There has to be at least a few people on HN that have done this.  Did you use systems like Linux Home Automation (<a href="http://www.linuxha.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.linuxha.com/</a>) or <a href="http://www.linuxmce.org" rel="nofollow">http://www.linuxmce.org</a> ?<p>Did you roll your own?  Buy a commercial application ?