China to face Yao-less Olympic training in 2007
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China, having taken gold at the recent Asian Games minus Yao Ming, is likely to miss the NBA champion's services in Olympic warm-up matches against European power sides in 2007, local media reported on Monday.
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(InfoWorld) - When Beijing won the right to host theÂ 2008 Summer Olympic Games, officials promised to use it as a showcase for new technology and China's economic development. But the reality is that while the games will display the world's top athletic talent, it will be using old, mature technologies. A lot of new technologies, and even some mature ones, have already beenÂ cut from the roster. Microsoft Windows Vista, for example, won't be the OS used on any of the PCs responsible for vital functions at the Olympics; its predecessor Windows XP will. WLAN (wireless LAN) didn't make the grade either. All networking for the games will be done by wireline. Officials have even prepared a mobile Web site for the Olympics based on WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), instead of GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) or 3G (third generation). The site is designed to provide up-to-the-minute scoring information, and it's already online. "We're only using proven technologies at the games," said Hou Xinyi, deputy director of the technology department at the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, which has taken the acronym, BOCOG. If China's 3G system is up and running by the end of this year, the official Web site for mobile users will be more useful to people, he added. So far,Â China hasn't said when it will start issuing 3G licenses. The nice thing about WAP is its reliability and usability. Most wireless networks can be used with it, including CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access), GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications), PHS (Personal Handy-phone System), TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access), and most OSes allow people to read information from WAP sites. It's just not as fast as 3G, not by a long shot. But while the technology may be lacking, attendees to the 2008 Summer Olympic Games will be treated to some spectacular design work. Not only are some of the stadiums being built for the games unique -- and unusual for Beijing -- the torch to be used in the round-the-world relay is also easy on the eyes. And it was developed by a PC vendor, China's own Lenovo Group. Lenovo won the design contest for the 2008 Olympic torch. The company's PC designers came up with a 72 centimeter tall, 985 gram aluminum torch in the shape of an ancient Chinese scroll. The torch is two colors, split in half in the same manner as the Yin-Yang symbol, said Y.J. Yao, a vice president at Lenovo and head of the design teams. The upper half of the torch is silver with cloud designs outlined in red, while the lower half is red, covered by a special paint with a rubbery feel, a no-slip safeguard so runners won't drop it if they're sweating during their 400-meter portion of the global torch run. Originally, the company thought about using a dragon design on the top of the torch, but "the dragon is a symbol for the emperor, not for everyone, so we can't accept the dragon," Yao said. The cloud is for everyone, and represents the coming together of heaven and earth, he added. The name of the torch is the Cloud of Promise. The form of the torch -- the scroll design -- denotes paper, a useful item and a Chinese invention, Yao said. The color was chosen via a survey. "We asked, what color is China? Over 99 percent of respondents said red," Yao said. The color represents fire and warmth, friendliness and luck. People who like pictures of the torch might be interested in buying one of the laptop PCs Lenovo designed using the torch colors and styles. The company plans to auction off 2008 of them online and donate the proceeds to charity. EbayÂ is helping with the auction, but it won't be an eBay URL (uniform resource locator), said Yao. "We have a passion for the Olympic Games," Yao said. "You know, when it's happening in your city, you have a passion for this." The other top Olympic-related design work has gone into the new National Stadium, referred to by many as the Bird's Nest due to its unorthodox construction. The opening and closing ceremonies of the Summer Olympic Games will take place in the stadium. The exterior of the 91,000 seat stadium resembles a bird's nest, a steel exoskeleton wrapped around the outside of the site. The design is bold, and striking. It's hard to tell how it's going over with local Beijing residents, though. Many complain that there's nothing Chinese about it and one of the best comments this reporter heard on a recent trip to the city was "I guess it will take some getting used to." Beside the Bird's Nest is the National Aquatics Center, where all swimming and water sports events will take place. Based on the geometry of water bubbles and crystals, the center was nicknamed the Water Cube because of the design of its light blue and white outer membrane. The Cloud of Promise, Bird's Nest and Water Cube are all attempts at innovative design. Unfortunately, the technology used at the games won't be quite so bold. Â
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China plans to bar people who fail to meet certain benchmarks in financial, physical or psychological health from adopting Chinese children.
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International press groups denounced   new Chinese curbs on the dissemination of foreign news as a   step backwards ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, when   thousands of journalists will descend on the country's capital.
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China's military staged its first drill on Friday to test its readiness to respond to potential terrorist attacks during next year's Olympic Games, state media reported.
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Britain, whose athletes with the exception of gold medal winners Kelly Holmes and the men's sprint relay, performed so poorly at the Athens Olympics, have turned to China for help in the buildup to the 2008 Beijing Games.
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China plans to carry out a record 4,500 doping tests during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, an increase of 1,000 from the Athens Games.
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BEIJING, July 12 -- A system to monitor food safety will go into effect during test events for the 2008 Beijing Olympics next month, a Chinese government watchdog announced Thursday, even as a TV station aired an undercover investigation showing how shredded cardboard was used as a filling in ste...
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China&#39;s All Star NBA centre Yao Ming will wed his teenage sweetheart from Shanghai in August, after an eight-year courtship, state press reported Monday.
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Beijing's 2008 Olympic organizers have said the Games venues will be completed by the end of 2007, despite an ongoing graft investigation into top officials overseeing their construction.
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Under 15,000 people have been moved to make way for China's Olympic venues, organisers say, fewer than rights groups claim.
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The move is likely to inflame Chinaâs critics, who have called for a boycott of the 2008 games to protest human rights abuses.
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Not even a line clocked in days deterred the residents of Shanghai from waiting to see Yao Ming, the marquee attraction in this week&#39;s National Basketball Association exhibition games in China.
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Once-bitter rivals Russia and China will hold a massive joint military exercise on Chinese territory next year involving submarines and possibly strategic bombers, Russia&#39;s
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THE OLYMPIC Games have their anthem, their rings, their heroes, and their sponsors. Now, with the Beijing 2008 games, they have their prisoners. The Chinese government is not just building fine stadiums, it is also arresting those who dare to condemn human rights violations in China. The political police are getting ready for the Olympics in their own way, bringing ...
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China appointed a party official who has never worked in sports to oversee the preparation of athletes for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
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BEIJING: With the end of the Athens Olympics, the focus is now on China&#39;s preparations as host of the 2008 Games. Authorities are promising a cleaner, greener and a culturally vibrant Beijing.