Kim & Don's 60th birthday fundraiser for Hope and Soul

Thanks for celebrating our special joint birthday with us - we're really pleased that you can be with us! To mark this milestone (LOL!) - we want to raise funds for a great cause that's close to our hearts: www.hopeandsoul.org.uk .

Hope Prosser has been a family friend for many years. The work that she & her team do in Tanzania is incredible. Please take five minutes to visit her site & see what an incredible difference her charity makes to children living in extreme poverty - giving them an education & a better chance of having a good life.

So no presents for us please - but we'd be very grateful if you could make a donation to support Hope's work. Thanks & Blessings, K&D xxx

www.justgiving.com

British bikers Lindsay and Craig Foreman jailed in Iran for ten years

Lindsay and Craig Foreman, the British couple riding around the world on motorcycles, have been handed a 10-year jail sentence in Iran after being accused of espionage – a charge their family insist is baseless.

The Foremans, a Sussex couple in their 50s, were arrested in January 2025 while travelling through Iran as part of a round-the-world bike trip. This week, a judge at Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court sentenced them to a decade behind bars.

They are being held separately inside Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, a facility long criticised by human rights groups for alleged torture and inhumane conditions.

www.visordown.com

Western Digital is already sold out of hard drives for all of 2026

Western Digital Chief Executive Officer Irving Tan said that the company has already sold out of hard drives for 2026. Tan confirmed this during the company’s Q2 2026 earnings call, where, according to the transcript shared by Investing.com, he also confirmed that there are already some long-term agreements (LTAs) in place for the next couple of years.

“As we highlighted, we’re pretty much sold out for calendar 2026. We have firm POs with our top seven customers,” the executive said. “And we’ve also established LTAs with two of them for calendar 2027 and one of them for calendar 2028. Obviously, these LTAs have a combination of volume of exabytes and price.” This announcement is on track with the report from late last year that hard drives are on backorder for two years due to massive data center demand.

www.tomshardware.com

In a blind test, audiophiles couldn't tell the difference between audio signals sent through copper wire, a banana, or wet mud

A moderator on diyAudio set up an experiment to determine whether listeners could differentiate between audio run through pro audio copper wire, a banana, and wet mud. Spoiler alert: the results indicated that users were unable to accurately distinguish between these different 'interfaces.'

Pano, the moderator who built the experiment, invited other members on the forum to listen to various sound clips with four different versions: one taken from the original CD file, with the three others recorded through 180cm of pro audio copper wire, via 20cm of wet mud, through 120cm of old microphone cable soldered to US pennies, and via a 13cm banana, and 120cm of the same setup as earlier.

Initial test results showed that it’s extremely difficult for listeners to correctly pick out which audio track used which wiring setup. “The amazing thing is how much alike these files sound. The mud should sound perfectly awful, but it doesn't," Pano said. "All of the re-recordings should be obvious, but they aren't."

www.tomshardware.com

Motorcycle helmet cameras & intercoms vs the law

When Schuberth announced its new ‘Concept’ helmet in 2025, it proudly pointed out that its ‘ECE-R22.06 UA’ marking meant it was the first lid to be tested and certified as safe to use with a universal accessory… like an intercom. 

But digging into what that actually means opens a massive can of worms, and it’s one we need get into so you can understand why it has such a big impact on fitting intercoms, cameras and ANY other accessory to ANY motorcycle helmet.

While debate still rages over whether the GoPro fixed to Michael Schumacher’s helmet contributed to his tragic injuries, it’s entirely plausible that sticking objects to the outside of your motorcycle lid, or indeed adding anything – inside or out – that wasn’t designed specifically for it could lead to injury or worse in a crash.

The new ‘UA’ (Universal Accessory) and ‘SA’ (Specific Accessory) classification of helmets under the ECE-R22.06 safety regulation sets out to address that, but it also means your choices for intercoms and other gear could be very limited… READ MORE...

www.bennetts.co.uk

Openreach turns up the heat to force laggards off legacy copper

 

Openreach is warning British businesses that the old phone network shuts down in less than a year, with half a million commercial lines still unmigrated.

BT Group's infrastructure arm is switching to an all-digital, IP-based service over fibre. To speed migration, it's hiking charges on legacy products.

Deadlines for the cutoff have slipped several times, but the telecoms giant is now bent on finally burying the copper-based public switched telephone network (PSTN) by January 31, 2027, and Openreach is already working to kill off any services that use it.

Those products come under the umbrella term of Wholesale Line Rental (WLR), and Openreach stopped selling them nationwide in 2023 to prepare the way.

Openreach claims all technical barriers to migration – including protections for vulnerable telecare users – are resolved and the deadline is "locked in," so BT customers need to make sure they are ready.

www.theregister.com

Bikers Wanted: Help prove riding is good for you

Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS) is inviting motorcycle riders to take part in a new research study exploring the mental and physical health benefits of motorcycling. If you’ve ever said that riding clears your head, sharpens your focus, or just makes life feel better, this study wants to hear from you.

Who can take part? The research is open to anyone aged 18 or over who rides a motorcycle, whether you’re a daily commuter, seasoned tourer, or weekend tinkerer. Taking part starts with a 15-minute online questionnaire covering your riding habits, how motorcycling affects you, and some basic details about your physical and mental wellbeing.

For those who fancy going a step further, there’s an optional lab-based session. This involves light physical activities and a cognitive assessment, helping researchers dig deeper into how riding may influence brain health and ageing.

Why take part? The goal of the study is to better understand the unique benefits motorcycling may offer, particularly as we get older. It’s officially approved by the Brighton and Sussex Medical School Research Governance & Ethics Committee (RGEC approval No. 0302), so your data is in safe hands.

How to get involved Interested? Scan the QR code below or follow this link to learn more and take part.

For further information, you can contact Mariglen Meta, Research Assistant (m.meta1@uni.bsms.ac.uk), or Professor Dorina Cadar (d.cadar@bsms.ac.uk).

www.bennetts.co.uk