Even though MacWEEK failed to show up in our mailbox this week, there were still a number of interesting little bits of information from other sources

The US Patent Office just got around to awarding a patent to Gilbert Hyatt that he applied for in late 1970. This would not have been a big deal if he had invented a better mousetrap, but instead he claims to have invented the first microprocessor

The first of the video game decks to attain massive popularity was the Atari VCS, but it died down and was replaced several years later by the Nintendo Entertainment System

Nisus 3.0 has some nice features, one of which allows you to map any menu item to a command key sequence. In previous versions you were limited to just combinations of the command key and another letter, but that has changed in 3.0

Being relatively environmentally conscious and ever so practical, upgrades have become something of a bother for me. I love getting the new version of the program replete with new features, often with a new manual

A number of articles in recent trade magazines have talked about wonders of new laptops that will recognize ordinary handwriting. Three companies, GRiD Systems, Go Corp., and Active Book Company all have announced or are shipping a computer that performs this feat

Usenet may be one of the greatest information resources of all time, but it does have its problems (the price for an anarchy that really works). The latest massive argument in the Macintosh groups has brought out some interesting issues, however, instead of just the usual personal invective

A number of weeks ago MotionWorks introduced ADDmotion, a multimedia package that will run under HyperCard 2.0. We were interested but wanted to get more information before we did an article on it

Apple advertised in two recent issues of MacWEEK, using a two page spread ad to list the new jobs it has available. None of them looked like they were designed for us, so we thought we might pass along some of the more interesting ones, though a lot of them sound like palm readings, as in - "You will meet a tall dark engineer of the appropriate sex." The first job listed under Product Design & Imaging is Reliability Engineer

While at Macworld Expo, we found out more about two new products offered in the back of MacWEEK. Both products expand the compact Macintoshes in ways that Apple cannot do for you and Apple's spec sheets for general consumption say cannot be done

This is getting depressing. Two new viruses have appeared in Ithaca (kudos to Don Lee, a student computer supervisor at Cornell for first identifying them), one a simple clone of the MDEF virus, the other a take-off on the irritating WDEF. The first virus, MDEF B (Top Cat) is exactly the same as MDEF A (Garfield) except that it can bypass the protection afforded by the Vaccine INIT

Apple finally stopped protecting the information about the new (relatively) low-cost Macs enough so MacWEEK published specs, though the local Apple rep has said that people at Apple haven't finished arguing about what the details will be

First, a small disclaimer. We both grew up in the country and usually get sick when we visit large cities for more than three days. Boston is no exception to this rule

The computer industry is by its nature wasteful of natural resources. A computer may last for a number of years, but have you ever heard of recycling a dead computer? Some companies are trying to reduce waste, most notably Hewlett-Packard, which isn't too surprising considering that David Packard's daughter, Julie, is a prominent environmentalist

As we've said, Macworld wasn't a show full of innovation this year. We did see some neat things, and we saw some stuff so expensive we didn't even bother to look at it, but mainly it was the show of the upgrade