Baze has made a bundle of changes to his DivIDE page. Most of it is minor wording changes, which is annoying as it causes my webchecker to think the page is almost entirely new. Among the non-wording changes are an improved list of emulators that provide DivIDE, uhm... emulation. But more importantly for most people is a section at the bottom of the page telling you where to get a board. Lovely.

If you're keen to try out new features of emulators then you're encouraged to grab the latest test release of Spin (it's detailed on the WOS forum, or you can just grab the file). A bundle of changes have gone into this pre-proper-release, including saving animated GIFs (to preserve Flash, and also to generate GIF "movies"). There's a handy "frame advance" feature.
Perhaps more importantly there has been a lot of research into memory contention and "ULA snow". While proper emulation isn't yet included, an "approximation" has been developed which is a little less processor-intensive than full emulation. Full emulation should come in a future version. Keep an eye on the CSS FAQ for all your techie details.

I was thinking, as I was completing a 512b Intro... what of raww.orgy? It's been hinted at, and a couple people have already said they'd be interested in coming, but nothing has actually been decided yet. For those not in the know, raww.orgy is a demoparty held in the UK organised by yours truly (me). It's not a big event - it consists of whoever we can cram into my lounge - but it's happened twice so far, and I think it's been successful. Certainly people seemed to enjoy themselves, but that could just be the alcohol.

Anyway, I've put up a poll to let people vote for dates. I don't know at the moment if the party will happen, and if it will I can't say when, but this will let me work out the most popular dates.

I realise there's been a lot on here lately about the DivIDE board but it's a popular topic and no longer in the realm of just the demoscene (which I guess is kinda where it all started). Everyone and their gran wants one, so it's not surprise that Zilog (the person, not the company) has been inundated with requests for either prebuilt boards or kits. However, it looks like he won't be producing any more boards (Eek!).
But fear not - there are as you know a few people who are looking to produce more boards, including LaesQ here in the UK, and Aragorn over in Czech Republic. So as we've been saying all along, email these people to register your interest in getting a board, just don't expect "next-day-delivery" as they probably don't exist yet.

I found out recently that the over-quiet LaesQ has been working away at a few projects, one of which is a program to convert XM to PT3 tracks. XM mods, if you didn't know, were first created on the PC using I think Fast Tracker (see, I know stuff and I'm not even a musician - spook!). The convertor, which hasn't had a public release, converts the first three channels into ProTracker 3 format for use on the ZX Spectrum. It's a little rough around the edges but seems to work. I'll hassle LaesQ for some sample pre-and-post-converted tunes. I'll let you know when a public beta is available as soon as... it is.
Also while I think about it, work has slowed a little on esxdos due to Phnx being out-of-action (more like out-of-country), but this should soon change. Dammit, we want public versions! Grrr!

As you may know I get a few queries about DivIDE's (which is odd considering my limited hardware knowledge and phobia of the dreaded heat-stick). I generally pass enquiries on to LaesQ, who did a small production run of prebuilt boards last year. He's provided an update on the current status of the next run of boards over on the WOS forum (you may need to cut-n-paste the link). Basically he's been pricing up the components and it's looking good for £25 a board again. The production will be delayed until it gets cooler over here in the UK (we get useless at doing anything in temperatures above about 15°C), but a "shop" should be online soon for people to register their interest and get "in the queue".

I've just spotted an update on OpenSource ZX, a place where you can download the source to a bunch of ZX software. It's the first update in about 2 years (that even beats my "silent" record), and states that there should be an actual update in the next few days. Keep yr eyes peeled.

Just a quick note to say I spotted an update over on the Womo Team webpage mentioning "Spectrumania Wittenburg", a Spectrum/Sam meeting. I don't know what kinda thing you can expect if you go there, but you can always contact Womo to find out. Oh, it's on 26th August. In Wittenburg.
Also I noticed that they have a new download service - there's a bunch of games there for now, and a couple text files (manuals and suchlike). Go see.

I'm sitting at work, coding up some test scripts and things, and listening to music on AY-Emulator. So keeping with a "chiptune" feel I decided to check out chiptune.com, a site that occasionally features ZX music. It still does, but more importantly it's worth checking out the site just for the new design (which probably happened ages ago). Very nice. Mmm.

I checked AYLand earlier, the online streaming AY-tunes radio station. Seems they've just added some music from "the scene" to their daily playlist. So far they've added the top 3 tracks from DiHalt 2006 and Forever 7. Top stuff. As I write they're playing Tim Follin's "Agent-X 2" - wonder when TDM's cover will come around? Hmm.