Thanks a lot for the suggestion and resource. My parents have a problem with security at a camp they're building so I figure it may be a good fit. I was thinking a raspberry pi could handle the events while connected to an arduino with a GSM shield to send a text message when a door, window, etc. is opened. I have not decided how exactly this will be handled but I'm looking into it at the moment.

thanks a lot for giving me some direction, I think I will take your advice, Raspberry Pi included

I just started one... not really the best at blogging but I'm trying, just decided tonight I'm going to focus more on like code snippets and such from my projects.

http://www.jimsider.com

the raspberry pi, can't wait for that to come out, was there something specific i was suppose to look at on the lacie website? thanks

that arduino thing is cool, definitely a possibility once i research it a bit, thanks

How about an e-reader and an account at library.nu, have him check out http://www.khanacademy.org/ and http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm too.