Oric's unrivalled reputation for excellent and technical innovation is alive and well, even as the company searches for a rescuer.

Our picture shows (oh yes it does, look closer) the latest earth-shattering product from the stable that spawned the Atmos. You may argue that stables don't spawn, but that just shows how innovative a company Oric is.

That Funny Looking Bit Of Plastic (FLBOP) stalking the lower Atmos is no ordinary FLBOP - it is actually "a protective cover to the expansion bus on the Oric 1 and Atmos."

In effect, it's one of those little gizmos specially designed to be taken off by owners and lost the first time they want to use the machine. The one on the QL and the eyepiece protector on a camera are good examples.

So Oric owners who pine because they don't have their very own bit of plastic to lose need pine no longer - just send an SAE to Tansoft, Techno Park, Newmarket Road, Cambridge and they'll post you one absolutely free. Tansoft is still in business.

Over in France, where one of the late Oric's brightest stars still shines, plans are afoot to transform society ."France will be one of the leading countries in the world, perhaps the leading one, in teaching everyone how to use computers," says Prime Minister Laurent Fabius boldly.

Needless to say, it's going to take a lot of microcomputers to turn all those inefficient peasant farmers, curled conquistadors and smoothy singers into computer whizz-kids, so 120,000 machines will be installed in schools and universities by the autumn.

Unfortunately, Oric France doesn't look likely to pick up this order.

The French are looking for a native micro manufacturer, to boost their own industry. Their main problem will be finding one.

Anybody who saw the Colin Jones/Don Curry fight a month back will remember the scenes at the end, when disgusted fans threw beer cans into the ring. Now it looks as though they're clubbing together and throwing filing cabinets in there as well. This kind of thing must be stamped out before somebody gets killed (if they manage to survive the fight, that is). But come rain, shine or filing cabinets you can rely on genial Harry Carpenter being there to interview the last man standing; here he is beaming from ear to ear, probably at the thought of the cheque he'll get for simply learning on a piece of office equipment and being photographed.

Amstrad Assembled. A tale of two assemblers - we compare the traditional Zen with the more recent Arnor product in the software section.

Aha! Yamaha. Nothing to do with motorcycles or even electronic cars, the CX-5 is Yamaha's entrant in the MSX stakes. With Yamaha's background in musical instruments, it's sure to put a new gloss on the word "keyboard".