Editor's Corner

Trivia Question of the Day 
In hindsight, I now realize that yesterday's trivia question may have been a bit too difficult, especially in comparison to the first question. We had a number of educated guesses, including one from a previous winner, Dave Watts, who cited the Intel 8080, which was used in a long-forgotten device called the Write-Top, "developed by Dr. Ralph Sklarew and introduced to the market in 1987." Only 4000 units were produced and only about half of those actually shipped; the rest were destroyed when the company closed its doors in 1990.

Unfortunately for Dave, that machine doesn't really fit my definition of PDA--I was thinking of a handheld device as opposed to one that's merely "portable" (or "luggable" as the Write-Top appears to be). Therefore, today's award goes to Jaakko Haakana from Helsinki, Finland, who named the ARM 610 RISC processor--the brains behind Apple's ill-fated MessagePad (known more commonly as the "Newton"). History repeats itself: check out today's Geek News to see why the iPhone may also sport an ARM chip. Congratulations Jaakko!

And now for today's question:

Name the Santa Clara, CA-based database software vendor that was initially formed as a spin-off of Apple in 1987.

As always, write in with your answers and I'll print the first three tomorrow. -Mehan