Nekochan Net

^ non-destructive is (more) destructive :)

quick observation during the espresso brake:

when wifi links are floooppy (this happens to me all the time) and the mba is searching/switching ssids all the time, the fan will get nasty for a while. sky's silent so mine might be touchy.

no problems w/ VPNs so far

battery juice as advertised (still brand new)

aperture makes it grrrrowl allright

syb/jose, do you want me to test anything else? i'm pretty much set w/ it (for my kind of use), i'll just keep observing its overall performance.

I think you've convinced me, since my use probably would be a lot like yours. Thanks for the in-the-field updates!

BTW, I'm also one of those guys who really notices computer fans, too. That surprises me, since after all those years of rock-n-rolling, the ears ain't what they used to be.

I think I have talked myself up to a macbook pro 13" or even another thinkpad w510 (or similar, they are much better and nicer looking, even though they run windows...) on the desk, and an itouch for on-the-road.

I'll start my mac experience with the ipod and if it works well I'll swing for an mbp @ home. For some reason, I still find the ipad awkward. As a Ni*e plus user (sportband) I might try that out with the ipod, but ipod seems like an awkward gizmo to carry if you don't already listen to music while running (I don't).

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(Maradona) (DavidVilla) A1186 (Xavi)
A1370 (Messi) dp43tf (Puyol) A1387 (Abidal) A1408 (Guardiola)

"InfiniteReality Graphics - Power Through Complexity"

jose, i thought all of you were much noise-tolerant than me, but truth be told, fan noise spoils all the fun(k)

syb go for the 13 mbp, it's a decent laptop. maria loves hers and i get to use it every now and then. if it came with an expresscard slot i'd be all over it. thunderbolt may change the need for one tho

funny, i just noticed that the air has no backlit keyboard

Back in my bioinformatics days, I had an O2, a Dell laptop, a PowerMac tower, and a laser printer in my office. I didn't think the noise bothered me until the day I played show-and-tell with my co-workers, and I brought in the fancy-schmancy Bose noise canceling headphones that I bought for plane travel. I tried them on in the office (the phones, not the co-workers), and it was a totally new experience. The sudden absence of fan noise had a dramatic impact on my ability to concentrate and get things done. A week or two later, a few of my co-workers started showing up with noise canceling headgear, too.

Now, whenever possible, I try to eliminate or at least to work at a distance from computer fans.

In reality you are all just getting old, and the brains are not filtering the background noise like they used to do in the younger days.

^ naturally

that doesn't mean you have to sleep w/ a fan next to you when in puberty :)

(jose, i used to own a film printer once. one of the coolest things in the bag o tools but it was so damn noisy, i almost relate to your story above)

I realize that you are probably joking, but I think that you are actually quite correct!
Needed the fans for different reasons back then...

i read an article recently that stated the white/pick noise had a materially/measurable negative influence on a person's ability to concentrate. Which sort of explains the efficacy of noise generators for sleeping. I use on religiously; really helps to turn the old Brain off at night.

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DECUS Member 368596

here's a fany update:

looks like my mba lost its sleep thermal calibration yesterday, (the fan was going crazy all the time). i took it to applestore and they gave me a new one. i mentioned that it would scream in situations like the ones i described here and the genia told me that it was most likely related to its hardware fault.

other than that, the mba stays in my bag. hope this one stays cool because i love its weight :)

I need to revise my statements; after watching Hulu for at least 20 minutes I started to notice the fan. By the time my 'one hour of TV' was up, the fan was very noticeable. This is flashes evil, and one reason I'm happy not to have support for it on the iPad; watching my battery drain at ridiculous rates.

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DECUS Member 368596

I am almost sorry to tell you that I just ordered a thinkpad x61s complete with ultrabase. The speed is largely irrelevant, but it's much more solidly built and about the same size. The only potential neg with the thinkpads is that they run windows, which is not a problem for me (I would be doing all the same stuff with the mac regardless, just install cygwin for X11 and you are fine. You also get the ultrabase and a light. And a non-widescreen 4:3 display which is still ideal at this form factor (see ipad)

The big selling point for me is the price. I could buy eight or even ten thinkpad x61s outfits for the price of one MBA or MBP. It is also black and (this might be silly) so many other students, well over half it would seem though most run windows on them :/ , have those boring silver macbooks, it is nice to be different

Why upgrade from my x40? Well the battery only lasts for a few hours, it is stuck in windows XP sp2 land (sp3 seems to break power management, slow down sleep and undock, etc) and that isn't well supported anymore.

I did test drive both MBA and MBP models for a few days, as well as an imac (really not that quiet at all IMO For me, having that nice OSX unix just doesn't justify the price. Yes, new thinkpads are also expensive, but they have a much better off-lease market

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(Maradona) (DavidVilla) A1186 (Xavi)
A1370 (Messi) dp43tf (Puyol) A1387 (Abidal) A1408 (Guardiola)

"InfiniteReality Graphics - Power Through Complexity"

still no luck, this puppy screams too, when it screams its pitch is so f*#! annoying. the mbp's fan is way better. back it goes. damn, i echo sky, once you carry around something light, its hard to go back. the girl in the applestore murmured something about an mba line-up update soon. we may get luckier in the next gen

gotta call duck dodgers, get together and design something really nice and silent :)

yup, keep cutting it trueschool-style syb, whatever gets the job done for your pocket.

x61s went back where it came from, as it wasn't much different than the x40.

Used the spare change from my tax refund left over from my tuition bill on the 11 inch air, and it is just dandy. Hasn't made any noise yet but I have the 1.4 (cheaper, longer battery life, less noisy)

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(Maradona) (DavidVilla) A1186 (Xavi)
A1370 (Messi) dp43tf (Puyol) A1387 (Abidal) A1408 (Guardiola)

"InfiniteReality Graphics - Power Through Complexity"

watch more than a 1/2 of HULU and you'll start to hear it. however, it wasn't nearly as loud as a netbook running the same workload.

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DECUS Member 368596