I've been consuming the output of tech journalism for over 20 years, and I can't say they have ever been "balanced". Extremely biased is closer to reality. I would welcome an actual balanced review that described the product in terms that could be useful to someone trying to decide on what product best fit their own needs.
Your comments support what I've read/seen about Acer tablets in what seem like honest reviews by honest people (rather than tech journalists with a vested interest and geek bias). The reviews I like focus on the little things like how solid the mountings for the peripheral plugs seem to be, how well they fit into the case etc. The impression I got was that while they were popular for some reason, Asus tablets were more cheaply made if you looked carefully, while the Asus tablets were constructed more solidly. I tend to use the products I buy until they fail, so build quality is very important, and Acer seems to be a better choice if that is what one cares about.
At the end of the day updating a binary driver is a pain in the arse. Every time the kernel changes, the video driver must be updated.
True for many distro's. Not so for openSUSE. I just add the NVidia repo and be done with it.
You've missed the point entirely with a lack of understanding that approaches perfection.
The statements you quoted were referring to the changing ABI of the Linux kernel, which requires the developers of the video driver (a kernel module) to update it every time the kernel ABI changes (which is often). That requires coding, debugging, recompiling,testing on the part of the video driver developers, which apart from being real work has the potential to introduce bugs that have to be fixed. This is NOT about relying on your package manager to update your video driver for you when your distribution updates the kernel. In order for that to happen for you, not only do the video driver developers have to update the driver to match the new kernel ABI, the packagers for your distribution (openSUSE) have to download, build, package and test the new driver. That's quite a lot of work that has to be done to allow you to smugly declare that updating your video driver when the kernel changes is simple. I hope you appreciate the work that goes into making your magic computing box do your bidding with minimum effort on your part.
It all looks alright to me, to be honest, except for possibly the hot dog meal. Not 'Fine Dining', but this is a normal daily lunch after all. All the vegetables look fresh - no brown salad, which my daughter complained about last year at our local school. No mystery meat in sight, no gray overcooked vegetables or blue tv-dinner-grade gravy. No unrecognizable ingredients. I'm not sure what you're seeing that's so awful. I've been presented with much worse. There seems to be a lot of variety, there's not a lot of fried foods and it all seems to be prepared well (cooked properly etc.). The meals seem a little sparse, but that's probably because actual recommended portions look small to eyes conditioned by the "super size it" mentality promoted by the food industry. For a grade school child, those are the right portions, and she even said in one post that she could hardly finish a potato salad.
It does pale a little in comparison to some of the photos submitted from other nations. The Japanese school lunches are particularly appetizing to my eyes. Wish I had one of those waiting for me at lunch today.
Really. Over 5 years ago? That's all you've got? And OpenSUSE is a community driven OS from what I can observe, though Novell employees do contribute. You should really be ranting about SLES if you want to make this about the behavior of corporations.
Thanks, that illustrates quite well my peripheral point in the footnote about SUSE developers being generally (and somewhat unconciously) user hostile. Treating motivated, willing and helpful participants in your distro experience as nothing more than underperforming developers who just aren't conforming to cultural norms is a symptom of the problem. I could probably sum it up as: the ultimate goal of a distribution is not to be a personal toy for developers to amuse themselves, but rather to be a tool that people use to accomplish other tasks. That's the whole point of a general purpose operating system.
You missed the part about it being a popular tourist destination. It's isolated in the sense that it's up on top of a mountain in a National Park rather than somewhere in the middle of the I-95 East Coast Megalopolis, but doesn't mean there aren't people around nearly all of the time. It's still visited by thousands of tourists/day during the temperate parts of the year, and is within a few miles (and plain view) of a major ski resort that recieves lots of visitors in the winter months. It's on top of a mountain that you can drive to in your car and brag about it and is promoted as a major tourist attraction for the region. Not exactly the place to house a military base to conduct classified testing of drones. Whatever got this place on the list, it wasn't because it was a major Drone Base.
Having said that , there does seem to be a tendancy for distro devs to pack in the the latest stuff into a release simply because its available , rather than going for stablity and interoperability with maybe slightly older versions of software.
To be fair to them, end users tend to clamor for the latest stuff and tend to consider the presence of older versions a net negative when discussing a distro. On the other hand, a developer is more likely to prefer the cutting edge by nature, and often has a tweaked system that works for them, so tend not to notice that the latest stuff doesn't work properly on a stock version.
There's also the problem that for some applications or tools, the latest stuff is actually better and preferable so should be packed into the distro, particularly for stand-alone apps that don't integrate deeply with other components of the system or desktop. It's the latter that one has to be careful with, but devs don't always seem to make the distinction cleanly.
And don't get me started about upstream developers that insist on using the latest beta or alpha versions of libraries or toolkits rather than the stable releases that are actually shipped with recent distro releases. Trying to shoehorn in a newer version of an application that has a crucial bug or security fix but depends on an unstable version of a library is an exercise in pain.
I was a happy OpenSUSE user for several years, but abandoned it after the 12.1 release. My reasons were quality and stability issues that had been on the rise over the last few releases, which culminated in the premature (IMHO) and half-assed transition to systemd in 12.1. That was the last straw and the trigger to embark on another distro-walkabout (I won't say what I ended up switching to, because this isn't about that).
There is a lot to like about OpenSUSE and it's probably still one of the best distributions to use for a nicely integrated and well supported out-of-the-box KDE environment. But the incidence of instability (generally user-facing stuff - the base environment of kernel, toolchain and libs is pretty rock-solid), random bugginess (usually caused by a lone developer or small team marching to their own drummer without regard to their surroundings) and poor integration of interacting components has been creeping up over the last few years. It seems that people in the OpenSUSE development team have taken notice and started to think about the causes and how to address them. Bravo to them for having the insight to notice and the balls to try and address the problem before pushing out a release.
Not that they probably care too much about what I think*, but I'll be watching carefully and may give the next release another chance.
--- * The developer community is probably one of the more unconsciously user-hostile developer groups I've encountered in awhile. A fine and dedicated bunch, but they tend to keep to themselves in places apart (mailing lists, IRC) from where the users hang out (forums.opensuse.org). A typical response when a user is baffled about some problem or wants to discuss improvements is the typical "well did you file a bug report" (delivered in an imperious and self-important manner by the a senior forum user or appointed moderator who are just a little too zealous in their developer worship), or the suggestion that users join the mailing lists if they want to be heard because the developers don't use the forums (don't want to be too close to the hoi polloi, after all). Meritocracies do indeed become oligarchies, apparently. http://boingboing.net/2012/06/13/meritocracies-become-oligarchi.html
Mount Washington in New Hampshire's White Mountains shows up on the map, which surprised me a bit. It is in a fairly remote area (relative to major population centers) and happens to be one of the major tourist attractions in the area (Don't forget your "This car climbed Mt. Washington" bumper sticker if you make it up and down the Mt. Washington Auto Road). There's not a whole lot there - a cafe and weather station at the peak, hiking trails, forest land and ski resorts nearby. It's located within a State Park. This suggests the disclaiming statements at the end of the summary probably apply to a lot of the 64 "drone bases" referred to by the dramatic headline. As the highest peak in the Northeast (6,288 ft or 1,917 m), it seems like a good spot for communications or sensing equipment. Or, since the weather is quite wild and variable at the summit (held the record for the highest recorded wind gust for 76 years), it could be a good spot to stress-test a drone under severe conditions. Hardly a "Drone Base".
I live in S.E. Connecticut. The only stores within reasonable driving distance that have any decent tech at all are Best Buy and Staples. And they both suck. The only fallbacks are WalMart and Target. I want to weep when I type that because I'm jealous of the folks that live elsewhere and sorry that I live here. Sucks to be me. I miss the days when I lived in Dallas and could drive to MicroCenter to pick up equipment or browse the aisles for the latest Walnut Creek CD-Roms. What I couldn't find there I could find in the dozens of local tech shops hidden away in strip malls or one of the local industrial complexes. Those were the days.
If Best Buy goes down the tubes, I won't lament very long, because most of what I might want can be found on the internet, but I still like to walk into the store and experience what I might buy with my own senses (kick the tires, so to speak) rather than buy online and hope the reviews were accurate.
Circuit City I won't miss at all. Best Buy might get a sniff or two. Because that's all I have left.:-(
Right. So let's just give in to an unjust system because it's inconvenient. Why can't bars join together to form a legal defense fund to fight this, then, so no individual business is forced into bankruptcy? The choice is clear: just bend over and give in to this shit, or join forces and fight it. If you think it's wrong that a group who DID join forces won an unjust court case, then why not form a group that plays the game by the same rules and beats them at their own game?
Fighting this CAN work - just figure out what the game is and fight on those terms. Groups against individuals is the game currently being played, so instead of laying down and giving up, raise the ante and play the game on the same terms. Or remain a sheep, but stop bleating resignedly about the unjust but inevitable shearing and eventual slaughter.
What happens if some little girl at a wedding hums an infringing tune? The event infringes; minimum payment is due. "For the artists."
Nope. The little girl is not a registered (or paid) performer, just a private attendee. The event isn't infringing. No minimum payment due, or the plaintiff is required at own expense to prove in court that the the little girl is a paid actress contracted to provide "crowdsourced entertainment".
Stop giving these people the benefit of the doubt by accepting every scenario they present as valid and thus proof that there is no need to resist. Fight back for god's sake!
Do businesses pay more for a chair (produced by hard-working designers, made from raw materials harvested by hardworking producers, assembled by hardworking craftsmen and factory workers, shipped by hardworking truckers and sold by hardworking retail salespeople) to put in the lobby than the person that puts the chair in their living room?
No, I didn't think so.
I find no evidence that the arts are harder to produce than other goods, this deserving of payment in perpetuity. None.
The only way I know how to live. Or want to. Sucks to be me, I guess. On the other hand, being rational hasn't worked out so badly for me, so maybe the irrational assumption that rationality is bad is in fact wrong.
Record the event (weddings are usually documented for posterity anyhow). Ask anyone attending who recorded a video with their mobile phone/tablet/e-glasses to send you a copy of the video for the compilation DVD. Provide a copy of said material to the DJ to provide evidence that no 'infringing' music was played so no fees are warranted. Demand proof for claims that infringing material was played. Should it have happened, pay only for that, not a general fee for the event. Etc.
Don't passively give in to extortion just because vocal cynics don't have the fortitude to and want you to do the same.
How about mandating *in contract* that the DJ playing at your wedding will play NO Re:Sound or SOCAN music that incurs this "fee"? You say 'ordinary folks' need not worry about this, but if the DJ passes on the licensing costs to the customer (surely the provide an itemized bill that lists this expense), the ordinary folk may care more than you think. If the DJ plays said music and gets flagged by the copyright observers, he/she can personally pay out of pocket as stipulated by the contract. In a free market, this would provide an incentive to artists who produce enjoyable music that doesn't impose these ridiculous fees on a private event.
I figure you'd have to be at least 50 to have been paying attention.
I *am* 50, and I can tell you with certainty I wasn't paying attention. I was more worried about having a banana seat on my bicycle and which playing cards made the best noise in the spokes when clothes-pinned to the fork. I was pissed off that comics went from 15 to 20 cents. Watergate was noise I heard from the radio on my way out the door to play.
Up your estimate another 8-10 years, and you're in the college age bracket. They probably gave a crap and can remember why.
A few years back when everyone was giddily proclaiming they were ditching cable for the "free" internet services, I said that they would not remain free for long. Now the chickens come home to roost. Now everything is in the cloud. Where will you run to now, fools?
Maybe you're not representing yourself well enough.
I'll freely admit that having my state rep as a neighbor doesn't hurt when it comes to having a voice, but to be honest, getting involved in the community made a bigger difference. Look around and see if there are any groups locally doing something you care about, whether it's a local charity, business group or whatever. You'll find that you'll get to know your local and regional government representatives that way, because they tend to frequent community and regional events. The mere fact that you're out in the community doing something to make it better rather than sitting on your couch doing nothing will make you more recognizable and credible to them, so they will be more likely to spare a few minutes to listen to you if you have something to say. Give it a try.
Same here. My state representative lives right up the street. I'm at his house a few times a month (he keeps an office there in a spare room) because we happen to both be trustees for a local charitable organization. I can talk to him about issues anytime, and because we often have to work around his (very busy) schedule, I know that he actively meets and talks with a large portion of the local community. I can say with confidence that he actually *does* represent the people in his district rather than his own interests - or rather he represents both because he lives in the community he represents. He has skin in the game - what affects us affects him and his family just the same, and the issues he deals with at the state level have a direct and visible impact on day-to-day life in the state, county and district.
I can't say the same for our representation at the national level. I've actually met and spoken with our local congressman (at a gathering at the abovementioned state representative's house) and he's a very approachable, good representative as well, as it turns out. But even though he's also quite visibly active locally with respect to local issues, what he primarily has to deal with seems much farther removed from everyday life. Yes, what he votes on and how he votes has an impact too, but it's much more abstract and less relevant to daily life. It has a much more "above it all" feel to it and I'm much less connected to the issues most of the time (things like SOPA being a notable exception).
As a result, I find myself much more interested in what happens at the state government level than at the "Washington government" level, because it is more relevant to daily life and has a more direct and immediate impact on it. That's the relevant difference between the two, at least for me.
Slashdot Mirror
You're not the only one ...
I've been consuming the output of tech journalism for over 20 years, and I can't say they have ever been "balanced". Extremely biased is closer to reality. I would welcome an actual balanced review that described the product in terms that could be useful to someone trying to decide on what product best fit their own needs.
Your comments support what I've read/seen about Acer tablets in what seem like honest reviews by honest people (rather than tech journalists with a vested interest and geek bias). The reviews I like focus on the little things like how solid the mountings for the peripheral plugs seem to be, how well they fit into the case etc. The impression I got was that while they were popular for some reason, Asus tablets were more cheaply made if you looked carefully, while the Asus tablets were constructed more solidly. I tend to use the products I buy until they fail, so build quality is very important, and Acer seems to be a better choice if that is what one cares about.
True for many distro's. Not so for openSUSE. I just add the NVidia repo and be done with it.
You've missed the point entirely with a lack of understanding that approaches perfection.
The statements you quoted were referring to the changing ABI of the Linux kernel, which requires the developers of the video driver (a kernel module) to update it every time the kernel ABI changes (which is often). That requires coding, debugging, recompiling,testing on the part of the video driver developers, which apart from being real work has the potential to introduce bugs that have to be fixed. This is NOT about relying on your package manager to update your video driver for you when your distribution updates the kernel. In order for that to happen for you, not only do the video driver developers have to update the driver to match the new kernel ABI, the packagers for your distribution (openSUSE) have to download, build, package and test the new driver. That's quite a lot of work that has to be done to allow you to smugly declare that updating your video driver when the kernel changes is simple. I hope you appreciate the work that goes into making your magic computing box do your bidding with minimum effort on your part.
Read the following: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loadable_kernel_module
Skip down to the "Binary compatability" section if you're pressed for time.
It all looks alright to me, to be honest, except for possibly the hot dog meal. Not 'Fine Dining', but this is a normal daily lunch after all. All the vegetables look fresh - no brown salad, which my daughter complained about last year at our local school. No mystery meat in sight, no gray overcooked vegetables or blue tv-dinner-grade gravy. No unrecognizable ingredients. I'm not sure what you're seeing that's so awful. I've been presented with much worse. There seems to be a lot of variety, there's not a lot of fried foods and it all seems to be prepared well (cooked properly etc.). The meals seem a little sparse, but that's probably because actual recommended portions look small to eyes conditioned by the "super size it" mentality promoted by the food industry. For a grade school child, those are the right portions, and she even said in one post that she could hardly finish a potato salad.
It does pale a little in comparison to some of the photos submitted from other nations. The Japanese school lunches are particularly appetizing to my eyes. Wish I had one of those waiting for me at lunch today.
Really. Over 5 years ago? That's all you've got? And OpenSUSE is a community driven OS from what I can observe, though Novell employees do contribute. You should really be ranting about SLES if you want to make this about the behavior of corporations.
Thanks, that illustrates quite well my peripheral point in the footnote about SUSE developers being generally (and somewhat unconciously) user hostile. Treating motivated, willing and helpful participants in your distro experience as nothing more than underperforming developers who just aren't conforming to cultural norms is a symptom of the problem. I could probably sum it up as: the ultimate goal of a distribution is not to be a personal toy for developers to amuse themselves, but rather to be a tool that people use to accomplish other tasks. That's the whole point of a general purpose operating system.
You missed the part about it being a popular tourist destination. It's isolated in the sense that it's up on top of a mountain in a National Park rather than somewhere in the middle of the I-95 East Coast Megalopolis, but doesn't mean there aren't people around nearly all of the time. It's still visited by thousands of tourists/day during the temperate parts of the year, and is within a few miles (and plain view) of a major ski resort that recieves lots of visitors in the winter months. It's on top of a mountain that you can drive to in your car and brag about it and is promoted as a major tourist attraction for the region. Not exactly the place to house a military base to conduct classified testing of drones. Whatever got this place on the list, it wasn't because it was a major Drone Base.
Having said that , there does seem to be a tendancy for distro devs to pack in the the latest stuff into a release simply because its available , rather than going for stablity and interoperability with maybe slightly older versions of software.
To be fair to them, end users tend to clamor for the latest stuff and tend to consider the presence of older versions a net negative when discussing a distro. On the other hand, a developer is more likely to prefer the cutting edge by nature, and often has a tweaked system that works for them, so tend not to notice that the latest stuff doesn't work properly on a stock version.
There's also the problem that for some applications or tools, the latest stuff is actually better and preferable so should be packed into the distro, particularly for stand-alone apps that don't integrate deeply with other components of the system or desktop. It's the latter that one has to be careful with, but devs don't always seem to make the distinction cleanly.
And don't get me started about upstream developers that insist on using the latest beta or alpha versions of libraries or toolkits rather than the stable releases that are actually shipped with recent distro releases. Trying to shoehorn in a newer version of an application that has a crucial bug or security fix but depends on an unstable version of a library is an exercise in pain.
I was a happy OpenSUSE user for several years, but abandoned it after the 12.1 release. My reasons were quality and stability issues that had been on the rise over the last few releases, which culminated in the premature (IMHO) and half-assed transition to systemd in 12.1. That was the last straw and the trigger to embark on another distro-walkabout (I won't say what I ended up switching to, because this isn't about that).
There is a lot to like about OpenSUSE and it's probably still one of the best distributions to use for a nicely integrated and well supported out-of-the-box KDE environment. But the incidence of instability (generally user-facing stuff - the base environment of kernel, toolchain and libs is pretty rock-solid), random bugginess (usually caused by a lone developer or small team marching to their own drummer without regard to their surroundings) and poor integration of interacting components has been creeping up over the last few years. It seems that people in the OpenSUSE development team have taken notice and started to think about the causes and how to address them. Bravo to them for having the insight to notice and the balls to try and address the problem before pushing out a release.
Not that they probably care too much about what I think*, but I'll be watching carefully and may give the next release another chance.
---
* The developer community is probably one of the more unconsciously user-hostile developer groups I've encountered in awhile. A fine and dedicated bunch, but they tend to keep to themselves in places apart (mailing lists, IRC) from where the users hang out (forums.opensuse.org). A typical response when a user is baffled about some problem or wants to discuss improvements is the typical "well did you file a bug report" (delivered in an imperious and self-important manner by the a senior forum user or appointed moderator who are just a little too zealous in their developer worship), or the suggestion that users join the mailing lists if they want to be heard because the developers don't use the forums (don't want to be too close to the hoi polloi, after all). Meritocracies do indeed become oligarchies, apparently. http://boingboing.net/2012/06/13/meritocracies-become-oligarchi.html
Mount Washington in New Hampshire's White Mountains shows up on the map, which surprised me a bit. It is in a fairly remote area (relative to major population centers) and happens to be one of the major tourist attractions in the area (Don't forget your "This car climbed Mt. Washington" bumper sticker if you make it up and down the Mt. Washington Auto Road). There's not a whole lot there - a cafe and weather station at the peak, hiking trails, forest land and ski resorts nearby. It's located within a State Park. This suggests the disclaiming statements at the end of the summary probably apply to a lot of the 64 "drone bases" referred to by the dramatic headline. As the highest peak in the Northeast (6,288 ft or 1,917 m), it seems like a good spot for communications or sensing equipment. Or, since the weather is quite wild and variable at the summit (held the record for the highest recorded wind gust for 76 years), it could be a good spot to stress-test a drone under severe conditions. Hardly a "Drone Base".
So if you reduce your sleep time even more, the risk of stroke decreases?
Nice to be you.
I live in S.E. Connecticut. The only stores within reasonable driving distance that have any decent tech at all are Best Buy and Staples. And they both suck. The only fallbacks are WalMart and Target. I want to weep when I type that because I'm jealous of the folks that live elsewhere and sorry that I live here. Sucks to be me. I miss the days when I lived in Dallas and could drive to MicroCenter to pick up equipment or browse the aisles for the latest Walnut Creek CD-Roms. What I couldn't find there I could find in the dozens of local tech shops hidden away in strip malls or one of the local industrial complexes. Those were the days.
If Best Buy goes down the tubes, I won't lament very long, because most of what I might want can be found on the internet, but I still like to walk into the store and experience what I might buy with my own senses (kick the tires, so to speak) rather than buy online and hope the reviews were accurate.
Circuit City I won't miss at all. Best Buy might get a sniff or two. Because that's all I have left. :-(
Right. So let's just give in to an unjust system because it's inconvenient. Why can't bars join together to form a legal defense fund to fight this, then, so no individual business is forced into bankruptcy? The choice is clear: just bend over and give in to this shit, or join forces and fight it. If you think it's wrong that a group who DID join forces won an unjust court case, then why not form a group that plays the game by the same rules and beats them at their own game?
Fighting this CAN work - just figure out what the game is and fight on those terms. Groups against individuals is the game currently being played, so instead of laying down and giving up, raise the ante and play the game on the same terms. Or remain a sheep, but stop bleating resignedly about the unjust but inevitable shearing and eventual slaughter.
What happens if some little girl at a wedding hums an infringing tune? The event infringes; minimum payment is due. "For the artists."
Nope. The little girl is not a registered (or paid) performer, just a private attendee. The event isn't infringing. No minimum payment due, or the plaintiff is required at own expense to prove in court that the the little girl is a paid actress contracted to provide "crowdsourced entertainment".
Stop giving these people the benefit of the doubt by accepting every scenario they present as valid and thus proof that there is no need to resist. Fight back for god's sake!
Do businesses pay more for a chair (produced by hard-working designers, made from raw materials harvested by hardworking producers, assembled by hardworking craftsmen and factory workers, shipped by hardworking truckers and sold by hardworking retail salespeople) to put in the lobby than the person that puts the chair in their living room?
No, I didn't think so.
I find no evidence that the arts are harder to produce than other goods, this deserving of payment in perpetuity. None.
The only way I know how to live. Or want to. Sucks to be me, I guess. On the other hand, being rational hasn't worked out so badly for me, so maybe the irrational assumption that rationality is bad is in fact wrong.
Heh.
a separate non profit organization
Follow the money. Someone is profiting, I guarantee it.
Record the event (weddings are usually documented for posterity anyhow). Ask anyone attending who recorded a video with their mobile phone/tablet/e-glasses to send you a copy of the video for the compilation DVD. Provide a copy of said material to the DJ to provide evidence that no 'infringing' music was played so no fees are warranted. Demand proof for claims that infringing material was played. Should it have happened, pay only for that, not a general fee for the event. Etc.
Don't passively give in to extortion just because vocal cynics don't have the fortitude to and want you to do the same.
How about mandating *in contract* that the DJ playing at your wedding will play NO Re:Sound or SOCAN music that incurs this "fee"? You say 'ordinary folks' need not worry about this, but if the DJ passes on the licensing costs to the customer (surely the provide an itemized bill that lists this expense), the ordinary folk may care more than you think. If the DJ plays said music and gets flagged by the copyright observers, he/she can personally pay out of pocket as stipulated by the contract. In a free market, this would provide an incentive to artists who produce enjoyable music that doesn't impose these ridiculous fees on a private event.
Try ScriptNo for Chrome/Chromium. Not quite as comprehensive as NoScript, but has a better user interface, IMHO.
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/oiigbmnaadbkfbmpbfijlflahbdbdgdf
I figure you'd have to be at least 50 to have been paying attention.
I *am* 50, and I can tell you with certainty I wasn't paying attention. I was more worried about having a banana seat on my bicycle and which playing cards made the best noise in the spokes when clothes-pinned to the fork. I was pissed off that comics went from 15 to 20 cents. Watergate was noise I heard from the radio on my way out the door to play.
Up your estimate another 8-10 years, and you're in the college age bracket. They probably gave a crap and can remember why.
A few years back when everyone was giddily proclaiming they were ditching cable for the "free" internet services, I said that they would not remain free for long. Now the chickens come home to roost. Now everything is in the cloud. Where will you run to now, fools?
Maybe you're not representing yourself well enough.
I'll freely admit that having my state rep as a neighbor doesn't hurt when it comes to having a voice, but to be honest, getting involved in the community made a bigger difference. Look around and see if there are any groups locally doing something you care about, whether it's a local charity, business group or whatever. You'll find that you'll get to know your local and regional government representatives that way, because they tend to frequent community and regional events. The mere fact that you're out in the community doing something to make it better rather than sitting on your couch doing nothing will make you more recognizable and credible to them, so they will be more likely to spare a few minutes to listen to you if you have something to say. Give it a try.
Same here. My state representative lives right up the street. I'm at his house a few times a month (he keeps an office there in a spare room) because we happen to both be trustees for a local charitable organization. I can talk to him about issues anytime, and because we often have to work around his (very busy) schedule, I know that he actively meets and talks with a large portion of the local community. I can say with confidence that he actually *does* represent the people in his district rather than his own interests - or rather he represents both because he lives in the community he represents. He has skin in the game - what affects us affects him and his family just the same, and the issues he deals with at the state level have a direct and visible impact on day-to-day life in the state, county and district.
I can't say the same for our representation at the national level. I've actually met and spoken with our local congressman (at a gathering at the abovementioned state representative's house) and he's a very approachable, good representative as well, as it turns out. But even though he's also quite visibly active locally with respect to local issues, what he primarily has to deal with seems much farther removed from everyday life. Yes, what he votes on and how he votes has an impact too, but it's much more abstract and less relevant to daily life. It has a much more "above it all" feel to it and I'm much less connected to the issues most of the time (things like SOPA being a notable exception).
As a result, I find myself much more interested in what happens at the state government level than at the "Washington government" level, because it is more relevant to daily life and has a more direct and immediate impact on it. That's the relevant difference between the two, at least for me.