"I'm looking for suggestions for an activity that will give the students some hands-on, real world experience that will benefit them immediately".

Open Source Linux Boards Under $200

"The following Top 10 community backed Linux boards are listed in alphabetical order, with links, price, project, and processor. They are described in more detail in the slide show below (click on View Gallery)."

"In previous years, we've brought a bunch of retired PCs and challenged the groups to disassemble (down to the motherboard) and reassemble them in working order .. Most students today only have laptops and tablets. As a result, this knowledge doesn't translate into the real world anymore"

That's because the manufacturers design them that way, making them ununrecoverable in the process, all the while preaching their 'green` credentials, fifty dollars to change a battery, come off it. I see students who expereience of electronics being reduced to wiping a touch screen as the equivalent of that 'Doctor` whose entire knowledge consisted of consultant colored slides in some magic little black bag.

"this isnt about open source at all"

I see and from what corner of the multiverse do you come from, where Red Hat aren't allowed to make money out of the Cloud?

Withold access to the new APIs until their own stuff is out-the-door. Then third party developers will have to spend months playing catch-up ...

"It really concerns me how little this sort of corporate behavior bothers those outside of technology circles. Society really seems to have developed an unquestioning obedience towards spooky types." TheTrueHOOHA, Feb 2010

"I can authoritatively state that those specific question types absolutely cannot be asked without specific cause [i.e. reporting]. If you got asked this, there's a specific reason, creepster." TheTrueHOOHA, Nov 2008

'US colleges increasingly view anything published before 1990 as 'inaccessible' for students. So much for timeless themes` ..

"For American college students, 1990 appears to be a historical cliff beyond which it is rumored some books were once written, though no one is quite sure what. Why have US colleges decided that the best way to introduce their students to higher learning is through comic books, lite lit, and memoirs?" link

"How is the Official Secrets Act not adequate to cover this?"

I think he means they're going after the IT staff, the current legislation only applies to high officials ..

"Most of the legislation about state secrets is in the Official Secrets Act and it only concerns an official .. I think there is going to have to be a look at what happens when somebody possesses material which is secret without having authority"