Not sure how many slashdotters fit into this category, especially given the slashdot footer quote as type this: "O Lord, grant that we may always be right, for Thou knowest we will never change our minds"... I made the leap from programming to pastoring three years ago. Still seem to find plenty of occasions for a splash of code, though: rostering with php/mysql, Bible translation with Word/VBA, Wordpress plugins for pod-casting sermons. Almost any job with an administrative or research dimension would benefit from a little office-automation, particularly with the business process knowledge you must have picked up in the industries you were slaving for.

Good call. But as you say, having a level cap (or even an hours-per-day cap) is not in the interests of the game-manufacturer. I had a flatmate addicted to EQ back in the day, to the degree that he was not turning up to work, not paying rent, and was ripping off friends' credit card numbers to continue playing. We did the intervention thing - sat him down, told him as his mates we thought it was a serious problem. He did the addict thing - told us he was clinically depressed, it was just his way of coping, we needed to be more supportive. We did the tough-love thing, told him that was crap, disconnected the phone line. After all the door-slamming was done, he was forced to go cold turkey (good), but haven't heard from him in years (bad). Not many happy endings to addiction.

As a church pastor, I'd be a tad mortified to see half the congregation with heads down, tapping away during the sermon. Would I be twittered into attending a church where someone has the idle-time to send me a text, mid-service? "Church" is already far too synonymous with "boredom". On the other hand, in a wired world where people want to interact and ask questions and give opinions, I can see the value in tweets being big-screened and addressed post-sermon by the preacher. Cheaper than a mobile jammer, anyway.

That space-stocking looks suspiciously like Atlas' Crystal Castle from Astroboy. New Scientist hiring ex-manga artists perhaps...