Hmm. Interesting post over on the X-board from everybody's favourite pocket-Messiah, Yerzmyey. Seems He's leaving the scene. Almost. Kinda. -Ish.
I'll leave you to chunder on over there and read the post, but to cover the basics, this only means His online presence will be lower. You'll still be able to marvel at His work, and meet Him in person at parties and stuff.
Considering how many people know this guy, I thought it was worth mentioning.

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On another quick note, due to popular demand, a direct link to X-Agon's famous X-board has been added to the bar on the right.

A new thread has just been started by LCD over in the WOS Phorums about ways to improve emulators. The idea mentioned is kinda like a built-in BASIC compiler (remember all the ones from "the good ole days"?). Well, being an assembler-man myself, I'm not really bothered about this, but I can see a few other features cropping up later in the thread. Could be one for all you emu-devs to watch.
Mind you, perhaps this could be just the chance to create a BASIC-compiler that actually handles floating point?!

The guys over at POS earlier today that a new e-Zine, Scream #1 will be released sometime this month. The zine, by Scream Crew\Constellation, currently has no English version, natch. So, if there's anyone out there willing to lend a hand with some translation, fire off an email to the main editor, Kristoph\POS.

I think that headline says it all, really. Saw Himik on #z80 Statistics earlier today, and he mentioned that he was putting up a section on the POS website covering the recent ASC-II demoparty. You can pop over there and grab some interviews from the party. I've already listened to one of them, and as I only understand English, it just sounds to me like a bunch of drunk people talking. Sweet. Perhaps it'll mean more to other readers.

Okay, couple things in here concerning the sweeeeet MB02+ disk interface. First up, I received a note from Hood about 8BC, the Czech company who actually produce the interface.
Basically, if you go here you can find a list of all MB02+ users around the world. The page is written in Czech, but it's not difficult to get around. If you're not included in the list, then send off an email to lmn@8bc.com and get yourself added.
My Czech is a bit rusty (rather, it's non-existent), but I think to get to the list, you need to click on the "Spectristi" link. Could be wrong tho'. Go on and Czech it out. Heh.
While you're there, you can also grab a bunch of tools for your MB02+. Click on the "Downloads" link, oddly enough.

Yep-yep, another release of the fine emulator, z80Stealth, has been thrown out to the public. Before you go to download it, here's a list of the major changes:

• General Sound now plays!
• Scorpion ProfROM (128k, 256k, 512k) emulation.
• Debugger added. Nice addition, includes Disasm, Asm, Mem-map, ports, etc.
• Kempston Mouse emulation re-written.
• Added emulation of 512k, 1024k memory expansion for Scorpion, and 16k RAMDisk for Pentagon.
• Added a killswitch. Stops Windows interfering with your emulation.
• Buggy HDD emulation added via image-files.
• More video-mode stuff, including saving Gigascreen images, and a faster 320x200 mode.
• A few bufixes.

Phew. Quite a bit in there. Right, you can go download it now. Go on.

Hehe, second Blah! in a row. Well, why not...

• There's a new version of the CC1 rules released. The changes are only minor, but you can get them from Chaosite.
• Spotted a new Poll over on the Sprinter website. This one is asking which apps you use most. Could mean the development of new software for the kit.
• Something else I noticed (and received an email about, thanks demiurge ash), is that ZX-Chart have released a .TRD version of... well, ZX-Chart. Pop over there and grab it.
• Altered the POS-team button.
• Heaven Aeroplane has released a new version of the screen viewer, SpecView SE. This new download includes support .SCL files. Go grab v2.1.11 now.
• Not completed your work for the Nuotrauka competition yet? Fear not, the deadline for entries has been increased to the 1st of May.
• Decided to skip the information on the upcoming Millennium 1901 demoparty - I checked the archives, and I've already covered it. But I'll just remind you that the party is taking place on May 5th in Minsk, Belarus.

Ah well, another short burst from my news cannon:

• Over on the AY-Emu homepage you can now grab a document about the differences between the AY and YM soundchips, if that's your kinda thing. There's also some sample source code, too.
• Spotted something new over at specchums.org -- Speccy-based logos for your Nokia phones. Only available in the UK unless you have a way to get them onto your phone yourself (as I have - thanks LaesQ). They're looking for more logos, so why not get designing.
• This weekend I'll do some proper "checking out" of the upcoming Millennium party. I've kinda missed this one a bit, mainly due to not seeing much in English about it, and being slightly "relaxed" in the translation department recently.
• Sorry to whoever posted this info on CSS, but I lost the original post where this link was mentioned. It's a disc interface diagram that was suggested for someone wanted to add a drive to his +2A. Worth a check?

Poop.

Just got this email from ra_id\MAYhEM about the newest release of the Turtles Dreams party-list. In case you've missed it, it's a compiled list of all party releases since, ehm, Demobit'95, I think is the earliest. Worth checking out so that you can prove to yourself you have all party releases. All we really need now is a complete list of every Speccy demo produced. Not an easy task.

Interesting little article posted up on the ZeroTeam website. It's all about dance music on the Speccy. Written by Mike, it's worth a quick check.
As an aside, I was reminded via the ZT site of HighTech. Checked it out, and it all seems to be pretty much about IRC. Any clues on what's on here? I'd be interested to find out, as the project seemed like a nice idea.