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I haven’t been watching the Beijing Olympics. It seems that the Chinese government cannot understand marketing or public relations. Fake fireworks, lip-synced anthems, crowds bussed in to fill seats at “sold out” events… it’s a big stretch to say that these Olympics are the “best ever”.

Michael Sheridan’s article in the London Times called China’s iron Olympic grip starts to slip is a good summary of the problems China’s government has created for itself.

Apple is including Chinese character recognition features in the iPhone 2.0 software release, according to MacRumors and Engadget.

I’m not sure how the software works, as iPhone users don’t have a stylus. They must use their finger, or buy a third-party stylus like this one from Pogo.

Related pages and posts on billso.com

• iPhone
• 29 April 2008: New iPhone will be subsidized, faster and thinner
• 20 November 2007: An iPhone for China?
• 14 November 2007: No iPhone for you, China

One of my HPU colleagues, Sam Chepkevich, appears in this morning’s Honolulu Star-Bulletin. A photographer got a nice picture of Sam on his morning run around Diamond Head.

The accompanying article discusses the Hawaii Physical Activity and Nutrition Surveillance Report, which was released yesterday. The study’s results are another piece of evidence that many Hawaii residents do not exercise enough, nor do they eat properly.

Children aren’t getting enough exercise, which sets them up for a lifetime of health problems including obesity, hypertension and diabetes. I see plenty of overweight children and young adults every day, as I drive, walk and run around town. I’m surprised that some of these kids can get so heavy, since they cannot seem to sit still for a minute or two. They’d rather fidget and run around, even when they are eating a meal.

Guess who foots the bill for their health care? Everyone else in the state, through increased prices that help cover our mounting health insurance bills. Here’s a picture of a Chinese teenager who is a fine example.

From Business Week comes a longish article about Lenovo’s ultralight X300 ThinkPad laptop. There’s a picture on the top of the web version of the article that shows a disassembled version of the laptop. It’s the first Lenovo model to carry the ThinkPad brand name.

Weighing in at 3 pounds, the X300 fits inside an interoffice mail envelope and uses flash memory for file storage, just like the MacBook Air. Lenovo is a major sponsor of the 2008 Olympic Games, and the company will supply hundreds of X300s to Olympic staff this summer.

Walt Mossberg of the Wall astreet Journal gave the X300 a glowing review. He’s been a big fan of Apple products for the last couple years. In fact, Mossberg’s biggest problem with the X300 is the Windows operating system. He notes that unlike the MacBook Air, the X300 has 3 USB ports, an RJ-45 jack, a DVD drive, and users can change and add their own batteries.

Designing a laptop computer is tricky work

Laptop computers are highly integrated devices that combine a battery, screen, input devices, and ports with the computer’s core hardware. The final product must withstand everyday use, as well as the occasional drop.

Corporate clients have very specific requests. For example, some companies want security features like power-on passwords, asset tags, and encrypted network cards. It’s much easier to engineer security into a product’s hardware than adding software or dongles after delivery.

Other companies are willing to sacrifice speed and features for rugged construction and reliability. Panasonic Toughbooks have become very popular with police departments and construction firms.

Give the people what they want

The average consumer tends to judge laptops on price, looks and entertainment features. Preinstalled software can dictate the purchase decision, especially the operating system. The ability to expand and maintain the computer is not an important consideration.

Anyone who uses a laptop as their home computer needs to use an external hard drive or a second computer to backup their data. At any moment, that laptop computer could be stolen or damaged. Read my 30 September 2006 article for some tips.

One example that I pointed out on 5 December 2006 is the slotless optical drive that Apple includes on its laptops. Acer and other companies have also put these drives in their laptops. They have no tray, so there’s nothing to use as a cupholder. But, if a user inserts a non-standard CD or DVD into a slotless drive, there is no safe or reliable way to remove the disc. The optical drive must be replaced at a service center.

A year ago, I wrote about China’s ill-advised space weapons test. When China complained about the US government’s successful takedown of a dead satellite last week, I have to shake my head and wonder. There’s a big difference. A year ago, China conducted an unannounced test of a weapons system that left thousands of debris chunks remain in orbit, as this January 2008 article from Wired shows. DailyWireless has more pictures and additional discussion.

This month, the US government announced its plan well in advance, and it wasn’t a weapons test.

As Jeffrey Lewis pointed out on Wired and ArmsControlWonk, some debris may remain in orbit. The official line, as reported in the New York Times and Honolulu Advertiser, is that the satellite was destroyed.

Writers such as Lewis and Farhad Manjoo don’t live in Hawaii, and may lack the personal stake that I and my fellow residents have in this story. It is much easier to hit a tumbling satellite than an inbound missile. I’m glad the US military can hit both, because Honolulu is a prime target.

But I’d much rather see international efforts to remove space junk from orbit, before an errant bolt or paint chip takes out a communications satellite or a manned mission.