I get asked the question "What is the best tool for teaching programming to young kids?" a lot.  My answer (and not just for young kids, but for adults who haven't programmed before) is just about always - a set of RoboRalley!  Why?  It is very accessible, very user friendly, very competitive (:-) ) and even though it doesn't illustrate the concept of recursion, dynamic languages, memory spaces, or many other critical concepts, it does teach the concept that algorithms need to be flexible and adaptable or else bad things happen when they run into the real world!  I picked up a copy for a friend this spring and found out that there was a new edition available, and  just found out when writing this post that there's an online demo as well!  (I pitched the idea to Wizards of the Coast back at WorldCon San Antonio with less results than I had hoped. :-) )  Go take a look, and if you have kids or non-programming friends, get them to give it a try.  You might find you have a bit more respect than you had before. :-)