I wouldn't say half the price, closer to 50%. I just priced out a reasonable Volt vs. a reasonable Prius:

Volt: $41K
Prius $28K

Doesn't seem worth it even if the Volt is a better car.

When I worked as a contractor for the state of California IBM was making a *lot* of cash off of Z/OS and their mainframe. My project alone threw a couple hundred thousand dollars their way for a new processor and zip card. This was a small fraction of the total money that the bureau I worked under threw their way.

Oh, and the DMV modernization project? That was upgrading the assembler code to COBOL on Z/OS. I'm sure a couple million in new mainframe hardware was purchased.

Maybe it's small potatoes but it sure seemed like IBM was getting a good deal of cash from the state of California for antiquated hardware.

I would look into any companies that are doing it work for the health care industry. That's one of the few businesses that seems to be picking up in todays economy. IT is doing better than most other industries, but not well. Health care is doing really well. Combine that with IT and you are upping your chances for success.

I'd research any emerging or existing standards for digital health care records, and pursue the companies behind the standards. Many open standards also have group meetings that you may be able to attend. Although the meetings may be boring, networking opportunities can be key.
Good luck!

I was in Ecuador in '05 and the price of gas was over $3/litre. Yeah, that's well over $10 per gallon. Oh, and the average yearly income was on the along the lines of $3K. Needless to say, there weren't a lot of people driving. Oh, and the military was doing exercises right next to an oil pipeline that was supposedly pulling fuel to send to the US.

Yeah, we all thought something was wrong with the picture too....

So where again was this $1/gallon gas?