Walter Hutchens’ Blog

The 3,000 member National People’s Congress—China’s putative legislature—has been conducting its brief annual meeting. Today they wrapped things up, ratifying the “work report” of the NPC Standing Committee (the much smaller body that meets in the long stretches between NPC meetings and approves many important pieces of legislation).

I translated the resolution in which the NPC blesses the NPC Standing Committee’s work for the prior year and sends them off to continue the good work, fortified with plenty of slogans.

I’ll paste the original Chinese after the break.

Some people specialize in parsing PRC political speak. I wonder if any of these phrases reflect the reported tensions over development policy?

Decision Concerning the Work Report of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress by the Fourth Assembly of the Tenth National People’s Congress

March 14, 2006

Passed in the fourth assembly of the tenth National People’s Congress

At the fourth assembly of the tenth National People’s Congress the work report of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress offered by Chairman Wu Bangguo was heard and considered. The past year’s work of the Standing Committee is wholeheartedly affirmed by the National People’s Congress, and the main tasks set forth in the report for the coming year are agreed to; the report is hereby approved.

The NPC charges the NPC Standing Committee to: comprehensively implement scientific development under the guidance of Deng Xiaoping Theory and the important “three represents” thought; stick unwaveringly to the political path of developing socialism with Chinese characteristics; organically integrate insistence on the Party’s leadership with people being masters of their own affairs and ruling the country in accordance with law; tightly integrate Party and national work; diligently create a new era in NPC work; strengthen socialist law in order to develop socialist democracy; and contribute even more to comprehensive socialist market economy construction, political construction and cultural construction.

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After lots of teasing, leaks and speculation, official news has now been released concerning the ultra-mobile PC (UMPC) project that Intel, Microsoft and assorted hardware vendors have been working on (codenamed Origami by Microsoft).

My trusted tech adviser James Kendrick posts on the news here, and gadget fetish site Engadget covers the news here (both sites have multiple Origami posts).

I think it will be great if more people own take-virtually-everywhere PCs. I also think it will be great if the Tablet PC flavor of Windows becomes more widely adopted. Either development will bring lots of positive spill-over effects, including increased demand for ubiquitous broadband and 3G networks, more software and accessories for Tablet PCs, and a general stimulus to the trend of people working wherever they want (in coffee shops, on their couches, virtually anywhere).

But I must confess that my overall reaction to UMPCs is: ho-hum.

There are promises of great improvements in battery life and processor speed in future models (not that any of that will be restricted to UMPCs), and there is talk that prices may be well below $1,000. All that sounds great, but the devices that will ship soon are basically little slate-style Tablet PCs.

Thus I’m not sure what the big deal is. In terms of what will ship soon, where is the innovation? There are already some diminutive slate-style Tablet PCs on the market. For example, Motion Computing sells a tiny slate called the LS800. I bought a Sony U over a year ago; it ran the Tablet PC version of Windows.

Some UMPCs will have built-in cameras. That may be great for video conferencing, but as a camera, wouldn’t using a UMPC be like holding a dinner plate up to your face to take what will I imagine be a relatively low res photo? I think I’d prefer to carry a pocket camera or digital SLR.

I’d like a UMPC with a brilliant screen and an enormous hard drive (or EVDO) for looking at photos and perhaps video, but for mobile music or telephony, won’t the iPod and typical mobile phones continue to be more compelling because of their size? To me, these first Origami devices look too big to take everywhere without hesitation in the way I carry a cellphone. If I’d carry a device with a 7″ screen somewhere I’d probably also be willing to carry a laptop there (certainly my Fujitsu P1510).

If I could buy a DualCor cPC (phone, Tablet PC and Windows Mobile device in a single brick), I’d rather have that than a UMPC of the type being shown now at the German CeBIT trade show. If you don’t have a keyboard, why not make the screen even smaller, add a phone and get instant-on capability?

In terms of form factor, I wonder if something the size of a Play Station Portable isn’t preferable to the bigger UMPCs being shown.

Also, from using the Sony U and another slate I found that I strongly prefer a keyboard for virtually all text entry. I’ve also learned that I want my keyboard attached to the CPU and screen, not a separate component that I have to attach, detach and remember to pack. Thus, I think for myself a tiny convertible Tablet PC like the Fujitsu P1510D remains preferable. I’d like a faster 1510 with day-long battery life, EVDO and an even more brilliant screen. But I don’t want a tiny slate with specs similar to the 1510′s.

Ten years ago I had an Apple Newton. It was not as powerful as as these UMPCs will be. It lacked a color screen and built-in wireless networking. But its form factor is reminiscent of these new UMPCs, and the general idea of the Newton was to have a carry-everywhere computer that relied mainly on pen input. For various reasons the Newton didn’t take off. I wonder if UMPCs will be more successful, or if consumers will prefer smart phones as their satellite devices to a main PC. Palm devices outsold Newtons, I recall.

Perhaps students will go for UMPCs. Note-taking is one quintessential student activity. If UMPCs prove handy for note-taking while also being good for email, web surfing and instant messaging, the “vertical” market of students may be where UMPCs are a runaway hit.

Physicians, too. Many of them walk around and scribble a good bit of the day. UMPCs seem ideal for them.

One marketing challenge will be that most people haven’t tried the Tablet version of Windows. When people look at a conventional clamshell style notebook, they know it’s something they can use. It looks like a desktop computer (which resembled a typewriter, easing its adoption). But UMPCs like other Tablet PCs will require some new learning. Tech enthusiasts will relish that, but for many consumers—certainly for many older ones—pen input may not be immediately appealing. When they look at a slate Tablet PC they don’t feel immediately at ease, which is probably one reason convertible Tablet PCs are more common. UMPCs will have to overcome consumer skepticism in ways clamshell style notebooks do not.

I think a ruggedized UMPC would be desirable. Dropping one looks almost inevitable.

Will any UMPC have a PCMCIA card slot? I doubt it, meaning sharing an EVDO card between a UMPC and another laptop probably won’t work.

Price will be critical here. My sense is that prices close to $500 will trigger lots of purchases; prices set at close to $1,000 will trigger lots of passes.

China today issued its annual “report” on human rights in the United States, a retaliatory action to annual US government reports about human rights in China (the US report was released yesterday, as described here on the website of the US Department of State).

China’s 2005 report accuses the US of pursuing international “unilateralism,” disregarding international norms, violating human rights and other nations’ sovereignty. The report claims US military actions routinely slaughter innocent civilians, citing reports in the Lancet that 100,000 Iraqis have been killed since the war began in 2003, mostly women and children. Of course they also inveigh about US soldiers abusing prisoners of war. It also trumpets America’s failings in terms of racial equality and problems with violent crime, pointing out the large number of murders and gun-related crimes in the US.

The headline I’ve highlighted above is from the PRC government news agency Xinhua. It blares, “China Issues Report on US Human Rights, Points Out ‘Democracy’ is a Rich Person’s Game.”

The evidenced used to “show” that US democracy is just a rich man’s game includes the staggering cost of the New York City mayoral race and the New Jersey governor’s race and the scandal involving lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

I’m no fan of George Bush’s foreign policy. I agree that the US has an unconscionable problem with violent crime. Although we tend to conceptualize human rights as freedom from government abuse (not as freedom from abuse by other citizens), I think it would be good for Americans to understand safety from violence as a human right that their government has a positive duty to assure.

In other words, China’s report is not wholly without merit. They make some good points, and much of it is factually correct.

However, some nice things about being a US rather than PRC citizen are that 1) I can read media not subject to government censorship and make up my own mind about the actions of my country and other nations (where, pray tell, are China’s crime statistics?), and 2) if I object to my government’s actions I can take a range of steps to try to stop them. I can exercise my not-just-on-paper free speech rights, vote, organize an opposition political party—all kinds of things that Chinese citizens are not permitted to do.

An irony of the report is that it cites lots of American government statistics and media sources to buttress its claims. This may “prove” that the accusations aren’t made up from whole cloth, but it also shows that the US political systems, like many political systems outside of China, has the kind of open discourse and government accountability that remains verboten in China, despite China’s efforts to become a modern nation.

A typical Chinese response to another nation’s criticisms is that such criticisms amount to “interference in China’s internal affairs” and “hurt the feelings of the Chinese people.” My reaction to China’s report on US human rights is, Huanying, huanying—”Welcome to the arena of open political discourse; we dare you to take it seriously.” China has every right to comment critically on US failings.

However, despite our many failings, the US will win a battle of dueling human rights reports.

But of course China’s one-party government fears a free press and open political competition. China’s leaders haven’t been popularly elected. The PRC government will promote its views, censor contrary ones and therefore not be an example to anybody in the free world of what kind of government they want, despite China’s developmental success over recent decades.

The full text of China’s report, titled 《２００５年美国的人权纪录》 (2005 Nian Meiguo de Renquan Jilu), is available in Chinese here and translated into English here. China has now been issuing these retaliatory reports for seven years. The 2004 version is here in Chinese. The 2004 version (about 2003) is here in English.

The full text of the China portion of the annual US report on human rights is available here.

This guy’s tech addiction is even worse than mine—he’s had 18 different Tablet PCs over the last three years.

Wow.

Many addicts who used to be constrained by hard budget limitations are now rampaging; eBay’s secondary market in electronics substantially mitigates the cost of tech addiction. After a few months of using a new gadget, you can sell it and buy the next latest, greatest thing. Sure, there will be some depreciation, but some tech addicts find it to be a tolerable amount.

Still, 18. That’s extreme. Just imagine the enormous cost in time of buying, setting up and later selling 18 PCs.

. . . Wait a minute, if he did 18 PCs over three years and I’ve done 9 over 16 months . . .

I learned about the 18 Tablets guy from JK On the Run, the blog of James Kendrick, another tech addict.

Recently I got a new computer. That got me thinking about all the other PCs I’ve had, which prompted me to think it would be nice to have a timeline showing them.

Then it occurred to me that I could use MindManager to gather the info and create the page.

So I made this:

And this:

To go along with these graphics, I’ve written a series of posts about my personal history with personal technology. I’ve included entries on my experience with:

Plus I’ve written:

The timeline is a very large clickable image map—a single, wide graphic. No doubt it won’t look good (or probably display at all) on a Treo screen. It barely fits on my 17″ HP laptop screen. It may look bad on any monitor that’s not widescreen. I may tinker with the layout later. I plan to add links to bigger versions of the images, and I’d like to add the specs on each device pictured. I may put each category on a separate page.

Can you remember the first time you used a computer? Surfed the web? Took a digital photo?

When I was a kid I heard some elderly people recall the first time they watched television, rode in a car, got running water and had electricity connected to their homes.

For my generation the equivalent of getting “running water” is getting broadband internet access.

My own life bridges the digital revolution; I’ve lived BN and AN (before Net and after Net).

I do remember the first time I used a computer, saw a web page and took a digital photo. I recall a time when almost no phones were mobile.

Contrast my experience to my daughter’s. She’s five and often asks to go to “Disney dot com.” The video games she plays have astounding graphical richness (I had an Atari with Pong and Pacman). She’s never seen a camera that isn’t digital. It doesn’t surprise her that our music library is in the computer. The idea that television shows or movies can only be seen at fixed times and in fixed locations isn’t part of her life. It’s not remarkable to her that I can write (and she can “color”) on the screen of my Tablet PC. She uses the stylus to solve jigsaw puzzles (made from digital family photos). She plays tic tac toe and practices her own writing on it.

The first time I used a computer was 1986. I was a freshman in college. Some Apple IIs were in a “lab” students could use in the bottom floor of the library. A friend taught me not to hit return at the end of every line I typed. Word wrap and the notion of an endless page actually made me feel awkward and a bit disconcerted, not empowered.

Later I discovered the Macintosh. I remember sitting in the offices of the student newspaper where I was an editor, trying every available typeface. Watching the pages emerge from the laser printer felt like magic. That was empowering.

Macs revolutionized print publishing. It was a pre-cursor to the Internet revolution. I got drawn into desktop publishing.

Partly because I learned QuarkXpress I became editor of a small magazine in my early 20s. The previous editor was in his 50s and wasn’t able to make the transition to computer-based layout.

Using computers to design publications more quickly and cheaply drove adoption of personal computers in that organization, so those of us in the communications department became the firm’s leading-edge geeks.

I led the charge to overthrow an old IBM mainframe system and get computers on every desk. After that I was called the “director of communications and information systems.” The title was grander than the salary; I managed only a few people (and a lot of problems). But it exemplifies how technology’s creative destruction provides opportunities. I was riding the wave.

My next job was at Apple Computer. I edited their worldwide employee newsletter (then still a print publication).

I loved working at Apple. They gave me a Newton, sent me to China and Japan on business trips and paid me to follow technology and business developments in a company I cared about. I loved living in the Bay Area—Silicon Valley’s business environment was exciting, San Francisco’s culture rich, and after five years in Chicago the weather was sublime.

But I left after just a year to go to law school. There were several reasons. Silicon Valley housing prices were exploding. I wasn’t going to be able to buy one any time soon. Plus, I was skeptical about being a mar-comm or PR professional for life. Apple’s public visibility exceeded its market share, but the PR staff wasn’t driving decisions. They had to defer to the lawyers who advised on what a public company can or must disclose. The PR staff also had to scurry around to put the best possible spin on bad decisions executives had already made. I didn’t like that subordinate status.

Plus, I’d been interested in China for a long time. China’s transformation, like the Internet, was clearly a mega-trend. I decided to convert my China interest into a career direction. I went to Washington University in St. Louis to get a JD and MA in Asian Studies.

I took my PowerBook and Newton to school with me. But in general my IT enthusiasm slipped into the background for several years. I didn’t have time for it as I pursued those degrees then ground my way through a couple of years in a large law firm.

But several key things did happen in my personal technology experience in 2000, the year I graduated and started working as a lawyer in New York. I got my first PC, digital camera and mobile phone that year (I was comparatively late on all these). One reason was that I finally had a salary again. Another was that my wife was pregnant; I of course wanted her to be able to reach me at all times. When the baby came I got a camera, computer and printer. I wanted to take pictures, print them send them to far-flung relatives.

The principal reason I broke with my Mac tradition was that I thought having a PC at home would help me learn to use one at work. The firm was purely a “Wintel” shop. I had always been a go-to guy for technology questions, but in a PC environment I knew I’d be almost useless. I didn’t want to feel unfamiliar with a device I’d use every day.

So I bought a tiny Sony Vaio laptop (the first of many to follow). I think it cost about $2,000.

At the same time I got my first Windows-based PC I also bought my first digital camera. It was a three megapixel Nikon Coolpix 990. It took brilliant photos. I treasure many of the shots I got with it (including the first images of my daughter, pictures of family visiting New York City). Equipped with the new camera and computer, I sent friends and family pictures at the excessive pace typical of smitten parents. I cropped and retouched photos and selected some for layout in album pages that I printed at home. I designed a card to announce my daughter’s birth. However, after my two weeks of paternity leave ended, I had less time to experiment with my new computer and camera.

I bought a Palm device but never integrated it into my life. Compared to my Newton it seemed anemic, and I was mostly chained to my desk or in some conference room going through boxes of documents. If I needed a phone number I could call my secretary.

I didn’t excel at being a corporate law drone. I was happier after the firm moved me from New York to Beijing, but even in China I loathed being a low-level lawyer in a big firm. It just wasn’t the life I wanted.

Next I got a teaching job in the business school of the University of Maryland. They were expanding under the slogan “leaders for the digital economy.” I assume my IT background helped me get the job, along with my China expertise.

As a professor I’ve had more time to play with gadgets. It’s probably fair to say it’s become a fetish. Every day I read tech blogs and other online material about IT. Buying tech magazines eats a surprising amount of my household budget. Then there’s the hardware . . .

In the last 16 months I’ve had nine computers and four different smartphones or PDAs.

That’s grossly excessive—I know, I know. (I couldn’t afford my technology addiction without the vast secondary market for electronics on eBay—selling stuff there substantially mitigates the financial cost of my compulsive gadget buying).

Elsewhere I’ll detail the rationalizations that drove each specific purchase. Basically I was on a terribly expensive and time consuming quest to find a device that would help me write. I am a tenure-track professor at a research university. I have to write for publication to keep my job. I love my job but hate writing the kind of stuff I need to produce to keep my job. I have tired a succession of devices to help punch through my resistance—Pocket PCs, Tablet PCs, conventional laptops, ultra-portable PCs and smartphones.

Unfortunately no gadget can do much to solve writer’s block. It’s a psychological, not technical, issue. But hope springs eternal—I truly thought every device might help me become more productive in terms of formal academic writing. Also, gorging on technology provides great distraction from the stress of what one should be doing.

Another lesson of my quest is that there is no perfect computer. This is a simple and, for most people I imagine, rather obvious point. But I spent a huge amount of time and money coming to appreciate this in a visceral way.

There is no perfect notebook computer for two main reasons.

The solution for me is to have two computers. This is an admittedly extravagant approach. But I find having two quite different devices provides something close to equilibrium. It addresses my alternating dissatisfaction with either single device (or dissatisfaction with a single device that tries to compromise between the best attributes of multiple devices).

I have a big 17″ laptop that serves as a “desktop replacement” (or desktop substitute, since I have no desktop to replace).

Another tiny laptop provides 1) ultra-portability and 2) Tablet PC functionality, two things that are sometimes (but not always) critical to me.

I’m quite happy, at least for now, with my combination of an HP dv8040us and a tiny Fujitsu P1510.

Despite my recent burst of computer and gadget buying madness, I consider myself a second-wave adopter of technology. I tend to be the first among my peers to try some new device or software, but I’m almost never among the first-wave adopters who create or adopt things on the “bleeding edge.”

For example, I started a blog in 2003—far from early, but a bit before “blog” became a common part of the lingua franca.

I started with Blogger, initially hosting my site on Blogspot. Then I moved the blog to a server at the university where I’m employed (because Blogspot, though not Blogger, is blocked in China). Later I tried TypePad. Then I registered my own domain and migrated to WordPress which I’m still happily using.

I’ve had only four digital cameras. I still use two of them—a tiny Pentax Option 5si that fits in my shirt pocket and a bulky Nikon D70s. The Nikon is a digital SLR; it shoots fast enough to let me capture, sometimes, those priceless things my daughter does. I use Picasa to catalog and retouch my shots and create web pages with them. Sometimes I’ve used PhotoStory to make videos (slideshows with fancy transitions and voice-overs), but that is incredibly time consuming if you try to do it well.

Most of my life is now spent online. Most every day I use a computer to handle email, read material on the web and create some content of my own. I bank and increasingly shop online. Living in China I stream NPR over the internet to get my news fix. I download and listen to podcasts with increasing frequency. I still buy lots of books (way too many, actually), but increasingly I find that “dead tree” resources are disappearing from my life. Students often give me research papers written without any visits to a physical library. This isn’t all good, but it’s an inexorable trend.

Once you’ve used a 1) mobile phone 2) laptop computer 3) email account 4) high-speed internet connection 5) digital camera (paired with a computer, color printer and internet connection) and 5) smartphone or other device that lets you handle email and get on the Internet anywhere—you never want to revert to life without those things.