rooneyl

You may want to check out Mister House.

You could also look at using an Arduino (see Arduino and PERL or search the web for more information) and its various available shields (ethernet, touch screen OLED etc) or build your own circuits.

Update: I just remembered about the following posts, perhaps there are more you could find via super search:

Using Perl to make a hot-lead from any port

Does Perl ring a bell?

Hope this helps

Martin