Video Ungeek

I'm not computer illiterate, but I'm not a 22-year-old gaming fanatic either. This is why I was surprised when the video card in my 18-month-old system unexpectedly died with no warning last week.

My idea of built-in obsolescence is that the technology in question is doomed to deteriorate or become outdated within 5-7 years, not less than 2.

I looked all over the internet for consumer or customer reviews on the WinFast nVidia card I had in the machine, and all the initial, first-page reviews I found were glowing. Of course, when you read glowing reviews you wonder if it was something that you did which caused your machine to die on you. It took several sites and pages within them to find posts by people with the same expectations and difficulties that I had.

Apparently, when it comes to video card drivers, I shouldn't have been shocked. 2-3 years is a really good life-span for a card in the video gaming world and, even if your card could last longer, you will have upgraded it by then anyway.

This seems insane to me. We wouldn't buy or keep a car that required a new carburetor or radiator every 2-3 years. We wouldn't invest in any home improvement that was likely to break down after 18 months. Why do we accept this for computers?

Representivity

I fully admit this is a mini-rant directly derived from the Board of Supervisors' inane approval of the Biscuit Run and Hollymead developments. And it's tangental, not on point. [If you want to get into a really good dissing of that newspiece, Cvillenews.com has a great convo going on here, which has spilled over to the convo on local supes races here.]

\begin rant

What I see in the Albemarle Board of Supervisors and in the Virginia General Assembly is a trend of elected officials who don't know what it means to represent. They spend so much time politicking at the golf course and schmoozing at the tailgate party that they have forgotten what it means to listen to their districts, and put the needs of their regions ahead of their own (or, worse, their friends') agendas.

Once you get into office, your job is to do right by all of the people in your district at whatever governmental level you hold position. If a proposal is (1) against the public good and/or (2) against the public's interest, and/or (3) against the public's will, it is your job to oppose it.

You were elected to listen to us so that you can represent us--all of us, equally and fairly, regardless of what party you adhere to, regardless of what party (if any) we belong to. It's really that simple. Now go do that job for a change.

/end rant