January 2006

Earlier this week, as was able to upgrade my old O2 XDAII to an O2 XDA Exec (also known as a Universal or Jasjar). What am I talking about? It’s a consolidated device, both PDA, and mobile phone rolled into one. With network connectivity options that would make any laptop owner giddy, GSM, GPRS, UMTS (3g), Bluetooth, and 802.11b (WiFi).

And I upgraded for such a cheap amount, partly for trading in my old phone, mostly because O2’s Gateway system (In Store System) calculates cell phone usage for an upgrade based on all the phones in one parent account. So, my wife’s phone, and my phone are billed under one account, so both of our usage is shown as my usage, thus making me look like an uber-user. Is that fraud? Well, no. Because the O2 representative did double check with head-office, and they corrected her, but she chose not to listen to them.

Meanwhile, I’m enjoying being able to stay connected to the hive-mind with a lovely little device, which is also running Windows Mobile 5. No more restores after resets, for me. Not with persistent storage. Whilst persistent storage does make boot times a heck of a lot slower, it’s so much more piece of mind.

What’s next, well, I guess I’m going to need some WLAN stumbling/hacking tools, and some type of shell access. Which brings me along to my pet-peev of the Windows Mobile community. Because Microsoft are money-grabbing-bastards, they seemed to have spawned an entire community of wannabe-money-grabbing-bastards. There are very few open source projects for Windows Mobile, and anything semi-useful normally cost over $14. Heck! I’ve seen themes sell for near $5! What hope is there?

technorati tags: microsoft, pda, phone, mobile, windows mobile, bastard, o2, xda, xda exec, 3g

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A recent thread of discussion strayed into the realms of weregild (or ericfine amongst the Celts). It just really got me thinking about the concept, it’s past usage, it’s current role in modern society, and it’s future. My first encounter of weregild as an ancient law was through a work of fiction, from Anne Rice’s vampire Thorne in Blood and Gold (I think). Where the call for the destruction of another vampire is denied to Marius, wearupon Thorne enacts his right of weregild for the crime of his own murder (enacted by the judge) by taking the blood of the defendant. So extracting repayment by denying the ruling of the one that had transgressed against him.

I know, odd example, and worth keeping in mind that weregild is not always about repayment in blood, it wasn’t in the example, and it’s not in today’s legal system. Today, when the Criminal Court fails to appease the satisfaction of the aggreaved kin, weregild can be claimed via the Civil Courts, whilst repayment is not in blood, nor life, it is still a form of repayment. The Civil Courts can also rule differently to the Criminal Courts on the same matter.

I’m not sure where I’m going with this. I’m still gathering my own thoughts on the matter, and so would receive any recommendations on reading, whether old tales, or modern essays. I guess I’d like to be able to answer whether the modern dilution of weregild as a blood repayment is a GoodThing(tm), if this is progress, whether we can expect further dilution of the weregild right as western society becomes more state and ‘nanny’ oriented? Can the state trust families to use the Civil Courts in the manner they are intended? Or are they doomed to have rights eroded further… Discuss?

technorati tags: weregild, ericfine, glowczyzna, criminal court, civil court, blood, repayment, anne rice, society

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