His latest piece of artwork follows the underground river that runs from the top of Table Mountain, down Orange Street, through the Company Gardens, past Parliament, down Adderley Street all the way through to the Cape Town Harbour where the rain water is discharged into the harbour.

Doung wants to take artwork outside of “elitist galleries” and bring it out into the open, where the ordinary person on the street can view and appreciate it. He wants to use his artwork in order to educate people about the finer things in life in an attempt to force people to question art, and to come up with their own ideas of what they consider art to be.

What do you think?

I don’t think this would surprise anyone, but PowerBalance—manufacturers of plastic wristbands with hologram stickers on it—have admitted that there’s “no credible scientific evidence that supports [their] claims and therefore [they] engaged in misleading conduct.”

Here’s their statement:

In our advertising we stated that Power Balance wristbands improved your strength, balance and flexibility.

We admit that there is no credible scientific evidence that supports our claims and therefore we engaged in misleading conduct in breach of s52 of the Trade Practices Act 1974.

If you feel you have been misled by our promotions, we wish to unreservedly apologise and offer a full refund.

They had to publish that in Australian media. The company has been under attack by consumer associations all over Europe because of their bogus claims and pseudo-scientific mumbojumbo, but this seems to be the first time in which a regulatory authority has made them admit that their claims are a simply a fraud.

The whole PowerBalance and similar magic wristbands swindle reminds me of the old magnetic wristbands my grandma used to wear in the 80s. Those were able to cure anything, from rheumatism to diabetes and, like this modern powertrickery, they made people feel better because the metal vibrated in the same frequency as the planet does, whatever that means.

Of course, these pseudo-scientific amulets have been made and distributed since the beginning of civilization. From magic stones to sanctified pendants made of holy chicken bones, charlatans have been devising miraculous devices to take advantage of often desperate people. These are just fancier versions of those, used by a new generation of gullible people. But that doesn’t mean the governments should stay still and not do anything. Like in Australia, the US and the European Union should smash all these companies and prohibit their misleading commercials.

The story is now a trending article on Twitter!!!

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5723577

Link: http://www.powerbalance.com/australia/ca

The text message reads as follows:

“Welcome to Mobbee. U can view unlimited content! To opt out in the promotion SMS STOP to 37459 help call 0878204085. T & C apply”

Now I should start off by saying the I have NEVER subscribed to TMobileSA’s Mobbee service, nor to a service called Mobbee, nor have I subscribed to any premium rated service (or other) offered by TMobileSA (Mobbee) or any of its subsidiaries.

It does not matter if you reply to them or not, or if you actually contact them, or if you contact your Service Provider (Vodacom SP in my case), because YOU HAVE ALREADY BEEN CHARGED a premium rated SMS to receive that SMS text message.

Everytime you receive a text message from TMobileSA (Mobbee), you WILL BE CHARGED.

And, what makes it worse, is that TMobileSA (Mobbee) simply bills your Service Provider for the text message, and then your Service Provider simply adds the cost thereof onto your cellphone bill, WITHOUT your knowledge, consent, or otherwise.

Unsubscribing is a complete pain in the ass, and it is impossible to hold ANY party accountable, and even more impossible to actually be refunded for any costs that you have incurred on your cellphone account.

Essentially WASPS (Wireless Access Service Providers) that conduct business in this manner are the modern day THIEVES of the technology industry and are only being assisted in their endeavours by Service Providers that we come to trust and love.

Update (01 May 2011):

It looks as if TMobile is at it again .. they have recently been sending out “Inspirational Quotes” SMS’s to people (mainly MTN customers) so you had better check your cellular account!!! R5 per SMS!  If you read the comments below, it’s plain to see that most people have NEVER subscribed or requested this service.

What ever happened to the “double opt in” that was supposed to have been implemented???

Update (10 May 2011):

63 complaints about TMobile SA on helopeter in the last 2 weeks. Wow!

Link: Helopeter | TMobile SA | Complaints

MAJOR UPDATE (13 May 2011):

Thanks to Darren for the following update:

It would seem that TMobileSA/Wirels have been expelled from WAPSA!!!

Due to the complaints 10931, 11177, 11287 and 11296 lodged to WAPSA and WAPSAs adjudicators upholding the complaint it would seem that they have now expelled TMobileSA!

See: http://waspa.org.za/code/detail.php?id=11287
Other Sanctions: Expulsion from WASPA

Their details are also no longer appear on the “list of members” page: http://waspa.org.za/members/index.php

This in turn should result in the disconnection of all their services on the SA mobile networks. No company is allow to have a billing service on the SA mobile networks without being a paid up member of WASPA.

We will have to see if the SA networks do in fact disconnect them but at least in the mean time it’s a small step forward.

It would appear that the most damning report from the adjudicator is the one linked above (and again below) in which the complainant was actually an employee of WASPA!!!

The report makes for brilliant reading and is listed here.

Well done to all!!!! Beers on me!

Update (24 May 2011):

It looks like IOL have picked up the story as well. Link here.

Suggestions:

Here is a few suggestions of what you can do in order to assist the WASP from losing its licence:

Identify which WASP is actually billing you

www.smscode.co.za – Need help identifying the owner of a commercial SMS or short code?

Contact your Service Provider – but remember, it is not their fault that the WASP is billing you, so don’t get too angry with them, BUT they can give you all of the contact details for the WASP, and they can confirm the name of the service that you are being charged for!

Lodge a complaint against the WASP

www.waspa.org.za – Once you’ve got the name and contact details of the WASP, then it’s tme to report them to the Wireless Application Service Provider’s Association! (Whether or not they are actually going to assist is yet to be seen!)

Confirm your subscription and recover your money from the WASP

Once you have confirmed the service that you are being charged for, and once you have lodged a complaint against the WASP, then contact them directly in order to try get a refund from them… which might be dependant on the level of your anger!

Good luck!

More links and reading:

TMobileSA’s website (link) (re-directs to an IP address)

Uniforum SA’s details pertaining to TMobile SA’s website (link)

TMobileSA is run by Tsoko Information Technology (link)

Complaints on HelloPeter.com (link) (link) (link)

Waterkloof Wine Estate

View from Vineyards near Waterkloof Wine Estate

They have just opened up an amazing new restaurant at the winery, with wonderful views!!! Check them out…

Posted via email from Andrew Goldy’s posterous

Posted via email from Andrew Goldy’s posterous

The iPad WiFi+3G is carrier-locked and we cant use the U.S ones here, so we only expect availability toward September.

is absolute BULL and is CLEARLY intended to create confusion around the importation and use of US-purchased iPad 3G’s for use in South Africa.

I raised this point directly with Nicole in an email which pointed out that the quote on their website was incorrect.

On your website you state that: “The iPad WiFi+3G is carrier-locked and we cant use the U.S ones here.”

This is not actually true at all…

The Wi-Fi + 3G model has a micro-SIM slot (not mini-SIM ) located on the side of the device. The 3G model may be used with an AT&T data plan that does not require a contract. Apple has heavily advertised the uses of the no-contract plan on their website. Unlike the iPhone , which is usually sold locked to specific carriers, the 3G iPad is sold unlocked and can be used with any compatible GSM carrier.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPad

I don’t know if you’ve included this statement on your website to try encourage local South Africans to purchase a WiFi version now, instead of waiting for later in the year once the iPad is officially launched in SA?

I don’t think that it’s right, and your statement is merely creating confusion regarding the 3G iPad and its use outside of the USA!

As you can see I raised the point of whether their intention was to encourage local South Africans to purchase a WiFi version now (from them at INFLATED RATES) instead of waiting for later in the year once the iPad is officially launched in SA, or instead of importing either the WiFi OR 3G model from the US for use now.

Nicole completely disagreed with me, and shot back a brief email which merely contained a quote from the iLounge website which Nicole used to back up her claim:

One big difference between the iPhone and iPad with Wi-Fi + 3G needs to be underscored at this point: every iPad ships unlocked and unsubsidized, without any requirement that you sign up for a cellular data plan. In other words, if you don’t purchase a cellular subscription for the iPad, it can still be used with any 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi network—just like the iPad with Wi-Fi. But if you want to be able to access the Internet with the iPad outside your home, office, or free Wi-Fi hotspots, you’ll have to pay a monthly service fee to do so, and as of review time, AT&T remains Apple’s only cellular partner in the United States.

It is clear that the above quote is stating that “AT&T remains Apple’s only cellular partner in the United States” and that “if you want to be able to access the Internet with the iPad outside your home, office, or free Wi-Fi hotspots, you’ll have to pay a monthly service fee to do so” and basically because AT&T are the only cellular company in the world that makes the micro SIM cards, you essentially can’t use the iPad on any other cellular network in the world.

The quote even states that “every iPad ships unlocked” … so where’s the confusion?!?!?

(We know that all you have to do is to take a pair of scissors to your Vodacom SIM card and cut it down to size and it will work perfectly in the iPad 3G)

I then wrote Nicole a whole long email explaining the difference, including a whole host of source articles on the subject, and telling her that she was wrong, and should amend her website accordingly.

She ignored me.

Since then my iPad 3G has arrived from the US, and I duly purchased a Vodacom 3G SIM card, RICA it, activated it, loaded on a data bundle, CUT it up – and guess what: IT WORKS PERFECTLY ….

So I sent Nicole another email updating her:

Just thought that I would drop you a follow-up email to confirm that my US purchased 64GB iPad Wifi + 3G is working perfectly and has been for the past week on the Vodacom 3G network… Just had to cut the SIM card a little smaller, but got it right first time around.

I trust that this puts the rumour that the iPad 3G is network locked to bed.

Her reply was brief:

This message has been marked as spam and will not reach the intended recipient.

Clearly there is no getting through to the people at iGear … it makes you wonder what’s going on there!!!!

O well, it’s really another SA company trying to make a quick buck by spreading rumours ….

There are some amazing shots there!!!!

geohot twitter conversation