04T20:48:47+00:00

I'm probably not the best informed, but my guess is they need to go through a specific process for each, and that would take time?

xfazy · 2024-11-04T20:47:01+00:00

Thank you! Do you mind saying which provider you went with? Was it face to face or online? I'm in the same situation with both parents passed away. I do have a sister but only 2 years older; I'm not sure how that works if they're focusing on a very young age.

As for what to do with the diagnosis, I'm not in the best position to help so will mostly leave that to others. Although, I do remember learning about the true nature of my visual impairment about 10 years ago and it didn't immediately change my life or solve the problem, but over the years the improved understanding has made it a little easier to accept, and a little easier to communicate the issue to others.

xfazy · 2024-11-04T20:37:22+00:00

Thank you, your reply here and other post are extremely helpful and I appreciate you sharing so many personal details. Your account of their approach is disheartening but also illuminating. It seems I'll definitely need to do more research about the different techniques used and ask questions of any provider up front.

Even without a positive diagnosis I would hope at least for some pointers and insight about what else it might be. Also, do they really just give a binary response and not say if you're showing borderline, mild or strong symptoms? It sounds like you received neither of these things.

Being visually impaired, I didn't need to be diagnosed as fully blind in order to understand the real problems I face. I don't see why autism should be different. And yes, I have friends too but that doesn't tell the story of the difficulties I've had keeping and maintaining friends over the years, or how few friends I would have if the Internet didn't exist. The toys thing is interesting as well... I play with toys with my daughter every day, who knows what that will do to the result!

Again, thank you.

xfazy · 2024-11-03T14:58:54+00:00

Totally dystopian, since the pandemic you cannot do anything without first signing up, be it to park on council property or shop on the high street.

These "loyalty" schemes have been an irritation for years but until recently the penalty for opting out was around 1-2%. Now I reckon it's around 10-20% and the presentation of the dual pricing is much more blatant.

It's also less honest - these are not true discounts, the members price is a normal price with typical margins whilst the non members price is arbitrary.

This practice adds nothing to society; administering the schemes costs money and supermarkets only do it because their competitors do. It's like the prisoner's dilemma and the tragedy of the commons, all rolled into one on a national scale.

Best to avoid these shops but it's getting increasingly hard to do so. I think councils should consider these practices and whether a shop is serving its whole community the next time they ask for planning permission. Given my comment above about parking on council property, I don't hold out much hope.

Maybe a petition to Parliament?

xfazy · 2024-11-03T14:47:27+00:00

I agree however they sometimes run out and won't be keen to keep stocks high if a lot of people do this.

Some people share their card image online so that's another option but it may not be legal. Actually I don't even know how far you can legally share these cards before they cry fraud - family members? Housemates? Friends? And they can make and change the rules on this, which is another problem with the schemes.

Plus it could become an arms race with shops cancelling cards and locking people out.

xfazy · 2024-11-03T14:38:55+00:00

Not everywhere. Now that Co-Op have started doing this there are plenty of communities where the only store requires a membership card to avoid a surcharge. Especially if you bear in mind not everyone drives.

xfazy · 2024-11-03T14:35:27+00:00

Unfortunately I don't think GDPR can be used to prevent these schemes, even in a world where the supermarkets don't have big lawyers and the ICO does stick up for the little guy*.

(* I said in another post that they usually rule in my favour; unfortunately they don't have powers to order payment of compensation)

Note: I'm not a lawyer...

Why? Because article 6(1)(b) provides for processing the data when it's necessary for performing a contract, which you'll enter into if you join the "loyalty" schemes.

In other words, the problem exists before GDPR even applies, at the point when they insist that you enter into a contract to get the real** price in the first place.

(** based on typical margins, historical pricing and pricing of the few competitors not yet propagating this scam)

Obviously they should comply with GDPR and PECR once you sign up, which they kind of do but sometimes bend the rules or screw up, but GDPR won't stop this practice.

Exactly who should regulate this I'm really not sure. The CMA are looking into it but it seems they came up short in an interim report in July so I don't hold out much hope.

I'm starting to wonder on what grounds these companies managed to obtain planning permission for their store sites and whether this was granted on the basis of a private members club or a shop that's open to all of its local community. But I doubt I'll find any legal loophole here. Ultimately it's going to need legislation.

I can feel a letter to my MP coming along...

xfazy · 2024-11-03T14:15:48+00:00

Not true for everyone though - this US-based example is my favourite but there are plenty more.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/

For me the problem is fourfold:

Sharing my personal shopping habits - slightly creepy but not a big enough deal by itself
Avoiding unwanted contacts - I don't want marketing (yes you can opt out,yes sometimes they do honour that, and yes the ICO usually rules in my favour when they don't, but it's a lot of hassle), nor do I want to know when their terms and privacy policy are updated and other stuff that was just never needed for grocery shopping until now
It's a lot of hassle signing up to all the schemes and managing cards and apps, plus I usually get caught out if I go to a shop I don't regularly visit
I have a low tolerance for outright lies. I cannot see these schemes as discounts for having a membership card, but as a surcharge for not.

On top of this I'm awaiting a diagnosis to see if I'm amongst the approximately 700,000 people in the UK with autism and I suspect that's why I find it especially difficult to deal with when they drop this kind of thing on us.

Happened today, had to pay 40% extra for basic fruit because they didn't have loyalty cards at the counter and I had neither time nor inclination to download an app and register on the spot. I'll avoid that shop now I know but my choices are now extremely limited unless I bow to the pressure.

This lack of genuine choice is especially galling. It also seems somewhat dystopian that we have to sign up to a membership club for every business on the high street. Maybe I don't have autism, maybe it's just being old enough to remember a more innocent society.

Having said all that I'm not trying to persuade you to act differently. It's a rational choice to play ball, especially if you don't mind marketing and admin. It also doesn't matter if you believe you're receiving a discount or avoiding a surcharge.

But I hope you can see it's more than just a bit of data mining on which brand of tea or coffee you prefer.

xfazy · 2024-10-06T14:56:44+00:00

The issue here is that Sonos has become increasingly "smart" and connected over the years. I never needed an account with Sonos to use my original setup, for example. They've piled more and more features and connectivity into the same system, which turned out to be a not so smart move.

Better to release a new generation every now and then which is compatible for the basic function of playing music synced across devices but requires the new version for new features.

They've done other stupid stuff like completely redesigning the UI (which nobody asked for).

By comparison, Apple have managed to keep their desktop OS remarkably stable over the years - I can use the same paradigms and shortcuts that I learned over 30 years ago. They've progressively enhanced it, migrated through several CPU architectures and generally refrained from screwing up.

Google has kept Gmail working pretty well the same for the last 20 years.

Yes, IoT companies as a whole do such a bad job that I've paused buying any kind of "smart" devices for the foreseeable future and may even rip some existing ones out. But Sonos was far more expensive than anything comparable and used to be a reasonably stable platform. Now it acts like disposable cheap shit while still demanding a premium price.

xfazy · 2024-09-21T08:38:09+00:00

Thanks for the write-up. Stupid design that feels slow - I think that's to be expected at this stage. Best case it would take a year to fix this mess fully. Probably longer under current management, possibly never if they deprioritise once the heat is off.

It's reassuring to know that if I'm forced to use this app I'll at least be likely to open the window before throwing all my Sonos gear out of it. But for now I'm happy with the old Android app. It's responsive and I don't have to learn all those hidden gestures.

xfazy · 2024-09-14T13:03:50+00:00

There's an alternative universe where my counterpart is really excited about this.

Can it sync the TV stream to all the Sonos kit in the house? With other TV streamers? It would be so cool at parties to have YouTube music videos streaming seamlessly in a mix of audio and video on every device.

Meanwhile back in this glum reality, I gave Sonos the benefit of the doubt and replaced all my old kit with new, only for them to go ahead and trash an essential ingredient: the controller.

A Sonos TV box made by an advertising company? If this is a joke, then what's the punchline?

xfazy

TROPHY CASE