Hey, Rich is back - and you just know that means long, boring news updates!

While off in foreign climes I was not completely cut off from civilisation, in fact even in Spain you can pick up a copy of The Times to read with your breakfast - it's the right day and everything, although they tend to miss out the magazines if it's not a weekend edition. Why this little off-topic ramble? Even at the far end of the continent I couldn't help noticing that the two companies holding on to the remaining vestiges of Acorn, ARM and Pace, have both taken a bit of a hit financially. Pace are suffering due to the woes surrounding digital TV - both ITV Digital's terrestrial digital and NTL's cable TV are having problems paying the bills, and guess who that leaves with a lot of unsold boxes lying around? ARM on the other hand are suffering because pretty much everyone else in the technology sector is struggling. Sigh.

Now some good news: R-Comp are offering ADSL in a box, to go with the Network in a box stuff and of course their recent involvement in the release of the cheap 100bT network cards. Call 01925 755043 or email rci@rcomp.co.uk. I saw that BT have recently upgraded more exchanges to carry ADSL, so maybe, just maybe... heck, I can get ADSL in sleepy Chichester, what are you lot waiting for?

Getcha loverly Wakefield 2002 show flyers courtesy of Cerilica, who are again sponsoring the show. The decision to make the flyer freely available online means that it's available to a wider audience - and you can print out your own copy instead of ripping the page out of Acorn User to tape the address to your dashboard. With RISCOS Ltd. and, somewhat bizarrely, Telewest Communications (who do broadband Internet access) joining all the usual suspects, it should be a good bash. Everyone think nice thoughts about Jason's green car and maybe I'll be able to do another show report.

Now, there has been a proliferation of filebases in recent times, listing RISC OS software to make it easier to for people to find and download it. However, The7Sisters, who are Primary ICT Consultants, have compiled a list of RISC OS software to cover the National Curriculum for ICT. Webmaster Graham Wootten says: "The list is extensive and should help teachers wishing to keep their Acorn computers fend off arguments that they are out of date. The list includes some classic titles as well as new and developing software and highlights how much 'new' software for the PC is simply a port of RISCOS titles." Good as the list is, organised as it is into categories matching the ICT curriculum areas, there aren't any reviews of the software so if anyone's willing to offer any help or suggestions contact Graham.

New, beta, and so probably slightly unstable software for you to play with at your own risk - Storage 2 and g0see. Storage 2 is a similar idea to MiniDisc (which we reported on recently) in that it takes the drive icons off the iconbar, but in this case puts them in a filer-style window. Unrelated to previous stories but still useful, g0see is a thumbnail organiser. Both are still to be completed, so play, see if they work, and if you can fix them up I'm sure that busy AcornSearch chap Ian Hawkins would be grateful. Other highlights to look out for include the John Tytgat CVS 1.11 port, currently command line ready but GUI lacking; and rumour has it that a certain movie player is getting some testing. If your appetite for free stuff hasn't been satisfied, then head over to Drobe for their roundup of recent freeware releases (because hey, we're cool enough to link to the competition - and I can't be bothered re-inventing the wheel).

Right, that's my mailbox cleared. Now for some merciless ripping off of random and interesting stuff that's appeared in the forums, mainly the playpen: Herman Hauser and Acorn getting another mention in The Observer; tiny (and presumably not anti-aliased) text threatens air safety; RISC OS Is We gets a PHP-based facelift; vague mention of Acorn on GameSpy, but "not in a good way"; and please, read the classics. There's probably more, but I didn't want to wade in too deep, I might get all dirty.