Well, I was introduced to this guy by my local electrical wholesalers, who are also looking into the whole media centre genre. They didn't realise how much of a mark up this guy was adding, and were surprised when I told them that I had got the same system up and running for only a few hundred pounds, with help from a linux savvy friend and this forum of course.
In fact, they most probably browse this forum, as he actually told me about the Wiimote project that is being worked on currently. (Very interested in that too BTW!!)
Apparently when the wholesalers told him what I had managed, he had a go at them for bringing a 'programmer' in to steal their work. I'm sure you can fathom from my posts that I'm no programmer
As for the C-Gate. I know you can get an rs232 interface, and if they want you to have it, they will send you a developers pack. But I'm not sure what you need to do to qualify for one of those