I really must get in touch with my ISP and "put the smack down" as it were. Andrew Owen warned me that there'd be some news about vbSpec posted on c.s.s early Feb. And sure enough there was. But I only see it 6 (six!) days after it's there. Go figure.
So, what's the news? Well a new release, bringing this neat little 'mu up to version 1.30. As well as the 48k, 128k and +2, it now provides support for the TC2048 machine. Support has been added for .TAPs, and various optimisations included in the code.
Oh, you can also grab a few demos of the TC2048's extra graphics modes: hi-res (512x192) and hi-colour (no vertical colour clash - sounds like rasters to me). Noice.

Here's something that a look at Scenergy reminded me I hadn't yet covered. Over on ZX-Chart they've released the votelist of #3 of... ZX-Chart. You can grab it from their download page, and it's certainly worth the tiny (3k) grabbage. So get it, and vote. Do it. And remember to vote for raww.org and Demotopia in the "Best scene web resource" category <g>.

Yes I confess to not mentioning the sweetly-titled SHIT'2001 compo on here before. I simply missed the announcement. Sorry.
Anyway, the compo is basically to find "The Shittiest Graphicians of the year 2001", tho' I guess it'll include a little of 2002 now as well. The rules can be found over on ZpiXel, and it seems like an interesting idea. So have a look, get out your easel (oo-er) and get scribbling. The deadline is now 1<font size="-1">^st</font> March.

Yes, today (7<font size="-1">^th</font> Feb) is a day when everyone with a soul must get drunk. Why? Because it's only the 2<font size="-1">^nd</font> birthday of raww.org. Yeah, two years and the things hardly changed at all. I really should redesign this thing. But hey, I'm lazy.
Want some stats? You know you do. Well there aren't any interesting ones really. This is the 824<font size="-1">^th</font> post, all of which is written by me, icabod. It's a total of... ehm... around 713,822 characters I've typed. That works out at an average of 1.127 articles a day, each one being 867.341 characters per article. The longest article was #756, and surprisingly it was a "Blah!". It comes in at a whopping 3945-or-so characters. No-one really cares about the shortest. And most importantly of all, I've used the word "arse" 80 times. Not including this post.
Now, go get drunk!

Got an email from today, with some possibly sad news about the upcoming Twilight demoparty. There's a chance that the party won't be happening, depending on the number of entries and visitors that register their work.
There's a request that if you do plan to produce work for the party, you should fill in the application form ASAP. The deadline is 12th February, so only a week away.
My theory (not that it's worth much) is that it's the same weekend as FOReVER3, which I think is the largest (ZX) party in Europe. That's quite a lot of competition.
Application forms and comments can be sent to Pilot.

Little note in here just to point out that the homepage of Optical Brothers has changed. They're now hosted at ob.scenosaurus.org. The site's not in English, unfortunately, but that's life. I've also added a button to the side of the page.
The logo still gives their old URL, tho'.

It's true. According to the latest news on the Retro Review homepage, the first batch of issue 1 of this new 'zine has sold out. They're in the process of printing a new batch now. I really should get my fat arse in gear and order myself a copy. It's my duty.
Incidentally, there's 3 more additions to the FAQ on the page: "Can I write articles for the magazine?", "Will I get paid for an article?", and "I would like to see the xxx computer featured in the mag!". Eheh. I'd like to see XXX in all mags <g>. Oops. Hope my mum's not reading this.

A really rather neat site is Sinclair Hotline. I'm sure you've seen me mention it before. Well now they have their own domain name: sinclair.hu. So update your bookmarks. It's all still in Hungarian, but it's worth a look around even if you don't understand what's being said.
Thanks to Ricsibu for the noos.

The guys at POS have announced a new service they're providing: ZX Hardware Repair. I'm not certain from the post on their site whether it's guidance with DIY, or if they'll actually take your machine, fix it, and return it. I'm guessing it's the DIY guidance option.
So, if you've got any problems with your trusty ZX, contact Himik's ZxZ for support.

If you're one of those people with a Nokia 9210 Communicator, then you could do worse than grab yourself this neato emulator, the ZX9200 from WildPalm.
In case you haven't already guessed, it's a ZX emulator for the handheld phone/pc thingy. It has no sound support yet, but the shots look good enough (tho' they may of coz be from an actual ZX). It's a staggering $10 (what!??!). Okay, so it won't break the bank, and besides it's free to download.
News leeched from Scenergy.