There's one very easy way to not get your commercial license yanked for trivial moving violations. It's a very well-kept secret, but I'm going to reveal it here, on Slashdot.

You have to drive properly. That's it. It's easier than it sounds.

>For instance: I bought a pickup truck, to use as a tow vehicle for my camper and my wife's boat. Then I discovered that CA requires pickup trucks to be tagged with a (VERY pricey) commercial license, regardless of whether they're used for business.

What the hell kind of pickup truck are you driving? My father's got an enormous GMC R3500 from the late 80s and it works just fine for hauling and towing a variety of things, and he's got it on a normal license.

I suspect you're pissed off because you didn't do your research and bought a commercial truck with a GVWR too high for your license, and are trying to shift the blame onto California.

the 14-day wait is, I think, to keep people from dropping off a package somewhere with a voided label and making them waste their time on it.

on the other hand, a child would also spell "this" correctly, so maybe it's harder than I thought

The package dimensions are the dimension of the package, not its contents. A child would know ths.

wouldn't a "thawing" of the cold war be a *bad* thing

so a landscape photographer who wants to take photos in the woods needs a permit? wow.

It seems to have worked out pretty well for that other big company that makes phones.

There are commercial solutions called "scanning backs" that do this, these days, but they're not very portable. You can take some very interesting photos of moving subjects with them, though.

Amen. I had a "good camera" (a Canon Digital Rebel XSi) when I was in high school that I saved up for months to buy, and I used it regularly to take hundreds of pretty crappy photographs. After I graduated, I decided to take a black-and-white photography class in college, which required a film camera. A friend of mine gave me a Mamiya 645 medium format SLR. Having to pay for each photo I took, and only having 15 shots to a roll, changed my way of doing things, and now I take photographs that are pretty decent (at least compared to my earlier days) and only touch my DSLR when I need to sell something on eBay.

"the developer"? there's more than one kind of developer. HC-110 (and Xtol, IIRC) is non-toxic, but chugging a bottle of Rodinal or D76 or something will probably kill you.

it's been named that since 2007.

no. the idea of an autonomous vehicle with no possible driver to override it is just plain stupid.

The Schumann resonance which the earth produces and all life is dependent on is literally being over powered by microwaves and other EMF causing all these different phenomena, including conditions like anxiety and schizophrenia.

Can I have some of what you're smoking? Whatever it is it sounds like it's good shit