The Asus 1000HE Netbook is receiving rave reviews because of it’s 9.5 hour battery life. As a result, I recommended that my daughter buy one as her “tote to school” laptop for taking notes, checking email and whatnot. When I took her to Staples to pick it up, they weren’t even out on the shelves, and the clerk had no idea what I was talking about. He insisted that every netbook in the store had a 3-cell battery, despite my assurance that both the older 1000HA and the new 1000HE had 6-cell batteries. He had to go into the back to poke around, and seemed surprised when he found some 1000HE’s. I had been thinking of buying one myself, so when Kate took hers, I took one, too, fearing they might disappear quickly once the word was out.

When we got the machines home, the problems started. My machine ran beautifully. The fan was quiet, seemed to be running at a very low speed, and only when the processor was taxed. Kate’s 1000HE, however, had the fan blowing at top speed from the moment she turned it on, and it never shut off. Ever. Even in extreme power-saver mode.

A little research online showed that a number of people had experienced the same problem. There’s a small third-party utility called eeectl that can be used to control the processor speed, backlight intensity, and fan-speed. I downloaded that. It worked beautifully on my machine, even allowing my to shut the fan off completely, but had zero effect on Kate’s machine. Her fan continued to blow at 100%, no matter what. It was noisy and frustrating.

I tried updating the BIOS to the latest offerings from Asus, but this had no effect at all. Eventually, I gave Kate my machine and I took the noisy one. I’d only purchased mine mine on impulse because I wanted a new toy, so it didn’t really matter.

I debated taking the noisy machine back to Staples, but opted instead to explore its insides. This, of course, invalidated the warranty, but I didn’t really care. I found instructions for tearing the machine apart and soon had it spread out on my kitchen table, keyboard removed, touch-pad unplugged, fan unplugged, etc. As a test, I put the machine back together without the fan. It was, as expected, silent as the grave.

I kept the machine running for hours, surfing, writing, reading, and monitored the CPU and hard disk temperatures. The CPU never got above 37 Celsius, and the hard disk never got above 39 Celsius, well within optimal operating temperatures for each according to their respective manufacturers, so I decided to keep the fan out of the picture. So far, so good. I have a dead silent machine that runs upwards of 10 hours on a single charge. To be safe, I stepped back the processor from 1.66 GHz to 1.2 Ghz. I’ll continue to monitor the CPU and HD temps, but I’m not too concerned.

The problem with the fan is bothersome, of course. Two machines, picked up the same day, from the same retailer. One ran perfectly, the other sounded like a 10-year-old refrigerator. Worse, on the noisy machine, the fan could not be controlled at all, even with a utility that worked perfectly on the quiet machine.

Given that this seems to be a fairly common problem with the 1000HE (check out the EEE forums), what does this suggest? Well, it suggests to me that Asus’s manufacturing process is a little out of whack. I hadn’t actually realized the 1000HE’s were so new. I’ve seen a number of machines (mostly Macs)) suffer from first-wave issues, and I guess this is one of them. Perhaps the wrinkles will smooth out over time, but if you’re considering one of these things, be warned: you may end up with one of the noisy versions where the fan simply cannot be controlled, no matter what you try. Based on my experience of buying two, I’d say your chances of getting a noisy machine could be as high as 50/50.

You may be better served taking a hit on battery life and going with a more established machine. The Asus 1000HA, for example, offers 7.5 hours on a single charge, compared to the 1000HE’s promised 9.5 hours… but 7.5 quiet hours is worth the hit, if you ask me. Besides, with the fan running all the time, it looked like I might be lucky to get 5 hours out of the 1000HE’s battery.

On the other hand, if you’re willing to tear the 1000HE apart and work without a fan, having a netbook that runs for 10+ hours on a single charge is a pretty cool thing.

Other than the fan issue, it’s a very nice machine. It’s pre-loaded with Windows XP, and Sun’s Star Office (yeah, the commercial version of OpenOffice). It also has a built-in Webcam, and Bluetooth. All in all, everything you need to live a productive, mobile life.

Earplugs might be a nice accessory, depending on your luck.

Mike and Susan invited us over for steak last night.  We spent a pleasant evening that involved chat, good food, and a slide show of Mike and Susan’s holiday to New Mexico and California.  When we left, I forgot my camera on the table and had to go back and get it.  When I got home I found this self-portrait Mike took.  Apparently he trains elves and department store Santa Clauses in his home after hours. Yes, I also forgot my Blackberry, which Mike is holding. I’ll have to check later for any calls to the North Pole.

If you happen to live with teenage girls, then you probably know more about Twilight in all its forms (book and movie), and its author, Stephenie Meyer, than you want to know. I live with two teenage daughters, so it won’t come as a surprise that I’ve also, essentially, been living with Stephenie Meyer for a couple of years now.

As with much of the music, movies, books, or other entertainment that teenagers claim as their own, Stephenie Meyer and her creations have come under a lot of mainstream fire. I don’t take much of that seriously. In Meyer’s case, the critics seem appalled at her description of obsessive teenage love (or lust) as if, somehow, Meyer had come up with the idea  herself. Even Stephen King’s recent backhanded trashing of Meyer didn’t strike me as being of much note… after all, he did exactly the same thing to John Saul 25 years ago (in Danse Macabre), and here it is, a quarter century later, and Saul is still selling books. The fact is, teenagers are obsessive about their relationships… I recall it well, even as a male.  What I mean is, obsessive behavior isn’t limited to teenage girls.  I recall feeling somewhat obsessive myself.  Meyer describes it pretty accurately, I think, and adds the element of vampirism to bring the whole thing into the new supernatural millennium. My daughters are big fans. They seem pretty well adjusted otherwise. They scoff at the criticism, much as I scoffed at the criticism of SF, horror and comics when I was a teen. Anyone remember Fredric Wertham? My God, I should be a steaming pile of uncontrollable violent impulses according to him, and perhaps I am… but I still pay the bills.

Anyway, I try to watch and or read what my kids get into, so I finally found myself watching Twilight, the movie, the other night. It turned out to be entertaining and enjoyable as far as teen-vampire-romance  stories go. I’m not very big on teen romance, or vampires, but the vampire element is just a veneer in this case, and the real focus of the story is the relationship between Bella and Edward. It’s a classic good girl, bad boy relationship, but unlike most modern teen movies, doesn’t even have a smattering of sex, barely of sensuality. In any event, I rather enjoyed it, and even got into the vampire backstory a little. My daughters tell me the vampire stuff gets expanded in later books.  There even seems to be a hint at a future werewolf complication.  I’m much more amenable to werewolves.

As far as being worried about my daughters reading or watching this stuff, I don’t get what all the fuss is. Again, if you happen to live with teenagers, boys or girls, you quickly realize they’re not dopes. They’re perfectly capable of discerning the difference between fact and fiction, and even of turning a critical eye on the stuff they like. One of my daughters is a huge fan of Victorian lit, particularly early gothic fiction, and although she has enjoyed Meyer’s series, she’s quick to admit it doesn’t stand up to Matthew Lewis’s The Monk, Bran Stoker’s Dracula, Wilke Collins’s The Woman in White, J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla, or anything by Jane Austen.

I’m sure any of you who have read the books above are thinking to yourself that I should be more worried about my daughter reading The Monk than her reading Stephenie Meyer. I gave her The Monk last Christmas, so I guess that tells you where I stand on books considered “depraved” in their time.

Sorry for the long aside. I haven’t talked much about Twilight the movie, which is all I really intended to talk about. I enjoyed it. It is directed by Catherine Hardwicke, the directer of the incredibly powerful “13” and Lords of Dogtown, two great movies, the first an absolute tour de force about being a 13 year old girl. Bella is played by Kristen Stewart (Panic Room, The Messengers), and Edward by Robert Pattinson (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix). Both teen stars do a good job. Pattinson is fascinating as the moody, almost century old vampire stuck in a 17-year-old body, and Stewart is always fun to watch. She always seems like a real teenage girl to me.

So, anyway, I wouldn’t worry about your teenage daughters watching this one, and it’s entertaining enough to invest a couple of hours watching even if you aren’t a teenage girl.

Champions! Way to go, girls!

Megan’s indoor soccer team (St. Charles) won its Final yesterday. Good game. The whole team played well, consistently. Offensive pressure was good, defense was steady, and the goal tending was great.

I don’t go to many games — being packed into a small space with screaming parents brings out the worst in me — but I pick the right ones

The final choice: Canon Powershot 10.0MP Digital Camera (A1000 IS)

I finally caved and bought a new camera.  I’ve been without one for almost a year now, and have been taking second-rate photos with one cellphone or another, or borrowing the camera of one of my daughters.  In an earlier post I mentioned that I was considering the Canon Rebel digital SLR, but came to the conclusion that because of its size and complexity I might not use it much.  I subsequently had a conversation with my sister-in-law who is a good (serious) photographer, and who uses a Canon PowerShot, even for some of the artsy stuff she does.

I figured if it was good enough for her, it was probably too good for me… but I bought it anyway.  The 10 Megapixel version was only $169 at FutureShop.  Unbelievable.  Back in 1999, the company I work for bought a 3 Megapixel Sony that cost almost $1,100 dollars, then a 5 Megapixel digital SLR (I believe, Canon), that was in the $5,000 range, the latter to be used for print production.  It’s scary how quickly technology prices drop.

Perhaps next year I’ll be able to pick up a gigantic flatscreen TV for only a few hundred dollars.  That’s certainly possible if I procrastinate long enough, and I’m very good at that.