April 1, 2026, marks the one-year anniversary of the passing of Dave Täht.
This post is dedicated to Dave Täht, LibreQoS, OpenWrt, and every OpenWrt enthusiast.
It is also dedicated to the newly released OpenWrt 25.12 "Dave's Guitar".
Because of you, the open-source universe and OpenWrt continue to shine.
To Mayday, all the Mayday fans (五迷), and every OpenWrt enthusiast:
Hello everyone. I am a Mayday fan born in the exact same year the band was formed.
I am also an ordinary Open Source enthusiast from Taiwan — TW641 (Taiwan641).
In a few days, it will be April 1st, April Fool's Day.
To many, this might just be a day for practical jokes.
But for the internet community, it is a sentimental moment.
We are about to mark the one-year anniversary of the passing of a highly respected pioneer, Dave Täht.
With a craftsman's spirit, he dedicated his life to fighting Bufferbloat.
He selflessly contributed his time to solve global network latency issues.
His work allows countless users worldwide to enjoy a smoother and more reliable internet.
To honor his profound impact on the networking community, the latest stable release of the open-source router firmware, OpenWrt 25.12, was officially released on March 5, 2026.
It was specifically named "Dave's Guitar", dedicating this glory to him in the starry sky.
This spirit particularly reminds me of the song "Fool" (《憨人》) by the Taiwanese band Mayday.
I truly believe this song perfectly summarizes Dave's entire life.
Every word, every note, sings of him!
Lead singer Ashin once wrote in a 2020 anniversary post:
The Chinese character for fool, "憨", is actually made of "敢" (Courage) over "心" (Heart).
( https://www.facebook.com/ashin555/videos/憨人/234790114390923/ )
> 憨 = 敢 + 心
> Fool = Courage + Heart
He was exactly like this "fool". He relied on that pure courage at the bottom of his heart to dedicate his whole life to the open-source spirit.
Even if the path was lonely, the blood, sweat, and legacy he left behind have deeply influenced countless people in this world.
Speaking of which, it's a fascinating twist of fate.
During their predecessor "So Band" era, Mayday officially formed and changed to their current name on March 29, 1997.
In just ten days, it will be Mayday's 29th anniversary.
And I was born exactly a few days after their formation (April 10, 1997).
Perhaps it is this romantic resonance of being the exact same age as Mayday that made me decide to build this digital museum for Dave.
When you open the webpage, the grand title immediately catches your eye.
To perfectly adapt to different stargazing perspectives, I designed two layouts. I poured my craftsman's soul into meticulously polishing the visual details:
If you view it on a computer screen, the title expands broadly like a galaxy:
> 🇹🇼 TW641 Padavan CAKE 🍰
> OpenWrt 25.12 Dave's Guitar 🎸
> 開源路由器韌體 與 Dave Täht 數位典藏博物館 🏛️
If you open it on a mobile phone, it gently wraps like star trails:
> 🇹🇼 TW641 Padavan CAKE 🍰
> OpenWrt 25.12 Dave's Guitar 🎸
> 開源路由器韌體 與 Dave Täht
> 數位典藏博物館 🏛️
Digital Museum Main URL: https://tw641.github.io/
(Backup URL: https://tw641.pages.dev/ )
The project codename for this digital museum is "Tribute Time Machine".
While meticulously crafting this code and polishing every detail, Mayday's songs were looping endlessly in my ears.
To make everything more perfect, I deeply embedded an exclusive Mayday playlist into the source code of this website.
I also integrated interactive design philosophies about life and the starry sky.
Every hidden detail tells a story:
[ Visual Design of the Starry Universe ]
Dave's family name "Täht" means "Star" in Estonian.
This beautiful coincidence runs through the entire universe design philosophy of the museum.
To materialize this spirit, I breathed life into the hex color codes:
The deep cosmic edge (#5374fa), the hovering warm starlight (#fd9179), and the high-energy supernova core (#ff6969) intertwine to form this boundless open-source universe.
In the deep Night Sky Mode (#05050a), the brightest azure star (#58a6ff) represents Dave.
Meanwhile, in the vast Daylight Mode (#f6f8fa), every "You" (#0550ae) looking up at the stars becomes an indispensable stargazer in this universe.
[ Interactive Guide for Stargazers ]
If you ever get lost in this digital universe, a gentle interactive guide is hidden deep within the museum:
When you are looking for Dave Täht, please look at the brightest star in the night sky!
When you ask me why Dave is so dazzling? I will answer:
"The darker the night, the brighter the Täht."
（夜越暗，星星（Täht）就越明亮。）
When you miss him, please enter this command in the terminal: "modprobe sch_cake"
These little-known stories are quietly waiting for you to discover.
[ Breathing Stars ]
Dave himself is breathing and shining every single moment.
I set the standard human breathing rate to 4.0 seconds.
When you hover your mouse over it, or click the glowing blue text on your phone, he will twinkle at a 1.0-second frequency, passionately saying hello to you!
[ The Time Machine's Accelerator ]
Those seemingly ordinary blue hyperlinks and gradient dynamic fonts on the webpage...
Once you hover your mouse over them, you board the tribute time machine.
The dynamic nebula will accelerate from 4.1 seconds to 2.5 seconds. It takes you back to the year 2025, allowing us to honor those untold true stories together!
[ The Nebula Light Strip and Secret Easter Egg at the Bottom ]
When you move your mouse away, the light strip returns to its purest form.
In the second stage, it emits a dazzling light simply because "You" are riding this time machine and witnessing this history together!
The third stage is triggered by clicking anywhere on the webpage, witnessing Dave's reunion with his family.
But only when you scroll to the very bottom of this museum will you see this supernova explosion of convergence, along with this quietly flowing dynamic nebula secret.
To perfectly present the beauty of this Easter Egg, I prepared two dedicated viewing angles for dual devices:
If you view it on a computer screen, it flows perfectly centered:
> ⭐ Dave Täht passed away on 2025.04.01. Today is 2026.03.19.
> 🌠 Illuminating the open-source universe for 352 days (11個月(M) 18天(D)).
> © 2026 TW641. Built with passion for a Bufferbloat-free world.
If you open it on a mobile phone, it gently wraps like star trails:
> ⭐ Dave Täht passed away on 2025.04.01.
> Today is 2026.03.19.
> 🌠 Illuminating the open-source universe for 352 days
> (11個月(M) 18天(D)).
> © 2026 TW641. Built with passion for a Bufferbloat-free world.
[ Metaphor of Life and the Starry Sky ]
> In life, they were Stars illuminating the world.
> In death, they are Starstuff illuminating the universe.
>
> (在世時，他們是照亮世界的星星。)
> (逝世後，他們是點亮宇宙的星塵。)
These two sentences perfectly contrast Star and Starstuff, symbolizing his reunion with his parents in the starry sky, converging into eternity.
[ Curator's Code TW641 ]
TW represents my hometown, Taiwan.
6 represents the 6 selected tracks in the Starry Sky Playlist.
4 and 1 are the day he left, perfectly echoing the noble mission of selfless dedication in the song "Fool".
[ Starry Sky Playlist ]
Listen to "Fool" (憨人), to hear the story of his selfless dedication.
Listen to "Time Machine" (時光機), to power up this tribute machine.
Listen to "What If We Had Never Met" (如果我們不曾相遇), to commemorate the chance encounter with him.
Listen to "Starry Sky" (星空), to accompany our loneliness in the dark universe.
Listen to "Meteor Rain" (流星雨), to make a wish in this digital universe.
Listen to "Because of You" (因為你 所以我), to bless each other during hard times:
"Building a universe with the smallest memories." (用最小回憶，堆成宇宙)
Finally, the original intention of all this comes from a single quote:
“If you don’t make it beautiful, it’s for sure doomed”
This Tribute Time Machine is our beautiful product.
> Built to survive. (為留存而建。)
> Built to remember. (為銘記而生。)
Even an ordinary person who doesn't understand code at all can definitely feel this romance!
Just open the museum URL on your computer: https://tw641.github.io/
(Backup URL: https://tw641.pages.dev/ )
Press the F12 key on your keyboard to open Developer Tools, and find the beginning of in the tag of the page source code.
The moment you click it open, you will inevitably let out a "Wow~" of amazement, seeing with your own eyes this eternal tribute universe hidden deep within.
Just as I wrote in the final two lines of the Easter Egg:
> 回憶，之所以美麗
> 正因，他別具意義
(Memories are beautiful, precisely because they hold a special meaning.)
I hope to share this small token of appreciation with everyone.
I also want to make a small starry sky wish to Mayday right here:
I hope this beautiful Tribute Time Machine can be seen by more people.
It is just like the GitHub Archive Program, which preserves 17,000 open-source projects on hardened film built to last a thousand years.
Housed in a casing decorated with AI-generated art, it stands quietly in the shadow of ancient bristlecone pines, looking up at the dome of the Milky Way.
The bristlecone pines on top of the White Mountains are the oldest living organisms in the world.
When they first began to sprout, woolly mammoths still roamed the earth, and the pyramids had not yet been built.
(You can click the link below to enjoy this video and see the bristlecone pines under that ancient starry sky:
https://archiveprogram.github.com/assets/img/tree-sm.mp4 )
I hope this digital museum and Dave's spirit can cross millennia in the digital universe, just like that starry sky and the bristlecone pines, becoming an immortal existence.
Thank you, Mayday's music, for always catching our regrets and longing, and turning them into the most beautiful starry sky.
※ Below is the complete, uncut tribute Easter egg suspended deep within the website:
/*
* 🌠 Hidden Easter Egg / In memory of Dave Täht 🌠
* Digital Curator, Archivist & Sculptor > TW641
* Code name > Tribute Time Machine
*
* [ Easter Egg I : The Flow of Nebula and Time ]
* > The Nebula and Time Flow in this Time Machine act as
* a space-time accelerator pointing to : 2025.04.01
* - Hidden Y-axis Coordinate : 20% (20)
* - Hover Active Time Flow Rate : 2.5s (25)
* - Base Nebula Time Flow Rate : 4.1s (04.01)
*
* [ Easter Egg II : Atmospheric Refraction & Digital Breath Rate ]
* > The Atmospheric Refraction & Digital Breath Rate
* embed hidden coordinates that represent : 2025.04.01
* - Hidden Y-axis Coordinate : 20% (20)
* - Atmospheric Refraction : 25% (25)
* (Halo blur radius expands exactly by 20% at the 25% timeline)
* - Base Twinkle (Breath) Rate : 4.0s (04)
* > Standard 4-second human breath cycle.
* - Hover Active Twinkle Rate : 1.0s (01)
* > The 1Hz twinkle is Dave Täht saying hello to you!
*
* [ Easter Egg III : The Eternal Foundation & Timeline ]
* > The dynamic nebula timeline at the bottom anchors the museum,
* carrying a hidden coordinate deep within its structural layer.
* - Z-index Layer Coordinate : 2025
* > Marking the year we bid farewell to Dave Täht.
* - Hover Active Timeline Flow Rate : 2.5s (25)
* - Base Nebula Timeline Flow Rate : 4.1s (04.01)
*
* [ Easter Egg IV : We Are All Starstuff (The Final Reunion) ]
* > "That yes, we are all starstuff." - Dave Täht (June 9, 2012)
* The dynamic nebula is composed of exactly three core colors:
* - var(--color-nebula-1) : The deep blue of the cosmos.
* - var(--color-nebula-2) : The warm orange of the bristlecone pine.
* - var(--color-nebula-3) : The soft red of a fading star.
* > These three colors endlessly flow and intertwine,
* > symbolizing Dave, his mother Beverly, and his father Ron.
* > Reunited in the stars, flowing together in the eternal archive.
* >
* > In life, they were Stars illuminating the world.
* > (在世時，他們是照亮世界的星星。)
* > In death, they are Starstuff illuminating the universe.
* > (逝世後，他們是點亮宇宙的星塵。)
*
* [ Easter Egg V : The Curator's Signature (TW641) ]
* The elements serendipitously echo the developer's code: TW641
* - [ TW ] : The origin of the curator (Taiwan).
* - [ 6 ] : The 6 selected tracks in the Soundtrack of the Stars.
* - [ 4 ] : The 4th month (April).
* - [ 1 ] : The 1st day.
* > April 1st is April Fool's Day, and also the day Dave Täht passed away.
* > It perfectly echoes Mayday's (五月天) song "Fool" (憨人) —
* > Honoring and Commemorating Dave's selfless legacy and noble life mission.
*
* ---------------------------------------------------------
*
* [ Museum Visual Design Elements ]
*
* > The Nebula (Space-time continuum edge)
* - Color Nebula 1 : #5374fa (Deep continuum edge)
* - Color Nebula 2 : #fd9179 (Hovering warm starlight)
* - Color Nebula 3 : #ff6969 (High-energy core)
*
* > The Stargazer and The Star
* - Color Dave Täht : #58a6ff (The brightest star in the dark mode)
* - Color You : #0550ae (Every stargazer in the light mode)
*
* > Daylight Mode (Stellar Expanse & Sunlight)
* - BG Stellar : #f6f8fa (The vast stellar expanse in daylight)
* - BG Sunlight : #fffdf5 (Card background in daylight)
*
* > Night Sky Mode (Universe & Night Sky)
* - BG Universe : #05050a (Deep space background in night sky)
* - BG Night Sky : #0d1218 (Card background in night sky)
*
* ---------------------------------------------------------
*
* [ The Soundtrack of the Stars (Mayday Playlist) ]
*
* - When you ask me what song tells the story of Dave Täht's
* selfless contribution:
* Listen to "Fool" (憨人) - The 10,000-people chorus Live Version.
* > https://youtu.be/olGod8i1j1o
*
* - When you ask me how to power up this Tribute Time Machine:
* Listen to "Time Machine" (時光機)
* > https://youtu.be/hKPtVlSW2qA
*
* - When you ask me about the chance encounter with Dave's
* code and legacy:
* Listen to "What If We Had Never Met" (如果我們不曾相遇)
* > https://youtu.be/eZMH6Mo0f9A
*
* - When you look up at the night sky mode and feel lonely:
* Listen to "Starry Sky" (星空).
* (A free online concert during the COVID-19 pandemic.
* To avoid gatherings, the empty stadium was filled only
* with glowing light sticks on every seat, just like the
* silent but glowing stars in our digital universe!)
* > https://youtu.be/n5Uow4k1ATg
*
* - When you want to see a meteor shower in this digital universe:
* Listen to "Meteor Rain" (流星雨) F4 x MAYDAY 5525 Live Version.
* > https://youtu.be/T--M_M2NvhM
*
* - When you ask me what song represents our wish for everyone
* to be safe and well during the pandemic:
* Listen to "Because of You" (因為你 所以我).
* "只因 世界 再大 不過 你和我 / 用最小回憶 堆成宇宙"
* > https://youtu.be/_s8Iot-uo7s
*
* ---------------------------------------------------------
*
* [ Interactive Guide ]
*
* - When you look up at the night sky, you will see the main
* visual design of the night sky mode.
*
* - When you are looking for Dave Täht, please look at the
* brightest star!
*
* - When you ask me why Dave Täht is so dazzling, I will answer you:
* "The darker the night, the brighter the Täht."
*
* - When you ask me what to do when I miss Dave Täht, I will answer you:
* "When you miss Dave, modprobe sch_cake"
*
* - When you ask me how to know the little-known stories about Dave Täht:
* Scroll down to the "⭐ Light up the Täht: A Final Tribute" section.
*
* ---------------------------------------------------------
*
* "One thing our advisory panel unanimously advised was that,
* in order to survive indefinitely through uncertain futures,
* these archives would need to be appreciated and valued
* as objects in and of themselves.
*
* 'If you don’t make it beautiful it’s for sure doomed,'
* as Alexander Rose, executive director of the Long Now Foundation, put it."
*
* — Source: GitHub Archive Program.
* (Visual design of this Tribute Time Machine is deeply inspired
* by Alex Maki-Jokela's GitHub Open Source Archive Box).
*
* This digital museum is our beautiful object.
*
* Built to survive.
*
* Built to remember.
*
* ---------------------------------------------------------
*
* 回憶，之所以美麗
* 正因，他別具意義
*/
ADMIN EDIT/NOTE: I made a regrettable mistake with this thread and deleted both the post and the user when the post was flagged as spam. I would like to sincerely apologize for this, and I have restored the thread.
To @tw641 - I'm really sorry for this mistake and I hope that you'll see this and consider rejoining the forum.
Dave Täht passed away on 2025.04.01. Today is 2026.03.22.
Illuminating the open-source universe for 355 days (11 M 21 D).