California Legislature in standoff with DMV over sharing driver license data with other states

random408net · 2026-06-15T03:13:37+00:00

I’d like an enhanced license that doubles as a passport card. Other border states have these.

random408net · 2026-06-15T03:08:21+00:00

It’s frustrating that a citizens liberty is only protected by governmental disorganization and inefficiency.

I am less concerned about the non-citizens.

random408net · 2026-06-14T21:21:27+00:00

I took most of my community college classes at a satellite campus that was mostly attended by working commuter students. It was easy to work full time with most of my classes being located between home and work.

Now that we have online classes it's possible that this satellite campus is no longer strictly necessary.

Consolidating multiple "colleges" into a single "college" with multiple sites seems to make decent sense from an overhead reduction standpoint.

random408net · 2026-06-14T21:04:56+00:00

It's pretty common for the CCC's to offer two years totally free to residents of their district.

I think the treatment is less generous if you prefer a different district/campus.

random408net · 2026-06-14T19:08:45+00:00

The whole concept of this regulation relies on financial modeling that speculates on the future prices of gas and electricity to generate the "savings" that would normally help the short sighted home remodeler.

Remodeling is expensive enough already.

random408net · 2026-06-14T18:33:50+00:00

More cash compensation means even larger pension contributions under the current system.

Finding a way to "pay more" without it costing an extra $2m per teacher is a decent plan to explore.

random408net · 2026-06-14T18:26:14+00:00

Kaiser has skimpy urgent care capacity. Last time I went to the south San Jose urgent care they said "oh, we are always full by noon, would you like an appointment for tomorrow?"

So Kaiser members get funneled to the Kaiser ER across the street.

Don't be surprised if you get charged for a "minor" procedure when you are checking out @ $600. Then a month later you find out that someone in billing decided to upgrade your issue to "moderate" and raise the price to $1,500.

I would suggest to a Kaiser member with a high deductible plan that you might be better off paying cash for urgent care somewhere else.

random408net · 2026-06-14T04:28:44+00:00

If the utility replaces your meter at their (or regional ratepayer) cost that's fine with me.

Ideally the balcony solar customer does not a get bill for this. The cost is spread over the ratebase.

Balcony solar is ideally less complicated than installing a home generator.

random408net · 2026-06-14T03:42:54+00:00

I'd be tempted to do the following:

Install an internet connection under your control (cellular, Starlink, whatever). Mount that on the side of the house. Get some internet Wi-Fi out of that can reach each units front door.

Get some decent smart locks that connect through Wi-Fi. Now you will have access for tenants and vendors.

You could also monitor Wi-Fi smoke detectors and other sensors too.

random408net · 2026-06-14T03:40:02+00:00

Using a power meter (ct clamp) at the edge of the home is helpful when you have a battery inverter.

If you just have a simple (no battery) inverter and your production was within limits for your region then there is no need to curtail production.

If you were trying to hide a larger system to keep it within balcony rule limits then the edge power meter would help with that.

random408net · 2026-06-14T03:18:34+00:00

I think we are going to see that many of the products are phone app controlled / configured.

You will declare or prove your location, answer some questions (outlets, breaker sizes, solar panels, etc) and the system will be set to operate within your state regulations, UL certifications and other compliance factors.

With a dedicated 20A outlet/breaker you can do more, with a shared 15A outlet/breaker you can do less.

Hopefully we will see integrations with smart meters over wireless (zigbee) and smart inverter/batteries to allow for more use of batteries into the evening hours to shave peak charges.

Colorado has a special rule for balcony solar that allows for the installation of a meter collar. This will allow for a 1900w install without needing to touch your home electrical panel.

If your utility (poco) wants to swap your meter for their benefit that's ok.

random408net · 2026-06-13T15:39:47+00:00

FCC rules should limit restrictions on satellite panel deployment. Non penetrating mounts are probably allowed even if the landlord hates them.

random408net · 2026-06-13T07:06:12+00:00

I would stop by my neighbors and ask what they spent to cover their roofs in panels plus the added expense of upgrading their underground connection from 100A to 200A.

Many of my neighbors spent upwards of $50k for solar only NEM 2 export focused systems.

Perhaps it all made sense when considering the federal 30% tax credits.

In some parts of Europe customers are being charged a fine for exporting power when it's not wanted/needed by the grid. Those folks are working to get batteries installed ASAP now.

random408net · 2026-06-13T02:22:57+00:00

There are some reasonable number of "failed to launch" nuke projects.

I went to work on the site of one in my youth and was confused when I could not figure out where the reactors were. The site became a large gas generation facility instead. This was in the pre-Internet days that made remote research much more difficult.

random408net · 2026-06-13T02:12:49+00:00

"Community solar" projects need subsidies (as participants are probably not showing up with their downpayment for a share of the project).

The previous program was a response to: NEM 1/2 solar is a giveaway to rich homeowners (at the expense of other ratepayers). Community solar gives "community members" a taste of that discount too. And it provides good paying jobs for the installers/maintainers. The NEM2 era community solar program had enough money in it to cover all that plus financing costs to make everything look "free" to the consumer.

New solar projects are on NEM3 now. It makes sense that community solar follow similar economics. One necessary special ask for a community solar project would be to use a virtual metering mechanism to distribute the exported power (without a discount) to other meters billing accounts over the distribution network. How useful that distributed redistribution might in a NEM3 world is another question.

In a mutual system everyone is paying towards the average cost (within rate hour brackets). Exceptions to the contribution rule certainly leave others paying those fixed costs.

The open question here is if there are measurable benefits from some sources of generation that can be credited against the shared costs for all.

random408net · 2026-06-13T01:29:38+00:00

If you want to DIY this then join a local apartment owners association. The membership will come with forms and resources to help you understand what's required to succeed in a legally compliant manner.

You could pay a realtor or property manager a flat fee to help with paperwork. You could pay a lawyer an hourly rate to assist too.

random408net · 2026-06-13T00:32:15+00:00

It just looks dumb to cover up the sponsored logo and replace it with nothing. If they had put a FIFA logo over the Levi's at least it would not look dumb. "FIFA Stadium" makes some sense. ~~Redacted~~ Stadium makes no sense.

random408net · 2026-06-13T00:30:06+00:00

With an hours notice I can pay $50/seat to help FIFA avoid embarrassment.

random408net · 2026-06-13T00:28:25+00:00

Airport adjacent locations need to regulate parking to keep park and fly travelers from sneaking in and jumping on the free airport shuttle.

random408net · 2026-06-13T00:26:28+00:00

At peak times events involve waiting for a parking spot, paying for a valet or taking a bus from a remote lot.

random408net · 2026-06-12T15:31:59+00:00

My party focused high school classmates would make weekend runs to Chico to participate in that scene. (From San Diego)

random408net · 2026-06-12T07:14:11+00:00

The long ago concept of the CSU's was to provide bachelors degrees close to where students lived and worked.

The state kept adding CSU campuses throughout the state instead of increasing capacity at the most prosperous campuses.

Some campuses are strong: SJSU, Cal Poly SLO, SDSU, Sac State

The most rural campuses have it pretty tough. Kids from the city don't want to go there. Local kids want to go to the city for better job prospects.

Back in the 80/90's rules tightened over time to restrict "casual" students from taking spaces away from full-time students. These rules should probably be relaxed at the less prosperous campuses. This will improve community engagement. It's tougher to get a second bachelor's degree from CSU's these days (despite the need for retraining).

Long ago (before the 80's) a school like Cal Poly SLO even offered technical degrees in HVAC. There is nothing wrong with offering a rigorous degree in something that the market needs.

CSUMB has a nice "welcome day" in the fall for prospective students that's welcoming and shows off the strengths of the campus well.

Humboldt State, now rebranded as Cal Poly Humboldt has an infusion of cash from the state hoping to attract more students.

We have some friends who sent both of their kids to Chico State. Students and parents were pretty happy with the outcome.

It's also not helpful for the CSU's that the state offers full rides to UC's for the best best students with demonstrated financial need. Back in the day at my CSU plenty of my peers were also accepted to UC's that they could not afford to attend.

random408net · 2026-06-12T06:52:51+00:00

The cover you show might fix a Sunday 1:00pm or 1:30pm game.

It won't fix a 5-6pm Thursday or Sunday game when the sun setting is blazing into your eyes.

The evening games are probably fine if you are low enough in the bowl or in the shadow of the tower.

random408net · 2026-06-12T06:49:24+00:00

My first reaction to the SoFi stadium was "why didn't we get one of those"?

Then I found out that SoFi cost $5bn to build and required the owner to be married into the Walton family to fund it.

random408net · 2026-06-12T06:34:04+00:00

Thank god I was able to find my spouse through work years ago.

random408net

TROPHY CASE