Has anyone tried developing .NET apps for the X10 Activehome products? This basically entails sending and receiving packets through a serial port, which then sends a signal through your power lines to control lamps, appliances, etc. Tricky part is that the transmissions have to synchronize with the frequency of the AC power line! Tutorial and samples for monitoring COM ports are here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/02/10/NETSerialComm/ And the X10 protocol for the power line interface is here: ftp://ftp.x10.com/pub/manuals/technicalnote.pdf Any input is welcome. The Activehome kit is a pretty nifty little toy and could make for some interesting programming applications.