REVERSE-CHARGE text messaging is the latest big thing. It began in Britain and will soon roll out across the rest of Europe, which uses the same cellphone system.
Whereas text messages normally cost nothing to receive, reverse messaging lets cellphone owners pay about 25p a time to receive business or sports news, for example. But some people now complain that they are getting messages they do not want and cannot stop, and which cost up to 拢1 each to read.
Feedback asked Vodafone, the cellphone giant that introduced the reverse-billing system, the key question: can these messages be billed on arrival without the owner鈥檚 permission?
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Vodafone鈥檚 first answer (鈥淐ustomers should be wary鈥�.鈥�) ducked the question. So we asked again.
Its next answer is a shocker. Although the message sender 鈥渋s required to obtain the express consent of a customer before charging them for any text message鈥� the system makes it 鈥渢echnically possible for a customer to be charged for a text message when they have not subscribed to a service or requested that message鈥�.
Vodafone is of course now 鈥渟upporting the industry-wide initiative鈥� to regulate鈥︹�� and so on and so on.
Fine. But couldn鈥檛 Vodafone simply have launched a system that made it technically impossible for people to get ripped off in the first place?
骋翱翱骋尝贰鈥橲 automatic translator continues to demonstrate that professional translators need not worry too much about their job security just yet. Reader Richard Janzen was searching for a recipe for vichyssoise recently when Google came up with a novel, dual-soup recipe, 鈥淰ichysoise [sic] et velout茅 d鈥檃vocats 脿 l鈥檕range et cumin鈥�.
It sounded good, so Janzen clicked the 鈥渢ranslate鈥� button to get it in English. To his surprise, the velout茅 part of the recipe was entitled 鈥淰elvety lawyers with orange and cumin鈥�, and the ingredients given were 鈥�500 ml of orange juice, 2 quite ripe lawyers, 1 C with tea of powder poultry bubble, 1 C with table of ground cumin鈥�.
If you鈥檇 like the full recipe, just search Google for the phrase 鈥渄uo de potages鈥� and hit 鈥渢ranslate鈥�. Oh, and when you start cooking, don鈥檛 forget to 鈥渞emove the bark and the core of lawyers鈥�.
THE APRIL edition of Business 2.0, a magazine for the ailing high-tech world, goes a long way to explaining why the sector is performing so badly. On page 67 it quotes Stephen Yeo, a marketing director at PC terminal manufacturer Wyse, who succinctly explains his company鈥檚 growth strategy: 鈥淲e鈥檝e been doubling sales every 18 months. However, when you start from zero, it takes a long time.鈥� Indeed.
A BROTHEL is holding up Greece鈥檚 plans for the 2004 Olympics.
Although games will be back on their home turf, the organisers keep running into problems with previous tenants. After protests over the siting of the Olympic rowing pool on the battlefield of Marathon (Feedback, 2 February), it鈥檚 now the turn of the equestrians. They face the wrath of Aphrodite, reports the Ananova news service, thanks to the discovery of a 2500-year-old temple that doubled as a bordello on the site near Athens earmarked for the horse-riding events.
About 40 digs are going on at the site, and every trench is turning up archaeological goodies. As well as the temple, the diggers have found 3600-year-old Mycenaean tombs and ancient houses from the 4th century BC.
Perhaps there鈥檚 a new Olympic sport in the making: showjumping over the tombs or racing round the temple. Or perhaps Nigel Kneale鈥檚 1968 play The Year of the Sex Olympics could be restaged in honour of Aphrodite.
LOGGING on to Netscape鈥檚 home page, you usually find it has an online poll inviting you to click on 鈥淵es鈥� or 鈥淣o鈥� buttons to register your opinion on a range of topics. A couple of weeks ago the question asked was: 鈥淢y vote in opinion polls counts?鈥擸es/No鈥�.
We can see the point of submitting a Yes vote to this, but what would be the logic of voting No?
THE SPELLCHECKER in Macromedia鈥檚 Dreamweaver application hasn鈥檛 quite caught up with the IT revolution, it seems. Here are some of its suggestions for words it didn鈥檛 recognise when it scanned documents belonging to reader Brendan Murphy: 鈥渆mail鈥攁myl; emailing鈥攅mbalming; WWW鈥擶OW; egroups鈥攅rgots; spamming鈥攕apling; browsers鈥攂orrowers; freeware鈥擣errari; spam鈥擯am; google鈥攇aggle.鈥�
THE COMPANY that reader Juhana Jaatinen works for had some misunderstandings with a subcontractor. Jaatinen fired off a letter of complaint. An automatic response came back, saying: 鈥淣ote: this return receipt only acknowledges that the message was displayed on the recipient鈥檚 machine. There is no guarantee that the content has been read or understood.鈥� Jaatinen felt this reply explained it all.
A SONY advertisement spotted by reader Mark Donohoe in The Sydney Morning Herald hints at the hitherto unknown existence of fractional colours. It says: 鈥淧FM32C1 32 Plasma Display Monitor now only $109.99鈥�1024 脳 852 pixels鈥擮ptional tuner, speakers, mounting brackets鈥�16.8 colours simultaneously.鈥�
THE STANDARD of literacy in scientific communication still occasionally leaves something to be desired. The usually excellent Earth Negotiations Bulletin was covering the UN Forum on Forests meeting in New York last month. On 12 March it reported: 鈥淎s the second week of UNFF-2 began and the impending arrival of ministers drew nearer, the pressure on delegates to reach agreement on the ministerial message rose several degrees.鈥�
FINALLY, Canberra鈥檚 Yellow Pages has a listing for Murray鈥檚 Luxury Coach Hire, which is suitable for events such as: 鈥淐onferences鈥�, 鈥淭ours and Transfers鈥� and 鈥淪chool Executions鈥�. They do not say if they supply the gallows.