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Here is a panorama stitched using 936 images taken with a low-cost PTZ camera.. http://nuspectra.com/pano/ Fully-automated and for under $2K.

I like the VB-C60 by Canon.. PTZ, 40x zoom, low-light, etc. http://nuspectra.com/

http://www.nuspectra.com/pdf/otc/OTC-9DB_Wireless_Kit.pdf

Use a wireless high powered directional outdoor antenna system like the one in the link provided. It can provided distances up to several miles, usually line of site without major obstructions. If you mount the antenna on your relatives house using a mast you should clear the trees. You could put a mast down at the street as well. Major problem I see is power. Putting a wifi access point on the pole isnt going to happen, no way they will give you free 110 power for the device. You would need to put it in a location where you have power way out down at the street in your property.

Or, go the illegal way and put a pole at your friends house that has cable and act as a long range repeater.

I had the same problem. Even though I have cable television, Comcast never upgraded their service in this rural area to support digital services such as broadband. I can't get satellite because I don't have a clear view to the south, due to a large number of 60' pines.

Fortunately a company called Virginia Broadband http://vabb.com/ set up shop in my area.

Basically, their service is 900Mhz and up to 1.2 Mbps. They have put broadcasters on several water towers in our area. I have a high gain antenna on my roof pointed at the nearest tower, about 0.5 miles away. It works great.

Unlike 2.4 GHz fixed wireless, you don't need to have clear line of sight, but you do need to minimize the number of trees. Max range is about 2 miles with a few trees.

While a 900 MHz provider is likely not available in your area, you can buy the equipment for a point to point link for less than $1000. This of course assumes you have a neighbor or local business that is willing to help you out and has DSL/Cable/T1/etc for the uplink.

Here's a retailer I found with a quick search with equipment from AVALAN:
http://www.nuspectra.com/detail.aspx?ID=1709

We've been buying VB-C50iR cameras from NuSpectra for construction monitoring. We can do all this--perhaps not as cheaply!

Pan/tilt/zoom control, day night filter (changes to IR/Night mode on a schedule)... Plus 26x optical zoom rocks.

NuSpectra has a demo camera out of their office in San Francisco.. See demo in upper right corner of page.

We also use the SiteProxy software that lets us build time-lapse movies from all the camera's preset positions on the fly.

Check em out!

but wouldent it be more intelligent to NOT put perl and other dynamic elements on your webpage if you are expecting a ./ effect? I would have also expected him to invest in a more commericalized system for camera control like NuSpectra They are pretty cool

If you need a webcam... here is a cool robotic camera... http://demo.nuspectra.com/. Cool views of a shipyard in San Francisco.

Boa is used in the Axis camera product line. Its also used in the Canon VBCam pan-tilt-zoom controllable camera.

Canon makes a great linux-based webcam too, called the VB101..
In my opinion, they have the best java user interface for pan/tilt/zoom.

Check out a live camera demo at http://vbcam.nuspectra.com (from Alameda CA).

I wouldn't mind a Pan-Tilt-Zoom Internet camera either!