It's also a lot easier to learn about programming these days. When I was in elementary school, I really wanted to write adventure games in Logo and Basic... l

It's also a lot easier to learn about programming these days. When I was in elementary school, I really wanted to write adventure games in Logo and Basic... learning resources were limited to books and magazines, and the naescent online world (PeopleLink? BBSs?) was out of reach. I tried to get my mother to sign us uip for Q-Link, but being ahead of her time she said I'd get molested or something. Later, as a teen I learned all I could about ARexx and AmigaShell, but never came up with the $350 it cost for a good C compiler. These days, C compilers and IDEs can be had for free... XCode is $5 and the iPhone dev. program, $100 a year. There's an endless supply of help, reference and tutorials available online, for free to anyone with an internet connection and a computer.