It is understandable that in small communities enterpirses like this are hard to get started and even harder to maintain. I would get some local folks involved to assist, specifically any Jr/Sr High School students. An impromptu group of folks can do a lot of work with miminal time, resources, and money. The example I have heard of is this: The Fab-Fi project: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FabFi and http://fabfi.fabfolk.com/ This project is working in many rura/mountainous areas very well. They have recommended diagrams, 'case studies', and plans available free from the organization. This along witht eh 501 grants mentioned will help provide a community-based system that will provide the service but also involvment and educational opportunities for the area.

Little Bits: Modular electronics that snap together with magnets http://littlebits.cc/

This is absolutely the best advice I have seen so far. I would take it one step further and use this as an opportunity to learn chemistry together. There is a lot of chemistry going on in the kitchen everyday in the form of Baking, Cooking, Frying, etc. And this will also cross-educate into biology. There are entire college-level (I'm sure an age appropriate level can be found) curriculum around cooking chemistry. There's even a certain amount of chemistry in cars which then cross-educates into engineering and physics. *** The best place to start is asking what the student is interested in researching, join in, and learn along side. ***

I gave up on hotmail BECAUSE the filter was so poor... that and I couldn't schwack my account

Huh... L^2 wins the spectrum fair and square... then the GPS lobbyists get the FCC to carve out a chunk of spectrum... I hope they get a refund or better yet, win a suite.

"Each of the books 10 chapters..." should be "Each of the book's ten chapters..." .... just sayin'

your infection vector is your users. Kind of ironic that those that are needed to keep your company are the ones that could sink it. Education is the best mitigation for this risk! Teach the users proper computing security. Have tracked annual training (15 pg PPT is sufficient). It also protects you the admin/company if something does happen and legal action is required. Folks need to know the 'rules of the road'. Compare the cost of a usage program to lost productivity. These bad habits are reinforced by use at home too so presentation should include protecting the users at home. Stronger network/system security will help but the biggest risk to a network is the users.

Funny no one seems to have mentioned the BBC version staring Jeremy Brett who, IMHO, was probably the best at Sherlock. Where does the BBC derive the rights from there?

Most large (and some mid) companies employ a SmartCard of some kind for access to the building. Adding a smart card with a chip then help authenticate getting into the building and (with certs on the chip/card) auth the user onto the network and provide for digital signatures and encryption. Most companies also have a policy governing levels of protected information and how it is shared. There is a bit of 'heavy lifting' as far as implementation and it would come down to how much risk is acceptable. I have worked in both environments and hybrids in-between. SmartCard logon as building ID is the smoothest and easiest for the user as well since a single PIN is needed with the SmartCard. With most people familiar with Bank ATMs, this should be a no brain-er