No, but money changing hands (commerce) impacts whether it is "commercial", and requires a commercial license.

"Impacts", perhaps. But it's not definitive. Especially in California.

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. (You CAN petition to tag a particular pickup truck as a personal vehicle - but are then subject to being issued a very pricey ticket if you are ever caught carrying anything in the truck bed - even if it's personal belongings or groceries, and regardless of whether you're being paid to do it. (Since part of the POINT of having a pickup truck is to carry stuff home from the store this would substantially reduce its utility.)

The one upside is that I get to park for short times in loading zones.

If we aren't going to require commercial licenses for commercial driving, then why even have them at all?

And if we ARE going to require them for clearly personal, non-commercial vehicles that happen to be "trucks", why NOT impose this requirement on putatively commercial vehicles that happen to be cars as well?

The real answer to your question is "because the state wants the tax money, and the legislators and bureaucrats will seek it in any way that doesn't threaten their reelection, reappointment, or election to higher office" - in the most jerrymandered state in the Union. The Uber case is one where an appraent public outcry arose, bringing the bureaucrats' actions, and public outcry about them, to the attention of elected officials.

The full form of the so-called "Chinese curse" is: "May you live in interesting times and come to the attention of people in high places."

True, though I don't see many people wearing "I was abused in the past" signs around their necks... maybe I'm just not as good at reading people as others are.

So you see nothing wrong with a professor using his status to obtain sexual favors?

Even if they are offered?

I've a friend who spent some time as a college level instructor and on quite a few occasions would have rather attractive co-ed here or there who would put on the water works or even make veiled sexual offers if he to try to get him to bump their grade or allow late work to be turned in for full credit.

My friend was at least smart and professional enough to refuse all such advances, not all are so.

I'm not excusing anything, I've just heard plenty from the other side.

I think I'm one of the two who bought from Amazon. I don't care if you put it up for free. If it really bugs you that much, take the two bucks and give it to the next homeless person you see, or in the tip jar somewhere, or whatever. (Actually, I thought I said before that you could do that :)

Charging for caller ID on landlines is a scam (like pretty much everything about telecommunications billing), but I've never seen cell phone service without caller ID.

I'm guessing you're not old enough to have ever had analog cell-phone service. I don't recall if caller ID was even offered as an add-on service, but I know I didn't have it with my phone and my service. Vibrating call alert and an 8-character dot-matrix alphanumeric LED readout (so you could attach names to the phone numbers stored in memory!) were expensive enough.

If you think I've not used Linux since then I've got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.

And Cmdr Taco

moot is now free to join Sherrod DeHippo in obscurity.

attitude that puts the individual interest above the interest of the collective.

Welcome to the United States of America. If you value collectivism over the rights of the individual, you're probably much better off in one of the world's other many countries. Learn new languages, get exposed to multiculturalism, shop in countries where Wal-Mart has been banned. With borders opening more and more every day, what's your excuse?

You know, it's funny when a windows shill accidentally stumbles upon the problem that his masters probably told him ten times over not to ever mention, because that is one point where the battle is objectively unwinnable for pro-windows arguments.

You know you've lost the argument when you have to accuse the other side of being a paid shill of another group.

I'm not even bother reading the rest of your likely similarly irrelevant screed as I've better things to do with my time.

From my own perspective, your argument is moot

That is the key... it ultimately comes down to a perspective thing!

I happen to own a couple touch enabled devices running Windows 8.1 and from my perspective have zero problem with the UI, heck, at times it is more useful than not, even in the 8.0 timeframe without a touch device the new UI didn't matter to me as I used the start screen much other than to search for something.

On the other side, I've gone back and forth with Linux for years and each time run screaming. I have a copy of Turbo Linux Slackware from 1996 and Red Hat Linux Archives disc set from 1997 containing Red Hat 4.1 (though some where discs 4 & 5 went missing :( )... so I go back quite a ways, and while some things have improved quite a bit... I still prefer the Windows side of things... though I tend not to spend much time bashing the other side because of the horrible experiences I've had with it.

Where is this democracy you live in? I suspect not here in the United States where while officially it is a Federal Republic... though has since well moved into the post-constitutional arena, where unelected and largely unaccountable bureaucrats have huge sway, and elected 'leaders' no longer feel themselves restrained by the laws they swore to uphold.

There is also the competition.

Back in the day you had mostly just PCs & Macs, now you have various tablets and smartphones as well.

While I need a desktop to do most of my work & play, both of my parents can get by with a simple iPad or Android based tablet... how does Microsoft sell Windows to people that no longer need it to carry out their work/play? A subscription alone doesn't give the customer anything... there would need to be reoccurring value for it, and I think that's something we'd probably hear a year or so into Windows 10 being available.