Friday, September 5, 2025

Tech

Dave Täht discusses his work on beating bufferbloat and its impact on wireless networks, a topic he previously wrote about extensively. He touches on fq_codel and cake, challenges of managing wireless networks, and involvement with OpenWrt and LibreQoS projects, which aim to improve network performance through research and development initiatives.

New research emphasizes the significance of accurate color depth conversion when working with low-bit color formats. Current methods often discard lower bits, causing errors. A new table of formulas resolves this by using integer multiplication and addition to convert common formats like 4444 and 555 into precise 11-bit colors without loss.

The Tansu streaming platform is an Apache-licensed Kafka-compatible platform written in Rust, utilizing the Service trait for message routing and processing on both broker and client sides. Its modular architecture enables flexible and efficient streaming, with key components including TcpListenerLayer, FrameBytesLayer, and Layer trait for routing messages to different destinations.

The Lava RGB 2.0 modded NES console offers improved video quality and new features over the original NES. The mod uses a new power module to reduce interference and improve audio quality. It also features a palette system that cycles through different color palettes, resulting in vibrant and clear video output with clean sound.

Tempo is a purpose-built blockchain designed specifically for payments, developed with leading fintechs and Fortune 500 companies. It aims to provide high-throughput, low-cost global transactions for any business use case, prioritizing speed, efficiency, and reliability with features like predictable fees, sub-second finality, and built-in privacy measures.

Mistral AI has released updates to Le Chat platform, integrating with over 20 enterprise platforms and incorporating a "Memories" feature that uses machine learning to learn user preferences and provide personalized responses. The updated connector directory includes more secure connectors for data, productivity, development, automation, commerce, and custom integrations.

The French National Commission on Informatics and Liberty has fined SHEIN's Irish subsidiary €150 million for failing to obtain user consent for cookies placed on devices when visiting shein.com. The CNIL also found incomplete information about cookie purposes and advertising, as well as failure to implement user consent withdrawal mechanisms.

Google has removed its net-zero pledge from its website, despite claims it remains committed to reducing carbon emissions. The move comes as AI data centre demand for energy rises, making it difficult to meet the goal. Critics say this is a setback for efforts to address climate change, while some experts view it as predictable.

The incident highlights the limitations of Certificate Transparency (CT) logs in preventing unauthorized certificate issuance by certification authorities (CAs). Despite CT's logging capability, CAs can still go rogue and issue certificates without detection. Continuous improvement and monitoring are crucial to prevent such incidents, emphasizing the need for better oversight and alerting mechanisms.

Rhode Island and Connecticut are suing the Trump administration over its decision to halt the Revolution Wind electricity project. The states claim the stop-work order was issued illegally, harming jobs, clean energy, and billions of dollars in investments. They also allege this move is an assault on offshore wind energy.

Mastodon's "Lists" feature allows users to create themed mini-timelines of followed accounts, with options to add or edit accounts, view existing lists, and hide posts from the main timeline for more control over what appears. The feature can be used on Mastodon's website, web app, and third-party apps like Tusky and Mona.