The Greenlink Connector, which costs $580 million (GBP 430 million) and connects Ireland to Wales via an undersea power cable, was rerouted after scores of Harry Potter fans complained that it would go through the grave of the beloved house elf “Dobby.” According to The Guardian, project manager Simon Ludlam pointed out in a BBC interview that the cable would transition underwater at Freshwater West. Unfortunately, Ludlam was unaware that this was the filming location for the site where the Harry Potter character was buried in the movie franchise. When the BBC aired the clip, the project began receiving hundreds of calls about the site.

Ludlam recounted to The Guardian a discussion with a colleague when they told him, “Apparently, we’re going to go straight through Dobby’s grave.” He answered, “Dobby? Who’s Dobby? I don’t know Dobby.”

It seemed that the project manager was in disbelief when it was finally explained that Dobby is the freed house elf who was killed in the process of rescuing Harry Potter and his friends in the last book. “He is a fictitious character in a fictitious book — the whole thing is fictitious. What are you talking about?” Ludlam said, after which his colleague replied, “No, it’s very, very serious.”

In the end, the company working on the project acquiesced to the demands and concerns of the Harry Potter fans and rerouted it. “A lot of people were very happy about that, and the project is now going [ahead], and Dobby’s happy,” the project manager said.

The Shell Cottage, where Dobby is buried, is on the outskirts of the fictional town of Tinworth, in Cornwall, but the original film series shot the scene in Freshwater West. Many Harry Potter fans leave stones marked with “Here lies Dobby, a free elf,” as a nod to the epitaph that the titular hero left on his grave. The National Trust, which owns the land, has previously warned pilgrims not to do so, as the area is ecologically sensitive, but it seems that people still do so.

The fans’ resistance to having Dobby’s “grave” desecrated seemingly prevented the undersea cable from going through the area. It was instead rerouted in an area that was close to some Bronze Age remains and urns, which, ironically, are associated with human burial.

Undersea cables are crucial infrastructure connecting distant locations for sending information, power, and other crucial resources. Many of them face increasing threats, especially in areas that face geopolitical pressure, like Taiwan and the Baltic Sea, which is why companies are creating technologies to help detect intentional tampering. It seems the one thing this particular project's planners did not take into account is the passion of Harry Potter fans.

A new video shared by Newsweek shows Taiwan’s Coast Guard warning a 200-ft long Chinese-flagged research vessel to change course. The Chinese ship was observed “lurking over [a] US-Taiwan undersea cable,” according to the source.

Hovering over these submarine cables is a clear sign of intelligence gathering, according to Windward, a maritime analysis platform that responded to Newsweek’s questions about the Chinese research vessel’s behavior. The particular cable under its bows was the 8,000-mile Pacific Light Cable Network (PLCN) fiber-optic system. This high-speed cable connects Taiwan and the U.S., as well as the Philippines. Interestingly, the same cable was going to connect Hong Kong, but was rerouted because of American fears over Chinese snooping.

While research vessels like the one warned to change direction by Taiwan’s Coast Guard in the video are sometimes described as ‘civilian,’ Beijing’s military-civil fusion policy blurs the distinction. Moreover, this 200-ft Chinese ship has something of a history in disputed waters. Newsweek says the same vessel has been observed around the Paracel Islands (claimed by China, Taiwan, and Vietnam) and the Spratly Islands (claimed by China, Taiwan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei).

Focusing back on the concerns about internet cable espionage, or even sabotage, Chinese-flagged vessels have been noted for such behaviour before. “Chinese-flagged vessels have been linked to several cable incidents in recent years,” notes Newsweek. Furthermore, incidents aren’t confined to East Asia, with “suspected sabotage in the Baltic Sea and damage to cables around Taiwan.”

China and Taiwan remains a flashpoint on the geopolitical stage, heightened by the island's outsized role in the global technology and semiconductor market, owing primarily to the success of TSMC. Undersea cables have also grown in recent years to become a vital point of infrastructure for nations, and a source of potential weakness against acts of sabotage.

A developer has created a proof-of-concept data transfer system that shuns any dedicated app requirement and neatly sidesteps mandatory networking, pairing, or giving permissions beyond camera access. Instead, the method transmits information between devices by streaming data via rapidly updating QR codes at up to 60 FPS via the browser your smartphone already has. The test info shared by developer bashalarmistalt on GitHub backs claims that these transfers can run at up to 190 KB/s. This low-friction two-device screen-to-camera data transmission technique is dubbed Decimen Optical Transfer: fountain-coded QR file transfer.

Had an idea for air gapped file transfer, able to get 120 KB/s from r/vibecoding

The GitHub project is linked to by Redditor Alstroph, who seems to be the same person. We’ve chosen to embed the Reddit post about the Decimen Optical Transfer solution above, as it includes an illustrative video of a QR code-driven data transfer.

Bashalarmistalt/Alstroph says they used Claude Code to build this cached web app, which simply runs on both smartphones within the browser, with camera permissions given. They explain that they came up with the idea behind Decimen Optical Transfer to create “a phone-to-phone file transfer option without requiring the phones to be on the same network.” After a modicum of chin stroking, they settled upon the possibility of using “rapidly flashing QR codes” to brew up this proof-of-concept.

Far more detailed information about the project is available in the GitHub repository, linked above. There we also read that the use of ‘fountain codes’ was instrumental to the technique, ensuring missed frames and retransmission quirks don’t hinder the data transfer process. Also, it is explained that every streamed QR code frame is self-describing, as a “20-byte header carries the session ID, sequence number, block count/size, file length, and a hash.”

Hints are provided for tuning Decimen Optical Transfer performance with the PoC solution. The dev used an iPhone and the Apple ProMotion camera with stacked codes; they achieved ~128 KB/s handheld data transfers. The data rate could climb to ~186 KB/s speeds if both the sender and receiver devices were positioned absolutely stationary.

The Decimen Optical Transfer software is distributed under the generous MIT license. Bashalarmistalt is aware that there have been several prior projects but asserts the concept behind their Claude Code-aided solution was arrived at independently. We’ve also covered QR code-based data storage tech numerous times. For example, Cerabyte famously uses microscopic QR codes for its ultra-long-life ceramic storage.

How cheap can you build a hardware-based ad-blocking DNS filter? "Free," if you're willing to salvage some used hardware that's being thrown away. What if you aren't so lucky? In the era of the RAMageddon, even a Raspberry Pi will cost you a couple hundred bucks. But you know, you don't even need something that powerful. In fact, you can use a $5 microcontroller to build a fully functional ad-blocking filter with over 500,000 domains blocked and around 10ms latency.

We know that's possible because Egyptian full-stack developer ZedAxis (@M-Abozaid on GitHub) has already built one. Using an ESP32-C3 "SuperMini" board, he's created a backup DNS for his home network that still provides ad blocking. His primary router is a Pi-hole, which is a Raspberry Pi running specialized software to manage DHCP addressing and DNS resolution with integrated ad-blocking. The SuperMini serves as a backup when the Pi-Hole is rebooting or otherwise unavailable.

Strictly speaking, we haven't seen ZedAxis' creation in action, but there's no reason to believe it doesn't work. The ESP32 family of embedded Wi-Fi-enabled microcontrollers is a well-known quantity, and this functionality is by no means outside the realm of its capabilities. In fact, this specific trick allows the use of the ESP32-C3, which is a cost-reduced version of the chip that doesn't have the 8MB of PSRAM found on some higher-end models. (There are MANY variants of the ESP32.)

Instead, the ESP32-C3 used by ZedAxis has just 400KB of RAM, and 4MB of flash memory. With these limited specifications, he wasn't able to store a plaintext blocklist of any real size; it's simply too much data. So, he did what any enterprising hacker would do: he started hashing the data to reduce its size. Using 40-bit FNV-1a hashes, because 32-bit would give too many collisions and 64-bit wastes too much space, he can store some 537,000 domains in the flash memory of the device.

The clever part isn't really the hashing, though. Rather than storing the domains themselves, the build process downloads one or more public blocklists, strips out duplicate entries and comments, hashes each remaining domain into a 40-bit value, sorts the resulting list, and writes the finished database into the ESP32's flash memory. When a DNS query arrives, the device hashes the requested hostname the same way and performs a binary search against the sorted hash table. If it finds a match, the request is blocked. Otherwise, the query is forwarded to an upstream resolver. According to ZedAxis, the finished firmware uses only around 50KB of RAM while answering blocked lookups in roughly 10 milliseconds.

There's another neat compromise hiding in the design, too. The ESP32 normally reserves enough flash memory to hold two complete copies of its firmware, allowing over-the-air (OTA) updates without risking a failed flash leaving the device unbootable. If you don't care about wireless firmware updates, you can reclaim that second firmware partition for the blocklist database instead. With OTA support enabled, the project tops out at around 250,000 blocked domains. Give up OTA, and that jumps to roughly 537,000 domains on a microcontroller that you can usually buy for the price of a fast-food lunch. ZedAxis describes the price as $2; I wasn't able to find SuperMini boards any cheaper than about $5 US, but at that price there's not much need to quibble about the difference.

Of course, this isn't meant to replace a proper Pi-hole or AdGuard Home installation. The ESP32 project has a rudimentary dashboard, but it doesn't provide detailed per-client statistics, historical query logs, or all the knobs and dials that make those platforms attractive. Instead, it's designed as a tiny insurance policy. It sits quietly on the network, sips only a few dozen milliamps of power, and if the primary DNS server disappears for a reboot or a power outage, clients still get filtered DNS responses instead of falling back to whatever resolver the router happens to have configured.

My favorite detail is that ZedAxis powers the whole thing from the USB port on the back of his ISP-provided fiber gateway, a Huawei OptiXstar home fiber gateway. The USB connection isn't carrying any data; the totality of the integration is the router saying "here's 5 volts" and the ESP32 replying "thanks." It's just that the port is a convenient power source for a device so small it practically disappears behind the router. All communications are carried out through the ESP32's integrated Wi-Fi adapter.

I have no idea whether projects like this will ever become common. Probably not, because most people who want network-wide ad blocking will still buy a Raspberry Pi, a used mini PC, or run AdGuard Home in a virtual machine. Still, it's refreshing to see somebody look at a $5 microcontroller with 400KB of RAM and decide, "Sure, that'll do."

The SpaceX satellite internet service Starlink has just introduced its latest residential kit, letting users connect to the satellite network using a smaller and lighter terminal. The company announced the Starlink V5 on X, saying that it could hit up to 375+ Mbps for “streaming, video calling, gaming, and more.” It’s currently available in select areas only, though, with wider availability expected later as the company ramps up production.

The new unit is significantly smaller and lighter than the Standard 4 used in most home deployments, and brings it close to the Starlink Mini, which is designed for both fixed and portable use. However, the Starlink V5 still requires a router (included), whereas the Mini can work without one, providing a wireless connection using its built-in Wi-Fi antenna. Still, the former is faster, offering speeds of up to 375+ Mbps. Although this is 25 Mbps slower than the 400+ Mbps that the Standard 4 is rated for, it’s still higher than the up to 300+ Mbps that SpaceX has set for the Mini.

The changes that SpaceX made to the Starlink V5 would make it much easier to set up, which is especially helpful for users who prefer to DIY their Starlink setup. Another interesting update to the new terminal is that it can handle faster wind speeds while mounted despite being lighter than the Standard 4. This should help it withstand tougher meteorological conditions, especially in areas frequently battered by storms and tornadoes.

The much lower average power consumption, which is just about half of what the previous-generation Starlink terminals consumed, would also help power stations last longer, making it ideal for keeping communications alive, especially during emergencies. This is exactly what Japan is experimenting with, as Tokyo has started putting up Starlink antennas on fire hydrant signs to provide emergency Wi-Fi.

Although SpaceX and its owner, Elon Musk, are no strangers to controversy, Starlink has proven useful in various situations. Aside from being useful for first responders in disaster zones, it also helped Ukraine stay connected during the height of Russia’s invasion of the country in 2024. It has even gotten to the point that China simulated a Starlink blockade over Taiwan because of how useful the service is in keeping a government online and communicating with its allies during times of distress.