Opera to support sites using the .crypto top-level domain - <AUTHOR> https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/03/31/dreams_of_a_decentralized_web/ <comment><USER2> This is going to turn out to have been a huge mistake once the actual .crypto is added as a real TLD to root DNS come ICANN's round 2 expansion of new gTLDs.

<comment><USER3> Are we supposed to care that ICANN's feelings are hurt? Hopefully this is a step to replacing ICANN with something better.

If you think ICANN is some sort of magical organization that should get to decide all TLDs, just vote with your feet and don't use Opera.

<comment><USER2> ICANN's feelings are irrelevant here. The point is that they control the DNS root servers and no one else does, so anyone claiming to operate a TLD that isn't actually in the root servers is gonna have a bad time.

Think of what a disaster this is going to be if .crypto is launched for real in a few years. Opera is likely going to go with the real .crypto in the root DNS, thus dumping all these blockchain ones, but even if they don't, there's the problem that now .crypto domains will resolve differently in Opera than in all other browsers. That is a security/usability nightmare.

> If you think ICANN is some sort of magical organization that should get to > decide all TLDs

There's nothing magical about ICANN whatsoever, and the normative claim you're making here is irrelevant. They _are_ the organization that decides TLDs, period, and pretending that they aren't when the other 99.999% of users and devices on the Internet do use root DNS and root DNS only is a recipe for disaster.

<comment><USER4> The ICANN .crypto might simply not get launched or fail after launch if the name is already taken.

<comment><USER2> If they haven't delegated it yet then it's by definition not yet taken as far as they're concerned, and they're the ones that make these decisions.

Let me put it in different terms: ICANN currently has a monopoly on the issuance of new TLDs that has so far banked hundreds of millions of dollars for them. There's no way in hell they're going to voluntarily give up this monopoly and just let any random people start a new TLD without going through them.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The article doesn't mention how the .crypto namespace is managed. That's probably going to make or break this idea.

<comment><USER6> Don't have time (nor the interest really) but found the reference docs, seems to explain how it works:

\- [https://github.com/unstoppabledomains/zns](https://github.com/unstoppabledomains/zns)

\- [https://github.com/unstoppabledomains/zns/blob/master/REGIST...](https://github.com/unstoppabledomains/zns/blob/master/REGISTRY.md)

\- [https://github.com/unstoppabledomains/zns/blob/master/RESOLV...](https://github.com/unstoppabledomains/zns/blob/master/RESOLVERS.md)

\- [https://github.com/unstoppabledomains/zns/blob/master/REGIST...](https://github.com/unstoppabledomains/zns/blob/master/REGISTRAR.md)

So in the end, I think there is a central registrar for each gTLD, so basically the same as we're doing now, just a different organization behind it and blockchain!1!11oneone

<comment><USER7> The Registrar is an ethereum contract, not a company, though. I believe this means that once you have a domain tied to your wallet, nobody can take it down or transfer it without your private keys. The Admins can only sell new domains.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I'm glad, Opera is offering native support for Wallets, ENS & IPFS. It is a proof that they can still lead the way. There is also some progress made by Brave what will really help in term of market share. Unfortunately native support on Firefox is not there yet... [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1354807](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1354807)

</comment><comment><USER9> Something crazy is going on inside Opera. My opera extension has been pending review since January 12th, Firefox, Chrome, and Edge have all accepted it.

<comment><USER10> There is no Opera anymore, just some Chinese scam vehicle [https://www.androidpolice.com/2020/01/21/opera-predatory- loa...](https://www.androidpolice.com/2020/01/21/opera-predatory-loans/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Is it possible to add IPFS via extensions to Chrome and Firefox?

<comment><USER6> Not only possible but already done!

\- [https://github.com/ipfs-shipyard/ipfs-companion](https://github.com/ipfs- shipyard/ipfs-companion)

\- [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ipfs- companion/nib...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ipfs- companion/nibjojkomfdiaoajekhjakgkdhaomnch)

\- [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ipfs- companio...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ipfs-companion/)

And I think Brave already ships with IPFS-Companion installed.

<comment><USER12> IPNS is so slow though, that publishing with IPFS is a whole different story.

<comment><USER11> Would you mind to elaborate for someone who knows next to nothing about IPFS/IPNS?

<comment><USER13> Plain IPFS (without the IPNS part) lets you create links to files (or directories) where the link is based on the hash of the files, and when someone visits the link, their IPFS node will automatically look through the peer-to-peer IPFS swarm to find any nodes hosting the files. Anyone that wants to help host the files can pin the files in their node, and then their node will mirror the files and help serve them to others. It's basically Torrent magnet links rebuilt to be usable for web browsing.

But one important detail about content-addressable storage systems like IPFS (and torrents) is that the linked content can never change. The link ipfs://QmXoypizjW3WknFiJnKLwHCnL72vedxjQkDDP1mXWo6uco/wiki/Aardvark.html is immutable and will only ever resolve to that specific version of the page. That's fine if you're just sharing a specific version of a document, but it means that this system alone isn't enough if you want to host a site that you update. In order to solve that use-case, you need some mutable link to be involved, like what DNS provides. If you have a standard domain name, you can add a _dnslink TXT record to your domain that contains an IPFS link, and then when someone visits the domain, IPFS-compatible browsers will see the _dnslink TXT record, get the IPFS link from it, and follow that to get the content from the IPFS swarm (which includes anyone that's helping re-host the content) instead of asking some HTTP server for it. When you update your site, you can update the _dnslink TXT record, and browsers will be able to find the new content when someone visits the site.

IPNS is an optional part of IPFS that allows you to make mutable IPNS links that may be updated. This is an attempt to make using an external system like DNS unnecessary to use for making updatable content. It lets you make IPNS links that instead of being based on the hash of the content, are based on a public key that's paired with a private key that you control. The owner of the private key is allowed to broadcast a signed message containing the immutable IPFS link that the mutable IPNS link should resolve to. Sounds great on paper, but it works really slowly for a number of reasons that might be fundamental to how it works. I'm not sure anyone really makes use of it in production. However, a lot of discussions/tutorials about IPFS present IPNS in a way that makes it seem like the standard way to use IPFS, and I think a lot of people get turned off when they see how slow it is and think it's unavoidable or that IPFS is like that in general. The wording of the previous post makes me a little worried the poster believes that too. I wish documentation around IPFS would stop emphasizing IPNS and instead emphasize the DNS integration. You can use DNS+IPFS instead of IPNS+IPFS and it works well; I assume more people use DNS+IPFS than IPNS+IPFS. And eventually we could use decentralized systems like Ethereum Name Service or ZNS instead of DNS once those systems are more popular.

<comment><USER11> I see, thanks for the info!

Are ENS and ZNS faster?

<comment><USER13> Yes, they don't have IPNS's slowness problems. (Well, I can speak about ENS. I don't know anything specifically about ZNS, but I'm going to assume it works similarly.) The problem with IPNS is that the holder of the private key is the source of truth for the current value of an IPNS link. The private key holder can broadcast signed messages with the current value of the link to the rest of the network to cache and re-serve, but when a client gets a cached signed value, it can't know if that's the most up-to-date value for the link, so the client keeps on asking the rest of the network for a while about the current value for the link to see if anyone else has a more up-to-date value. (As opposed to when a client is fetching the content of a standard IPFS link, the client can know the content is right as soon as it gets an answer from anyone in the swarm because its hash is equal to the link. This means regular IPFS links don't have this problem at all.)

With ENS, the source of truth for the current value of all domains is the Ethereum blockchain. Every full Ethereum node has a copy of the blockchain and keeps it updated, so any node can immediately produce an authoritative answer about any domain. ENS still has the property of IPNS that only the holder of a private key can update their domain's current value, but they just have to submit any changes to the blockchain to apply them. This means that a client doesn't have to look any further than any node with a copy of the blockchain to find the current value.

Another benefit of systems like DNS and ENS over IPNS is that DNS and ENS can have human-friendly chosen names. IPNS links are always based on public keys and look like random strings. ENS and IPNS are both decentralized, but only blockchain-based systems like ENS can solve Zooko's Triangle ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zooko%27s_triangle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zooko%27s_triangle)) and have secure decentralized human-meaningful names. (Blockchains often get a lot of nonsense hype for things they don't make any sense for, but this use- case is specifically the kind of thing that blockchains are uniquely good at!)

<comment><USER11> I see!

Good to know.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I tried to understand what IPFS is - it looks like that distributed file storage project from pre-bitcoin era but with added blockchain on top. So my question is - can you delete a file from this system?

<comment><USER15> IPFS doesn't have a blockchain, it's more like BitTorrent. Can you delete a file? Well, by definition all files in the universe are already defined there, as IPFS is content-addresable (the file hash is used as URL),

This means that you can actually delete the file from your local IPFS client, but if someone manages to create the exact same file and put it on the network, people will access to the file using the same link.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Broader question - is there some-kind of support planned for a DNS-like MX address mechanism, for receiving emails via the .crypto domain?

</comment><comment><USER17> If you care about privacy and security and use Opera, I don't think this will help improve it...</comment>


U.S. Vs. Overseas Developers: Do Overseas Programmers Get a Bad Rap? - <AUTHOR> https://www.codementor.io/blog/US-overseas-freelance-developers-2xmfoh77ab <comment><USER2> To be honest I just had an interaction with an overseas developer today and had to explain that he needed to skip over a part of the documentation for an API it was blatently obvious he didn't read the documentation from the get go. I feel bad for these guys at the same time. I have a feeling when I visit India in a few weeks and meet with these developers I'm going to see a sparse office and these guys get paid shot. It's frustrating to deal with this, but at the same time the people are paid shot wages when their parent company is taking in the millions You have to have the utmost compassion.

</comment><comment><USER3> According to their chart an average Pakistani dev is paid $7000 a month. They probably charge that, but the guy might be lucky to get this salary in a year.

</comment><comment><USER4> I think there are multiple problems that might cause bad reputation:

1) In many scenarios less control over hiring

2) The usual remote trouble: Not everyone is made for it, especially devs that need a bit more guidance are difficult. Especially problematic in combination with 1.

3) what is mentioned in the article (culture, language, timezones)

</comment><comment><USER5> Is that graph saying that in western Europe developers get paid an average of $10,000 a month, or $120,000 a year?

So average developer salary in western Europe is ~€105,000 and in the UK ~£90,000?

Does anyone here believe that? They would be the towards the higher ends of salaries for devs in those countries.

<comment><USER6> > in the UK ~£90,000? Does anyone here believe that?

If they're limiting it to London and including contractors, maybe? Otherwise it sounds Quite High for an average.

<comment><USER5> Yeah I was going to say maybe in London, and perhaps in financial services elsewhere but I'm assuming this is a national average?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Interesting stats. I wish they said a little more about the most effective way to quickly filter out programmers in each domain.</comment>


Survey: What Do Startups Need - <AUTHOR> I am doing a survey to to learn from startup founders and entrepreneurs about what they need to help their startup succeed. Completing the entire survey should take less than ten minutes. Please feel free to complete or share with startups you are working with. https://sviyp.typeform.com/to/jKroY6 <comment><USER2> Its for some Virtual Accelerator program?</comment>


Fabrication Gem, or How to Brand Your OSS Contribution - <AUTHOR> http://fabricationgem.org/

<comment><USER2> That's a really beautiful project site.

I think there is one very important thing missing however. I can't find a statement anywhere that says why someone would want to use this. There are many little snips that show how one would use a Fabricator, but none of them have any context explaining how they would be useful in practice or what problem they're trying to solve.

I checked the github repo hoping maybe the README would have some more examples or explanation but it just referred back to the project site.

<comment><USER3> That is an excellent point and I will be sure to add a section explaining that.

You would use it in your suite to create objects to assert against. You could also use it in a db:seed or db:populate script to generate development data.</comment></comment>


Downvote Clarification - <AUTHOR> I have been reading Hacker News for some years now. More recently I joined and have been attempting to respond to posts with accurate information. If people object to what I have to say I clarify and also go back and edit my posts to remove things if people seem to be particularly offended or annoyed by what I have to say.
A recent trend that has occurred is that my posts are downvoted if they criticize what other people have to say, regardless of whether or not my statements are accurate or not.
Could the community please clarify to me exactly what votes in the system are supposed to mean? That is, is it a personal opinion of whether you like someones post or not, or should it be more professional? I personally believe that it should be a professional analysis of the post content combined with a small amount of downvotes to try to steer angry individuals into being more cooperative.
If it is just a personal opinion, please say exactly this so I can know to become a sheep to save my rating. <comment><USER2> There are no qualifications for either upvotes or downvotes, as far as I'm aware. Pg has said that any reason up to and including mere disagreement is valid[0], and this seems to have been accepted in general, although many people here also disagree with it in practice[1].

There's really nothing to do but accept it. Asking for clarifications about downvotes, or complaining about them, will only lead to more of the same, and the staff finds meta discussions about site policy to be tedious and tends to kill them.

On the other hand, karma is practically useless so I wouldn't worry too much about losing it.

[0][https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171)

[1][https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3760275](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3760275)

<comment><AUTHOR> It's not useless because until you hit a certain karma value you cannot downvote. I encounter obnoxious people and attempt to respond reasonably to them; they downvote every single post I make but I obviously cannot do the same to the comments they make that are bad for the community. As a result those people gain karma for trashing whatever I say and no one else gets involved because they do not want to get involved in downvotes imo.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> A good friend of mine once said: If you have to criticize something, start by saying something positive. Then say what you want to say, without hurting someone.

I don't know what you are commenting on, but I could imagine you're getting down-voted because things you say are basically right, but maybe hurting peoples feelings about what they programmed/created/crafted in hours and days and maybe even weeks or months of their lives.

my 2cents.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'll give you an example by posting in exactly the same way I always do.

When I was in church I heard a sermon that stated that teachers are held to a high accountability level than others, because their words have a great affect on all the people listening to them.

I agree with that notion and think that authors of content should be especially careful not to give out misinformation, and more deeply that they should not spin information to such an extent that it is attempting to manipulate the feelings of others to some end ( often personal ).

I react to articles I see to have a counterpoint to whatever spin exists. The point is to bring some semblance of balance to the discussion rather than having it be one sided.

Another thing is the word 'nice'. The definition of the word 'nice' is basically to be ignorant. It is pleasing to people if you are ignorant and just accept whatever they say. I don't believe in being nice; I think it is detrimental to the community and society in the long run.

If people cannot take the heat of criticism then I don't think they should be spending hours creating articles aimed at a group that contains people who do not agree with what they have to say.

<comment><USER3> As I think of myself as a nice person, I have to say I see your point, but I guess you didn't understand me right. It has nothing to do _what_ you have to say, rather than _how_: People tend to craft crazy long articles and software, tools and howto's not to hear what they made all wrong. They did this in order to bring benefit to the world (mostly). And they wouldn't publish it if they thought they are not right. If you disagree with their opinion, please do so in a respectful manner. Respectful more often than not also includes being 'nice' \- it won't kill you. Still, we are all just normal people, no matter from where.

I guess you also knew that _the_ definition of the word 'nice' is _not_ being ignorant. It's maybe _your_ definition, which is perfectly okay. Well, if it wouldn't mean that you basically just said that all nice people are ignorant. You see where that heads to hopefully...

In contrast to the text above I could've also said the following, which hopefully raises some emotional and super red flags on all ends: Your answer is not really surprising, as people who are attending church on a regularly basis are more often than not very arrogant and also narrow-minded [0]. I react to these answers mostly with disgust. Seeing people who bring invalid examples is as necessary as a car accident[1]. Being arrogant about just anything and anyone who is not agreeing and justifying it with what was once heard in church won't take anyone far on the Internet.

[0] With that sentence I made everyone unhappy, not just you, also everyone who attends Sundays Mass

[1] I didn't mention you, still its offensive.

I hope you see the difference. Be humble, be kind, more people will listen and accept your comments. Not just here - also in your real life. Be to the point. That is my opinion, feel free to disagree.

<comment><AUTHOR> Whether you like it or not, the description of being nice has a connotation of being clueless. Obviously the word can be applied to people who are not clueless, but it still has that vibe about it.

I didn't make up that the definition is as such. Go find a dictionary that has not been revised to "match" the way people tend to use the word lately. ( such as a dictionary made 10 years ago ) You will find that is the actual definition.

Respect is a two way street. Those deserving of respect also need to give it and treat the people "beneath" them well. I do not give respect to people who are abusive to everyone around them.

You state that people who write articles are trying to bring benefit into the world, but that is really wishful thinking. If you look clearly at the motivations of the people crafting articles and the actual quality of the content they have created, you will find that the motivations are quite a bit less wonderful. The most common motivation is to get attention.

I am unsure why I should be offended if you state that people attending church on a regular basis tend to be arrogant and narrow minded. I should say that is simply a true statement. If people are offended by that then fuck them. If you stated "People who attend church are a bunch of dumb hicks" then that would be offensive. You didn't state it that way. You just made a rather defensible observation; a controversial one obviously, but I think it has weight.

I don't even follow your second example statement. It doesn't make sense.

You still haven't responded to the actual point of the observation heard in church. You seem to be deliberately ignoring the idea.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: How should I design my MS in CS curriculum? - <AUTHOR>

I'm coming from a social science background. I've taken a C++ course, data structures, discrete math and intro to systems programming. I would love some advice on how to think about how best to plan my MS in CS.
The requirements are loose: 12 courses in 1 year, generally no restrictions. I have been thinking of primarily two ways to go about this. The first is to just do a well-rounded CS education, pursuing this article[1]. The second is to spend nearly all the courses in cognitive systems. In this case, when the course schedule doesn't provide much in the area, I would propose an independent reading modeled after a course from a stronger school (probably Stanford).
If I'm not interested in pursuing more school after this, does it matter what route I take? Is this actually a useful question to ask? If so, what do I lose/gain by going one way or another?
[1] http://matt.might.net/articles/what-cs-majors-should-know/ <comment><USER2> What do you want to do with the MS after you get it?

<comment><AUTHOR> Move in the PM direction, though how to get there is still up in the air

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> What school is this?

<comment><AUTHOR> Northwestern</comment></comment>


Dell XPS 15 9560 Review - <AUTHOR> http://www.anandtech.com/show/11670/the-dell-xps-15-9560-review-infinity-edge-part-two <comment><USER3> If you want to buy one you should extend your analysis beyond the hardware specs because the software and operating systems are not ready yet. I can give the example of the latest XPS 13 2-1 where Office applications like Outlook cannot recognize a monitor with a different resolution and the fonts are blurred. Look for example at [https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Office- apps-appear-...](https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Office-apps-appear- the-wrong-size-or-blurry-on-external-monitors- bc9f7279-4e42-4b15-a949-46ab8bcfe44f) high DPI is a whole issue.

I can give many other examples with drivers support. For example, if I unplug the notebook from the dock the audio playback doesn't work again if I don't reboot the computer or remove/reinstall the driver.

It would ve nice to hear about a critical analysis in Linux.

<comment><USER4> Very true, the previous XPS 15 had huge problems with the Killer NIC card because the drivers for it took months to stabilise and its only recently been that a driver update has made the Wifi somewhat stable and the machine has stopped crashing every few days.

What other people seem to have done is get Dell to swap the Killer NIC with an Intel one which has much better driver support.

<comment><USER5> Colleague recently bought one of these, has a Killer NIC, still not stable, machine hard crashes every time they boot a VM.

<comment><USER6> Intel card is the one recommended. Even Dell uses it in Linux pre-installed version of XPS.

I don't know what these guys are doing but even in Windows, I would get IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL after deep sleep.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> My experience with my 1-month-old maxed out 9560:

\- less precise trackpad than my 3 year old rMBP

\- palm-sensitive trackpad

\- failure that politely states that I need to reboot (if I try to use fingerprint reader to login too quickly after opening the laptop)

\- unplanned reboots due to updates

\- laggy and choppy video on a single external 4k monitor (compared to no apparent lag when the old rMBP drives 2x 4k monitors)

\- very slow Bash (ubuntu subsystem) - but at least they're making an effort

\- Cortana seems less effective than Siri, and she wasn't great; and Cortana still only uses Bing search and displays results in Edge browser

\- louder and more frequently spun up fan compared to old rMBP (which was also an i7 with an Nvidia GPU)

\- occasional crashes when opening laptop or logging in

\- very slow unzipping of files (on new 1TB PCIe SSD), regardless of whether 7z is used or built-in unzip is used, and regardless of where I unzip/extract to

In summary, it's just a sexy little game machine. In that regard, it does pretty well. You do have to wear headphones to game because the fan is so loud. And you can't play on an external monitor... too laggy and limited to 30Hz refresh.

Too bad Apple no longer caters to my crowd. Thankfully this old rMBP I use is still running well (despite the screen covering deterioration in weird spotty ways).

<comment><USER8> > Too bad Apple no longer caters to my crowd

What is "your crowd"? Only thing I wish my rMBP had was more than 16GB of RAM for some of the dev I do. Other than that, I can't see switching anytime soon.

<comment><USER9> Since we're on HN, I'll assume 'his crowd' is software development.

How has apple stopped catering this crowd? Let me give you my opinion.

The new macbook pro's main feature is one that is totally useless to professionals. The touch bar is an interesting idea for the casual user, but for anyone who uses any software professionally, it provides no value as it is much slower than keyboard shortcuts. Not to mention that the lack of tactile feedback means you need to look away from the monitor to use it.

The new design has force a redesign in the keyboard, giving it much lower travel, and it is now a lot more uncomfortable to use (this one in particular is quite subjective)

16GB is just not enough in the era of containers.

The price. It's just absurd and some of the most expensive features (TB) are just useless as I stated above.

<comment><USER10> I used to manage with VMs on 8gb, 16 should be enough for most people using containers. Believe the laptop in this review can be upgraded to 32 for the heavy-hitters.

<comment><USER11> I've read it will be able to support up to 64GB when 32GB sticks become available.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Hi, I've had lots of problems with the previous version of XPS15 - 9550 (More info @ [https://trzeci.eu/dell-xps-15-9550-was-the-most- problematic-...](https://trzeci.eu/dell-xps-15-9550-was-the-most-problematic- device-for-me/) )

It was included: problem with CPU and random freezes, Coil Whine, Swollen Battery, SSD problem and problem with misaligned Jack port with a hole in case.

In total, my device was repaired 3 times (within 10 months) and from the original device I have a case, touch-pad and screen only.

I'm not here to complain, because after the battery fix was done, it works perfectly. The Dell Service is super helpful and reactive, D2D warranty is just awesome.

My question is: Have somebody seen any indicators of problems listed above in 9560?

<comment><USER5> /r/dell lists serious issues with the Killer NIC, coil whine, thermal limitations (when playing), speakers are bad ("average android 4.0 device sounds"), Win10 scaling make 4K display still not great (especially with external low-density displays), backlit keyboard disabling itself, some people get absolutely dreadful battery life.

<comment><USER13> I really don't know why anyone would order a laptop from Dell, or any other OEM for that matter.

Dell and their like, obviously, aren't at the for-front of laptop design. They are still using plastic and calling Carbon fiber a "premium" laptop material (it isn't). They are using second rate network adapters. They are using second rate SSDs which have terrible write speeds. Windows trackpads arent any better than they were 10 years ago.

To top it all off? You'll need to do a whole damn Windows reinstall to get rid of the tons of bloatware they pack in.

<comment><USER14> If one doesn't want Mac OS the usual vendors are HP, Dell, Lenovo, maybe Toshiba, in the order suggested by a repairman to a colleague of mine.

I've always been lucky with touchpads on high end HPs. I've been using Ubuntu since 2009, maybe it's a Windows problem.

<comment><USER11> That order is pretty much spot on and it's been that way for 20 years.

HP's competitor to the 9560 would likely be the just-released Zbook Studio G4 but it does not offer a 4k touch screen option. Lenovo doesn't really have a competitor right now, the closest would likely be the P51s but it's only dual core...I think the regular P51 (not the slim) is at least one pound heavier.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> This is a great laptop if you are not using the gpu and the cpu at the same time and you don't care about the screen response. So basically you put a game in this PC and after some minutes you see the great faults of the computer. The 4k screen has low response and it is a bit more blurry with movement than usual displays, although you will only notice this if you have another display to compare.

The biggest issue is the power throttling. When the CPU and the GPU get a bit hot, the VRMs area get hot too and they drop the CPU to 0.7GHz. You play for few minutes and you are amazed, you can play last gen games quite good. But suddenly everything is crap. The VRMs area is hot and is dropping the voltage of the CPU to cold down. Really bad air flow design. Where I said games you can say another application that uses GPU and CPU like deep learning, or maybe watch a video and compile the kernel.(Message for Dell: why do you put a great CPU and GPU in a laptop if we cannot use both for more than few minutes?)

The other minor issue with this laptop is the thunderbolt with 2 PCI lanes. If it had 4 PCI lanes it could be you all day computer as you could connect external GPUs without losing too much. But 2 PCI lanes is not enough.

As a side note some people also have problems with the Wi-Fi. I had to buy another Wi-Fi card for my router as it couldn't connect, but with others routers that it connects it works quite good.

P.S. I run Windows 10 Pro and Archlinux in this computer. The fingerprint does not work on linux yet, everything else is fine.

<comment><USER16> In my (anecdotal) Dell laptops have been crap at heat management. My current laptop (about 4 years old at this point) had the problem you described, except once the CPU throttling turned on, the BIOS was extremely conservative in turning it off, to the point where I would often reboot to get it running at speed again. Eventually they released a BIOS update that fixed the issue, (and started throttling earlier to avoid dropping to .8ghz)

Point being, when buying a laptop, always ask about the thermal.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> I have had a XPS 15 9550 as my main machine for almost a year now, and I can say I'm disatisfied.

It needs a very specific combinations of driver update and bio flashing to work, charging using USB-C sometimes just stops, making it work with a dock took me a good month to figure out, the battery last only a few hours, the webcam is weirdly placed. Worst of all, the sound has suddenly started to act wildly and is now full of cracks.

Given the price I paid for it (2500 € to include a 1 To hard drive and 32 Gb of RAM), I found it less than satisfactory.

But what is infuriating is that some very big problems (like BSOD level) where brought to the attention to the Dell staff on their support forum and the post have been dormant without clear answer from their part for months.

My previously positive perception of the dell brand have been seriously ternished. This is not just bad manufacturing, it's really bad marketting.

<comment><USER18> I've had serious reliability issues with every Dell or Alienware product I've bought. Yes, the specifications look great and they seem to work fine at first, but quality is simply ridiculously bad for such expensive products.

Case reports: [http://news.kynosarges.org/2017/04/23/dell-alienware- reliabi...](http://news.kynosarges.org/2017/04/23/dell-alienware-reliability- issues/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Earlier this year I bought a Developer Edition (Ubuntu) of Dell Precision 5520, which is the business version of XPS 15 9560. Same chassis and hardware, better factory QA and different GPU options.

I very much regret this decision. I spent ~100 hours trying to get it to work properly and to configure Ubuntu (including supposedly simple things like switching Alt and Ctrl keys). At the hourly rate I'm charging, this is more than enough to buy ANY laptop. Next time I'll swallow my pride and just buy a top of the line Macbook Pro.

Out of the box Ubuntu works great, but it is very fragile to updating. For example, updating BIOS to a version that fixes an important CPU bug causes the computer to freeze and shutdown every few minutes at random.

Updating the OS itself caused weird bugs such as being unable to click on app menu items with a USB touchpad. Ditching the default Unity for Gnome3 fixed this particular bug.

The recovery image that Dell provides for Ubuntu simply does not work a few months after release – craps out when it's unable to either fetch or install some package. So I don't even have a way of getting a working version of Ubuntu on this laptop if anything happens to my hard drive.

Oh and the touchpad configs are appallingly bad out of the box. Impossible to use. I fixed 98% of palm interference issues with a few lines of xinput config. I don't know why Dell didn't do that themselves.

And of course, Dell only provides only 7 days of Ubuntu support. After that you're on your own.

Now I'm trying to sell this laptop, but no one on craigslist wants it even at 35% ($900CAD) off the original price. A few months old laptop in perfect condition that is still on warranty.

Speaking of Ubuntu itself, it has been a profound disappointment as well. I will not be trying Dell or linux on desktop for another 7 years at least. My 9 year old Macbook Pro is far superior to this mess.

PS I also tried hackintoshing this laptop, and it worked 95% of the way, but it requires the latest BIOS to work, and that causes random shutdowns regardless of the OS.

<comment><USER20> Try Fedora on it. I switched from Ubuntu to Fedora a while back and couldn't be happier. Not saying you will have a perfect experience but it is worth a shot if you at least like the hardware?

<comment><USER19> I don't think so. A lot of my issues are with BIOS and various linux apps or the window manager, not technically the distribution flavour itself. Also, I'm done spending time on this :)

<comment><USER20> Totally understand. Just thought I would do my bit to promote Fedora when I can ;)

Any idea what you will move onto?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I've used the XPS 13 Developer Edition (ie, running Linux) as my daily driver since 2012. For me, it's been way more reliable than either the ThinkPad X1 or even the MacBook Pro, both of which I used as my work laptops during that same time (running Linux and OS X respectively).

I've been hoping to upgrade to the 15-inch for a while, because I like larger screens. It's nice to see the review of this point release version.

<comment><USER22> I have the xps13 2016 dev edition too, and it's a solid laptop. Let me ask you which dongle do you use to connect to external hdmi monitors? I got this one[1] a while ago, but it doesn't output more than 800x600. I use the wd15 at home without issues, but it's not suitable for traveling.

[1] [https://www.amazon.com/Dell-Adapter-Type- Ethernet-470-ABQN/d...](https://www.amazon.com/Dell-Adapter-Type- Ethernet-470-ABQN/dp/B012DT6KW2)

<comment><USER23> I have the same laptop and I'm happy with it, but I'm not happy with the dongle madness that universal adoption of USB C is foisting on us. I also want a reliable travel dongle for external HDMI for this laptop but the reviews of the units I've looked at are not encouraging. The current obsession with thinness (looking at YOU, Apple) is forcing useful connectors off the main system board onto expensive, unreliable dongles. Yuck.

<comment><USER24> I don't really understand this adversity towards USB Type-C as a single connector for everything. I was around when pretty much every single device had it's own dedicated port and it looked like a snake nest under a desk until USB came along. Yeah, LPT1 for printer, PS/2 for mouse and keyboard, VGA for monitor, etc. We're in a transitional period now to something better, so some people will need dongles for a while and I don't think it's a big deal.

<comment><USER25> I got my first computer with USB in 1999. I used it with a serial mouse, an AT keyboard, and an LPT printer (passed through a Zip100 on the same port, of course ;-) ). I think that my first use for USB came years later, when I'd already replaced that motherboard. I think I might've used a USB->PS/2 dongle at some point, but that was at the back of the computer, and I didn't care. Any memory card besides SD needs an extra adapter, and that stinks.

Over all these years, this is the first time that my primary machine is a mobile device (laptop), and that I might have to use dongles with the hardware that I'll be repeatedly connecting and disconnecting as I move around.

It's not a big deal, but it'll take time to transition from the _last_ "single connector for everything" to the new one. The only problem I have is the rabid USB-C fans telling me I'm being left behind for sticking with my current hardware for a few more years.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> If you use Linux like arch please make sure to set kernel mode parameters to get your video to work. I also had a lot better luck swapping in an intel 8265 but the one it comes with works fine when you have a good signal.

All in all the 9560 has replaced my Mac as a daily driver.

Edit: Incase, to save time for someone, put this in kernel mode parameters in the file /boot/grub/grub.cfg and rerun grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg.

nouveau.modeset=0 acpi_rev_override=1 enable_psr=1 disable_power_well=0

</comment><comment><USER27> As a developer I can't imagine buying anything other than a Macbook Pro, and I mainly use Windows.

The build quality is top of the line, the drivers are solid, and everything just works. The trackpad is industry leading, and the keyboard is great too. Performance is exceptional, especially in the 15" which comes with a HQ processor (not ultrabook-grade) and a discrete graphics card. It has a PCI-e SSD. The price is reasonable compared to the competition.

But despite being IMO the best laptop available, the main reason I choose them is because every so often I need to boot into OSX for testing, or to do something Mac-only. And nothing else can do that.

<comment><USER28> You just described the XPS 15 9560... Except the Dell gets a mostly proper keyboard with real function keys (this matters greatly to me as a programmer). It's not ThinkPad grade, yet close. (I've tested my colleague's top spec model).

As for Apple, it's a shame they don't ship 32gb laptops with touch screens.

I'm currently on an ageing OG X1 Carbon (i7/8/256), which has a sensational keyboard and track pointer, with a superb light and strong chassis; for my next, I'm hoping they'll upgrade the core count to 4+ and memory to 32, and an AMOLED display.

<comment><USER7> In my experience with this new XPS 15 9560, the touch screen is only marginally useful. It doesn't seem to play well with screen pens, so it's just a thing to smudge your finger grease on if you want to show off.

<comment><USER29> I've found that it was useless until you start to learn what apps end up having a better experience with touch.

I use it a lot for document reviews, working with spreadsheets, and anywhere that touch corresponds more with manipulation of the object on screen.

I completely disregard it when the laptop is docked though. For me, mouse/kb habits take over.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> This laptop looks like mixed bag of opinions. I'm looking something to switch from rMPB 2013 (need more RAM, storage). That laptop i still on my list but on last position. I had rMBP2016 for 3 months and I could't write on that keyboard. After 1-2 hr's I felt pain in my fingers because constant contact of my nails with that keyboard. And I don't have some bear nails :) Sold it and now my short list is 1\. Lenovo X1 carbon WQHD - best keyboard I ever written. 2\. XPS 13 (coil whine, spongy keyboard) 3\. XPS 15 - problems described in many places .. Still can't make decision :/

<comment><USER31> I suggest the lattitude E7470 or E7480 (if you don't see a laptop as a fashion statement). Light, practical, enough ports (the E7470 has a full Ethernet port) and a boring keyboard (which is what I expect from a keyboard).

<comment><USER30> My friend have one of lattitude models (12.5") and those Dell business screens are not the best ones IMO. Maybe I'm wrong but it is hard to find reseller that have those on the shelf to touch and feel :/

<comment><USER32> Actually the matte FHD (1920x1080) displays on the E7450/7470/7480 are some of the best displays with no pwm etc. They're not the widest color gamut but they're solid.

Can't speak for the touchscreens.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> I really wanted to love this machine but couldn't find one that wasn't a lemon.

Went through 3 of them. A well-specced model with 4k screen, 16GB memory, and 512GB SSD.

First had a bad screen, second had sticky keys, and third had faulty video card.

Third time I took it back, I was _still_ willing to get it repaired but the support staff wouldn't do it. They told me they've had so many XPS 15s returned for service that they just recommended getting a totally different machine...

But it was a brilliant machine when it worked.

</comment><comment><USER34> That looks like an amazing machine. Is it the same as in this review [https://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-XPS-15-9560-i7-7700HQ- UHD...](https://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-XPS-15-9560-i7-7700HQ-UHD-Laptop- Review.200648.0.html) from 4 months ago?

I had lots of annoyance with a previous Optimus based notebook. How has the situation of bumblebee and primusrun and dualbooting improved in the past two years?

<comment><USER35> I've given up on bumblebee.

I have upgraded an Ubuntu laptop over a few years and every upgrade it broke, requiring some new incantation to fix it the next time. I don't think it's considered the future?

I believe the future is called "Prime Synchronisation", announced a few years ago. Good luck getting it to work though: [https://devtalk.nvidia.com/default/topic/957814/prime-and- pr...](https://devtalk.nvidia.com/default/topic/957814/prime-and-prime- synchronization/) I gave up after a while.

We're probably nearing the time when I'll give all the methods another go, but currently I'm back into the "change setting and log out + in" camp.

As an aside, bumblebee also seems to break my i3 environment... I get hangs & magic sysreq won't recover. I've had to go back to the default DE.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> > They've opted to go with the same Killer Wireless-AC 1535 as they use in the > smaller XPS 13.

FWIW this NIC is a huge liability, wifi instability is common and it will bring some machines down hard (bluescreens/kernel panics, just check /r/dell).

Dell US apparently has instructions to replace this POS by a compatible Intel NIC (7200 or 8000 series) if you have issues and complaint, that seems not to be the case for Dell EU.

An Intel NIC costs $20~30, some folks just order a 8260/8265 at the same time as the laptop and install it before even booting.

<comment><USER36> I have a Killer NIC in my MSI gaming laptop. Opening the Killer wifi desktop configuration app would bluescreen my desktop every time :(

The only thing that worked was uninstalling all Killer software and just letting Windows install the wifi driver.

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> Any driver issues or other advice about running Windows 7 on this?

(I don't want to use Windows 8 or 10 because of telemetry, nor do I want to spend countless hours trying to figure out how to disable all telemetry, and worry about future updates that introduce more telemetry. I'm happy staying at Window 7.)

</comment><comment><USER38> I wish business laptops still existed. I bought a 5 year old laptop because you can't get anything today with serviceable parts or design that makes sense. The thinkpad retro can't get here soon enough (assuming it actually has function keys and isn't slimmed down just to be slim).

<comment><USER31> The lattitude E74xx series is pretty good, I upgraded the RAM and disk on every model I owned. And they still come with win7 drivers. But the latest generation (E7480) has dropped the full Ethernet port with the same sort of foldable port that Sony used on its z-series and they break too easily. You should try a E7470 which has a full Ethernet port while still being an ultra book.

Also they haven't tried to be creative with the keyboard layout, which includes page down/up keys which the xps lacks, quite important for shortcuts.

<comment><USER38> I'm rocking a thinkpad x230 and I will probably continue to do so until they stop making decent batteries for it. I will weep when I can no longer use it.

<comment><USER39> I use an x230 as my primary as well... but I can't seem to suppress my desire for a FHD screen. Do you know if any of the newer X-series are worth the money?

<comment><USER38> Nitrocaster FHD mod. I just had an X250 with a FHD screen and I hated it. I sold it just this weekend.

[https://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=122640](https://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=122640)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> I have this laptop and run archlinux on it. It's a great machine, and almost everything works straight out of the box (even the external docking station).

<comment><USER41> Same here. Precision 5520 (the business edition of the XPS). Only thing I wish I took was the better GPU. 4K screen + external screen can be a lot to ask from the onboard graphics.

Other than that, it is so much more performant than my old MBP. Couldn't be happier to have 32GB of ram and the infinity display.

</comment></comment><comment><USER42> I've had the XPS 9560 since February. I mostly run Fedora (26), but have also run Solus and various versions of Ubuntu. I have a Windows 10 install which I use for Photoshop, Lightroom, and some mobile gaming.

Specifically, the version I have comes with a i7 7700HQ, 32GB RAM, 1TB SDD and 4K screen.

Hardware wise, the laptop is lovely, and the build quality of mine is good, although it hasn't been perfect as I'll get to later. The screen is honestly the best I've ever used, although I do sometimes notice ghosting due to slow response times, I understand in that regard it's comparable to the retina displays used in MBPs.

Performance wise, the hardware speaks for itself. It's a very powerful machine. I haven't experienced any of the lag or video issues that others are reporting. It'll happily play games and crunch whatever data you throw at it, without any thermal issues.

My model was a very early version, and came with which I can only describe as a mushy keyboard which often did not register key-presses. I contacted Dell support, who after a short over the phone test, agreed it was not satisfactory and arranged for an engineer to be at my house the next day to replace the keyboard. This fixed the issue, and the keyboard has been fine ever since. Compared to the new MBP keyboards, I much prefer the 9560 due to the extra travel.

I've also had the GPU fan replaced due to it developing a grinding noise. Again, after a short phone call, Dell agreed to send an engineer to replace the fan the next day. The issue has since re-appeared, and although it's not a critical issue, I'll be getting Dell to replace the fan again. This does seem like a somewhat common issue, although I can't find any recent reports which would hopefully suggest it has been fixed on the manufacturing side. On the topic of noise, my particular machine has no coil-whine.

The webcam position is frankly bad. It's not an issue for me personally, but I do tend to place the laptop somewhere higher if I'm doing a video call - <USER2> can't be trimming my noise hair for every call I do.

I did try macOS on the 9560, as a bit of fun more than anything else, and it seemed to be usable after some effort. However I generally dislike macOS, so I'm back to using Fedora 26 which runs perfectly. Some older apps have slight scaling issues with the 4k screen, however nothing has proven to be unusable (yet). I haven't had any issues running a clean version of Windows either.

Overall, I'm very happy with the 9560.

</comment><comment><USER43> This is my current laptop and I love it. I finally replaced my desktop PC with a laptop. I use it with a 4K 32" monitor via the docking station (I have the exact same setup at work and at home, I just bring the laptop with me each day.) Having a single machine saves me so much time regarding the complex development setup.

I have a dual boot setup with Ubuntu and Windows with no issues.

I bought it for $1699 CAD for the 7700HQ + Full HD Screen (not 4K) + GTX 1050 + 256GB HD + 16GB RAM and immediately upgraded the disk to 1TB and the ram to 32GB.

<comment><USER11> Which display and which dock?

</comment></comment><comment><USER44> Can anyone help me understand the pricing on this one. An Inspiron with core i5 / 8GB RAM / 256GB SSD costs about $500, whereas a similar spec'd XPS 15 retails for more than twice.

Is the "premium" really worth the extra $500-$800 or Dell is overcharging because there's hardly any good Windows machine in this space (except maybe Thinkpads) ?

<comment><USER45> They're upcharging for a really nice screen. It'll make all the BSODs super sharp.

</comment></comment><comment><USER46> I was considering this laptop last fall but because of the coil whine reports I ended up going with a Thinkpad X1 Carbon. Glad I did.

</comment><comment><USER47> I would have plopped the money down on one of these on saturday but I tried the one on display and the keyboard was horrible.

So I bought the 7560 (which had a much better keyboard and was 650 pounds less)..that went back after 6 hours when the hinge broke.

Shop didn't even quibble so I suspect it wasn't the first they'd seen.

Now I'm buying a Thinkpad.

<comment><USER48> I've been pretty happy with my Precision 5510 (which uses the same chassis as the XPS 15) but I agree, the keyboard is a low point that the reviews seem to miss. I prefer the keyboard on my old HP Folio 1040, which admittedly is very Macbook-like.

That and the webcam are my only complaints though. I love the speakers, screen, trackpad.. and the single-cable thunderbolt dock is great.

<comment><USER47> For me it was that the keys actually _rattled_ if you ran your fingers over them, that would drive me crazy, with the backlight on the spacings where all over the place because they moved around so much and the typing experience was sub-optimal, if the XPS15 had had the keyboard on the 7560 I'd have bought it there and then.

The 7560 was a nice looking/nice spec machine at 950 but the damn chassis bent just from opening and closing the lid in the first day.

Dell can make good machines but mostly by luck I think sometimes.

My current Laptop is an old Vostro 3750 I paid 500 quid for new (stacked discounts on the Dell site) and _it_ has a better keyboard after 5 years of abuse.

Damn thing just won't die.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER49> The line about the 99 watt-hour battery limit caught my eye. I wasn't aware of this:

[https://www.cnet.com/news/macbook-pro- october-2016-battery-l...](https://www.cnet.com/news/macbook-pro- october-2016-battery-life/)

</comment><comment><USER50> I really don't know guys, I have both XPS 9550 and Precision m5510 for more than 1 year and had 0 problems.

Yes, touchpad is not as good as MBP, but you can get used to it.

Now I'm looking for 13" laptop with 32gb ram. Do they exist at all?

</comment><comment><USER51> I was looking at this laptop with 32Gb RAM for development work, where I would be using multiple VirtualBox VMs to simulate (small) clusters. I also would need it to travel well and connect to foreign wifi AP's.

I have a MacBook Pro with Retina display, but I don't like it for developing - it's mostly gathering dust.

My workstation and personal laptop are running OpenSUSE Tumbleweed/KDE, which I love.

I don't mind using a Windows OS as long as I can launch a VM for my development.

But I guess the Dell XPS 15 9560 may not be my best choice given the real- world problems I am reading here.

</comment><comment><USER52> Is the webcam back at the top of the screen, or is it still at the bottom-left "I can see right up your nose" position.

 _edit_ Yep, on page 2:

> The smaller bezels really do reduce the bulk of the notebook, with the one > downside in Dell's case of a poorly positioned webcam at the bottom of the > display. Dell wants to keep the top and side bezels the same size for > aesthetics, and heavy webcam users will not appreciate this, with a less > than flattering up-the-nose result.

</comment><comment><USER53> I've all but given up hope on Apple bothering with 32Gb RAM.

Been researching the Dell alternatives (XPS and Precision) for a couple of months now. Very tempting machines indeed. I just want to see one in real life to see what the build quality feels like.

Pssst.. Mr Schiller... it seems it is possible to stick 32Gb of RAM into a laptop AND have decent battery life. Well, that is unless you're intent on giving your products anorexia which it seems you are.

</end rant>

<comment><USER54> I own a Dell XPS 13 and it seems to be fine build quality wise. Others have not been so lucky.

To be honest though, if I had the budget and Apple weren't being ridiculous with the specs I'd still consider a mac a much better development machine; specifically due to Adobe's refusal to port photoshop to ubuntu. If you do not have any need for photoshop, then XPS developer edition is much better value.

My only concern with the dell line is that drivers really are a problem. For some reason, the audio works perfectly fine under Ubuntu and is really half baked on Windows 10 (with the newest drivers from dell). It's like upside down bizarro world.

</comment></comment><comment><USER55> It looks good, but seriously one big thing that's a no-no for me is only HDMI1.4 (not HDMI2.0). It means that you can't do 4K@60Hz.

<comment><USER21> > seriously one big thing that's a no-no for me is only HDMI1.4 (not HDMI2.0). > It means that you can't do 4K@60Hz.

You can, using the Thunderbolt 3 port. I run my XPS 13 at 4K@60Hz using the mini-DP port, and Thunderbolt 3 is capable of that and more.

<comment><USER56> Not to a TV, tho, which makes it a deal breaker for me. They should put a proper HDMI port.

<comment><USER21> > Not to a TV, tho, which makes it a deal breaker for me. They should put a > proper HDMI port.

I'd rather have an extra Thunderbolt 3/USB-C port, to be honest. HDMI 2.0 is bigger and clunkier as a port, and Thunderbolt 3 is strictly better as a protocol (we're not even talking about HDMI 2.1). Maybe if you're talking HDMI 2.1, but the protocol can still be carried over a USB-C connector anyway, so keeping the standard connector interface is preferable in my books.

My bet is that TVs will soon start to have USB-C ports built-in (with whichever protocols they're willing to support). In the meantime, an adapter will do the trick; it can even live with the TV, since that's not meant to be portable.

<comment><USER56> Sorry I shouldn't have said port. They should've put in HDMI _support_. Over the USBC port. I agree that extra ports are superfluous.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> I bought one in February. Horrible experience. It couldn't display any video in the browser without freezing. Apparently an intel driver issue. The solution was to manually install an unsupported version of the video driver from the intel website. That solved it but left me with an unstable wifi and a noisy fan. I had much better luck with the Lattitude E74xx series.

</comment><comment><USER24> XPS is great, having said that I'm waiting for one with USB Type-C charging only and as far as I'm concerned it's time and all sockets should be USB Type-C. I have my Chromebook Pixel for 2 years now and I got used to plugging in a charger from either side.

</comment><comment><USER57> If anyone cares, I just got a Toshiba Portege X30, it's the lightest machine that can be equipped with 32GB Ram, has 2 Thunderbolt 3 ports and a matte fhd touchscreen. Sadly only a dual core U processor (they launch quad-core U processors in just a few months)

</comment><comment><USER58> I tried the XPS 15 Kaby Lake UHD touch version \- coil whine \- ctrl key on the most left part of the keyboard \- sound \- no notch for opening \- fan noise \- led bleeding \- touchpad \- surface coating \+ touch display \+ UHD/GPU/RAM/CPU

</comment><comment><USER59> I'm looking for a (possibly) portable machine to do some deep learning exploration on. Would a developer edition of this with Ubuntu pre-installed, be a good choice? Is the NVidia powerful enough and accessible via drivers?

</comment><comment><USER60> This is the laptop I have. The biggest (and the only) complaint is that after about 3 or 4 days of use the track pad stops scrolling and starts doing a "click-and-drag" instead. A restart takes care of this.

<comment><USER38> How the hell is the acceptable ugh.

<comment><USER61> 5-10 minutes every 72-96 hours. Behold the unwieldy struggles of the modern man!

<comment><USER62> For $1500 I don't want to regularly spend 5-10 minutes fixing my trackpad, and the anguish of that task relative to the turning of the cosmos is irrelevant.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER63> Mine came with:

* space bar double-registers once in a while. There is a well-known issue with the space bar, extremely well-documented: [https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/3ebe6t/dell_xps_13_20...](https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/3ebe6t/dell_xps_13_2015_space_bar/), [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R333HXzT7Ws](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R333HXzT7Ws) [http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/t/...](http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/t/20014634) and so on

* Killer Wifi BSOD'd 5 times in 1 week. Also well-documented, fix is apparently to complain and get an engineer to change it to Intel: [https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/5r1fu5/xps15_9560_wif...](https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/5r1fu5/xps15_9560_wifi_problems/)

* Sound was choppy (driver-based issue), apparently this is again well-known: [https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/5yvsng/xps_15_9560_au...](https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/5yvsng/xps_15_9560_audio_driver_poppingcrackling_noise/) there is no fix, the fix is to send it back (potentially also caused by Killer Wifi, Dell will never recognise that so you'll not get a WiFi card change)

* Mouse has a lag on the screen in 3D applications. Apparently, this is due to partially the XBox app that wants to record and isn't optimized to 4k + possibly McAfee + some other Dell boatware.

So, I returned the laptop. The 2nd thing in my life I ever returned. It was too much, and I wasn't sure I could fix all of the above in 2 weeks (return period in UK). I used Linux for my main OS, where everything but the space bar double-tap was a real issue. But that was _painful_. I was afraid that the replacement keyboard would be more or less the same. You can apparently just go to a random retailer, and it often double-taps there too (i.e. it _will_ break). Worst about it is that Dell offered a BIOS update to "fix" this. The Dell Knowledge Base (KB) article detailing this has been pulled, BIOSes now come pre-updated (yes, I did update my BIOS, no, it did not fix it). When a BIOS update "fixes" such a basic hardware bug, you really ought to wonder about their quality control.

<comment><USER45> I can't believe that a machine as high-end as this has all those bugs. I've had an Asus $400 boondoggle from Best Buy for 4 years now and the worst thing it does is occasionally unmount the optical drive. It seems like Dell just has very poor quality control.

</comment></comment><comment> vladimir-y I'd rather get Thinkpad Carbon X1 5th gen or Thinkpad T470.

<comment><USER64> I got a T470s for work and I can't recommend it. My current major issue is that the main screen attached to my docking station (Dell 4k 27") goes off for a second in random intervals. At some times as often as every minute, which makes it super annoying to work with it. After Win10 creators update I had another major issue where the video driver did not work anymore after standby. That was at least fixed with some driver updates. Besides that I experienced more bluescreens with it in 2 month than with any other PC that I owned.

Besides the stability issues the screen and the keyboard are quite good. However the touchpad is no comparison to the one on a Macbook. I can work without a mouse on a Macbook without missing anything, but not on the Lenovo. According to some reviews the T470 should be better in that area than the T470s, but I don't have one for comparison.

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> > The XPS 15 was never a gaming laptop

With a full GTX 1050 it pretty much can be. This looks like a great machine. How is Linux support?

<comment><USER65> I have the older xps 15 9530. If you try to run any decent game (spec wise easy for the laptop to handle), it will throttle down to 10 fps or less within 5 minutes. When I contacted customer care, they said since this is an ultrabook, this is expected and that they couldn't do anything.

So, my advice would be to research thoroughly if you are buying an XPS for gaming.

<comment><USER42> The XPS 9560 shares the same thermal design as the 9550, both of which are considerably better than the 9530.

I'm able to game for hours on my XPS 9560 with no thermal issues.

<comment><USER65> I guess different people have different experiences. Googling "xps 9560 throttling" shows up quiet a few results which sounds very similar to what I face. For example, this is from the 4th link in my search result:

When I play a game (overwatch, fallout 4, gta v), after some time my gpu throttle and i lost between 20-30% fps. And after more time, my CPU throttle to aroung 0.80 ghz and I lost all my FPS, the game become unplayable.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER66> Did Dell fix the coil whine problems?

<comment> vladimir-y No as far as I know, Latitude line is also affected.

<comment><USER67> I have an XPS 13 and the coil whine is one of the things that annoyed me the most, seems like they don't care at all. I've briefly used a Thinkpad and on that front is dead silent.

If they continue to provide a model with a Linux distribution installed, I would like to support them and purchase their products again, but that defect is the only thing I would like to see it fixed.

<comment> vladimir-y > seems like they don't care at all

It's proven for me that they don't, as it's a long standing and massive problem. Consumers should stop buying poorly engineered/manufactured devices, that would be the reasonable reaction.

> If they continue to provide a model with a Linux distribution installed, I > would like to support them and purchase their products again, but that > defect is the only thing I would like to see it fixed

Normally Thinkpads support Linux very well though don't come with it preinstalled.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER68> Had a Dell 7537 (non XPS) and it is honestly the worst machine I have ever used, from physical reliability (broken hinges and parts) through to flat out non-functional components including numerous issues with Wifi. After falling for the looks, I've vowed never to get a Dell again.

</comment><comment><USER69> Swing apps under Windows 10 are especially unreadable on this beast.

</comment><comment><USER70> Sure sucks being a poor college student.

<comment><USER49> A lot of people reading this would trade places with you. Enjoy it for what it is :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER71> Dell is trash and thats why I will soon release www.shitdell.com - to let people around the world to know what kind of shitty product they are getting.

I'm from Brazil and over here everything that Dell sells is trash. Dell Inspiron's hinge breaks usually after 1 year, so you better buy an extended warranty... but why in the hell would you buy an middle to expensive notebook that you know it is made with bad quality and that you need to pay more for extended warranty?

Dell doesn't deserve to exist as a company and soon I will help more people learn about how trashy are Dell's products...

<comment><USER72> Inspiron is not great, yeah. But my XPS 13" 9350 rocks. No hinge problems.

I have a feeling it's your country's insane import tariffs that are the real problem...

<comment><USER71> The import taxes are insane and, yes, I would agree that they are so high that they could generate the blue screen of death for some... but never heard of taxes causing hardware problems lol

A quick scan through the comments and you can see that Americans aren't that happy with Dell's hardware neither... and the hinge problem, tons of reports at Dell's USA community forum. So if I were you, would start getting careful with the hinge... or, like customer support from Dell suggested me one time: not open and close the notebook that much.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: How do I see all comments I have ever made on HN? - <AUTHOR> How do I see all comments I have ever made on Hacker News? <comment><USER2> See: [https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=jonloldrup](https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=jonloldrup)

<comment><AUTHOR> thanks!</comment></comment>


Benford's Law And A Theory of Everything - <AUTHOR> http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/25155/

<comment><USER2> Benford's law brought Enron down. It can detect cooked numbers in financials and tax returns as well.

</comment><comment><USER3> First comment on in the article is an HN-like and interesting response.</comment>


Apple Suddenly 'Confirms' Three Radical New iPhones - <AUTHOR> https://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2018/07/19/apple-iphone-x2-x-plus-se2-cheap-iphone-upgrade-specs-display-release-date-ios12/#2bc77d6d4d98 <comment><USER2> The announced radicality is restricted to the naming of 4 digit type identifiers without providing any further info.

This is clickbait.

</comment><comment><USER3> That article seemed to be completely bereft of any real information on the _Radical_ new phones.

</comment><comment><USER4> Has anyone done comparison of iPhone X's PWM OLED vs iPhone 8/7's non-PWM LCD?

I've found the screen on my 2016 MacBook Pro to be uncomfortable(eye strain) for reading despite its resolution and wide colour gamut compared to other screen. I suspect it's due to the use of the PWM.

</comment><comment><USER5> So I've read the budget (middle) one will not have an OLED display, I wonder how that will affect the look when the status bar has a black background. Will it look bad?

<comment><USER6> I'm more wondering about the price. Betting "budget" means like $799

<comment><USER7> The iPhone 6s is currently starting at $450 so I would expect "budget" to be somewhere in that range.

<comment><USER8> I wouldn't. Apple's current lines are X, 8, 7, 6s, SE.

The X budget will presumably sit between X and 8 pricing-wise. It's a cheap X, not a cheap phone.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


An Extremely Common and Terrible Line of Java - <AUTHOR> http://paultyma.blogspot.com/2018/02/an-extremely-common-and-terrible-line.html <comment><USER2> Interesting point. Notably though, a function that _could_ optimize itself based on the exact type given (e.g. runtime "instanceof") can recover performance while still being general enough to accept anything. If you pass around nothing but exact types, you lose that opportunity.</comment>


Microsoft's February security update release delayed to March - <AUTHOR> https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/msrc/2017/02/14/february-2017-security-update-release/ <comment><USER2> Since Flash update is now bundled with Windows Updates it means that Edge users will be using vulnerable Flash for one more month, wow :/

<comment><USER3> The "Disable Falsh" button is under Advanced Settings on Edge. Switched it off and I barely notice anything is missing these days.

<comment><USER4> True, but for the 90% of users of Edge that aren't technical, going into advanced settings and disabling flash is probably beyond their abilities.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Also see [https://bugs.chromium.org/p/project- zero/issues/detail?id=99...](https://bugs.chromium.org/p/project- zero/issues/detail?id=992)

<comment><USER6> I'd like to know if the "project zero" publishes to everybody the security issues discovered in Google products before Google has a chance to update the software? Or does this policy exist only for the other companies? Can we even know?

<comment><USER5> [https://bugs.chromium.org/p/project- zero/issues/detail?id=86...](https://bugs.chromium.org/p/project- zero/issues/detail?id=860)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I don't get it. So because of one issue, they're not going to deliver any other security patch either?

<comment><USER8> Microsoft stopped distributing individual patches, all updates are now rolled up into one package. Therefore, if one patch causes issues, none of them can be released.

Windows 10 already worked like that, last fall they started doing the same for older OS'es.

See: [https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/windowsitpro/2016/08/15/...](https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/windowsitpro/2016/08/15/further- simplifying-servicing-model-for-windows-7-and-windows-8-1/)

<comment><USER7> More of a reason to call that bundling "dumb".

Seriously, think about all the different issues Windows 10 has caused to people's computers. So if one issue damages a computer, they can't send any of the other updates to that model of laptop?

They should be striving towards higher modularity, not a lower one.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> One foreign government organisation must be hacked this month, but NSA doesn't have enough time, so they asked MS to delay patches.

<comment><USER10> I wish people thought a bit more critically when invoking NSA conspiracies in these matters. If the NSA was the primary cause, wouldn't it be _much_ easier to simply silently exclude those specific unwanted updates from an otherwise regular Patch Tuesday, instead of having Microsoft announce very publicly and vocally that something is 'off' in this patching round?

Not saying the NSA doesn't influence Microsoft or others to withhold patches, but seeing the invisible hand of the NSA everywhere is not helpful for determining and criticizing when they do influence things. People seem to be able to suspend their critical thinking too easily whenever the NSA can be invoked.

<comment><USER9> It was a joke.

<comment><USER10> Poe's law I guess then, sorry about that. You didn't make it easy to see, judging by the serious responses you got!

<comment><USER9> >judging by the serious responses you got!

Yup, I'm surprised too ;) At least it shows how much respect MS and NSA have now.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Wow. That is a BIG screw up if they're having to push an entire month's security updates across the board.

If anyone from Microsoft reads this: This is why cumulative updates suck, and you shouldn't force them on everyone. :)

<comment><USER12> It has nothing to do with cumulative updates.

They push once a month because back in the day they pushed whenever they had an update, and enterprises really hated that because it meant that sometimes 1000s of computers were all out of commission running updates at the same time.

So MS and the enterprises agreed on a specific day of the month that updates would get pushed, so that the enterprises could plan accordingly as best fit their needs.

Some enterprises just run the updates that night and let everyone know to expect some slowness or downtime, and some of them only let the update run on their testing machines so they can validate the update in their environment before allowing it out to all the other machines.

But the main point is that the updates are predictable because that is what the customers asked for.

<comment><USER13> _enterprises really hated that because it meant that sometimes 1000s of computers were all out of commission running updates at the same time._

If a computer has to go out of commission for a security update, you are doing it wrong (as an OS vendor). Doing cumulative updates is only band-aid. The real solution is make the OS modular and reliable enough to replace/restart components while it is running.

<comment><USER13> To the downvoters: Red Hat, et al. can roll out security updates on running systems. Except for kernel updates, though kexec avoids long restarts.

<comment><USER14> This is a somewhat unpleasant semi-misconception. You _can_ , indeed, update everything but the kernel without rebooting. In fact, I suspect you could even replace the kernel image and the modules while they're running (but this will certainly break any attempt to load modules at a later point without rebooting first). (Edit: most distributions choose to keep the old image along in case the new one breaks. It's relatively unfrequent now, but back in 2003...)

 _Generally_ , however, processes don't get restarted after updates and libraries don't get reloaded, so without rebooting, you're still running the unpatched versions.

I don't know if RHEL has a clever way to figure out what needs to be restarted (it's not _entirely_ impossible, thanks to systemd), but pretty much everyone under "et al." has this problem.

See Peter Larsen's comment here: [https://lwn.net/Articles/702664/](https://lwn.net/Articles/702664/) for a more authoritative take on this, I deserted to BSD land long ago...

tl;dr Rolling out the updates without restarting is one thing, and it's done, and Microsoft could do it too, they just take the easy route. _Applying_ them without restarting is a very different and far murkier story.

<comment><USER15> If memory serves, Microsoft cannot actually do it, due to differences in file system semantics. In Windows, it's not possible to replace a file that's in use.

<comment><USER16> DLLs and other components installed system-wide are almost never the same file: Updates install new versions of most DLLs into the SxS system and compatible applications load newer versions when they are restarted.

<comment><USER17> Unless they bring their own version, something that has been a issue at least once.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Happy at work? - <AUTHOR> http://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/17-ways-to-be-happier-at-work.html

<comment><USER2> "Don't over commit yourself or your team."

Sadly, as a developer, I usually have people doing this for me.

"Don't waste precious energy on malice and gossip."

The problem is that in many offices, politics matter. If you don't play the game, you will end up getting passed over for raises, etc.

"Never obsess over things you cannot control."

Most of the time, I am forced to obsess about it because upper management decides me to put me in impossible situations.</comment>


Google Networking Device Appears in Small-Town Iowa - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/09/pluto-switch/all/ <comment><USER2> Networks are a fundamental part of the Google infrastructure. Ask yourself a couple of questions and then you can answer the questions about Googles motivations.

1) Is there any switch that does only what you want? Have any of the features you didn't need interfered with your uptime?

2) In a 48 port high performance switch which is more expensive? The switch or the cables? Why?

So if you 'do the math' the obvious answer sort of pops out.

Disclaimer: I worked there and agreed not to discuss any platform technologies until such time as either Google talked about them publicly or they were disclosed by other means not related to me.

<comment><USER3> Is that agreement forever, or does it expire after x years? (or can you even say?)

<comment><USER2> To be honest I don't know. I do know that Google has a tendency to brag about things after they remove them from service so from a practical standpoint its not 'forever' but when I get home I'll check the language.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Heh, I'm completely baffled why it has Finnish text on it. From the blurrypic I can make out "Laite on liitettävä suojamaadoituskoskettimella varustettuun pistorasiaan", which basically means "Device must be connected to grounded outlet"

<comment><USER5> Does Google have a data-center in Finland?

<comment><USER6> <http://www.google.com/about/datacenters/locations/hamina/>

<comment><USER5> Early 2009. Date lines up with how old the ex-engineer thinks the device might be (3ish years old). So perhaps the Finnish text is explained by this being a piece of Hamina Data Center's original networking gear.

"Ex-Google engineer J.R. Rivers — who now runs a networking outfit called Cumulus Networks — says this appears to be an older switch, something that has been used for about three years or so"

<comment><USER7> A friend who used to do networking stuff for a global bank had good things to say about Nokia networking gear.

So I guess there are good networking hardware engineers in Finland, and it's not a stretch to imagine Google might have bought some of them up somewhere along the way.

<comment><USER8> Nokia has been hammered in the past couple of years and has shed[1] and will be shedding more[2] jobs over the next several quarters. Google and other technology companies have probably been circling Finland for a number of months now trying to identify and intake the best talent they can find.

[1][http://www.bgr.com/2012/03/22/nokia-to-cut-1000-jobs-from- fi...](http://www.bgr.com/2012/03/22/nokia-to-cut-1000-jobs-from-finnish- phone-plant/)

[2][http://www.bgr.com/2012/06/14/nokia-layoffs-2012-vertu- restr...](http://www.bgr.com/2012/06/14/nokia-layoffs-2012-vertu- restructuring/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I often hear about Google's custom hardware. Are there any other large tech companies (who are not hardware companies) that build/design their own hardware to run internally?

<comment><USER9> At Bloomberg, we design almost all of our branded hardware in-house, from the terminals (monitors/keyboards)[1] to the B-UNIT authentication devices[2]. There are also other internal datacenter hardware projects.

[1]: [http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u298/winstontj/Trading/Ha...](http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u298/winstontj/Trading/Hardware/100_2826.jpg) [2]: [http://lh6.ggpht.com/_iHYDAo93tQY/S3m5Jd5nHOI/AAAAAAAAGY8/oB...](http://lh6.ggpht.com/_iHYDAo93tQY/S3m5Jd5nHOI/AAAAAAAAGY8/oBpYLgEbYrw/b_unit3.jpg)

<comment><USER10> BTW, do you know, why Bloomberg switched from the old, more comfortable B-Units (as pictured above) to the new black ones, which dont feature a full fingerprint reader any more (instead you have to slide your finger over a smaller sensor)? The old design was way more comfortable, faster and produced less errors in my experience...

<comment><USER9> The quality of scan in the swipe sensors is actually better than the older area sensors and they also cost less and take up less space on the circuit board. Perhaps the enrollment scan you did was not as good as it could have been and you should re-enroll to capture a better fingerprint.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> As I recall, Google has been producing switches [1] for some time now.

1: [http://gigaom.com/2007/11/18/google-making-its-own-10gig- swi...](http://gigaom.com/2007/11/18/google-making-its-own-10gig-switches/)

</comment><comment><USER12> I love the "Who's online" section at the bottom of the "obscure" networking forum.

About 5 members and over 11,000 guests. It doesn't seem very "obscure" at the moment.

It's too bad PT Barnum is not alive today to see the thundering herds of the world wide web.

</comment><comment><USER13> The Wireshark capture showing BOOTP was interesting. I don't live in the networking world anymore, but I thought BOOTP had gone the way of Gopher by now.

<comment><USER14> That's just a peculiarity of wireshark, it displays both DHCP and BOOTP as BOOTP in the oneline view. The packets are likely DHCP

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> This is a bit of a longshot. But I am looking for switch hardware that have gigabit fiber and speaks OpenFlow for a FTTH project.

<comment><USER16> Find a BCM56534-based switch and put Indigo on it. Unfortunately my company only makes 10G OpenFlow switches which is probably overkill for FTTH.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> If the big Goo asks the forum admin to take down the thread, let me know, I've made a copy.</comment>


Can I do FP in my language? - <AUTHOR> http://www.lispcast.com/fp-in-my-language <comment><USER2> I'm very tempted to explore a coding style in C and C++ using a more functional idiom. I think both languages could benefit greatly if made more transparently 'intensional' \-- more restricted use of in:out function arguments, explicit return variables, minimal pointer arithmetic, more explicit pointer expressions, etc.

Has anyone attempted to devise a FP-style guide for non-FP languages? It could be fun to reimagine their now-antiquated idioms spoken in a more intuitive and/or legible accent.

<comment><USER3> Just make every variable immutable. That is the only style guide you need to make the program part of the fp paradigm. The rest of the "functional patterns" flow naturally out of this restriction.

<comment><USER4> If the standard data structures in your language are mutable this will not save you. Luckily many languages like Java have nice third party persistent collection libraries

<comment><USER3> You can treat the variables as immuteable even if they aren't...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The answer is "not if you don't have first-class functions" in your language.

<comment><USER3> This is not true at all. The only technical requirement for you to follow the functional paradigm is immutability.

Keep in mind that passing a first class function into another function as a parameter is not that far off from passing the result of that function as a parameter.

<comment><USER5> How do you figure? map() for example, is similar to but not identical to for... next.

<comment><USER3> You can still use recursion to loop. First class functions are a convenience to functional programming not a requirement. Map and reduce and other higher order functions are also not a strict requirement for fp.

Without first class functions an immutable program can still be turing complete. I would say that if a language only supports recursion and is immuteable, then that is all you need for the language to be part of the fp paradigm.

<comment><USER6> Where did you get this definition?

<comment><USER3> Intuition and experience. The definition naturally occurs to you over time, I've never seen the isomorphism between immutability and functional expressions illustrated though. However, it is explicit that every functional language is immutable as a requirement.

I'm sorry to say that if you don't understand this, you haven't really understood what functional programming is... You're just a guy who understands higher order functions.

<comment><USER7> > Intuition and experience.

...

> I'm sorry to say that if you don't understand this, you haven't really > understood what functional programming is...

you can't be serious can you ?

<comment><USER3> I am dead serious. If you don't understand this:

>The only technical requirement for you to follow the functional paradigm is immutability.

Then you don't understand functional programming. I can't take you seriously if you claim otherwise.

Obviously, you highly disagree with me. Feel free to elaborate rather than waste my time with obviously rhetorical questions.

<comment><USER7> > The only technical requirement for you to follow the functional paradigm is > immutability.

So are you saying that for instance both CaML and LISP aren't FP ? Because both are certainly not about immutability and you can write mutable messes in either.

<comment><USER3> [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Functional_programming](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Functional_programming)

Read the first line:

"In computer science, functional programming is a programming paradigm—a style of building the structure and elements of computer programs—that treats computation as the evaluation of mathematical functions and avoids changing- state and mutable data. It is a declarative programming paradigm, which means programming is done with expressions[1] or declarations[2] instead of statements."

Key phrase: "avoids changing-state and mutable data."

You can use C++ as if it was a functional language just like you can use LISP and CaML as if variables were mutable. However in both cases you are bending the language to follow a paradigm that is NOT functional.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> > People say they're doing FP in JavaScript. What they mean is they sprinkle > reduce and map around and they use some pure functions. There's a lot of > value in that. But otherwise their code is procedural. They have not learned > the paradigm, only the features.

Yeah, but that's probably okay. I feel like there's a strong implication here that following the paradigm has inherent value but I'm not sure why I should think that's the case.

Basically, I agree with the claim above that "there's a lot of value in that." :)

<comment><USER3> I disagree with you. Map and reduce achieve the same result as a for loop so why not use a for loop? The end result is the same it's just a bit cooler or convenient to use map in place of a for loop, that's the only reason why you would use one instead of the other in a imperative program.

The functional paradigm fundamentally alters the way the entire program is constructed, and you can do it without map reduce or filter. You really need to play with haskell or lisp to see the light.

<comment><USER9> > Map and reduce achieve the same result as a for loop so why not use a for > loop?

Map and reduce are more clear as to intent for the subset of what a for loop does that they, together, do, and that clarity and limitation has practical advantages for things like parallelization and distribution, which is why MapReduce is an important distributed computation model and ForLoop isn't.

> The functional paradigm fundamentally alters the way the entire program is > constructed

Programming paradigms are useful at levels other than "entire program", which is the reason many modern languages are multiparadigm.

<comment><USER7> > and that clarity and limitation has practical advantages for things like > parallelization and distribution,

and how many of these "parallelized and distributed" map and reduces actually exist out in the wilderness of javascript code ?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> This article is describing something that is very true but in the end it doesn't teach you how to do FP in an otherwise imperative language. This is surprising as it's just one single devastatingly simple rule you need to follow in order to do functional programming:

After you declare and assign a value to a variable NEVER change it again. That's it. Immutability. Almost every other functional programming pattern flows naturally from this restriction.

People already know the definition of functional programming and that is a functional program is a program that consists of a single expression and that the complexity of this single expression arises from the fact that this expression is the composition of other smaller functions...

What they don't know is that if you take an imperative program and make every variable immutable and construct your program following this restriction the final result will be identical to a functional program! The two concepts are isomorphic!

Try it if you don't believe me.

<comment><USER10> I do this for my own code but 20 years of persuasion has failed to convince any of my colleagues.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> FP? Floating Point?

I should hope you can do floating point math in just about any language.

Yeesh.

;)</comment>


Python Programming for the Humanities: An interactive tutorial - <AUTHOR> http://fbkarsdorp.github.io/python-course/ <comment><USER2> This reminds me of a project I started as a Religious Studies undergrad to try to use Python for scriptural analysis by analyzing word frequency. I abandoned it, however, after I tried running my program on several different translations (i.e. KJV, NRSV, etc.) and would get wildly different results. I realized that I couldn't rely on translations for accuracy and, being an undergrad, had no knowledge of Greek or Hebrew to be able to rewrite the program for the respective original languages.

It bummed me that I abandoned it, largely because I think there's a void for CS-aided Humanities endeavors. I still consider myself a (mediocre) humanities academic, rather than a (horrible) CS/IT worker. I'm happy to see this article perhaps giving some hope to other majors that you don't need to go all-in on Comp-Sci to be able to use it.

<comment><USER3> It goes deeper: the greek texts are divergent as well.

The work you proposed, believe it or not, has been done by hand (though I'm sure it has been replaced by computers.) Concordances have been around since 1262, and the first (according to wikipedia) was an effort of 500 monks.

<comment><USER4> What's the formula for converting monks to cpu cycles?

<comment><USER5> It depends on the denomination of the CPU.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This was written as if it were an intro to Humanities applications of CS to a math/CS academic. Not the other way round... was that intended?

If the target audience for this is someone from the humanities field with little to no experience in programming languages and environments, the ramp in this tutorial is very steep.

<comment><USER7> I agree... I've had a lot of absolute beginners ask me to "teach them to code" and at with their experience level, installation instructions alone would be enough to scare them off for good.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> It is definitely a step in the right direction. A friend of mine recently tried teaching Python to a class of Neurology students and found that the usual "find all prime numbers less than 100" approach did not work on them! They didn't have the same aptitude for numbers and maths as a CS, Maths or Physics students. The class found the whole exercise of programming complicated and stressful. The same course had earlier been offered to Physics students, who reported to have enjoyed it thoroughly. Given this, I think a text manipulation based tutorial can work better for students who need to learn programming and do not have good aptitude for math. Of course, some amount of math has to be picked up in order to become a competent programmer, but this exposure can come later for the not so math savvy students.

</comment><comment><USER9> Like @pistle, I'm a little confused about the intent of this notebook. This doesn't seem super beginner friendly; if I was a complete beginner, especially someone with a strictly humanities background and no CS experience, I imagine I wouldn't be able to get past the first "quiz":

> In the code box below, write a simple program that calculates how many > minutes there are in seven weeks.

How? We haven't talked about code at all yet! How do you expect me to know what Python looks like enough to write that program?

Am I totally missing the point of this notebook?

</comment><comment><USER10> Wasn't interactive for me. I'm running Chrome on Linux Mint. I cannot type where it says "insert your code here"

<comment><USER11> It's interactive in the sense that if you download the notebooks you can work through them with a local Jupyter installation.

<comment><USER9> If this is intended for people new to Python, I expect they will also have no idea what IPython or Jupyter is; there should probably be a blurb at the top about how to use this notebook with a link to the appropriate "Here's how to install IPython" page.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> What kinds of problems are academics in the humanities trying to solve computationally?</comment>


The Tiny Provision that Could Spark a Revolution in Health Tech - <AUTHOR> https://tracehealth.com/blog/2013/10/16/The-tiny-provision-that-could-spark-a-revolution-in-healthtech

<comment><USER2> I understand why the author is upset, but it's perfectly reasonable to think that medical providers who are still storing your health records on paper on a shelf can't get you a JSON feed of your cholesterol results.

If we want access to our health data on this level we'll first have to get all medical providers into the digital age (and do it with open, compatible solutions before proprietary solutions become the norm and set us 50 years back).

<comment><AUTHOR> Not sure if I did a good job of explaining things in the post, but the point is that, this is the requirement for hospitals/doctors who are already on electronic records. So, you're on electronic records, but your requirement for sending data electronically is a pdf? Feels like a huge lost opportunity.

And the problem of "closed" systems is exactly what we're trying to solve with Trace Health (not to be too self promoting.) The proprietary systems aren't going away, but new government regs mean that patients are now going to be able to log in and see their data online (in crappy patient portals). We credential in on the patients behalf, pull the data out, normalize it with records from their other siloed, proprietary systems and then make it easy to understand, download, etc...

It's clearly not the way we'd architect our health care system if we were starting over, but hopefully a helpful hack for those of us who have no choice but to deal with the healthcare system as it is.

-Noga

<comment><USER2> Oh, okay. That makes more sense. Sorry if I misunderstood.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> There's a much larger problem this article ignores. Now is NOT a great time to enter the electronic health records and data industry. That industry has been flooded with ideas and products for the last decade from large and small groups alike. They have disagreed on standards, formats and interopability.

This is why some people just throw their arms up and say, "take the fucking PDF and leave me alone."

<comment><AUTHOR> Totally disagree! It's an amazing time to be in the industry. Even though we have to deal with non-interoperability and lack of consistent formats, at least the data is now electronic. the Industry has also pretty much settled on the HL7 XML format. The EMRs can easily produce this document and most already use it for communicating with outside systems. If the gov is going to say that patients get access to their data electronically, there's no reason why we shouldn't be able to get it under this standard instead of printed on a pdf.</comment></comment>