Thanks!  I must have missed that one.  All sorted here.

Ran into this problem just now, when I try to turn off Auto Power Idle my Sims jump out of whatever they were doing.  Switching to testing mode and trying again confirmed that there was a problem with the interaction, hence the attached log.

I know, why would I want to turn it off?   No real reason, I'm just curious why it isn't working in this particular instance.

I've also noticed that the offswitch doesn't work at college either, though I didn't get an error message in that case.

This would be pretty cool.  I like to have one fairly good cook on a lot who can whip up some good nosh in the kitchen, the other Sims don't get to touch the fridge (at least not very often).  Now, this means more time spent cooking, and more opportunities for food to be burnt, but I find that it cuts down on food waste quite a bit, and my Sims don't leave their plates unfinished so often.  Also, the cook in question obviously gets better at cooking than if they had served a 6-batch.

Bushes don't break or get clogged....

You know I think the folks at Maxis have forgotten all the cool stuff you can do with computers these days.  What if each neighbourhood had its own forums, seething with inane posts from the Townies?  Oh wait, hang on, that would be far too realistic

You can also find answers to things that have already been asked, by checking a FAQ or using a search engine.  In game, Sims could use their computers to do research for a term paper or assignment, and pull together information they have already gathered from books, and produce a much higher quality piece of work than if they'd used a pen and pad.  They could pursue their interests, and read fan fiction for their favourite film or TV series.

For cryin' out loud, they could plot their incomings and outgoings on a spreadsheet so they can see if they're spending beyond their means.

About the only thing the Maxoids got remotely right is e-mail, and even then it isn't especially great.

You know, I actually bought SSX at least partially because it was featured in The Sims 2, but then I like snowboarding games.  I would actually like to be able to choose which game my Sim gets with their PC though.

IMHO the best way to stop Sims from playing on the computer (and a whole lot of other annoying things)  is to turn off Free Will.

I already posted way up there, but I should add that I'm playing FF7 again, I've lost count of the number of times I've played through it but it's nice to go back to it because of all those cute sub-games.  Heck, the snowboarding alone kept me and my brother entertained for ages back when we first played it.

'Yeah, I'll get round to saving the Planet.... just as soon as I shave another second off the record time!'

I've got around the 'initial 20K' thing somewhat by populating a town with mostly college graduates.  It does take a heckuva lot of time to put those students through their paces, but the lack of freebies does make things a little more challenging.

To give the poorest of the poor graduates somewhere to hang their hat, I've created an apartment block in the main neighbourhood, since there aren't any parents to go back to yet.

One thing that bugs me is that you can write a bio for your Sim, but when they visit someone else's place, there is no way to read that bio snce you're not controlling them.  Is there any way to take the text of the bio and put it into a message box?

I take a rather relaxed approach to skills.  Given that you can get through college and into a decent job by concentrating just on those skills you will need, I like to rack up aspiration points in between building skills.  One reason for this is that - with a little tweakage in SimPE - I have significantly increased the time it takes to reach the higher skill levels, and so if I want my Sims to ever maximise all skills, they're going to need some Elixirs.  That, and the inheritance payout when they finally succumb to old age is related to aspiration score; although it's not a lot of cash, it is one way for your next generation of Sims to not be perpetually stuck on the bottom rung of the property ladder.

The one thing in TS2 I love to build above all else, is families.  The family I'm glued to right now, I'm trying to decide whether to stop at baby number 3, so poor Trista can actually use her vacation days for something other than being pregnant and being driven insane by the two kids she already has, or press on to four maybe five kids. 

IMO, trying to erase the imprint of JM's work is futile, unless you ban everyone who has knowledge of this site.  People's questions about what hack they can get to fix a problem, will continue to be answered with a helpful link, because oddly enough that is the most effective way to get them to what they need.  The internet was designed so that if information could not get through one way, it could find another way, and in some ways the communities it fosters have that same ability.

Or in other words, you can shoot the messenger, but you can't kill the message.

That wouldn't surprise me in the least, though I suppose it was a good call stability-wise to institute a mindwipe since technically townies and NPCs can live forever (until they meet a sharp and painful end) and so they can have memories of meeting ten generations of Sims.

Just out of curiosity, do Townies get inheritance memories at all?

Yep, Power Idle is useful in that it keeps your Sims idle.  You also then have an iconic indicator of idle status to remind you to give commands if you want them to do something useful or interesting.  Autonomy is overrated and, in the hands of Sims, downright dangerous at times.

I tend to have at least one dormie (controllable) who is a neat freak.  That way whenever there's stuff needing cleaned, I can use the Macrotastics Clean.  Since neat sims like cleaning, they gain Fun while doing this, making them ready to sit down and do some research or an assignment.  The rest of the Sims on the lot can be as slobby as you like and never have to even contemplate washing dishes.

When I'm not playing Sims 2, I'm most likely in my retro-gaming groove, taking on the alien threat in UFO: Enemy Unknown (aka XCOM: UFO Defence).  In both titles, your role is that of an omniscient and (sometimes) beneficial controller, but there's not a lot else in common.  Well actually I lie, XCOM still has quite an active community (though not as large as TS2) and people are still coming up with mods for it, which can't be bad.

I also play NWN but it's growing steadily more tedious and dated.