[jasoraso]

Glad you identified what the problem's are with the charset issues.

There are some new builds coming out of CM7 that improve battery life - when the NC is sleeping, but that doesn't appear to be your issue, although there are kinks to still be worked out.

2 items you might consider for battery life:
- when the NC is "flashed" with a new rom, that new rom calibrates the battery status, based on the assumption that the battery is full. Because most people don't flash a rom when the battery is full, there is a procedure to reset the battery stats. Download the "battery callibration" app and follow the directions.

- in the "settings" menu for the general android system, there is a CyanogenMod Settings option. Under this option, there is a "performance" tab. Then, you can select the "cpu settings".

You may or may not want to adjust the max fequency higher (although I recommend you try 975, if you want to go even higher, you will need to install an "overclock kernel"). That won't help much with battery life.

BUT you can also select the "governor". I've found the conservative helps with my battery life. When I am concerned about battery life, I make sure and select conservative, as well as keep wifi off and the screen dimmer rather than brighter (which is what I prefer when reading).

For day-to-day use when I don't need to squeeze maximum life from my battery, I prefer the On-demand or Smartass governors, with a maximum clock speed of 1200.

Hope the tricks help. And yes, I understand what you are saying about "tuning" a car. I actually enjoy it!