I really like the trend these days around universal functionality; integrating as much as you can into a single device, cable, etc. And reading something like this really gets my creative juices flowing, so to speak.
That is a really cool idea, makes me wanna set up something like that in my place. However, I seem to remember reading in the USB standards guide (I made a USB powered fan, for shits and giggles) that USB cables can't be longer than 3 feet or something, any longer and the signal noise starts to exceed acceptable levels.