Joe

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Hacker

“The media’s definition of the real term malicious cracker. A hacker used to be a well respected individual who loved to tinker with gadgets.”, plus a few other definitions.

Judges usually don’t know this stuff, but they primarily work with systems and software supplied by the state…whose experts should know what they are doing.

My bet is that this guy decided to work on personal equipment, probably in violation of the rules. Being a judge, he’s unlikely to be sanctioned for it, and will certainly learn from the experience. If anything, there may be some internal discussions which we’ll never hear about.

Law is an area where AI can add value, though… searching through past rulings and legal opinions is tedious, and anything that can assist to find needles in haystacks would be welcome. It shouldn’t be used to write legal judgements or arguments though…

In the EU, there are typically three levels of VAT, with members having some leeway to choose which applies to what.

Health services, public transport, rentals/housing and education are often exempt, while most groceries and medications are at a reduced rate. eg. Germany has 7% and 19% as the reduced and normal rates.

Income taxes are additional and (in most EU countries progressive). Social insurances are often separate, and similarly progressive.

This works alongside the basic welfare nets, which ensures that people have just enough to survive if they fell through the cracks. Without this net, even the reduced rates on groceries would seem punitive.

Not every EU country is equal, but there is a goal to provide these societal safety nets alongside fair taxation, which is invested back in society.

They could. The protocol also supports IP spoofing, so doxing could also be a thing.

For individuals, it is a time consuming and costly legal process, whether justified or not. For the law firm, it costs a few cents per letter, but they get a few hundred (or more) euros when some sucker pays.

In Germany and no doubt some other countries, private law firms can (on behalf of the copyright holders) request people’s identity based on residential IP addresses and then send extortionist legal threats. Apparently an IP appearing on a public tracker can be enough to trigger it, without any confirmed data transfer.

VPNs are common and usually sufficient.

The cops won’t actually do anything, but you will have a case #. Theft is a crime, and crime should be reported.

Not everything will be open source. For whatever reason, they decided to make this obfuscator open source. It might also just be an interesting side project that someone got permission to release.

Obfuscation can make it harder to reverse engineer code, even if the method is known. It might also be designed to be pluggable, allowing custom obfuscation. I haven’t checked.

We also know that obfuscation isn’t real security … but it’s sometimes it is also good enough for a particular use case…

Except my crazy relative (just 1, thank dog) also has telegram and feels the urge to forward every damn whackjob conspiracy theory reinterpretation of truth that they find to me and my wife, despite us never replying except to ask them to stop. eg. Cloud seeding, windmills and electric cars are responsible for destroying the atmosphere (not co2 and other greenhouse gases); Bill Gates etc. are spreading microchips through vaccinations; judges ruling that measles doesn’t exist; Ukraine is full of nazis; and yes, even regurgitated feelgood fairy tales and random cat pictures from Facebook. So glad they are in a country far far away from me. They “do their own research”, of course.

So bloody sad that so many people are in a similar situation of avoiding friends and family for their own sanity (and sometimes safety).

Don’t they know that the kids deserved it, because they like Hummus. Yes, I’m sure that was it.

I used to love Pocket … I remember they changed something, and then I refused to use it since. I don’t remember what it was now, though. I assume enshittification of some kind.