A press release has been sent out by Melotech about research being done with regards to RISC OS being used in education. The main thrust of the research is:

1. What software is available for Education (freeware or commercial)
2. Which parts of the National Curriculum it covers
3. Whether the software is in development any more
4. Whether the software house is commited to future RISC OS development
5. Whether the software house would develop in the future should RISC OS sales in schools rise appropriately or Government policy changed.

They're asking for as many developers (and teachers) as possible to email sales@melotech.co.uk, with company logos if possible (vector format preferred) for inclusion in the resulting documentation. I'm not sure if they'll ever be able to pry the Government away from their close ties with Microsoft, but a hearty good luck and well done to Michael Stubbs for the attempt.

The RISC OS Enigma emulator continues to develop into one of the coolest toys of the year, with version 0.30 introducing even more emulation styles. As Paul Reuvers puts it, "Thanks for the many responses I've recieved after the release of the Enigma Simulator for RISC OS a couple of weeks ago. I didn't know there were so many people interested in the subject!" Even if you aren't into crypto and/or World War II spy stuff then at least take a look and admire the quality of the work that's gone into this extremely well presented piece of software. And if you're really sad, my photos from the fair at Bletchley Park are up, including pics of the real thing.

And I guess I should really have made some mention of Justin Fletcher's XML ports before now, although I think I'm correct in writing that they're still not up on his usual website. Go to http://homepage.ntlworld.com/justin.fletcher/XML/ for ports of libxml, xmllint, parsexml etc.