In case you suddenly find yourself with an urgent need to convert images into a Spectrum-friendly format (kinda like a craving for chocolate, but less fattening), you may be interested to know that LCD has released a new version of Bmp2Scr. Newness in v2.10c include the addition of SAM Coupe modes 3 and 4 conversion - dithered, error diffusion, midtones... all the usual tools are there. There's also some other tweaks and bugfixes, so it's worth keeping up-to-date.

Just a quick note to mention that I've just been "tweaking" my "backend". Uhm... I mean I've made alterations to the system that runs raww.org. You shouldn't see any errors crop up, but if you do please let me know. I'm an amiable chap really.

In something of a blast-from-the-past, I'm going to shove a selection of "catch-up" news in here. The few weeks before, during, and after Christmas have been hectic. I've had very little time to go online (cry cry), tho' it should result in a smaller phone bill which is always a nice surprise. It may even counteract all the money spent on beer and presents lately.
So, some of this news is from about a month ago, but it's here now in case you missed it. Fairly random selection of stuff, I apoligise if I miss anything. Oh, and I'll get around to sifting through my built-up emails too in the next few days. Really.

Having reached the top of the tree in the Unix / Mac Speccy emulator stakes, Fuse is taking on the Windows big boys. A Win32 port has been announced, headed by Marek Januszewski. Open source Windows Speccy emulators are pretty thin on the ground (the only other one in recent times being vbSpec, I think), so it'll be interesting to see how the army of tinkerers can shake up the establishment. It's an alpha release at the moment, so go check it out, try to break it, and fix the bugs!

A new ROM has reached a stable state over the Christmas break which is address compatible with the old ROM. This means that it will run most Spectrum games and since it has letter-by-letter keyword entry, it is great for typing in those magazine listings.
Another bonus is that the default NMI function is to perform a Warm Reset even while you are playing Manic Miner etc.
Most of the old quirks like PRINT INT(.5+.5) are gone.
Best of all it has a Renumber and Block Delete and a Stream Lister.
You can try the ROM online at
http://www.wearmouth.demon.co.uk/gw03/gw03.htm
and you can download the ROM and study the Assembly Listing from that page too.
This is particularly good in emulators if you have trouble remembering the key combinations.

AY and beeper fans can now get their daily fix of chiptunes from a new online radio station dedicated to the Speccy, Starglider Radio. There are currently 30-odd classic game tunes from Follin and friends on the playlist with a couple of bonus tracks thrown in too.

Roving reporter Shaun Bebbington announces on comp.sys.sinclair that the first dedicated retrocomputing magazine is set to arrive on UK newsstands next month. The as-yet-unnamed magazine from Live Publishing (or, um, maybe it was named and I've just forgotten it) has now gone to the printers, and if all goes according to plan, ought to be appearing at your local WHSmiths in the new year.

Gerard Sweeney (he of The Tipshop) has unveiled a Christmas prezzie for Speccy fans everywhere (well, the ones using IE5 on Windows anyway). The Speccy Search Bar is a widget to add to your browser for searching a host of Spectrum-related sites. Just like the Google Toolbar in fact, but with less porn! (Huzza...um... oh.)

Yeah, it's Christmas. Finally. It will all be over soon, don't worry. We can all get back to normal life then. I can't stay online for long today as I'm awaiting a phonecall from my brother... he's spending a while in the far east.

So, have a good day. Drink lots of beer and wine (assuming you're not driving anywhere of course). I'm gonna go cook a meal. Wish me luck!

Here's an interesting idea which I remember was bandied about in the forums a while back... a bootable emulator. The idea makes sense, you can set your machine to boot into different operating systems (my home machine dual-boots between Win2k and Linux) so why not boot into an emulator. ZX Emulator (pc) [eng] does just that, installing onto a bootable floppy or a hard drive. The site is in Italian, but thanks to Alessandro Grussu who has provided a translation which is probably better than something automatic. In fact, I'm going to cut-n-paste it :]
And as a joke you can install it over Windows on your friends PCs when they're not looking. You know they'll love you for it!