At PCN's recently established Just Asking for It Department we hear that the premises of Lightning Software were struck by lightning last month.

After the kerfuffle over York Minster we suggest that Ocean start filling the sandbags, Artic defends itself against runaway juggernauts with strategically-placed concrete blocks, and Bug Byte stocks up with DDT. Llamasoft, Alligata and Aardvark should be all right.

PCN's tireless attempts to get the expression Wimps (Windows, Icons, Mice Programs) into the language hasn't been an overwhelming success so far - just one plagiarised mention in the Daily Telegraph about a month ago. But we obviously have a sympathiser at the maker of Apple-like motherboards, U-Microcomputers.

Running a northern company, Dr. Bill Unsworth of U-Micro may feel that he should have a reputation for plain speaking. Talking about Wimps, he said: "...you don't need gimmicks like mice. People work best if they concentrate on one job at a time - software that works like that is actually more user-friendly than those damned windows with rodens and hidden (i.e. pull-down) menus."

Hear hear. Or as the Australian poet Roy Waldo Emerson might have said: "G'day. Build a better mouse trap and the world will break your windows."

There aren't many sides of the UK micro scene that Thorn EMI doesn't stick into - making systems, marketing software, and now developing world-beating ICs as the owner of Inmos.

This all means Thorn EMI probably has more competitors than the average company but it looks if it's aiming to thin them out soon by fair means or foul.

Last week it ordered an Electronic Warfare Scenario Generator (EWSG) from Software Sciences, itself a part of Thorn EMI.

"There is no real alternative to the EWSG," said Thorn's Mike Penery darkly. You have been warned.

QL dissected. As the dust settles we look at Sinclair's undisputed champion in The Most Talked-About Micro of the Year stakes.

100 Plus. The Tandy Model 100 book-size magazine now has disks and a monitor - we put them on the test-bed.

Memo-kit. For programmers of the Memotech micros we review a set of specialist tools

Graphics Spec. Tone up the graphics on your Spectrum with the aid of this feature

Star cluster. The VizaStar integrated bundle puts Commodore's 64 into line with the main business software trend; find out how it rates

Gameplay. We round up the latest BBC software and review Spectrum games

Pogo Romeo. For Oric owners, our program listing gives you the chance to play Cupid with a group of pogo-sticking Romeos