"unless a business method patent for patent trolling has been granted by the USPTO"
It's a shame that there's prior art for:
Step 1: Patent every idea you have, however minuscule and unprepared you are to implement it
Step 2: ???
Step 3: Profit.
No he is not, if they want to pay him to document and he agrees to take the money sure but once you don't work there it's there problem. If they were on a document he should have left it at the place of business or returned it to them (corp property) but something intangible is not property it's knowledge. I am not sure this is what happened in this case. Most states you have 30 days to return corp property once you have been terminated and they can not hold your paychecks etc till you do. Now if you had a documented policy requiring hit by a bus password safes, and audited them (the once a year go though and change them) and the person neglected to do so you might be able to sue him for the damages do to his neglect or willful destruction of them.
Specific to this case it's the cops and the DA having a pissing contest and not wanting to loose.
Oh boy, reminds me of when I was young. Legos are great. If they have any sort of video gaming system the game of tetris is sure to enhance their visual/spacial recognition as well. I went straight down this path when I was younger:
Year By Year Starting at age 7:
Tetris
Legos
Microscope
Telescope
Crystal Growing Set
Rock/Geology Set
Chemestry Set
Lego Mindstorms (Legos + mechanics + rudimentary system of programming = awesome!)
Model Rockets/Model Airplanes
.
.
.
Age 21:
GPS
22:
New Suit because I need to go get a job (in Engineering)
As far as places to go, my parents had to get those things at toy stores/hobby shops because they were not as well acquainted with the series of tubes. Nowadays there's thinkgeek, newegg, buy.com, amazon.com the latter ones being more generic. For the budding teenage computer engineer heavy into microelectronics, try sparkfun. Best of luck!
Beware of Programmers who carry screwdrivers. -- Leonard Brandwein