181–190 of 399 posts
Oh goody! I've been looking for new ways to commit mail fraud!
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Love this. Also why does the DMV need a proof of residence? What if you live in a van?
If you do not have a physical address (e.g., live on a boat / in an RV), our local DMV will tell you to use the street address of a local homeless shelter. This probably won't get you past the requirement of utility bills in your name at that address to get a "Real ID" that allows domestic flights without a passport, though. Same thing for getting a PO box, you need a physical address first. The post office will tell…
Like, what if you are a millionaire living in a fancy RV driving around national parks for a couple years?
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Just a couple months ago I had a couple of forms rejected with a note “needs wet signature” They were for a 401(k) plan I was updating RMD choices. I got the PDF form from their site, filled it out in Preview, pasted my signature PNG, and used an app on my phone to fax it(!) to their number. Got rejected. Had to actually print the damn things and sign them with a pen, scan them again with my phone’s camera, and re-fa…
As an HR administrator for a small business, this absolutely grinds my gears. According to every accountant and consultant I've ever talked to, the "wet signature" rule is enshrined in federal law (although I have yet to be able to find out exactly where). It applies to all brokerage operations (opening your custodial accounts); employee applications (even internal to your own company that never leave your own filing…
But yes, dealing with brokerage forms that needed a wet signature faxed..
"+noise Random -fill white -colorize 95%" to add some noise to the image
"-distort ScaleRotateTranslate '$x,$y $angle'" to randomly shift horizontally and vertically the document, and randomly rotate it slightly
"-density 150" for a low-ish resolution so it better hides the fact the PDF wasn't really scanned
"-colorspace Gray" to make it black & white
"-quality 60" to increase JPG compression and somewhat reduce picture quality
#!/bin/bash
# Make a pdf look like it was scanned.
if [ $# -ne 2 ]; then
echo "Usage: $0 input output" >&2
exit 1
fi
tmp="$1".scanner-look.tmp
mkdir "$tmp" &&
# without -flatten some PDF convert to a JPG with a black background
convert -density 150 "$1" -colorspace Gray -quality 60 -flatten "$tmp"/p_in.jpg &&
: || exit 1
# each page is randomly shifted in the X and Y plane.
# units seem to depend on angle of rotation in ScaleRotateTranslate?
offset() { echo $(($RANDOM % 1000)); }
for f in "$tmp"/p_in*jpg; do
# each page is randomly rotated by [-0.5 .. 0.5[ degrees
angle=$(python -c 'import random; print(random.random()-0.5)')
x=$(offset)
y=$(offset)
convert "$f" \
-blur 0x0.5 \
-distort ScaleRotateTranslate "$x,$y $angle" +repage \
\( +clone +noise Random -fill white -colorize 95% \) \
-compose darken \
-composite \
${f/p_in/p_out}.pdf || exit 1
done
# concatenate all the pages to one PDF
# use "ls -v" to order files correctly (p_out-X.jpg where X is 0 1 2 ... 9 10 11 ...)
pdftk $(ls -v "$tmp"/p_out*.pdf) cat output "$2" &&
rm -rf "$tmp"I really hate dealing with my printer (or any printer for that matter), so I make pretty liberal use of my drawing tablet at this point. I import the PDF into Krita, use the ballpoint pen brush, and sign. I export to PNG, then use an imagemagick script to rotate it some random number between 1-3 degrees, and add noise onto it to look like a scan. It's a pain, but it's still less annoying than dealing with a printer.
You can actually sign a PDF this way just using Preview on MacOS.
In Preview I copied one eye and put it over my troubled eye, reversed. It worked.
I’ve been though face detection systems in various countries (US, UK, France) and I seem to get through ok.
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Love this. Also why does the DMV need a proof of residence? What if you live in a van?
If you live in a vehicle/RV it can be hard to prove residence. I've used UPS Store boxes but most places have caught on to that and don't allow it anymore. I've been told you can use a homeless shelter as the residence and a box as a mailing address but haven't tried it myself.
Great work though.
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If you do not have a physical address (e.g., live on a boat / in an RV), our local DMV will tell you to use the street address of a local homeless shelter. This probably won't get you past the requirement of utility bills in your name at that address to get a "Real ID" that allows domestic flights without a passport, though. Same thing for getting a PO box, you need a physical address first. The post office will tell…
What if you're living in a van because #vanlife and you want to drive around the country nomadically for a couple years and not because you are actually financially qualified to be homeless? Like, what if you are a millionaire living in a fancy RV driving around national parks for a couple years?
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In the US, no, you don't need to fill out any forms to register yourself as a resident. The closest is probably moving your drivers license registration, which many people wait years to do after moving. Other than that, you generally prove residency by showing (as GP mentioned) bills mailed to you, or a copy of your lease. You're responsible for filing your own state taxes based on when/how/where you worked.
> The closest is probably moving your drivers license registration, which many people wait years to do after moving. Most states do require by law that you do this in a very short period of time after moving. (Although yes, it is not uncommon for people to violate this)
I agree, it's quite odd that you never officially register as a resident of the state, but I guess it's part of the US's aversion to "papers please."