If you have a computer running Windows XP, then you can let the computer read text to you. For more details look at the Python snippet at:
http://www.daniweb.com/code/snippet326.html

You may load in a textfile and have it read, or simply read the results of a program out loud. You could help elderly people with failing eyesight, just keep thinking about uses.

Create a Video Poker game. You can use PyGame, Tkinter or wxPython to bring up the cards.

Attached is a graphics file containing all the cards and a few decks.

Create a quiz game. Bring up a question and give four possible answers to pick from. Load the question and answers from a data file that also includes the code for the correct answer. Ask the questions in random order, and bring them up only once during the quiz. This can be a console program or dressed up in a GUI. Keep track of the correct answers given and evaluate the contestant at the end.

Attached is a typical data file. The lines are in the following order:
Correct answer's code letter
Question
Answer A
Answer B
Answer C
Answer D
...

The data file is a nice mix of questions with some humor thrown in. Double check the order, I might have goofed it up.

I program for a hobby, not a job (yet)
so i have a severe hunger for ideas, this thread is great and i would like to contribute,
Here are some ideas that might give someone in my situation something to do:

This is an extract from a song by pink floyd, in my opinion (and my friend who pointed it out to me) it looks like an algorithm (set of instructions) Doesn't take long but it's interesting to see how other people do it. Simple terms:
Turn this into code
P.S You may say there's no point, it depends on how you look at it...

How about this:

Make a program that can generate random passwords
For example:

password length is fixed (or the user could enter a length)
number of characters in password is random (or again the user could specify)
number of digits in password is random (or user specified)
location of numbers/characters in password is random OR you could ask the user for a word then you could use that as a base and perhaps stick things on the end or begining or perhaps replace certain letters with numbers.

All up to you, it's just an idea

The game of chess was invented a few hundred years ago in India. The story has it, that the ruler of the area was so enchanted with the game, that he called the inventor to his palace, and asked him to name a gift.

The seemingly humble man asked the ruler to put a grain of rice on the first square of the chessboard, two grains of rice on the second and so on, doubling the grains each time until all 64 squares of the chessboard were filled.

The ruler was thinking about a full sack of rice and happily agreed. I didn't count it myself, but there are 32,000,000 grains of rice in a short ton (2,000 lbs). So do the calculation in Python and make a modern day comparison. Assume that a 50 foot rail car can carry 50 tons of rice.

How long would the train have be to carry the inventor's request?

Build a Memory Game. You shortly flash up a number of random words. Lets say three or five, and then ask the player to recall the words from a mutli choice answer. Do that a ten or twenty times and then rate the player.

They could be numbers too, but I think words are more fun.

Create a "one word at a time" text reader. Display the word in a large font for a certain amount of time. Set the font size so even grandma can read it. The time the word is displayed could be adjustable and might depend on the length of the word.

Sounds like a GUI program. If you have questions about setting font sizes, ask in the forum.

This project is similar to the "one word at a time" reader, except it functions like a flash card program. You display, let's say, a Spanish word for a certain amount of time and then the corresponding English word. What better to use than a Python dictionary? Then you can just read off the key followed by the value. This can be done as a simple console or a fancy shmenzy GUI program.

I hope the foreign characters display well. Otherwise you might have to stay with something more domestic.

How about this for something to do:

If you don't know what a ceaser cypher is then read this: http://library.thinkquest.org/C0126342/ceaser.htm

Make a simple program that encrypts and decrypts a simple sring into a ciphertext (my terminology is terrible, so bear with me)
example:

let's encrypt the string: 'ceaser'
using a ceaser shift of lets say...11
so to start with, the 'c' in ceaser would be shifted 11 places down the alphabet and end up as 'n':
so basically you do that untill all the letters in the plaintext 'ceaser'
have been shifted 11 places along the alphabet:
'ceaser' == 'npldpc'

Note: if you reach the end of the alphabet and the count (11) is still not finished just go back to the start, ('s' and 'r' had to do that)

So once you've got that nailed, let the user input the string they want to convert and perhaps let them change the shift (number of places the letter is moved)
then simple enough if you want to decode/decrypt (whatever it's called) just stick a minus in front of the shift number (11 would = -11) so that it shifts backwards, simple as that ey?
hehehe have fun, and remember to be careful because symbols like: ,.'/"# ect are not in the alphabet so you might want to filter those out somehow.
Remember, it's your code...so do what you want with it.

happy coding,
a1eio