Ah well...

[slowfox]

...no complaints about being beaten by a better side: Barcelona 2, Manchester United 0 in yesterday evening's Champions' League Final. I missed the first half, because I was collecting P from The Farm. The second half was slightly painful listening, given how obviously Barca were outplaying us.

I mentioned in yesterday's post that I'd added some fan control scripts to the Netbook - the difference is amazing: I wouldn't have said that the fan was loud in the first place (two of the four PCs in the office make a terrific racket), but a truly silent machine is bliss. Of course, there's the concern that by raising the fan's kick-in threshold, it may shorten the machine's life, so you need to factor that into your considerations if you're considering doing this hack, but Intel themselves rate the Atom up to 99°C, whereas I've got the fan programmed to kick in at 65°C, so hopefully it should be OK, and I won't end up with a lapfull of molten plastic...

I finished Fever Crumb, Philip Reeve's prequel to his Mortal Engines quartet. Parts of the story were just dazzling, and it's definitely a worthy addition to the series. I particularly loved the corruption of localities' names in the future: Pickled Eel Circus, Effing Forest, Hampsters Heath, 'bankmentside and so on. And of course the notion that London itself is bordered by the Orbital Moatway. Really really good stuff.

If you haven't read Mortal Engines, you should do so. Give it a chance, because yes, the set-up is mindblowingly surreal, but once you've accepted that framework, it's a spellbinding tale. And although, personally, I felt the story stalled in the telling, slightly, in the third instalment, the fourth volume (A Darkling Plain) proved an epic conclusion.

Comments

[ex_simon644]

I felt the story stalled in the telling, slightly, in the third instalment

Reading my notes on it I seemed to suggest that it was more than slightly and I have never read the fourth book because of that. I may have to give A Darkling Plain a chance though!
(And having read Percy Jackson it was good to note that that series did not have the penultimate book in the series problem.)

Intel themselves rate the Atom up to 99°C

The only bit to consider on temperature ratings is where the sensor is in relation to the highest temperature in the device. One would hope they have placed it sensibly, but one can never be certain. A possibility is to see if there is some way of logging the temperature and then seeing how often it is in the band from the old to the new limit.


I tuned in after the first goal last night. Barcelona were good and ManU did not seem to be up for it after conceding the early goal.

[slowfox]

I've put off implementing the fan hack for the first six months' of using the Acer, waiting to see if negative reports started to trickle through on the interwebz before taking the plunge myself. But so far, people seem to have found it works well for them, so I'm joining the crowd (a little belatedly, granted).

Yep, like you, my hunger for A Darkling Plain was distinctly softened by Infernal Devices, and it was just 'cos the library happened to have it on the shelf that I picked it up. Definitely worth it, though - a strong close.

[schnurble]

A silent fan is a wonderful thing :o)
Hubby's old Thinkpad's fan had gone mad a while ago and started to sound like a chainsaw. He replaced it with a new one and the sudden silence is just bliss - we don't even notice when it kicks in anymore because it's so quiet.

[slowfox]

Yep, silence is definitely a good thing: it amazes me how loud PCs can get...