*****ious plans... Need help--where to start?

[kuber]

I have a plan for making linux control many aspects of my apartment. I want to get my linux box controlling all my home entertainment, power (lights), answering machine, etc...
I figure I will need three video outputs. One will be at my computer-I will still use this pc for work/play. Another will be a video out to my TV for playing games (roms), watching movies through my dvd drive, etc. Another will be a small screen, probably a 5" LCD panel at the couch on which I will run a small menu/program from which to choose what I want-ie games, music, video.
Basically I guess I will need to run some frontend to all this from my pc to the small LCD display. The commands run in this program will go to the TV.
I guess my question is how I can control this 3rd display. I was thinking about making it a touchscreen but it seems that there isn't much support yet. So if I made it a little 5" LCD I was thinking I could have a trackball on the arm of my couch to control the display (I figure I will mount the display on the side of my couch). My main question is- can I have a trackball control just this display while I am running my pc at the main screen with the mouse? Could I just make one of the pointing devices be USB so I have room for 2 devices to plugin? Does anyone see anything impossible about this or have any suggestions? I plan on this being my summer project...

Thanks,
Kuber

[AhFreq]

did you see the article in Poptronics a month or two ago pertaining to LCDs? One project included with the article was for an LCD window dimmer - really caught my attention. With it you can adjust the amount of light coming in from the outside - takes the place of window shades. I would think that the dimming could be controlled from the computer, perhaps even set to adjust automatically! This would be a great feature addition to your linux console controlled apartment.

[kuber]

Wow.. How does it work??

[Nalle]

This, I think is a long process. Knowing every nut & bolt in your opperating system is something I'd think was essensialk to acomlpish this.

Maybe it would be an idea to start with building your own LinuxOS-version?

In that case, the place to start is www.linuxfromscratch.org (http://www.linuxfromscratch.org)

[AhFreq]

well, I didn't actually buy that issue, just looked through it at the newstand. not sure of the operational specs and all that. I just checked the poptronics website...I guess the issue is actually this month's. They don't have the article online, but you might want to order the mag if it really interests you. Another point that might interest you: its a special 'creative use of LCDs' issue. Contrary to the cover title, the focus of the article isn't exclusively on 'old laptop LCDs' - that's just where you can find them readily available; everything mentioned pertains to LCDs in general. You seem to call for a lot of LCDs in your plans. Here's the pt link: http://www.gernsback.com/

-af