Putting university courses online with the same "read this," "listen to this," "answer these questions" is NOT taking advantage of modern technology... even if they add forums & chat. This isn't a revolution, it's an aging institution's last attempt to find relevance as they continue to raise tuition fees. The only reason universities were relevant up until now, was due to the immense information hoarding. The Internet has changed everything, decentralizing the knowledge that once gave them power. If everyone had access to every text book, college is little more than an overpriced tutoring & certification service.

If he's bright and you're willing to play together until it "clicks," I'd highly recommend Minecraft (Linux supported). Kids generally excel at open world games and Minecraft is as creative as games get these days. As far as your ban on FPS's, I didn't censor anything for my kid. He grew up playing GTA. He could explore, blow things up and not be tied down by a quest system. He's well adjusted and non-violent. In fact, he'd rather play Pokémon over hardcore titles... or watch kids movies over adult titles. Even in GTA, he was more concerned with making friends than causing mayhem. The more open his options, the more vanilla his choices became. Of course, all kids are different.

I guess my advice is to avoid litigious people at all costs. You can sue for anything these days. You can't tell a joke, give a high five or even kiss your wife on the cheek (someone i worked with actually invoked sexual harassment for this) without pissing someone off. I say: let these people work elsewhere. I like dropping the f-bomb and being sexist & crude, as do my peers. We band together in a mutual agreement not to spoil the freedom for everyone.

Apple invests a metric assload of cash toward R&D. They cut in a partner, like Samsung, to develop components. Samsung has grown mightily, in fact, by Apple's own products. They share the wealth, so to speak. Then, Samsung comes along and just copies an entire fucking product in a shitty way and cries foul when the law stops them. I support capitalism, but not communism. WTF is wrong with everybody?

I'd recommend making a weekend BBQ event / movie day out of watching the original series. Food & drink. You host. If they're resistant, make a drinking game. Kirk bangs a green bitch: shot. McCoy says he's just a doctor: shot (and/or bong rip, depending on the crowd). Etc. Pick episodes that maximize. Encourage dialog: Think Mystery Science Theater 3000 with booze. Work in Kahn or Voyage Home (if they dig the cheesy) after a couple episodes. If everyone is still down, TNG borg. Smack 'em hard. Break out the brownies, turn off the lights & hook up the surround sound. End the night with something fun and unrelated, to make sure everyone wants to do it again even if they weren't down for the show. Star Trek isn't something everyone falls in love with instantly. It can take a few exposures to click. The key is to provide a low barrier to entry.

Everybody has ideas. They're a dime a dozen. Even original ones are near worthless when standing on their own. Most ideas are bad. Many are mediocre. The rest are expensive and time intensive to build.

G5's are great when you're working on PPC embedded hardware. I've had luck using VMs where full emulation was too slow. I think MS even used G5s for original XBox work, but that's just a rumor.

Windows 7 is really expensive for the service pack that it is.

They wanted the rights to BeOS. :)

WiSpy + walking around = finding your noise

Xbox 360 has dev kits. There are also game dev camps, out of work coders who pimp themselves out as tutors, easy iPhone rags-to-riches dreams (unlikely, but a motivator), etc. Motivation depends on the kid. Personally, I loved disassembling the games I loved and hacking in new functionality. Circumventing copy protection, finding easter eggs, upping stats, etc. The "hacker" angle might cause someone to gravitate toward game dev naturally.

I've made a lot of discoveries in neurofeedback, operating on myself as a guinea pig. I wouldn't entirely recommend it, BTW. The problem is, even if I find a practical cure for Alzheimer's, the medical & scientific communities will shun me. My protocol, research & trials could be flawless, but I'm an outsider. Rarely does research from the "outside" of academia get ANY acknowledgement. Often, the "real" scientists take your work, rearrange your data and then publish their own papers that essentially elaborate the exact same findings. After they steal credit for your work, they arrogantly condescend you and label you as simply "lucky" if called on it. They do this to each other too. Not all, but most... like lawyers. :p I'd recommend acquiring patents instead. Don't let the universities & journals fool you into thinking that the universe of science revolves around them. There's plenty of proper science going on behind closed doors. There was plenty going on before "them." Benjamin Franklin didn't finish high school, yet he gave birth to modern meteorology. There hasn't been a major breakthrough in the field since. If he were alive today, he'd probably be cast aside in favor of sacrificial offerings to rain gods.

I'm totally in agreement with telecommuting, in so long as it demands IRC / chat room presence and total availability.

Unless everyone on your team is battling ADHD, I'd recommend as close quarters as possible. The absolute best ideas, in my experience, have come from overhearing interesting discussions. Open work areas are also great for mentoring junior coders without inviting them to every single meeting. They get to overhear juniors & seniors alike conversing about things that may not even apply to their own jobs. The social aspect can also serve as motivation for peers to bone up on tech for the sole purpose of taking part in discussion. It builds report unlike formal meetings with agendas. This eventually leads to an incredibly strong & balanced team.