Turning on the blender is obviously insignificant, but we did this as a proof of concept. Right now I'm getting it to work to unlock my door (I just have to machine the clamp). I've cut it down so it's one line of code started with an incron script. I can share it if there's any interest.
That looks very complicated compared to what it needed to be. Can't find the link now, but there was a guy on hackaday or somesuch who connected the vibration alert to his car to start/unlock (don't remember which) it. So, get an old, cheap phone, take out vibration motor, connect to blender on/off toggle, then simply ring the phone and the blender starts. Its free too, because the call never has to go through.<p>Of course, doing it by sms the way this guy did means you can send it more complex commands.