So, I'm on a mission.     I've hooked up a Crystal Fontz 4 Line LCD display to my small business server.   For a nice low cost LCD display for your every need go have a look at - http://www.crystalfontz.com/products/634usb/index.html

I've written a very simple wrapper class that opens a serial port connection to the screen and lets me send characters to the display.

I've added a 'dump' method that because my server is stuck on top of my kitchen fridge,  lets me see what's going on remotely, aka -

So having previously ported my mobile caller ID application from Windows Mobile onto the server, I thought (and why not) wouldn't it be cool to flash up who's calling the house,  local weather, news etc. on the LCD

So bringing this back down to earth.   The initial plan, is to implement a Windows Service that drives the LCD display, listening to events .    The next challenge is to have the display listen to a range of update sources such as MSMQ, RSS and the cat pushing through the cat-flap.

However tonight I've hit a stumbling block.    I have setup a managed code SQL trigger that when the caller ID service inserts a record,  fires an email and lets people know by popup alert who's calling the house.   However I can't (yet) get C# trigger to talk to MSMQ,  sending a message that the LCD service is listening for.

Oh well, early days...

But always happy to share source...