We have just released Brian 1.4.1, available from PyPI using pip install -U brian or easy_install -U brian, or from the NeuralEnsemble server. It will be soon available in the NeuroDebian repositories as well, thanks to the NeuroDebian team. This is a minor release, but it adds a couple of useful features (including experimental features for the Synapses class) and fixes some important bugs, in particular for users of brian hears. A list of changes can be found below: Major features:

C extensions are compiled by default during installation (with a fallback to the Python version if compilation fails) — this might lead to a considerable speedup for users who did not compile those extensions manually before. Note that this only includes installations based on running setup.py (including pip and easy_install), not the Windows .exe installer.

Minor features:

Convenience methods for the Synapses class, allowing to save and load the connectivity and to convert the weights into a matrix
A new openmp option to switch on the use of OpenMP pragmas in generated C code
Brian hears: Two new models, MiddleEar (filtering by the middle ear) and ZhangSynapse (model of the IHC-AN synapse)
Brian hears: New convenience functions to get reasonable axis ticks for logarithmic axes

Improvements:

Brian’s documentation is now also available under brian.readthedocs.org
ProgressReporter has context manager support (i.e. can be used in “with” statements)
NeuronGroup and Synapses work with empty model specifications.
C version of SpikeContainer is now picklable

Bug fixes:

Synaptic equations referring to variables in the pre- or postsynaptic group are never considered as being linear (fixes ticket #83)
Fix issue with static equations in synaptic models (see https://groups.google.com/d/msg/briansupport/-/uqxLK_yoqKUJ )
Make LinearStateUpdater pickable, even if array B is “NotImplemented”.
Fixed the bug in which the StateSpikeMonitor didn’t record variables defined with a static equation.
Important bug fixes for brian hears, all users are encouraged to update:

Make sure that LinearFilterbank copies it source and therefore not changes it (when not using weave) (fixes ticket #73)
Fix some bugs in the TanCarney model
Fix shifting multi-channel sounds with fractional=True (fixes ticket #80)

Experimental features:

C version of SpikeQueue (used in the Synapses class), which can lead to a considerable speedup (see “Advanced concepts/Compiled code” for instructions how to use it).
Delays can be specified as a parameters of the Synapses model and then be changed dynamically.