Finally for tonight (phew!) I bring news of an update over at Raww Arse Archive. Or rather I don't. LaesQ has been having some problems with site updates, and so has transferred the site over to the raww.net server. You can now access the site of Raww Arse, E-3 and Papaya Dezign at the new address papaya.raww.net.
LaesQ has been a busy chap too, celebrating the move with the release of a new tool, an MB02 Disk Imager. This should help get some software out there for us users. And users of RealSpec. Of note, it has fixed a major bug which could render a floppy drive useless after use. Yeah. I know this bug. Happened to me at work, of all places. I just switched computers and hoped no-one would notice <g>.
Anyway, pop on over there and check it out.

Hmm. At the expense of seeming lazy, I'm putting a heap of news about various sites into here. So here we go...

• ZX Downloads has had a revamp courtesy of DJH. You can pop over there now and check out the new design, along with party reports and a section all about the ever-popular Dizzy games.
• LaesQ pointed me to a neat site by DirtyFly. There's not a huge amount there, apart from a Spectrum museum. And this interesting photo of a Canadian +3. Hmm. On closer inspection this is abviously a fake... but it's a nice idea.
• Added a link to another site pointed out to me by LaesQ. chiptune.com does what it says on the tin. You can download music made for soundcard chips (as opposed to using massive samples). There's even a Speccy section, featuring the theme to Raww Arse's BOA. Sweet. Worth checking if just for the neat Java.
• ...and talking of neat Java, it's written by an Atari and Java demogroup. Worth noting for some of the retro/old-skool effects, I recommend a visit to Equinox.
• Okay, this really isn't site news apart from the fact that I read it over at POS. In badly babelised text. So the details are a bit shady. But it seems an (ex?) member of POS has just become a father. Congrats to... ehm... Jack. I think.
• Another note about POS comes from a mail I received a little while back. Well, it got lost amongst all my mailing-list crap, but surfaced again after some random filtering. Anyhoo, it seems that the team are looking for someone to take on the task of translating news and articles from Russian into English. The sooner this happens the better, as we'll get an English version of the site, then <g>. Any volunteers should contact the guys on the site.

Aah, the sweet smell of burning silicon. DOH!

Well, the final results are out for the Final Shoque competition. As you should be aware, this competition was just for artists, held in December. I'm gonna cut to the chase and put up the top 3 from the categories:

<font size="-1"> Visualise Competition
1 - Keep ZX! - ZSV/MIU/CTL
2 - DoUlike? - TAE/Sinclair Club
3 - Lost - Prof/4D

Technics Competition
1 - Keep ZX! - ZSV/MIU/CTL
2 - Pain - GAS 13
3 - My Army - Surv!v0r </font>

There you go. "Keep ZX!" was the clear winner. And well deserved, too.
You can download the entries from Scenergy and view the full results over at Demotopia.

Okay, I wasn't planning on mentioning anything about the MindResources demoparty, as it was a purely non-Speccy affair. But according to a report over on Scenergy, there were some presentations made on the Spectrum. Hmm. Well, as a little helper, here are some links to MRS sites that you could check out:

• official MRS page
• unofficial MRS page
• party report
• unofficial results

Sorted.

Yeah, I decided to give myself a hard kick up the arse and put up the new photos. Only four more, and you can find them neatly nestling at the end of Mike^zt's gallery. Which is kind of fitting, as they're his photos. Hope you like 'em.

Actually, I got another mail from MacB saying that he's updated his Pentagon FAQ to version 1.0.2. Changes here mainly cover typos, but there are also a few new questions:

• Q. What does complete Pentagon look like?
• Q. What are disadvantages of Pentagon?
• Q. What type of floppy disk drive may be used with Pentagon?

If you have any queries that aren't listed in the FAQ, just drop him a line.

Again, the additional photos taken at ZX-Party didn't come out. Sorry about this, but I've had another busy few days. I'm whittling down my news-list again, with a couple little posts tonight. I'll see what I can do tomorrow.

Well, not quite, but it seems from a mail I had from MacB that I've done the old 1+1=3 trick again. Well, from the evidence you can hardly blame me. The Grand Rom Max isn't, it seems, a Pentagon. It's a different clone, with again it's own hardware, timing, etc. So, why the confusion? It was in the damned Pentagon section of S4E. Aah well.
Thanks again for putting me straight, MacB.

Well actually there has been some news come in today, but I'm not posting it. Not just yet anyway. The reason? Well since you ask, I've had to do a bit of important "admin-ing" on raww.net. As I write this I'm just waiting for a reboot of the box.
So. How 'bout I get that news to you tomorrow, eh? That's a good idea. I'm getting tired.

Well, it's time for some birthday greetings. And todays greet goes out to... raww.org!!! Yes, it's actually the 1st birthday of this website. Who'd have thought it would last a year!?
Anyway, there's nothing here that'll astound you by way of a birthday treat (although I do have some more pictures to add to one of the ZX-Party galleries, but they'll come tomorrow). Instead, I'll leave you all to celebrate in your own way. Vast quantities of beer, is my guess.
I had actually planned a huge post for this event, but really, there's not much point. Thanks to everyone who's stuck with it in the last year.
Cheers!