Since trading started again, Acorn's share price hasn't done badly - it has been dropping much more slowly than before suspension.

"What this means," writes our financial correspondent Penny Wise (nee Pincher) "is that the City hasn't made its mind up. But one thing is for certain: at their present rate of decline, Acorn's shares will be worthless in twelve days' time."

But whatever the City thinks, Acorn is hitting back. Last week it was announced that the BBC Micro would be going on sale in Latin America. The machine will be built in Mexico and sold there in a Spanish version. There will also be BBC invasions of Panama, Venezuela, and other countries in that neck of the woods.

To be sold in Mexico the machine has to be built there - it's a stipulation of the Mexican Government, to promote its own industry. But the BBC Micro won't have the field to itself; there's at least one other prominent supplier making and selling micros in Mexico, one that helped to boot Acorn out of the US by putting up such strong competition. It's called Manzana - which is the Spanish word for Apple.

What is it about cows? This is the question on everybody's lips in the wake of a record-breaking entry to our last Laughline competition (issue 100).

We were awash with bovine captions to the photo innocently supplied by Compaq. They ranged from the downright offensive ("...and we use the cow to print out PCN articles", from Nick of Beckenham who will be receiving a visit from the boys) through distasteful references to artificial insemination, to the hi-tech jokes that milkmaids might tell each other.

IBM cow-patibility was a popular theme, and the possibilities of udders were endless ("No, not that one - the udder floppy," from David Currer of Farnharm Royal). But in the end we went for the cuddly absurdity of Alexander Kells": "It's very clever but I think we should have stuck with the mouse."

Congratulations, Alexander, £20 will be on its way to you as soon as the pony express will permit.

You could have cut the tension with a knife as our Win a Metro competition was judged. Which reader of a VNU Business Publications magazine would step forward to win the star prize?

Proving the quality counts, it was a PCN reader, RG Smith of Portsmouth, whose entry impressed the judges the most. Identifying the machines was almsot incidental - RG's pedigree was obvious from the way he/she compeleted the tie-breaker: "I choose Personal Computer News because... the wit of its writing and criticism quite biting makes reading intriguing and learning exciting."

Congratulations to RG and to all the runners-up, and thanks for entering to everybody else.

Solder Brigade. Stand by your workbenches as we open up the new PCN special feature, a guide to DIY that will build, week by week, into an almanac of practical projects. We start off with the equipment you'll need and a simple project.