Projects and Hardware

After reading Smart Home Hacks, I came up with a list of potential projects that I want to do (roughly, but not necessarily exactly in this order):

1. Introduction to home automation, i.e., turn on/off the lamps in the bedroom without getting up.
2. Automatically turn on the lights in my living room (most used room in the house) when someone walks in.
3. Automatically turn on the lights in my kitchen/breakfast room (second most used room in the house) when someone walks in.
4. Set up computer with smart home software (it's not truly a smart home without a brain! without this, it's merely added convenience, but I want my computer to make decisions based on logic I program into it... this is made easier since I was recently given a free 500 MHz computer by a friend who just moved).
5. Install in-wall terminals around the house, both controllers (press-button, do stuff) as well as jacks (to get rid of those ugly plug-in modules)
6. Control things with my Harmony remote control (you know, in addition to my home theater)
7. Install webcams for remote monitoring (especially in the kid's room... gotta keep an eye on the mischief)
8. Automatically turn on porch lights when a visitor walks up (and maybe even put a webcam out there so I can see who's there and be lazy too)
9. Set up a "state machine", i.e., keep track of who is home and adjust the behaviors of the home automation system based on the status.
10. Set up a sensor on my garage door and back door, so I know when a certain somebody has left them open.
11. Install thermostats that are X10 (hopefully, Insteon by the time I get around this) compatible, so I can turn on the air conditioner before I leave the office and the house will be cool when I get home (also, able to turn up the temperature during the day when a certain somebody forgets to do it).
12. Program the garage controllers in our cars, so that we can do stuff while we pull into the driveway.
13. Set up the computer to email events to me about stuff that happens in my house (motion detectors going off!) when nobody is home.

Looking at those projects, here's a list of potential hardware that I'll need to look into:
(although, obviously, I hope Insteon comes out with a bunch of this stuff before I ever get around to buying the X10 versions)
X10 noise filter
X10 signal booster
X10 signal bridge
X10 whole house blocking coupler
X10 XCam2 Wireless Color Video
X10 motion detector
X10 IrDA receiver (IR-543 X10 command console)
X10 split receptacle wall module
X10 wireless wall switch
X10 powerflash module
X10 220V plug-in coupler & repeater
X10 wireless door sensor
X10 RF transceiver
Insteon SignaLinc RF's
Insteon PowerLinc Controller USB
Insteon PowerLinc Controller Serial
(obviously, I don't need both Controllers for my computer, but look into both!)
Insteon ControLinc Tabletop Controller
Insteon ApplianceLinc On/Off module