If I get out of the Silicon Valley facebook-Google-mobile world and take a peek at the tech space outside, I can safely say that yes, it is looking pretty good.

Tyler G. Hicks-Wright, with his M.S. in Computer Science and d.schooling (Firefox-eBay toolbar, Global Giving Champions) under his belt, has returned to NYC and joined forces with Fog Creek Software (run by Joel of Joel on Software) to develop some useful and usable applications.

He and his team have developed Copilot, a safe and lightweight remote assistance service that allows you to help a less tech-savvy friend or family member with their computer.

If you recall those frustrating conversations with your mom about accessing a file from the computer sitting at home, i.e. "okay, so do you see a box with a blue border open? yes, oh, yes I see it. what does it say? it says [...] ...okay, click on that.... Yea, you might want to give Copilot a spin.

They're also giving away free Copilot passes to anyone with a .EDU email address. Alum addresses are fine, too.