Help for novices

I have no back ground in electricity at all. I am how ever interested in home automation. I would like to have all my multimedia devices connected together is there anything out there for me. Also is x-10 company out of business.

Here's what I'll be doing via CQC

- Whole House Audio/Video distribution, mzone/msource with HDTV in each area

- HVAC control

- drape control

- tablet PC/PDA controllable

- irrigation

- security

- lighting

- cameras [nannycam & front-door & external]

- Doorbell ring detector, so we can pause any audio/video and pull up a live video of the front-door when it rings

- Caller id [so we can pause any audio/video and flash the info on screen, or perhaps even do it based on the specific person calling in, or perhaps even announce the caller over the speakers]

- Motion sensors, so we can do the above 2 based on what room we're in. [i.e., only announce caller ID on the rooms that are in use]

- RFID & electric door strikes, so that we can press a button as we approach house and door unlocks.

- SMS integration, so we can page the house as we're getting close to turn up the heat/turn on exterior lights/...

Then we can move into the really cool stuff, like tying multiple events above together so that when we leave the house, we just punch in a code on the $250 touchpanel, it turns off all the audio/video, turns down heat, turns on exterior lights, yada yada, and we just exit.

I'm documenting as I go on