smartctl -n and standby?

>> #1)
>> is there any way of getting the "smartd -n" behavior in smartctl?
>>
>> More specifically, I do NOT want smartctl to spin up the disk when 
>> it's not spinning.
>>   
>
> An "-n" option was added to smartctl 2006-07-20.
Ahh, cool 
I still have a problem building - and just now discovered the "more 
recent Windows builds"...
> You can use "smartctl -n idle -i ..." to print the power state.
Cool, it's working.

However, I have another question about the "-n switch":

It seems like it prevents the disk from going to standby.

Is there ANYthing I can do about that?

I'd like to *monitor* the power state... I realize that this might be 
some kind of Heisenberg (?) problem *g* - can we measure the power state 
(which includes the elapsed idle time) without changing it? Do 
smart-commands count as disk activity?

If so, how is the "-n switch" used correctly for smartd? Of course I 
don't want the disk to spin up and down all the time, but I DO want them 
to spin down when they're not used for a longer time.
"A longer time" should be at least an hour, I guess...
On the other hand, "temperature monitoring" should probably be performed 
more frequently than that?

Any ideas?

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