US computer fanciers are often shocked when told about Britain's large, turbulent micro scene. The tendency here is to lump the US and Japan together in the Computer Age, and to think of the rest of the planet as various grades of "World" (that is to say, Communist, Free, Third, Post-Industrial, Developing, etc). Of course, Americans have the right to be as provincial as anyone else, so over here the UK has come to mean Royalty, comfortable pubs, rock music and mass unemployment. British products are virtually unknown outside of booze, quality television serials, and ultra-expensive cars.

All of which might help to explain why poor old ACT sold a mere 110 machines in its last crack at the US market, despite wads of adverts and promotions and good reviews in magazines. Nobody could imagine a UK computer. Now ACT is back with a reported $7 million in launch money and its line of handsome MSDOS computers. The target is Apple and the equipment is reasonably priced vis-a-vis IBM. The basic Apricot is to sell for $1,495 with 256K and one disk drive and it looks well set between the current $1,700 IBM of similar configuration and the Tandy Model 1000. ACT's software agreements with Ashton-Tate, Microsoft and Software Publishing should have Framework, PFS, Word and others available shortly. With a force of former Apple reps working the independent computer shops, ACT hopes to get an edge on Apple for small businesses.

Of course, this may be tough now that Apple has Laserwriter and Appletalk out. The Laserwriter is basically a Mac inside a Canon PC copier. Appletalk connects Macs, IBM PCs with an Apple board inside, and the Laserwriter. Because the machines are so smart the network can carry everything, and in shorthand codes - up to 30 Macs can be linked to one Laserwriter. The print quality is fantastic, 300 dots per inch, and analysts predict doom for small printing and typesetting businesses as the technology spreads. This is the heart of the MacOffice on which Apple has a lot riding this year.

At IBM there has been a period of strong ups and downs. First, with a thump that hurt on Wall Street, IBM announced no earnings increase for the quarter and blamed the over-strong dollar for flattening overseas currencies. On the upgrade was the launch of the Sierra 3090 mainframe series, the new flagship of the line.

From California came great vibes about the Hackers Conference last November, an event already being called the Woodstock of the computer elite. Held at Fort Cronkite in Marin County above the Golden Gate bridge, the conclave was thick with names - Steve Wozniak, Bob 'VisiCalc' Frankson, Cap'n Crunch, Charles 'Forth' Moore, et al.

Things kicked off with whirls of conversation about such matters as software protection and whether Unix will save the world. Then the power failed. This rendered all the computers useless. Undaunted, the hackers ate by flashlight and then debated in a room lit by ooil lanterns. In so far as anyone could see them, rifts appeared between the "information uber alles" crowd and the software writers, who scowled at the chorus for free software that went up from time to time. Then the power came back on and everyone thundered down the stairs to the computers and began an orgy of hacking.

Software news - they say venture capitalists are out of computer hardware and almost out of software firms as well, but they are in with it comes to software with good 'AI' (artificial intelligence) properties. Says Mitch Kapor of Lotus, "AI could become the most abused industry buzz-word of 1985".

Microsoft is working on a passive learning program that monitors its user's movements to detect work patterns. Then it suggests ways of improving work habits and offers advice on how to make the software do more. An "active" program starts out by asking users to describe their usual working routines, then comes up with simplifications or even takes them on itself.

Finally, Steve Wozniak, 33 year old co-founder of Apple, has announced thathe's leaving the company to start up a home video products company. New video products? "Based around the use of video in the living room, it will not replace anything that already exists." Also leaving with Woz on the new venture are the engineers of the Apple III and Apple IIc machines.