That gold rating was last tested with wine 5.0 in 2020. I have tried many times to install Office 2016 after that, and failed because Microsoft keeps changing their login/activation front-end. The last time the issue was with some Edge-dependency. For a while it was possible to get it working with Crossover, and then it broke again. Currently I'm using WinApps for the infrequent project that requires MS Office.
That said, I haven't tried Office on wine in the last 2 years, and there have a lot of development in that time...
I love this. This was my introduction to programming. Got this cartridge on my 10th birthday almost 40 years ago. I stayed awake until 4:30am typing some of the programs in the manual. I have been in love with computation since then. This cartridge changed my life.
I wasn't aware of this cartridge until now... so back then, not only did every home computer come with a BASIC interpreter as a matter of course, but Atari also felt the need to provide some programmability for their consoles. I wish this mentality would have stuck around... nowadays, everyone has a computer in their pocket, but there is no beginner-friendly way to develop apps for it.
The Basic Programming cart for the 2600 was made mostly to satisfy an advertising promise. Atari had advertised the console as expandable into a programmable computer, but there wasn't any way for a user to do it. There were threats of a class-action lawsuit, so Atari made that cart to head that off. (I remember this from years ago, though can't find a cite for it now, the search terms are too vague and wikipedia doesn't mention it.) It wasn't really intended to be a usable programming environment for anything useful.
This list of Basic/keyboard expansions for early videogame consoles mentions Mattel getting fined by the Federal Trade Commission until it delivered the promised computer module to clients:
Check out iOS "Shortcuts" if you have an iPhone. It's... visual-ish programming, a bit buggy, very incomplete, poorly supported by third party apps, slow, evolving quickly and lots of fun. Control Apple's core apps, bang on internet APIs, incorporate NFC tags, it's fun.
iOS has apps like Pythonista, limited compared to a computer but leagues ahead of 2600 BASIC. Android of course has Termux and so gcc or anything else is available. And the last few Nintendo consoles have had SmileBASIC letting you program on your 3DS, Wii U or Switch.
I have this cartridge for my Darth Vader VCS as well. It's remarkable what it managed to do with so little, largely because it emphasized what it would actually be good at. (And thus you didn't need to type a lot to make it do something!)
Make it easy to run applications period. Adopt something like AppImage, standardize on a base set of libraries that all applications can depend on. It isn't rocket science... which is exactly why the Linux Desktop complexity fetishists hate it. Come on y'all, let's invent a new package manager, maybe using ML and a blockchain!
It wouldn't work well at deep depths because it's interacting with the electron shell. After a few nanometer or two of tissue you'd have no signal. If you'd figured out a way to put a brain in the microscope. They tend to want samples in a vacuum, a few cm square and no more than a few mm thick including the sample mount.
You'd have to use something like neutrons, which don't interact with electrons and can be used to image internal structure. Those tend to have side-effects, though, like inducing radioactive decay in nuclei.
This is very neat. I want to have one, but don't want to have to assemble it. Any ideas about where I can buy one already assembled? (I wouldn't mind, say, paying a 20% surcharge over the prices mentioned in the article).
It's a joystick or a joystick+cabinet you plug a computer into, you could plug a pi into it no problem. Or a more powerful computer. They sell one that has no display, and you push it up in front of the TV when you want to play and stash it away when you don't.
The joysticks are cheap but the cabinets arent. Plugs right into USB though, easy.
