hp Compaq 6910p

Is it an hp or is it a Compaq? Does it even matter? hp perhaps is really into this hard plastic kind of thing. On the upper right hand on the display, it says Compaq 6910p. But it's an hp. Can they just do a bit better on branding? Is it too much to ask?

I have an aging IBM Thinkpad r51, the display is still bright enough if I want it to. On the other hand, this hp never seems to give me the kind of brightness I want, no matter if I am running it on tethered power or battery. I want it to be so bright that I need to wear sunglasses. Alas, the screen is kind of lame. I like it to be my decision whether to have brightness or long battery life. UPDATE: I suppose I did cajole some brightness by pressing the fn-f11 key. Unfortunately, this combination also toggles Firefox's full-screen, it can get a bit confusing. The lack of visual clue while adjusting brightness and contrast doesn't help.

And this notebook is definitely not a laptop. It has a few vents right underneath on the bottom. So it's not really a good idea to put it on your lap. But I do it anyway. It's winter time and I can use some heat on my lap. I am going to use it in bed right on the comforter sort of to block all the vents, even the ones on the side, see if it will blow up.

So far Windows Vista is just what I've expected. Some minor annoyances, here and there, but nothing really major.

UPDATE:
Try hold down fn key and press f10 or actually f11, it brightens up the display.

UPDATE 5/1/2009:
It's been like this for the past few months. The battery, or could it be something else, even at 100%, but the LCD would just quickly goes black no warning or anything, maybe in 10 or 15 minutes after unplugged from power. It's just horrible. I won't recommend people buying this at all, if you get it for free then sure. Otherwise forget about it.

UPDATE 7/2/09:
The e key on the keyboard fell off, put it back, it doesn't quite respond like the rest. Very annoying.

 UPDATE 3/2010
The thing was smoking, literally.  I unplugged the machine and hoped it didn't explode.  Got somebody to change the motherboard all together.  Now it has bee running fine for a month or so.