If you didn't notice, Bytefest - meeting of old comuters fans - took place in Prague last weekend. Here and here (.zip file) are some photos.

I'm sure you've already noticed (if not by visiting the site, then by the failed RSS feed to the left of this page), but Demotopia is currently offline. It looks like some server/site maintenance has broken Gasman's engine, so we can only hope that it comes back soon.
In the meantime I've tweaked this site so that the error doesn't overflow onto the news. I'll look at fixing the error so it's neater when I get a chance.

We've had a request from bugsy over at Open Source ZX - he's looking for any ZX source code. The aim of the site, if you've not been there before, is to provide the source for various ZX productions, from utilities to demos and games. There's already a large number of programs available on the site, but more are always needed. I'm going to go through some of my source at some point and "tidy it up" for general release.
You can send your work direct to bugsy[at]yandex[dot]ru.

Just a short note that new homepage of FOReVER-e party is up and running after re-design and validation. There will be quite a few new things so please, check the site from time to time, we'll keep you informed what's up with the party and organisation!

We've been experiencing some server "uppy-downy" issues today due to some automated updates. Seems that DNS is having a habit of keeling over. For the moment we're ok, but bear in mind the site may go down while this is fixed. Not that you'll be able to read this if it goes wrong again, but there's no accounting for futility.

Just seen that SpecAY has been updated (it was also mentioned in the WOS forums. If you've not already heard of this program, it used to be called SpeccyPlayer. Still no? Well it's a program that allows you to play .AY music on a real ZX. Nice, eh? v0.3a brings with it some speed-ups to several routines, and also makes the program "safer" when playing tunes which require overwriting the BASIC or System areas. The full list of changes are below, but you can ignore them... just go download the program, stick it onto a CF card, and play hours of music stupidly loud. Yes.

As you'll no doubt know, it took me a long time to get prizes sorted out for the raww.orgy competitions, especially the ones for the 2005 party (!!). But get them sorted out I did and so far the response from the winners has been... good. I think most people were expecting a t-shirt, so were a little surprised at what they actually got. I was half-expecting some death-threats ("You did what to a ZX?"), but I think the coolness factor calms people down.
I've set up a temporary gallery so you can see what went into the prizes, and what they ended up like. Now the trick is to think of something better for next year...

Following the success of the DivIDE Preorders over at Papaya Labs, LaesQ has started up a database of Compact Flash compatibility. As anyone who has used a DivIDE knows, CF cards can sometimes be a little iffy (it can depend on the build of the DivIDE, but also on the CF card, whether it's powered, etc). The aim of the database is to show you what you should avoid. Details of the database are here, while the actual database and submission form are here. Not many entries so far, but that's where we the users come in.

Just as I was posting Point5 on Pouet I spotted that EvilPaul has uploaded his ZX Invtro to this years upcoming Sundown party in the good ol' U of K. It's but a short drive from where I live, which is handy. Nice invtro, I encourage you to check it out and give it thumbs. Yes thumbs.

Over on Scenergy C-Jeff has uploaded the results and (incomplete) releases from CC6. I'll cut-n-paste the results below. /me got last place - w00t. I guess being a silent intro didn't help. CPU I think deservedly won the 512b, tho' I'm surprised that "Multi Chaos" came so low in the results... methinks that deserved to place higher. In fact CPU got the top two places in the demo compo also.
I've not checked out the graphics and music releases yet - I'll save that for tomorrow. Read on for full results. Oh and here's the proper release of my losing intro "point5".