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Dear Friends,
Another six months has flown by since our last newsletter. When thinking back over all that has been accomplished and everyone who has helped us, we realize how blessed Tashi Waldorf School is and send our deepest thanks to each of you. The school is now maturing. The rhythm of its daily life is so nurturing for us all. Visitors say they can feel it as soon as they enter the gate. This is largely due to the teachers' growth and development as they increase in numbers and deepen their roots in Waldorf Education. On June 1st, we began our third school year with 46 children in three kindergartens and a Class One! The Class One children receive their main lessons in Nepalese and are also learning Tibetan and English. This year nine Tibetan children joined the school. This cultural group was previously under represented.
We would like to introduce the four special women who have joined our teaching community:
- Bhagirathi Neupane from Bhutan is teaching Class One. Bhagirathi spent several years working on the Educational Program in the Bhutanese Refugee Camps in eastern Nepal. Bhagirathi is naturally and quickly learning about Waldorf Education and increasingly taking main lessons on her own. Her little boy Diktshant is in the kindergarten.
- Kamala Sapkota joined us as a Kindergarten Trainee last September. With the new school year in June Kamala took charge of Chandra's Kindergarten as Chandra is leaving for England in August. Having spent a year working closely with Chandra and participating in our training program Kamala is ready for this new challenge and is proving to be a natural in her kindergarten! Kamala is married and has two children who are in primary school.
- Lobsang Dolma has joined the school to teach Tibetan to Class One. Lobsang would like to become a grade teacher. This part time work is ideal for her, allowing her to attend university and teacher training at Tashi Waldorf School.
- Rabina Shahi is volunteering as a trainee in the kindergartens. Rabina has been working as a kindergarten teacher for five years. She attended one of our seminars during the winter and expressed her desire to receive training in Waldorf Education.
The past six months have been very exciting for our kindergarten teachers Durga, Chandra and Kripa:
- Durga Dahal and Chandra Tamang started working in Waldorf Education six years ago with Meyrav Mor at Balmandir Kindergarten. In recognition of their work and training in Waldorf Early Childhood Education, they received certificates from the International Waldorf Kindergarten Association this winter. In April, we held a ceremony to celebrate this special occasion with them. Marjorie Theyer, Advisor to the New Zealand Federation of Waldorf Schools presented their certificates.
- On August 1st, Chandra will leave to attend the 3-year Waldorf Teacher Training Program at Emerson College, England. This is the fruition of two years preparation and funding raising. Six organizations have joined together to provide the funding and Chandra has received a 3-year British Student Visa. This is a very important step for Chandra, for Tashi Waldorf School and for the Nepalese Waldorf Community as a whole.
- Durga received sponsorship from Vrije School de Ijssel in Zutphen, Holland to attend a Waldorf Education Conference in Bangkok in May. Durga stayed for two weeks, also attending a Waldorf teacher-training course. This was Durgas first opportunity to meet Waldorf teachers from other parts of Asia, and to taste the world beyond Nepal and India. Durga returned home glowing! Two weeks later Durga and her husband, Sunil, adopted a week old baby boy. His name is Dipungshu. He comes to school once in awhile so all of his Tashi Waldorf School aunties can take turns cuddling him.
- In May, Kripa Rana and Kamala Sapkota attended Aban Banas Waldorf Education Seminar in Khandala, India. The 3-week course was attended by 64 people primarily from India and Nepal. Like Durga, Kripa and Kamala returned excited and inspired by all they had learnt and experienced.
Our Open Education Seminar Program has been excellently attended these past six months as word continues to spread amongst Katmandu's educational community. To date this year, we have held three seminars conducted by Aban and Dilnawez Bana in February, Marjorie Theyer in April and Elizabeth Elsworth in June. The first two seminars focused on Early Childhood Education and the latter on Children with Special Needs. 77 people attended the seminars, with a core group of 14 teachers participating each time. Sincere thanks to the Seminar Facilitators for their most needed contribution to education in Nepal! The construction project funded by the ISIS Foundation of Bermuda will finish this month and has been instrumental in the school's continued development. The building now feels like a real school and no longer a corrugated metal shed! King's School in England funded the building of Class One, including furnishings and educational materials. The new classroom is beautiful, with big windows designed by Frank Sieber from Germany, looking out on the bamboo grove, the valley below, and the mountains above. Our deepest thanks to ISIS, King's School, and Frank for helping Tashi Waldorf School to grow and blossom.
Halina Rubisz, our Educational Coordinator, will leave in April, the end of this school year. Halina will go on to create a much needed Curative School for disabled children in Kathmandu with Shanti Sewa Griha. We need a Waldorf Teacher Trainer with a minimum of 5 years experience in early childhood and early grade education to come to Kathmandu. This position will start in January or February of 2003. Please pass the word and those interested should email their resume to Tashi Waldorf School.
As we take on more children from poor laboring families, we continue to search for child sponsors. Fourteen of our children are fully sponsored but we have 28 more to provide for. We need 56 more sponsors each contributing $25 per month half of the total cost per child per month. We would like to welcome and thank all the new sponsors who have recently joined our family. For our existing sponsors, your annual updates will be coming at the end of July.
We are in desperate need of childrens multivitamins; our current supply will run out by mid August. With so many children now the vitamins go very quickly! Also needed are coloured chalk and watercolour paints. We are completely out of childrens clothing for ages 3 to 7. Most needed are underwear, socks, and winter clothing. We deeply appreciate any help you can offer, especially getting the word out about Tashi Waldorf School.
Two organizations have kindly agreed to collect donations on behalf of Children of Nepal. In Canada your tax deductible donation can be made to the Waldorf School Association of Ontario. Please enclose your name and address so a tax receipt can be sent to you. In the U. K., donations can be made to the Kings School Worcester Nepal Trust. Contact John Walton before sending your donation (for details see below). Please email us if you would like to receive a copy of our Annual Report for 2001.
In every moment of every day, we think of all of you with love and thanks from our hearts. Without each of you our school would not exist and our children would not be receiving the quality education and care we are able to give.
With our thanks and best wishes, Everyone at Children of Nepal & Tashi Waldorf School
You can help:
1. Please send a donation to the associations as listed below
2. Sponsor a child for $25 a month. Your sponsorship will go towards the child's education, school
supplies, a warm nutritious meal each day, clothes and medical care.
3. Tell your friends and encourage them to make a contribution
4. Publish this newsletter in your school, organization, or community newsletter.
5. Pass this newsletter onto everyone you have already shared our project with.
6. If you are visiting Nepal let us know and we would be delighted to have you come to see us.
7. If you receive this newsletter by mail, let us know if you wish to receive it by email.
The Rudolf Steiner Foundation
Please write in the memo portion of the cheque: "The Children of Nepal"
Building 1002B, Thoreau Center, Presidio
P. O Box 29915
San Francisco, CA 94129-0915, USA
Tel: 415 561 3900
Donations are tax deductable in the USA.
Freunde der Erziehungskunst Rudolf Steiner e.V.
Please write in the memo portion of the cheque: "The Children of Nepal - Project #4405"
Kopenicker Str. 175
Berlin, D-10997, Germany
Tel: 030 61 70 26 30
Children of Nepal Ireland Internationaal Hulpfonds
c/o John Daffy
Please write in the memo portion of the cheque: Doire Fea "Children of Nepal"
Grallagh, Nenagh Hoofdstraat 14b
Co. Tipperary, Ireland LA Driebergen, NL-3972, The Netherlands
Email: email@example.com Tel: 0343 53 60 67


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Contact: Lisa Finnegan (212) 636-7175 email@example.com New York � During summer, the lacy leaves of an eastern hemlock tree provide a soft-lit, cool and quiet reprieve in many New York area parks. However, this luxury may soon become only a memory if a deadly insect continues to kill these trees along the east coast, particularly in Westchester County and New York City. The hemlock wooly adelgid, an insect originally from Asia, was transmitted to Virginia in the 1950s where the hemlocks had no natural defenses against it. By the early to mid-1980s, the adelgid had reached New York and Connecticut, killing thousands of hemlocks in the process. James D. Lewis, Ph.D., assistant professor of plant ecology at the Louis Calder Center Biological Field Station in Armonk, N.Y., has been researching the adelgid since 1998 at the Calder Center; Ward Pound Ridge, the largest park in Westchester County; Black Rock Forest, a private preserve north of West Point; and the Delaware Water Gap, a national recreational area. Enlisting the help of doctoral students J.T. Mates-Muchin and Greg Turner as well as Rob Sproule (FCO �02), Lewis is trying to determine the direct effects of the adelgid on the hemlocks and, as a result, the potential ecological and economic effects on the forest and its habitants. Besides being aesthetically pleasing, hemlocks traditionally help reduce run-off into streams, preventing erosion, and filter nitrogen out of acid rain. According to Lewis, there is a possibility that oak and maple trees in the New York area will naturally replace the hemlock. �Other hardwood species potentially would take over the roles of the hemlock, but there is a time gap,� Lewis said. �When the number of trees is knocked off by 80 percent, there is a reduced capacity of the forest to protect itself from erosion and acid rain.� In addition to erosion and acid rain, Lewis said the water, fish and stream organisms could also be negatively affected by a lack of hemlock protection. �For the other trees, this may possibly be a good thing, but for the animals, it is negative because it is removing food, bedding and nesting sites,� Lewis said. As the project entered its fourth field season this summer, Lewis began working with William Giuliano, Ph.D., assistant professor of vertebrate population biology at the Calder Center, to determine precisely how the animals are being affected. The areas of hemlocks Lewis is studying�known as stands�are showing as much as a 90 percent mortality rate within the first five years after the adelgid is introduced. While it is not clear whether the adelgids are blocking the sap as they feed on branches and twigs, the end result is that nutrients are not able to reach the hemlock needles. Most of the first-year needles die and fall off. Over time, the older needles also die, killing the hemlock. �Right now we have no effective ways to counteract the adelgid. This is going to be a persistent problem,� Lewis said. �If you want to protect these hemlocks, there is going to be constant management. You can�t spray once and have [the problem] go away.� Lewis has received funding from the United States Department of Agriculture to continue research through this year and has applied for two other grants. One would extend research specifically on the nitrogen processing to determine what is happening in the tree itself and why. The other, which was submitted by Amy Tuininga, Ph.D., and Jacqui Johnson, Ph.D., of the department of biological sciences, would continue the assessment of the adelgid�s impact on the hemlocks. Founded in 1841, Fordham is New York City�s Jesuit university. It has residential campuses in the north Bronx, Manhattan and Tarrytown, and the Louis Calder Center Biological Field Station in Armonk, N.Y. 9/02
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text:
Rapes largely underreported
Sunday, June 23, 2013
In Cole County, three rapes were reported in 2012. In Jefferson City, it was 14. At Lincoln University, it was one.
But those figures, from the Jefferson City Police Department and the Missouri State Highway Patrol, show only a portion of a greater issue of rape and sexual assault in the area.
A report released late last week by the World Health Organization found 35 percent of women around the world have been raped or physically abused.
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, only 36 percent of rapes, 34 percent of attempted rapes and 26 percent of sexual assaults were reported to the police nationally between 1992 and 2000.
Kevin Kempker, crime prevention officer with the Jefferson City Police Department, said though those types of statistics are never completely accurate, he knows a majority of those types of crimes go unreported.
"Any numbers you come up with are subjective," Kempker said. "You really can't rely on statistics ... (but) there are a lot of cases that I'm certain we don't hear about whatsoever."
While only three rapes and no attempted rapes were reported in Cole County in 2012, the Rape and Abuse Crisis Service, or RACS, reported that one-third of their 146 hotline calls from sexual assault victims were in Cole County in that same year. Of the 234 total victims who received individual counseling from RACS in 2012, 92 were from Cole County and 42 of those victims were identified as sexual assault victims.
"These larger percentages seem to be indicative of the numbers of victims not reporting their crime to law enforcement," said Jim Clardy, executive director of RACS. "More victims are being served than are reporting."
Pam Otto, volunteer and outreach coordinator at RACS, said victims choose not to report a rape or sexual assault for a variety of reasons. Often victims are afraid of reprisals from their attackers, especially when it was someone they know.
Kempker said it's tougher for victims to report a rape or sexual assault when the attacker is an intimate partner, a husband or a boyfriend.
Sometimes, it's a fear of how people in their life will react, whether they will be treated differently, or if they would ever be able to date again, Otto said.
"If they're going to be believed is a really big one," Otto said.
Sometimes the person who raped them is someone they care about, she said, and they don't want to get the attacker in trouble. And very often, the victims simply are blaming themselves for what happened.
"I've never been to the hospital with a rape victim who did not blame herself," Otto said. "To me, that's the most tragic part."
Kempker agreed, saying many victims who choose not to report believe they played a role in what happened.
"They feel some sense of humiliation," Kempker said. "And they were partly to blame or at fault, which they shouldn't."
Another issue is for those who do choose to prosecute and go through the court process, they often find themselves re-victimized, Otto said.
"Rape victims are re-victimized by the system; it's the way our system was set up," Otto said. "The defense attorney is going to deliberately question everything about her and make her look bad and make her feel worse about herself. A lot of times, rape victims just don't feel strong enough to go through that."
Otto said when a victim seeks services from RACS and chooses not to report, she or he receives full support from the staff.
"We totally support them in whatever choice they make," she said. "We don't try to convince them one way or the other."
Kempker said it's a tough issue to handle when a victim does not want to move forward with reporting or prosecuting. There's only so much the police can do in those cases, he said. Every case is pursued to the fullest extent possible, but without a cooperating victim or witness, it's difficult to successfully close a case, he said.
"We try to handle it as delicately as we can," Kempker said. "It's unfortunate, though, sometimes they're not willing, victims or witnesses to those offenses, and we have to do the best we can with the little information that we have."
Otto said though a victim receives full support from RACS in any decision they make, the staff knows the best thing for everyone is for the attacker to be prosecuted.
"We know, just like law enforcement knows, this person who raped them is going to do this again to someone else, if not to the same person again," Otto said. "It's in everyone's best interest to get this person prosecuted and punished for what they've done. But not every victim is in a place in their lives where they're able to assist with that."
Otto said most rapes occur by someone who knows the victim. And it's important for women to know that not all rapes occur through violence or threats.
"Coercion is not the same thing as consent," Otto said. "If I don't feel safe saying no, yes doesn't mean anything."
Rape, sexual assault
in the military
In early April, U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill met with officials with the Missouri National Guard to discuss sexual assaults in the military. She attended a roundtable discussion at the Ike Skelton Training Center to hear about the policies and procedures they have in place to address the issue.
McCaskill has introduced legislation to make reforms to the Uniform Code of Military Justice to prohibit commanders from vacating or nullifying a jury verdict and require written justification from a commander for any decision to commute or lessen a sentence after a guilty verdict in court martials.
Maj. Kimberlee Cluck, who acts as the sexual assault response coordinator for the Missouri National Guard, said any changes to the Uniform Code of Military Justice would not affect the Guard, as they do not fall under the jurisdiction of that code. Each state has its own statutes to govern that states' Guard, she said.
Cluck said though the issue of rapes and sexual assaults in the military has become a widely discussed and reported issue, it's no different than the issue in the civilian world.
"At one time, it was thought or purported to be more in the military," Cluck said. "Recent studies have shown that it's pretty much the same in the military as it is in the civilian population as a whole."
Cluck said a fiscal year 2012 estimate, done through anonymous surveys, found 53 percent to 54 percent of sexual assaults in the military were against men, who largely are less inclined to file a report.
"Men have the additional stigma of 'are they going to think I'm gay.' And the men are vastly underreporting more than the women," Cluck said. "There's a lot of stigma with coming forward."
Cluck said the Guard has been aggressively addressing the issue of sexual assaults through training and services focused on treating victims.
"It will not be tolerated," Cluck said.
Cluck said she could not comment on the number of rapes or sexual assaults reported in the Missouri National Guard.
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text: A fourth-grade Thai-American student, new to a predominantly Mexican-American school, struggles to fit in with a popular clique. In a starred review, PW wrote, "Zeroing in on a very specific situation, first-time author Marsden hits the issues of this age group squarely and truthfully." Ages 7-9. (Mar.)[Page 159]. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.


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Original Link: http://www.anandtech.com/show/6103/dell-xps-15-l521x-detailed-first-look
Dell XPS 15 L521X: A Detailed First Lookby Jarred Walton on July 25, 2012 1:10 AM EST
Introducing Dell's XPS 15 L521x: the 2012 Update
I've had some good experiences with Dell's XPS line of laptops over the years, but in virtually every case I've had a few minor complaints. The earlier models were large, fast, and too expensive for most users. Then Dell dropped the XPS line for a while and went with the Studio XPS—still generally expensive and there were performance elements that came up short (e.g. the Studio XPS 16 had an awesome RGBLED backlit display, but it tended to run a bit toasty and the hardware wasn't as fast as previous XPS offerings). With the relaunch of the XPS line in late 2010, the original XPS 15 delivered a great display and a well-balanced set of components that was enough to earn our Gold Editor's Choice award, but the chassis was understandably a bit too bulbous for some tastes. The XPS 15 Sandy Bridge update improved the CPU and GPU options, but six months after the first XPS 15 I was even less enamored with the chassis.
Next up in the list of progression was the XPS 15z, which improved some areas but regressed in others. It had a thinner, sleeker looking chassis, but dropped support for quad-core processors, downgraded the GPU slightly, had some thermal concerns, and perhaps most worrisome was the build quality. I posted an update a few months after the review that summed things up nicely: "I can't stress enough how it feels like Dell cut a few corners and the result is a laptop that doesn't hold up as well as I'd like over the long haul…. When the inevitable Ivy Bridge update of the 15z comes out, you can bet I'm going to pound on it a little more." And that brings us to the new XPS 15, which has a completely redesigned chassis. Did Dell listen to my complaints about the 15z build quality? You better believe it!
Superficially, the new XPS 15 looks quite similar to the 15z, at least in pictures. Meet one in person, however, and the changes are immediately noticeable. Many suggested that the XPS 15z was trying to clone Apple's MacBook Pro, but that's somewhat disingenuous—unless you consider any laptop that aims to be slimmer and silver to be a MBP clone, I suppose. I would however suggest that it did take more than a couple design cues from Cupertino, including a strikingly similar keyboard layout. The newest model keeps the 15z keyboard layout (which is still a step back from the XPS 15 L501x/L502x in my opinion), but ditches the silver palm rest and keyboard area for a matte black surface with a soft-touch coating. The touchpad also gets a clickable MBP-like interface that we've seen on just about every Ultrabook along with many newer laptops. Personally, I still prefer touchpads with separate non-integrated buttons, so this is another step back.
What's not a step back is the chassis itself, which is now the most MacBook Pro-like chassis I've encountered in a non-Apple product. It uses machined aluminum for the main chassis and frame, similar to Apple's unibody chassis, and it's thicker and far more rigid than any previous Dell XPS laptop. Even the display cover gets a thick aluminum backing, so there's really no twisting or flexing to speak of. The palm rest on the other hand isn't machined aluminum but instead uses magnesium with a soft-touch coating. If you thought the XPS 15z copied a lot of Apple's design, the XPS 15 will only cement that impression, but really I don't care: if a competing product is better, then stealing a few ideas isn't going to hurt my review of it. [Insert obligatory Steve Jobs quote about great artists stealing….]
Here's the spec sheet for the new XPS 15, and I've included the specs of the last-gen MacBook Pro 15 as a reference point. Note that unlike the MacBook Pro Retina, Dell continues to include a DVDRW/Blu-ray optical drive with their XPS 15.
|Dell XPS 15 Specification Comparison
|Dell XPS 15 L521x
|Apple MacBook Pro 15 (2012)
Intel i7-3612QM
(Quad-core 2.10-3.10GHz, 6MB L3, 22nm, 35W)
Intel i7-3610QM
(Quad-core 2.30-3.30GHz, 6MB L3, 22nm, 45W)
Intel HD 4000
(16 EUs, up to 1100MHz)
NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M 2GB GDDR5 (Optimus)
(384 cores at 624MHz/709MHz Boost, 128-bit GDDR5-4000)
Intel HD 4000
(16 EUs, up to 1100MHz)
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 512MB GDDR5
(384 cores at 735MHz, 128-bit GDDR5-4000)
15.6" WLED Glossy 16:9 1080p (1920x1080)
(AU Optronics B156HTF/B156HW03)
|15.4" WLED Glossy 16:10 WXGA+ (1440x900)
750GB 7200RPM HDD (Seagate ST9750420AS)
32GB mSATA caching SSD (Samsung PM830)
|Optical Drive
|Blu-ray Combo slot-load (Matshita UJ167)
|DVDRW slot-load
802.11n dual-band 300Mb WiFi (Intel 6235)
Bluetooth 4.0 (Intel 6235)
Gigabit Ethernet (Realtek RTL8168/8111)
802.11n dual-band 450Mb WiFi
Bluetooth 4.0
Gigabit Ethernet
Realtek ALC269
Stereo Speakers
Headphone/Microphone jacks
Stereo Speakers with Subwoofer
Headphone/Microphone jacks
9-cell, 14.8V, 4400mAh, ~65Wh
90W Max AC Adapter (19.5V, 4.72A)
85W MagSafe Power Adapter
|Front Side
|Left Side
3 x USB 3.0
Gigabit Ethernet
AC Power Connection
Headphone and Microphone jacks
SDXC Card Reader
2 x USB 3.0
1 x Thunderbolt
1 x FireWire 800
Gigabit Ethernet
MagSafe AC
|Right Side
Headphone and Microphone jacks
Kensington Lock
Memory Card Reader
Optical Drive (BD-Combo)
Kensington Lock
Optical Drive (DVDRW 8x SuperDrive)
|Back Side
|Exhaust Vent
|Exhaust Vent
|Operating System
|Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
|OS X Lion (or Mountain Lion)
14.6" x 9.8" x 0.91" (WxDxH)
(371mm x 249mm x 23.2mm)
14.35" x 9.82" x 0.95" (WxDxH)
(364mm x 249mm x 24.1mm)
|5.79 lbs (2.6kg)
|5.6 lbs (2.56kg)
1.3MP HD Webcam
80-key Backlit Keyboard (Spill Resistant)
Memory Card Reader (MMC/MS Pro/SD)
720p FaceTime HD Webcam
78-key Backlit Keyboard
Memory Card Reader (SDXC)
|$1700 MSRP, online starting at $1600 (7/17/12)
|$1799 MSRP; online starting at $1710 (7/17/12)
The "on paper" matchup between the Apple and Dell laptops ends up being quite interesting. Not surprisingly, even the base model MacBook Pro 15 is quite a bit more expensive than the mid-tier XPS 15. (There's a dual-core model XPS 15 that comes with an i5-3210M CPU, GT 630M 1GB GDDR5, 6GB RAM, 500GB HDD + 32GB mSATA SSD, 1080p LCD, and DVDRW for $1300 if you're interested.) In many key areas, Dell comes out ahead of Apple this round: they have a higher resolution LCD standard, you get 8GB DDR3-1600, they use a 750GB 7200RPM HDD with a 32GB mSATA SSD caching drive (via Intel's Smart Response Technology), you get a Blu-ray combo drive, and there's a third USB 3.0 port plus HDMI and DisplayPort outputs.
However, that's not the whole story: Apple uses a full voltage 45W i7-3610QM processor, which boasts slightly higher clock speeds than the 35W 3612QM, and they also use a GT 650M GPU that comes with higher core clocks. Let's also not forget the FireWire 800 port (well, I've never used FireWire so actually I can forget about it…), or more importantly the Thunderbolt port. Apple also uses a higher capacity battery configuration and provides a 450Mbps capable (dual-band 3x3:3 MIMO) wireless adapter.
Perhaps more interesting than the differences are the areas where they're the same. Both laptops have machined aluminum chassis, and the dimensions are very close to a tie. Apple isn't quite as wide, thanks to their 16:10 aspect ratio display, but the Dell XPS 15 is actually slightly thinner. Despite the relatively similar dimensions, Apple still manages to come in 0.2 pounds lighter, but for this size laptop that's close enough for all practical purposes.
So which laptop is better? In the past, I've always felt that Dell's attempts to compete with Apple came up a bit short. The first XPS 15 (L501x/L502x) was a nice change of pace from previous Dell designs, but it wasn't really close to Apple in terms of overall design. The XPS 15z got the form factor right in my opinion, but build quality still went to Apple—plus you were limited to dual-core CPUs. I would also say the same thing about HP's Envy line—they've had some nice looking laptops for sure, but I've never felt they could match Apple's overall build quality (though I would rank the previous models slightly ahead of Dell's older XPS offerings). This time, build quality is absolutely top notch for the new XPS 15, and the only thing that really differentiates it from the MacBook Pro is the black palm rest with soft-touch coating, and the silicone on the bottom of the chassis.
What it really comes down to is one thing: do you prefer running Windows or are you an OS X devotee? Sure, you can always run Windows on a MacBook in a pinch (or you could try to make a Hackintosh), but as we've shown in the past there's a penalty in terms of battery life if you choose that route. If you have never owned a MacBook Pro, there's a good chance you fall into the camp of users that admire Apple's designs but couldn't care less about their OS—which is exactly my feeling. Now, we have a truly viable alternative for the MacBook Pro (though sadly there's nothing even remotely close to the MacBook Pro Retina, of course). And guess what? You'll pay more; yes, it's true: quality has a price.
I'm not sure exactly how much of the added cost comes from the sturdier and slimmer chassis, but if we look at competing Windows laptops (e.g. ASUS N56VZ), you can actually get pretty much the same specs from a laptop for just $1000. There's no doubt in my mind that the XPS 15 is built better than the N56VZ, but I've been using a similar ASUS laptop for a couple months now and the only thing that's really missing in my mind is solid state storage—which you can easily add on your own. The ASUS should also be slightly faster on the CPU side, though the use of DDR3 memory on the GPU makes it a bit of a wash. Based purely on the overall design and features, I'd go with the Dell XPS 15, but at a 60% price premium the ASUS is clearly the better bargain.
The Dell XPS 15 in Practice
Subjectively, I love the new XPS 15 design. From the moment I unpacked the box, I have been happily testing the laptop with very few complaints as far as typical use is concerned. The display looks good (though with a distinct bluish cast), the feel of the laptop hinge and chassis is awesome, and it's really just a very attractive piece of kit. There are many aspects that I really enjoy, but there are also a few areas where the subjective experience comes up a bit short, at least for me. Let's run through the various elements and discuss how they fare in practice.
The typing action on the XPS 15 is quite good and easy to adapt to, and accidental activations of the touchpad while typing are generally rare in my experience. Still, I'd like to see a keyboard shortcut to turn off the touchpad, and I question the need for a dedicated mute button when there are so many other keys you could include. Dedicated Home/End/PgUp/PgDn are at the top of my list, and there's definitely room on the right and left sides of the keyboard to have additional keys. On the other hand, adding a number keypad like other laptops have done changes the experience as well, since the main keyboard ends up being shifted to the left in order to make room, resulting in an off-center keyboard relative to the screen.
The keyboard action is slightly different than that of a MacBook Pro, but I wouldn't go so far as to call either one inherently superior; I might give the MBP15 a slight edge in terms of keyboard feel, but as someone who prefers Windows it has a less than optimal layout. I'd also like to see Dell bring back the context-sensitive menu key to the right of the right Alt key, just because it's something I've grown accustomed to using and the alternate shortcut (Shift+F10) isn't as convenient. Again, there's plenty of room for more keys, but Dell has removed a few keys for what appears to be primarily aesthetic considerations. Some people will probably love the layout, but I still think the last generation XPS 15 layout was better.
While I can certainly live with the keyboard without too many complaints, the touchpad is more of a problem. I'm used to (and prefer) having discrete mouse buttons. Clickable touchpads are something I've begun to adapt to, thanks to the numerous Ultrabooks and other laptops I've used that have gone this route, but Apple still seems to have a better experience in this area—and I'm not really keen on Apple's touchpad either. Gesture support is present and works well, but activating the right-click is more finicky than I'd like thanks to the integrated buttons. It's a big surface, which works well for gestures, but I don't really need all the available area and would happily give up some size to get the buttons back. Also, as noted earlier, I wish Dell had included a keyboard shortcut to turn off the touchpad (e.g. an Fn-key combination), as during long typing bouts I would occasionally inadvertently activate the touchpad (and by "occasionally" I mean maybe once for every 1000 or so words I type—definitely livable).
Moving on to the LCD, the display has a good resolution, and if you're not a stickler for accurate colors it will certainly suffice. However, there's a noticeable bluish cast to the screen by default, and even after hardware calibration I wasn't able to completely overcome this. More bothersome than the colors for me is the continued use of glossy LCDs, but there's a second element here. Apple's MacBook Pro laptops have typically offered maximum brightness levels of around 400 nits or more, and that's what I like to see on laptops that may actually see use outside. The AU Optronics panel used by Dell on the XPS 15 appears to be the same B156HW03 model used on the previous generation XPS 15z, with a maximum white level around 350 nits. That's not too bad, but it drops to 300 nits when calibrated to the "native white" level, and if you target the normal D65 or 6500K white levels the maximum brightness registers at 250 nits. Anyway, I can definitely live with the current LCD, but the LG LP156WF1 panel used by ASUS in their N56VZ/VM for example delivers a superior experience (and it's matte as well).
Where things start to get interesting is when we get to the overall experience in performance metrics. The laptop should be fast enough for just about any modern task you might want to do, but that's not the same as being truly fast. The default configuration for our review unit has a 750GB hard drive with a 32GB SSD cache using Intel's Smart Response Technology. The SSD cache definitely helps with overall responsiveness, and 32GB gives you a lot more caching ability than something like the 8GB cache on the Seagate Momentus XT drives, but if you've used a system with a dedicated SSD there's still a difference. Depending on how you use your PC, you may notice this less or more—32GB is plenty for caching the OS, browser, office applications, and a few other items. Once you start using games on a regular basis, though, you run the risk of having more "important" data ejected from the SSD cache. The first time you install and run an application, the laptop will also feel more like a hard drive than an SSD. Dell has an XPS 15 with a dedicated 128GB mSATA SSD (and a 1TB 5400RPM HDD), but that tips the scales at a hefty $2000; there's also a 512GB SSD-only model, but that's even more expensive with a (current) price of $2300.
The other aspect of performance that really raises some questions—and the whole reason we're calling this a First Look rather than a complete review—is when we get to the CPU and GPU performance. On their own, both components perform about where you'd expect. The i7-3612QM is slightly slower than a full voltage i7-3610QM/i7-3615QM, but for most workloads it only ends up being a few percent slower. Run a GPU-centric test like 3DMark11 and the same is generally true—the GT 640M GDDR5 graphics card has plenty of performance potential on tap. The problem right now is what happens when you load up a game that will stress both the CPU and GPU.
Our initial gaming/graphics benchmarks quickly raised a red flag with performance that was often substantially lower than what we've seen on similar laptops—e.g. Acer's V3-571G has a slightly faster i7-3610QM CPU with a GT 640M DDR3 GPU, so in games we would expect the XPS 15 to come out ahead or at worst tie. That wasn't the case, unfortunately; not by a long shot. We began investigating the performance and quickly determined (using HWiNFO64 logs) that the CPU was throttling under most gaming workloads. Instead of running at somewhere between the rated 2.1-3.1GHz under load, after a minute or two of gaming the CPU cores clock down from 2.8GHz to 1.2GHz and generally remain there until we exit the game. The throttling seems to be more than just cutting the CPU clocks in half, though, as there were some titles where performance is less than half of what we'd expect, and most games should still be GPU limited with Ivy Bridge running at ~2.0GHz..
The short-term solution for our testing purposes is that we used ThrottleStop 5.0 Beta 3 for our gaming benchmarks. We disabled the CPU PROC HOT signal and set the maximum CPU multiplier to 23X. Generally speaking, a 2.3GHz quad-core Ivy Bridge processor should be fast enough to keep the GT 640M fed with data, but there is the potential for performance to be slightly lower in some titles since the CPU can't hit higher Turbo Boost speeds. We ended up with these settings by performing many tests and eventually settled on 2.3GHz as it proved stable for all of the games we tested. During testing CPU temperatures typically maxed out in the high 80C range, whereas a 2.5GHz clock reached the mid-90C range and we experienced a couple crashes. But stability with games and ThrottleStop at 2.3GHz isn't the same as stress testing stability at those same settings; we'll have more detail on the stress testing results when we look at the temperatures under load.
There's another slightly less critical problem that came up with our testing: Dell ships the XPS 15 with 296.01 NVIDIA drivers, which are now several months old. We can install the latest 304.79 beta drivers, but using those drivers may reduce performance in some titles while helping in others—we experienced the same thing when testing the Acer V3. We ran our gaming test suite at our Value and Mainstream settings with both sets of drivers, and we're using the higher result for each title. For those who are interested, the 296.01 drivers provided higher performance in Batman: Arkham City (~5% faster), Portal 2 (~4% faster), and Elder Scrolls: Skyrim (~6% faster); there is also apparently a major regression bug with DiRT 3, as performance is up to 200% faster with the 296.01 drivers—30FPS compared to 94FPS (NVIDIA has been notified already and we expect the next beta/WHQL update to address this). Meanwhile the beta 304.79 drivers delivered better performance in Civilization V (23% faster) and Total War: Shogun 2 (19% faster); Battlefield 3 performance remains essentially unchanged. Hopefully the next WHQL driver from NVIDIA will fix some of the performance discrepancies, but with the exception of DiRT 3 the performance drops from 296.01 to 304.79 are less than the performance increases, making the more recent NVIDIA drivers generally preferable.
Our experience with the CPU throttling is definitely not limited to our test unit, as other people are reporting similar issues online. The good news is that all of the CPU throttling issues should be fixable via a firmware/BIOS update—and a Dell representative confirmed last week that the root issue has been identified and that Dell is working on a fix. The latest BIOS is currently A04 at the time of writing, and our laptop shipped with A01; both versions have CPU throttling issues. Dell also gave us two beta BIOS releases to address the CPU throttling, with the second BIOS showing some clear improvements. We're still waiting for the "does everything properly" firmware update right now, and when we get a release BIOS that fixes the throttling issues we've encountered, we will update our laptop and retest. At that point, we will also provide the final conclusion on our Dell XPS 15 review.
For now, consider all of our benchmark results to be preliminary, in particular any that tend to stress the GPU as well as CPU (e.g. portions of PCMark, and definitely 3DMark and the games). The CPU-centric tests appear to be running fine, but it's possible a firmware update may reduce some scores while increasing others. If you want a laptop that can always run the CPU and GPU at the maximum turbo clocks (e.g. 2.8GHz for the i7-3612QM and 624-709MHz for the GT 640M), I'd say it's a safe bet that the XPS 15 won't satisfy that desire. Pathological workloads like Furmark and OCCT are almost certainly going to trigger some form of throttling, and our stress testing suggests that any workload where you hit 100% load on the CPU and GPU will need to lower CPU and/or GPU clocks. Getting maximum clock speeds generally requires more cooling, which requires a thicker chassis, and the XPS 15 doesn't really target that market. Ideally, Dell should be able to deliver a BIOS update that will tune the performance so that gaming/graphics workloads will run the GPU at maximum speed while keeping the CPU clocks in the 2.1-2.8GHz range, and that should be more than sufficient for most users.
Dell XPS 15 General Performance
We start as usual with our general performance application benchmarks. We're reaching the point where we now have quite a few notebooks in our updated Mobile Benchmark suite, and we've tried to select some reasonable comparison points. Given the preliminary nature of our benchmark results (i.e. potential for CPU and/or GPU throttling), we have not yet added the XPS 15 to Mobile Bench, but we will do so when we have a final release BIOS that addresses our throttling concerns. Here's the list of laptops we'll be using for our charts, along with a brief overview of their specs. The full specs for each laptop can be found in their respective reviews, which we've linked in the table below.
|Laptop Configuration Overview
|Acer Aspire V3-571G
|Intel i7-3610QM
|Acer Aspire S5
|Intel i7-3517U
|Acer TimelineU M3
|Intel i7-2637M
|AMD Trinity Prototype
|ASUS N56VM (Prerelease)
|Intel i7-3720QM
|Intel i7-2630QM
|Clevo W110ER
|Intel i7-3720QM
|Hybrid (Seagate)
|Dell XPS 15 (L521x)
|Intel i7-3612QM
|Hybrid (SRT)
|Razer Blade
|Intel i7-2640M
|Sony VAIO SE
|Intel i7-2640M
|Toshiba P755D
We have quite a few SSD-equipped laptops in our list, which will mostly influence PCMark results. The Dell XPS 15 we're reviewing marks the first time—and certainly won't be the last!—we've had a laptop arrive with support for Intel's Smart Response Technology. Previously SRT was only available with the desktop Z68 chipset, but with the new Ivy Bridge Panther Point chipsets (see the chipset table at the bottom of our IVB Ultrabook review) laptops with 7-series chipsets (excluding the HM76) all support SRT. Dell uses a Samsung P830 32GB mSATA SSD for SRT caching, and we enabled the higher performing "Maximized" mode with write-back caching as opposed to the lower performing "Enhanced" mode with write-through caching. There is an increased risk of data loss in the event of hardware removal or failure, but HDD removal is highly unlikely to occur on the XPS 15 and in the case of hardware failure there's already a high chance of data loss. (We always recommend users back up, and back up often!) Note that a system crash doesn't cause data loss—the Intel BIOS hooks detect an improper shutdown with "unsaved" data in the SSD cache, and that data is then committed to the hard drive on the next boot—it's actually quite slick.
The other hybrid storage solution that we've seen more often is Seagate's Momentus XT, which has an 8GB cache that AFAIK only functions in write-through caching mode. Going forward, we'll also see some laptops using alternative caching schemes like Diskeeper/Condusiv Technologies' ExpressCache software. I do have a laptop undergoing testing right now with an 8GB ExpressCache implementation, and it appears to be less performant than a 32GB SRT cache, but given the discrepancy in SSD size it's difficult to come to any firm conclusion at this point.
Now let's get to the benchmark results, starting with PCMark. We ran the XPS 15 in both IGP and dGPU modes, as the presence/lack of Intel's Quick Sync technology can have a sizeable impact on overall performance according to this metric. We've used the best score for each chart on previously testing laptops (e.g. IGP for the Computation results). The XPS 15 results are in green, with the similarly equipped Acer V3-571G results in yellow. We also have results for the ASUS N56VM/N56VZ prototype with both HDD and SSD (light blue) storage, so you can get a feel for the range of performance that the storage solution creates. Note that while the overall design is highly reminiscent of Apple's current MacBook Pro 15, we do not have current MBP15 Boot Camp results—and anecdotally it appears there is very little cross shopping; people either want an MBP with OS X, or something else with Windows. If/when Anand or Vivek gets around to testing the latest MacBooks with Windows, we'll add the results to Mobile Bench.
Starting with PCMark 7, our results are actually somewhat surprising. The hybrid Seagate Momentus XT storage in the Clevo W110ER doesn't improve scores all that much over a typical hard drive (if you can call 25% "not that much"), whereas the 32GB SRT solution in the XPS 15 looks to improve performance by around 75% over an HDD. Of course, if you make the switch to a pure SSD solution (e.g. look at the N56VM scores), PCMark 7's overall score improves by 135%. That pretty much establishes the expected storage hierarchy: SSD > HDD + SSD Cache > Hybrid HDD > HDD.
There are a few other oddities in the PCMark 7 results worth noting. Both the Creativity and Computation suites benefit tremendously from Intel's Quick Sync technology. For whatever reason (we tried both the 2696 and 2761 Intel drivers, with similar scores in both cases), the XPS 15 results don't seem to be in line with other Ivy Bridge laptops. In particular, note how the other three IVB laptops (N56VM, UX21A, and V3-571G) all post Computation scores in excess of 20000, while the XPS 15 has to "make do" with a score of only 11000. This may be yet another instance where throttling is affecting the results, so we'll wait for updated firmware before trying to draw any final conclusions.
Our CPU-centric tests put the XPS 15 and its 35W i7-3612QM right about where you'd expect. It's faster than any dual-core processor and outperforms the quad-core Sandy Bridge chips, but it's a slight step down from the standard voltage 45W IVB quad-cores. Throttling of CPU clocks did not occur during these tests, so it's only when the CPU and GPU are carrying a significant load the throttling is triggered. As far as we can tell, with the current A04 BIOS, the Dell XPS 15 can pretty much loop a workload like the Cinebench SMP test indefinitely and remain at the maximum Turbo Boost clock (though that may change with updated firmware).
3DMark results also put the XPS 15 and its GDDR5-equipped GT 640M right where you'd expect. It's a step up in performance over the DDR3-equipped GT 640M in the Acer V3-571G, and it also beats the previous generation GT 555M in the Razer Blade. Meanwhile, the GTX 560M can still win in our synthetic graphics tests, and the GT 650M with GDDR5 also outperforms the XPS 15. There are no real surprises here, but as noted several times already, throttling may be affecting these results—and it's definitely a factor in the gaming results, which we'll get to next.
Dell XPS 15 Gaming Performance (with ThrottleStop)
This is where things get a bit messy and confusing. The CPU throttling on BIOS version A01 through A04 is a severe enough problem that out-of-box gaming performance on the XPS 15 is substantially lower than expected. In most games that we tested, CPU throttling kicks in after anywhere from 30 to 90 seconds, at which point the CPU sits at 1.2GHz until you exit the game. This makes benchmark results highly variable, with the first run always being the fastest, and frankly it's unacceptable. How this slipped through the cracks on a shipping laptop is something of a mystery, as it took all of five minutes with DiRT 3 and Batman: Arkham City for me to determine something was wrong with performance, and to then track down the root cause. OEMs take note: both games have built-in benchmarks and your performance labs should be using these and other high-profile games to check performance before you start shipping product. End of discussion.
Now, with that out of the way, we wanted to see what the XPS 15 could do with a bit of fine tuning on CPU clocks. Under the default settings on the A04 BIOS, CPU temperatures topped out at 80C, which is lower than we've seen on quite a few laptops. Furthermore, CPU clocks were almost always 2.8GHz (maximum Turbo Boost for four threads or more on the i7-3612QM) before throttling down to 1.2GHz, which seems rather myopic. The whole point of Intel's Turbo Boost is to let the CPU run at the maximum sustainable clock speed without overheating, and right now that's not happening.
A bit of tinkering with ThrottleStop 5.0 Beta 3 yielded CPU temperatures in the 80-90C range with a 23X multiplier, with some games capable of running at 2.5 or even 2.6GHz without overheating. Again, this isn't something an end user should be required to use in our opinion, but thankfully it does allow substantially improved performance and it's easy enough to enable/disable as needed. Depending on the game in question, we saw performance improve by anywhere from 10% to over 100% by using a 23X multiplier with the CPU PROC HOT signal disabled—Batman and DiRT 3 showed the greatest improvements. Note also that the difference at higher quality settings isn't as large, as the GPU becomes more of a bottleneck. We have 1080p "Enthusiast" results for the XPS 15 as well as our 768p "Value" and 900p "Mainstream" scores, but in most games 1080p Enthusiast wasn't playable so we won't report those scores for now. Let's start with our Value and Mainstream results, and then we'll list "recommended" settings and frame rates for the XPS 15 running at 1080p.
Value Gaming Performance
Our Value settings don't pose any problem for the XPS 15, with all games easily besting 30FPS and most surpassing the 60FPS mark. The XPS 15 basically sweeps the table against the Acer V3, showing the value of using GDDR5 memory instead of DDR3 memory on the GPU. Also worth note is that Civilization V performance continues to be a bit quirky with certain driver versions; the original 296.01 drivers couldn't even break 30FPS regardless of setting on the XPS 15, while the newer 304.79 beta drivers at least let you get 35FPS. One quick look at the W110ER results however shows that we ought to be able to get performance closer to 50FPS. I ran FRAPS while performing the Civ5 "lategameview" benchmark at one point to see what was going on, and for some reason performance appeared to fluctuate between 50FPS and 35FPS, where normally the frame rate is pretty steady. I'd guess a future NVIDIA driver will address the issue.
Mainstream Gaming Performance
Mainstream performance generally follows the same pattern, only with lower frame rates. The GT 640M with GDDR5 is close to handling all of our test suite at 900p "High" details, with Battlefield 3 and Civilization V being the only two games where we'd recommend dropping to lower detail settings (and again, the drivers are likely a factor in Civ5 performance). It's also interesting that the Acer V3 manages to eke out a win in Batman, indicating our lowered CPU clocks might be coming into play. Otherwise, the use of GDDR5 is typically able to improve GT 640M performance by an average of 8%, with up to 25% higher performance in at least one game (Batman using our Value settings).
Dell XPS 15 Gaming
Recommended Settings for 1920x1080
|Batman: Arkham City
Very High +
DX11 and PhysX both tend to be too much for
the GT 640M, but you can max everything
else out and maintain smooth frame rates.
|Battlefield 3
Single-player is okay at these settings, but
multi-player will need to drop the resolution
or use custom settings with some items on Low.
|Civilization V
|Low ("Value")
Civ5 needs a better driver, and we've seen
higher scores in the past. Until then, setting
everything to "Low" is your best bet for 1080p.
|DiRT 3
|High + 4xAA
Very fluid at the High defaults with 4xAA. If
you try Ultra without AA, you'll be closer to
|Portal 2
|Max + 4xAA
You can pretty much max out the settings in
Portal 2 and still maintain fluid frame rates.
|Ultra + 4xAA
Skyrim is playable at 30FPS, and so our
Enthusiast defaults work well enough. If you
want slightly higher performance, you can use
FXAA instead of 4xAA and get 35 FPS.
|Total War: Shogun 2
The "High" preset seems to work best, though
"Very High" with AA disabled is also viable.
Most of the games' settings are straightforward, but a couple warrant further explanation. In Batman, enabling Very High with PhysX is borderline playable, with an average frame rate of 27 FPS; DX11 without 4xAA is a similar 26 FPS, and enabling 4xAA in either mode drops a few FPS whereas FXAA is basically free. Civ5 performance is still a bit chaotic (see below), so take those scores with a grain of salt for now. Finally, our test scene in Skyrim happens to be one of the lowest performing areas we could find, so while we report 30 FPS there are many areas in the game that will run in excess of 60 FPS.
As mentioned earlier, Civilization V and Total War: Shogun 2 ran better with the most recent 304.79 beta drivers, and that's what we used for the above settings. The remaining games all ran best with the official 296.01 Dell drivers, though at some point we expect to see a new WHQL driver that will provide the best of both worlds (and hopefully further improve Civ5 performance). Not shown in our charts is another popular game, Diablo III; given that the Acer V3 could handle maxed out settings, the same holds for the XPS 15. With GDDR5 memory, the GT 640M ends up being around 10% faster on average compared to DDR3; it can certainly handle gaming at 1080p, but in many games you'll need to lower the detail settings somewhat to be fully playable.
Dell XPS 15 Battery Life
Dell uses a 9-cell, 65Wh integrated battery in the XPS 15 that's not user replaceable, which is similar to what we've seen in the previous generation XPS 15z as well as the MacBook Pro 15. Apple uses a higher capacity battery, and under OS X the MBP15 will generally offer superior battery life, but unless something has changed since our last look we would expect greatly decreased battery life under Windows via Boot Camp. Since the XPS 15 is designed to run Windows from the ground up, there isn't a problem with lack of power optimizations, and the result is competitive battery life. The LCD was set to 50% brightness (109 nits) for our battery testing—or nine steps down from maximum if you're using the keyboard shortcut.
Idle battery life is just over seven hours, with a normalized result putting the XPS 15 ahead of everything except Ultrabooks and AMD's Trinity. Put a more typical load on the laptops, like our Internet test, and we're at five hours of useful battery life. If you're doing lighter web surfing with a mix of office applications, you can expect somewhere around six hours of battery life. As for video playback, Dell manages just over four hours of 720p H.264 decoding; 1080p H.264 decoding drops that slightly to around 3.5 hours. That's actually one of the lower results for battery life considering the battery capacity, though it's worth noting that playback on higher resolution displays ends up being more taxing as there are more pixels to push. Overall, then, battery life is good and will be sufficient for most people to get through a day's work without plugging in, particularly if they let the LCD turn off and/or the laptop go to sleep during periods of inactivity.
Dell XPS 15 LCD: Decent Contrast and Brightness, Mediocre Colors
Dell's XPS line has had a bit of an on-again, off-again relationship with good LCDs. The M1710 and M1730 way back in the day had good WUXGA panels for the time, and the Studio XPS 16 was the first laptop to offer an RGB LED backlit panel (at least to my knowledge). More recently, the XPS 15 and 15z 1080p panels have been good, but the 768p displays in the XPS 13, 14, 14z, 15, and 15z have all been run of the mill offerings. Thankfully, the new XPS 15 sticks with the pattern of offering a decent 1080p display. It's not great and has a definite bluish tint, but contrast is pretty good. If you don't demand accurate colors (which is easily answered by answering this question: do you own a hardware colorimeter?), then the XPS 15 should be good enough to keep you happy. Even with a colorimeter, however, color accuracy remains relatively poor compared to other panels.
Contrast checks in at 677:1, which is better than average but not exceptional. The maximum white level is 350 nits, but that's with a very strong blue component. Once you calibrate to remove that, the maximum white level drops substantially down to just 250 nits. If you prefer "cool" colors, the LCD will probably make you happy, but those who prefer natural or warmer colors will immediately notice something is off. As noted above, delta E even after calibration is quite poor—just like the XPS 15z. That would make sense, as the two models appear to use the same AU Optronics B156HW03 panel. Color gamut is likewise middling, at 57% of Adobe RGB.
The minor complaints with the panel continue when we look at viewing angles. I've seen some TN panels that do a lot better in terms of vertical viewing angles; this LCD isn't one of those. Viewed from above or below, you get severe color shifting and loss of contrast. There's still a decent viewing arc where the LCD looks good, but this is on the lower end of the 1080p LCDs that we've tested. I also noticed a fair amount of "shimmer" on the edges of windows when moving them around, which appears to come from the 6-bit to 8-bit color interpolation. That's almost always present to varying degrees, but here it's as noticeable as on lesser LCDs like that in the Acer V3-571G.
While the IPS panels in laptops like the UX21A, Sony VAIO SE, HP Envy 15, and Lenovo X220 aren't perfect by any means, they're still a substantial upgrade from panels like this—and this panel in turn is a substantial upgrade from the poor quality 1366x768 panes. We'd love to see more vendors push for IPS panels, and that goes double (triple even!) for high-end laptops like this XPS 15. If you're paying under $1000 for a laptop, we understand the need to make some compromises, but ASUS has managed to get 1080p IPS displays into their new 11.6" and 13.3" Ultrabooks so there's really no excuse for using a lower quality TN panel in a $1300+ laptop. And it almost goes without saying that Apple's new 2880x1800 Retina MacBook Pro is in a league of its own.
Dell XPS 15 Thermal and Throttling Investigations
Considering the CPU throttling that's occurring with the current BIOS, we have several sets of data to examine. We logged clock speeds and temperatures on the CPU and GPU using HWiNFO64, and we'll analyze the results here. Let's start first with the system running "stock" with the A04 BIOS. Again, the current results likely do not represent exactly what we'll see from future BIOS revisions, but I expect temperatures will be somewhere between the stock and ThrottleStop figures we'll discuss in a moment. For the stress testing that we're doing here, we loaded up Cinebench 11.5 rendering with three threads (looped), and we ran 3DMark06 at 1080p on the four gaming tests in a loop. There are slight gaps that occur each time one test ends and the next begins, so a short-term drop in clock speeds isn't particularly noteworthy; it's only when we see sustained lower clock speeds that we can clearly state that the system is throttling.
Starting with the clock speeds, it's immediately obvious how far the CPU is throttling and how significant the problem is. With our stress test workload we're able to hit the thermal limits (around 80C on the CPU) in just 30 seconds, at which point the CPU drops to 1.2GHz from 2.8GHz. While our graph only shows the first couple of minutes, the 1.2GHz clock remained in effect for over five hours of stress testing, with nary an upward spike until we halted the tests. Most of the time, we were able to run this workload without problems, but we did experience at least one crash. There's also the question of what would happen under more extreme environmental conditions, as our testing was done in a 70-73F AC cooled environment. Here's a look at the temperatures for the CPU cores and GPU at stock:
With our particular workload, we reach a maximum CPU temperature of 88C after 20 or so minutes, at which point the cyclical nature of our workload causes the CPU/GPU to fluctuate between 79C and 88C every six or seven minutes (the length of time for a complete 3DMark06 loop). The GPU reaches a maximum temperature of 85/86C after 40 minutes, and again temperatures fluctuate depending on the workload between 76C and 85C over the course of six or seven minutes. A more difficult workload (e.g. Furmark with OCCT) might present problems, but we're looking at a more realistic scenario and at least the thermal throttling keeps the laptop from crashing.
Running stock is well and good for many, but can we push performance any higher by increasing the CPU clocks? That's what we attempted to do, and we turned to ThrottleStop for this purpose. Having successfully run all of our gaming suite at 2.3GHz using ThrottleStop, that's where I started the stress testing. I was a little surprised when the laptop shut down after just 7.5 minutes. Ouch! The CPU cores top out at 100C and the GPU hits 93C, with the laptop sustaining those temperatures for about 30 seconds before crashing (powering off with no warning). With that result in hand (and confirmed with a couple of retests), I stepped the CPU clock back to 2.1GHz. With 200MHz knocked off the CPU clocks, the stress test ran successfully for 20 minutes before once again crashing, and this time the CPU cores maxed out at 99C with the GPU again reaching 93C. The laptop managed to run for five minutes after the first instance of those temperatures, so we're at least heading in the right direction.
Next up I tried 2.0GHz, thinking I was getting close to "stability", and the XPS 15 ran for just over an hour before it crashed once again. Maximum CPU temperatures dropped to 98C and the GPU topped out at 92C, but we're not quite there yet. Interestingly, 1.9GHz on the CPU didn't do any better, with crashes occurring after 45 to 60 minutes three times before we gave up, and similar max temperatures. At 1.8GHz, we finally reached relative stability, with the XPS 15 handling our looped workload for over four hours. The maximum CPU temperature at 1.8GHz was 95C, and the first time it reached that temperature was just over an hour into the stress test, with the core temperature cycling between 89C and 94/95C every six or so minutes. The GPU maximum temperature was 89C, cycling between 84C and 89C. We put together charts of the CPU/GPU temperatures for our four test runs and you can see them in the following gallery.
As for the system itself, surface temperatures are significantly lower than the CPU and GPU core temperatures reported by HWiNFO, and the chassis never felt uncomfortably hot in our experience—the silicone coating on the bottom helps in this regard, though it may also be inhibiting the radiating of heat through the chassis and contributing to the higher temperatures.
Noise levels are relatively loud (I'd guess around 40dB—I don't have my SPL meter with me right now), but given the throttling issues the fan should really be spinning faster to compensate—and apparently it can't. Also note that the exhaust is located under the LCD hinge, which is potentially exacerbating the issue. If the airflow weren't inhibited by the LCD/hinge, it's possible the temperatures would drop 5C or more, which might be enough to avoid most of the throttling problems. At idle, noise isn't a problem at all, with the XPS 15 typically coming in at or below the noise floor of our equipment (30dB). I'd personally rather have a laptop that gets louder but doesn't overheat, throttle, or even worse crash than a laptop that runs quietly but experiences all of those problems. Of course, in an ideal world you could get both reasonably quiet as well as high performance, but doing so with a thin laptop chassis isn't in the cards right now. We've seen the same issues with throttling (or at least lower clocks) on most of the Ultrabooks we've tested as well.
First Impressions: Skin Deep?
When I first laid hands (and eyes) on the new XPS 15, I was extremely impressed. It's such a noticeable upgrade compared to previous XPS laptops in terms of build quality that I really can't understate the fact. Dell's in a bit of a Catch-22 here, of course, with a design that's very similar to the MacBook Pro 15. On the one hand, if they do a 15" laptop that's similar but not built as well (e.g. the XPS 15z from last year), they get complaints from people saying, "Apple can do it, so why can't Dell?" Now they've basically silenced those naysayers and instead they'll get others accusing them of copying Apple's design. Does that really matter, though? I'd rather have something that looks and feels like a high quality laptop that borrows good design elements from other successful laptops than to get a unique laptop that looks and feels poor. Dell has also taken a few steps to differentiate their design from Apple's MBP15, and as someone who has often wondered, "Why don't other OEMs make machined aluminum laptop chassis?" it's nice to see a laptop that really nails that element of the design.
As good as the XPS 15 looks, it also has plenty of performance potential. The XPS 15z made some compromises to keep thermals in check, and with Ivy Bridge and Kepler moving the CPU and GPU to smaller process nodes Dell is able to increase performance within the same power envelope. 1080p gaming is still going to be a bit too much with some titles, but if you're really looking for a gaming laptop Dell already covers that market with their Alienware brand. The XPS is basically a stylish and well built brand that straddles the line between business offerings like the Latitude and Vostro laptops and gaming offerings like the Alienware and Inspiron SE models. (Yes, if you didn't realize, the new Inspiron SE 15 and SE 17 both sport more powerful GPUs than the XPS 15—along with larger, bulkier chassis that don't have the cachet of the XPS line.)
The problem is that good looks and performance potential can only take you so far, and when you really try to put the pedal to the metal with the XPS 15, the engine overheats and you end up taking an unscheduled pit stop. How big of a problem this is will depend on what you plan on doing with the laptop. I can certainly see gamers getting very frustrated with the current throttling issues, but I suspect the next official BIOS update will largely address those concerns. For general use—Internet surfing, office tasks, listening to music and watching movies, video encoding, etc.—the throttling problems will most likely never even show up. It's only when you really push both the CPU and GPU that heat becomes a problem. So if you're not a super demanding laptop user but you want a stylish and sturdy laptop that should last for half a decade—and you don't want to deal with business class laptops, or OS X and Apple products—I can still readily recommend the XPS 15 as a good notebook that pleases me on many levels.
As good as the XPS 15 might be for mainstream/fashion conscious users, for power users or enthusiasts that really like to push their hardware to its limits I suspect that the XPS 15 will come up short. Even if Dell can create a BIOS that won't throttle as badly as the current A04 release, I remain skeptical of their ability to have the XPS 15 run a heavy CPU+GPU load without dropping clock speeds on one or both chips. 1.8GHz was stable with my ThrottleStop testing, but that's in an air conditioned testing environment, and I wasn't using the most demanding workloads possible. If you run a pathological workload or "power virus" like OCCT or Furmark or similar, and if you require a laptop that can handle such applications without throttling CPU or GPU clocks, you'll want to look elsewhere—and probably forget about laptops that are less than an inch thick. And on a related note, I should mention that I've seen at least some minor throttling with several other "thin but fast" laptops, so Dell's not alone here; we'll be making a concerted effort to check for throttling on all future laptop reviews.
For now, the throttling issues are a big enough concern for me that I'm holding off on a final verdict until we can see what the firmware updates bring. I know from past experience that laptops that seem to run a bit hot and/or loud when they're new will only get worse as they start to age. If running any game on the XPS 15 today means 100% fan speed and juggling CPU/GPU clocks to keep thermals within an acceptable range, a year or two down the road you might be looking at a laptop that can't really handle gaming at all. Maybe that matters to you and maybe it doesn't, but if you don't plan on doing anything that leverages the discrete GPU, why even have it there in the first place? Depending on what Haswell brings to the table, we might actually see dGPUs disappear outside of dedicated gaming laptops like the Alienware line—and I'm not sure that's even a bad thing.
If we were judging the XPS 15 by appearances alone, it would easily walk out of here with an award. Depending on what Dell can do with the firmware over the next couple of weeks, we might still have a delayed prize to hand out. Unfortunately, out of the gate the XPS 15 stumbles and Dell will have to work to make up the difference. Until that happens, the XPS 15 is a beautifully crafted laptop with some personality quirks that could be hard to live with long term. Make sure you know what you're getting into before committing to a relationship, or you could end up feeling burned.


text: › Academics » Modern Languages and Literatures » Meet Our Faculty » Jeremy L. Cass Home Program Overview Major Requirements Areas of Study Course Descriptions Research & Internship Opportunities Prospective Students Global Experience Meet Our Faculty Current Students Facilities Language Houses Language Resource Center Contact Modern Languages and Literatures Plan a Visit ›Apply Now ›Give to Furman › Back to Faculty Profiles Associate Professor and Coordinator of Spanish. 864.294.2428 Furman Hall 235B email@example.com http://eweb.furman.edu/~jcass Biography Courses Honors Publications Faculty Short BiographyI have been a faculty member in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures since 2004. I teach Spanish language and Spanish-American literature and culture courses at all levels. I have directed or co-directed MLL's programs in Spain and Chile. I have also been heavily involved with Furman's interdisciplinary minor in Latin American Studies. Most of my published research has focused on the Hispanic Caribbean. I am interested in treatments of race and ethnicity in Latin American literature, in particular the Hispanic Caribbean. I have developed a series of courses exploring these areas, including a readings course in Spanish-American literature (SPN 460: The Plantation: Sugar, Race, Nation), a first-year writing seminar (FYW 1186: Sugar and Slavery in the Caribbean), and a Latin American Studies capstone seminar on race and ethnicity in Latin America (LAS 470). Other recent upper-level offerings include a course on García Márquez's seminal Cien años de soledad (SPN 440) and a course on the maestros of the Spanish-American short story (SPN 448). I am presently at work on developing a 400-level course titled Introduction to US Latino/a Studies. I graduated with a B.A. in Spanish from Furman in 2000. I completed my graduate work in Hispanic Studies at the University of Kentucky, earning M.A. (2003) and Ph.D. (2004) degrees in Latin American literature. My doctoral research focused on the confluence of literary and social scientific interpretations of race in the Cuban Republic (1902-1958). Faculty Courses Taught Name Title Description FYW-1186Caribbean Sugar and SlaveryWith a primary focus on Cuba, this course will examine the Caribbean sugar plantation from 1492 through the 1990s. In addition to exploring the historical, political, and economic underpinnings of sugar monoculture, the course will highlight representations of the plantation in select works of fiction, essay and film.FYW-1187Magical Spanish AmericaThe Spanish-American narrative from the 1950s to present day, with particular focus on the magical, marvelous and the fantastic including an exploration of the function of magical realism within a Latin American context, paying special attention to literary representations of gender, class, national, religious and racial identities.LAS-470Issues in Latin AmericaCapstone course for the Latin American Studies concentration. Thematic focus varies depending on interest and expertise of the instructor. Past topics have included sustainable development, current politics, and the intersection of literature and history. Course is taught in English and is recommended for juniors and seniorsSPN-110Elementary Spanish IIntroduction to the sound system and grammatical structure necessary to develop listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills in Spanish. An appreciation of Spanish-speaking culture underlies the orientation of the course.SPN-115Intensive Elementary SpanishDesigned to prepare students with some background in Spanish for the first intermediate level course.SPN-120Elementary Spanish IIContinuation of the skills (speaking, listening, reading, writing) developed in first elementary course, with increased emphasis on vocabulary expansion, idiomatic expression, and cultural differences.SPN-201Intermediate Spanish IContinuation of the development of proficiency in listening and speaking, while expanding the reading and writing skills.SPN-210Intro to Spanish ReadingsBuilds upon the basic skills developed through the first intermediate course. By reading numerous short works of fiction and nonfiction and through discussions and short written assignments in Spanish, students enhance their critical listening, speaking, reading, writing skills while expanding vocabulary and cultural skills necessary for further study.SPN-240Latin American CivilizationIntroduction to Latin America through its Iberian, indigenous, and African heritage; its social institutions; its religious and social customs, festivals, and folklore; its languages and other systems of communication; its literature and arts; and its diversions and cuisine.SPN-361Survey of Spanish Amer LitIntroduction to the major authors and representative works of Spanish America, with concentration on the age of Modernism to the present.SPN-440Spanish American NarrativeThe development of the Spanish-American narrative from the period of Discovery and Conquest to the present, with emphasis on contemporary writing. Indigenous works such as the Mayan Popol Vuh are also considered. Examination of historiography, the essay, novels, and short stories.SPN-448Spanish-American Short StoryIn-depth consideration of the development of the short story in Spanish America, with a primary focus on the definitive works of the Twentieth Century by authors such as Borges, Cortazar, Garcma Marquez, and Valenzuela. Includes a brief overview of short fiction in colonial and nineteenth-century Spanish America.SPN-450Studies in Hispanic CivClose examination of a particular aspect of Hispanic civilization through a variety of disciplinary perspectives and media. Critical assessment of phenomena of cultural importance in Spain and/or Latin America. May be repeated for credit with a change of instructor/topic. Faculty Tab 3 descriptionPresident, Mountain Interstate Foreign Language Conference (MIFLC), 2014. Editor, MIFLC Review, 2015 - present. Faculty Tab4 description Cass, Jeremy L. "The Hypothetical Homeland: Looking for Cuba in Hijuelos's Our House in the Last World, A Simple Habana Melody, and Thoughts Without Cigarettes." In Negotiating Latinidades, Understanding Identities within Space. Ed. Kathryn Quinn-Sánchez. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2015. 111-131. Cass, Jeremy L. "Imagining Cuba in Hijuelos's A Simple Habana Melody." Label Me Latina/o: Journal of Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries Latino Production. 2.3 (Fall 2012): 1-17. Cass, Jeremy L. "Why Is No One Talking about Memoria de mis putas tristes?" South Atlantic Review 76.1 (2011): 113-128. Cass, Jeremy L. "Deciphering Sedition in Sab: Avellaneda's Transient Engagement with Abolitionism." Romance Quarterly 57.3 (2010): 183-204. Cass, Jeremy L. "Finding a Place for ¡Ecué-Yamba-O!: Carpentier's Tenuous Dialogue with Afrocubanismo." Romance Notes 49.3. (2009): 313-322. Cass, Jeremy L. "Black Aesthetic/White Poets: The Vogue of 'Afro-Cuban Poetry' in the Republic." Latin American Literary Review XXXVII 74 (2009): 38-62. Cass, Jeremy L. "Race and Resistance in Del amor y otros demonios." The Latin Americanist 53.4 (2009): 49-70. Cass, Jeremy L. "Performing the Mulatto Paradox in Arriví's Vejigantes." Latin American Theatre Review 41.2 (2008): 17-28. Cass, Jeremy L. "La polémica del esteticismo en la poesía modernista de Luis Lloréns Torres." La Torre: Revista de la Universidad de Puerto Rico 9 (2004): 1-15. Education Faculty Education Ph.D. University of Kentucky M.A. University of Kentucky B.A. Furman University Faculty Training Faculty Optional Main Content Column 1


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In the middle of the night and amid the deep darkness of his life, Tony Roberts thought he heard God tell him to kill himself.
A handful of psychotic drugs and a few moments later, he desperately reached his psychiatrist on the phone. The specialist told him to "just sleep it off."
Roberts' wife's subsequent 911 call later that 2007 morning in New York, along with what Roberts sees as God's miraculous grace, saved his life.
"I should have died," he said recently, sitting in a Columbus restaurant talking about his long and winding road.
"Literally, I have been given a new life."
The 49-year-old local resident wants to talk of both his old and new life — each chapter fraught with the fog of bipolar disorder, a condition in which sufferers experience episodes of an elevated or agitated mood known as mania, alternating with episodes of depression.
Bridging two worlds
The 20-year former Presbyterian USA pastor will begin sharing his story during a free presentation at 6:30 p.m. March 24 at the Red Room of Columbus' Bartholomew County Public Library, 536 Fifth St.
He will speak about his new book, "Delight In Disorder: Ministry, Madness, Mission."
The book alternates between Roberts' rock-solid Christianity and his sometimes-shifting terrain of psychology and mental illness, which has hospitalized him five times since his diagnosis in 1996.
"Part of my mission is to bridge the two worlds," he said. "I have benefited from both psychology and faith.
"But the reality is often that the church is so distrustful of psychiatry that they have closed the door to that. And psychiatry is often so dismissive of the church that they have closed the door on that. So the two are operating against each other — and, in the process, people are getting torn apart in the middle.
"Look — I don't care who you are. But if you're having religious ideation with a psychosis, you need both a church AND a psychiatrist."
He remains relatively healthy with the help of prayer, church friends and family, plus a daily anti-psychotic drug, an antidepressant and a mood stabilizer.
Toll on job, marriage
After pastoring for 12 years, once doctors recognized his illness, he lost his ministry. He is separated from his wife, who lives in New York but works and prays for a reunion.
He lives on disability with relatives and works part time as a adjunct lecturer in writing and college-level reading at Ivy Tech Community College. After facing alternate reactions of both rejection and support for his mental condition from the faith community, he wants to help believers and nonbelievers alike reach out to families living with mental illness.
Twenty-five percent of the U.S. population has a diagnosable mental illness, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
David Zucker, a faith-based mental health advocate from Seattle who wrote the foreword of Roberts' book, summarized very simply the clergyman-turned-writer's work.
"He still sees God working in his life, finds himself slowly but surely transforming despite, and even through, the torment of this disease," Zucker wrote.
Zucker also indicates that, in his 25 years of work in mental health, rarely has he seen faith groups extended appropriate empathy to families facing mental illness.
Befriending author Gary McNamee, a member of Columbus' Reformed Presbyterian Church where Roberts attends, became friends with the author after Roberts visited the church — and eventually, McNamee heard some of Roberts' story of heartache and partial restoration.
"The focus in our church especially the last two years has been on a ministry of mercy and grace," McNamee said. "I know that sometimes it can take time to change some people's mindsets and habits, but we're trying to get things going in that direction. And I think Tony will be helpful in doing that."
Roberts still remembers one member of one of his churches a few years ago. She met him at the door of her home when he came to visit. She broke down in tears when she told him she had battled debilitating depression for years — and felt as if she had to hide it from her church family.
"Having this disorder has allowed me to compassionately connect with people I did not connect with before," he said.
He cannot know exactly what his future will entail or what valleys it might lead him through. But he feels he knows who makes the journey close beside him. That becomes clear in the Scripture that opens his book — wisdom he hopes serves as a reminder to others facing adversity in whatever form it might take.
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
If I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
Tony Roberts has been to the depths. Now, he's hoping to interest others in going there — simply to demonstrate the love of God and rescue others who are hurting.


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Harvey: Once-fledgling sportswriter develops greater appreciation for RoyalNovember 7, 2012 Updated: November 7, 2012 8:52pm
Photo: Jerry Larson, Associated Press
We were standing on the sidelines covering a Texas football practice when Darrell Royal called another young Longhorns beat reporter and me over. He wanted us to meet a redheaded, bearded, pony-tailed country singer named Willie Nelson.
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South Korea's population has shown a growing affinity for social networks and the use of those networks is likely to rise along with the country's skyrocketing mobile web usage. It's no surprise then that an embrace of social media is also being seen among the various organization types in the country, according to an April 2012 survey of social media marketers at businesses, public institutions and nonprofits conducted by the PR consultancy firm KPR & Associates. In fact, more than half of organizations surveyed who were using social media had increased their marketing budgets for those channels in 2012, while only 5% had reduced them, KPR found.
Survey respondents showed an affinity for U.S.-based social media channels. Facebook was overwhelmingly the top choice among organizations, with 91% of them using the social network. Twitter followed, with a 77.5% use rate, and blogs were the next most popular choice at 65.8%. But while Twitter was employed by more companies and organizations, blogs were considered a more important channel, behind only Facebook.
Organizations' reasons for turning to social media were largely about getting on customers' radar and then staying there. The most important objective in using social media was to improve customer communications and relationships (67.5%). But more than half of respondents said they wanted to build their brand image, and more than four in 10 wanted to enhance brand awareness. Additionally, more than one-third used social media as part of a strategy to establish a channel for owned media.
Despite all of this effort, organizations thus far have had pretty limited interactions with social media users and influential bloggers. In fact, 70% of respondents either had no dialogue with those groups or only talked with them once or twice a year. That may change as South Koreans' taste for technology continues to drive up mobile internet usage, leading more people to connect with their social networks.
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text: Gr 2-4--In her sixth adventure, Mercy Watson is in the family's familiar pink convertible on her way to the Bijou drive-in theater, which is showing When Pigs Fly. Mr. and Mrs. Watson are sure she'll find it inspirational, but Mercy is more excited by the prospect of real butter on Bottomless Buckets of popcorn. Familiar characters from other adventures--Police Officer Tomilello, Animal Control Officer Francine Poulet, and reformed robber Leroy Ninker--are also at the Bijou. They leap into action when Mercy, with snout in the air, follows the irresistible scent of butter to waiting cars with windows down. "People screamed. People laughed. People fainted. Mercy kept eating." When the Watsons realize that their porcine wonder is missing, they join the chase, which ends only when two clever firemen catch up to her and suggest a treat of buttered toast. Though no one gets to see the movie, they all eat toast together, which, for Mercy, is a very happy ending. Illustrations are done in gouache using a bright, retro palette of glossy colors, bringing the text vibrantly to life. All of the elements of the earlier stories are here--jovial characters, good-humored mayhem, and effortless repetition that moves the story forward while allowing emerging readers to peruse it themselves. Youngsters are sure to delight in the exploits of this butter-loving pig, savoring DiCamillo's "wonky in the extreme" text and Van Dusen's energetic, innocent art.--Mary Jean Smith, Southside Elementary School, Lebanon, TN[Page 73]. Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.


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