Exactly. LLMs don't understand semantically what the data means, it's just how often some words appear close to others.

Of course this is oversimplified, but that's the main idea.

My bank's app has way less functionality than the web version, but it's used as a second factor to auth some operations, so I have to use both.

That was my first thought. Since when boycotting (aka not choosing) something is illegal?

I was hired to implement a CRM for an insurance company to replace their current system.

Of course no documentation or functional requirements where provided, so part of the task was to reverse engineer the current CRM.

After a couple of hours trying to find some type of backend code on the server, I discovered the bizarre truth: every bit of business logic was implemented in Stored Procedures and Triggers on a MSSQL database. There were no frontend code either on the server, users have some ActiveX controls installed locally that accessed the DB.

I had a very good experience with Honeypot (https://www.honeypot.io/en/). It's Europe only, so not sure about the legal aspects of working from the US, but Germany have recently did some changes to laws related to work visas specifically to attract tech workers, so it shouldn't be that hard. You speak German, so that's a big plus.

It's a "reverse" job search, in the sense that you create your profile/CV and companies apply to you. After creating your profile, you do a short call with a recruiter, that helps you adjust it to the type of job you are looking for.

Exactly. There's a minimum 4 weeks that can be increased in the employment contract. Going up to 3 months is not rare, depending on the industry/type of job.

And it works both ways, so if the employer wants to fire you, the same notice period applies.

I'm very happy with my FritzBox (7590), it handles de ADSL connection to the ISP, supports various DDNS providers, Wireguard VPN, 4 port gigabit switch (5 of you don't need the WAN port), guest WiFi with client isolation.

It also has basic media server and NAS functionality (with USB3 external hard drives).

Of course you can change the DNS server and other network controls like QOS, wake on LAN, port forwarding, different profiles with parental controls, filters, connection times, etc.

They also seem to take security seriously.

It's really great on the Stream Deck. The controls work perfectly. I played it a lot while commuting.

For a YouTube replacement, maybe look into Nebula, it's a subscription streaming service, but owned by the content creators, no ads. It also has some podcasts.

Regarding music, I listen mostly to somaFM. It's an Internet radio with lots of different stations. Mostly independent artists. It's free, no subscription, no ads, listener supported (you can donate/buy merch to support them).

It's not only salaries:

about half of Signal’s overall operating budget goes towards recruiting, compensating, and retaining the people who build and care for Signal. When benefits, HR services, taxes, recruiting, and salaries are included, this translates to around $19 million dollars per year.

It says that they have 50 full time employees.

The option was there, but it wasn't ready for every day use. The performance impact was significant. The couple times I tried it, it was practically unusable. The UI also showed a warning about performance when you enabled it