The project at http://dangerousprototypes.com/2009/09/17/prototype-network-lcd-backpack-with-lcd-smartie/ describes a 4x20 LCD that connects over Ethernet. The project is currently using a COM port to Ethernet bridge solution, but it's not free on 64-bit Windows, and it's a bit of a hack. It would be great to update LCDSmartie to allow directly specifying an IP address and port number instead of a COM port and have the communication go through a socket.