Which is all fine and dandy until you can't get served at a bar because of it!

How many hours have you spent playing Infocom games like the "Zork" series and "The Hitch-Hikers Guide To The Galaxy"? No graphics, just text adventures with great stories and puzzles that required a good imagination.

I wonder how something like that would fare these days if you added something like a more complex language interpretation algorithm?

Or what if there were an "audio book" version of such games where the only way to interact would be to issue commands via microphone?

Titles such as the "Harry Potter" series would probably do quite well by providing a new way to interact with the game.

Regardless of what platform you use, here are two things that you absolutely must do. This is coming from experience with getting my grandmother to use the internet.

1) Write stuff down on paper! Give them step by step instructions on how to open their email client, read an email, print, reply and forward. Especially if they are old! I've found that older people are really good at following directions, but not so great on remembering them. Showing them how to do something once will not stick in long term memory. Be specific in your instructions... Rather than "go to the print dialog" you have to tell them "go to the file menu, then click 'print...'. If you can get all of your instructions on just one or two peices of paper, then laminate them and tape them somewhere where they are highly visible so they don't get lost.

2) Educate them about the do's and dont's of using the internet. Most problems such as spyware and viruses would be handled by using a non-Windows OS as a lot of posters have specified above. But they still need to be aware of things that most of us would consider common sense. Teach them about not replying to emails from people they don't know, and about phishing scams. Let them know that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Show them some examples from your own junk mail folder. Teach them the difference between a web site's content and the ads that the site displays (trust me, they won't know the difference in a lot of cases), and how to look at the URL of a link to help them. Also show them how to use bookmarks and maybe even set up a few for the sites they will be using most often so they don't get suckered by a name-mangling site like hotmial.com.

When I set up my grandmother's computer some years ago, #1 really helped out. But I didn't focus so much on #2, and it literally cost me hours of follow up visits.

If your IT skill sets are in demand and you are good and knowledgeable with your skill sets, or you can pick up and master new skills without too much pain... and you have the capability to be personable and social and you can also get up in front of a small group and speak, then perhaps you might want to look into becoming a contract trainer.

I worked as a trainer in this fashion from '99 to '05 and it was a great experience. Generally it involves traveling to a client's site or training facility to do the work, but if you live in a big city, it will reduce the probability that you have to travel depending on the organization you do work with. The pay is pretty good... you can bring in between $400 to $1000 a day or more depending on various factors such as content complexity, demand, and class size. Most IT classes seem to run for about 3 to 5 days.

It is part time work in the sense that you train only when classes are available to be taught, and when you feel like teaching them. (Though turning down requests for training will move you to the bottom of the 'available trainers' list with most companies) So you could easily work 26 weeks during the year and realistically bring in a $75,000 salary. That gives you the other 26 weeks of the year to learn new skills and brush up on old ones, and to basically do whatever you want to with your free time.

On the downside, unless you are always learning the next new "hot" thing, it can be difficult to find work... Especially now that the economy sucks, as training budgets typically are the first to get slashed.

But if you find the right niche, you have partial control over the times and places you work. Also, you typically don't work during the weeks where there are holidays. And usually, a training day is exactly 8 hours, which includes a 1 hour lunch break and other smaller breaks in between. You typically won't work more than that unless the materials are new to you, where you have to spend an hour or two per night reviewing what's to come the next day.

As a bonus, if you can write your own materials, you can also make an additional income. Course materials sometimes go for anywhere from $10 to $75 per student per day.

Granted, training is not for everyone, and this is probably the worst time to consider starting off in the field... wait for the markets to go up... but it's an awesome part time gig!

IMHO, Obama doesn't need to cheat to win in this election. And McCain on the other has taken to the tactics that worked so well for Bush in the past, which is Lie, lie, lie and eventually people will believe you. So given that he's using Bush tactics, and has voted for the guy 9 times out of 10, it seems to reason that he'll also follow in the footsteps of Bush by fixing the elections.