Following recent reports, we can confirm the departure of Nicholas Van der Walle from Cerilica, who leaves to "explore his artistic and creative abilities".

Lead programmer and co-founder Simon Birtwistle will take over the day to day running of the company. He explained that the slow-down of the RISC OS market meant Cerilica no longer required nor could afford full time staff, but Nick didn't feel that he had much to contribute unless working full time. In a posting on the Vantage mailing list, Simon praised the former director, saying "it is entirely due to Nick's determination and persistence that Cerilica was created and has contributed so much to the RISC OS world."

Cerilica will continue to provide support by e-mail, although not by telephone; the business is currently relocating to Liverpool and a new postal address will be announced shortly. Simon apologises to anyone in discussions with Cerilica for the interruption, and asks those who made contact before the start of the month to try again - he is trying to get to grips with the boxes of paperwork and Nick's filing system!

Now some good news. Simon is working to stabilise Vantage v1.10 for release at the end of April. This will be followed by an Iyonix version and then the standalone renderer. Iyonix versions of RiScript and Insignia are in the pipeline, although waiting for confirmation.