How to control my device from HTTP? There is AirDroid, but it is


Focused on contacts/messages/files, not on settings
Too Web 2.0-ish, not easy to script


I want a simple tool to build my own solution with instead of mis-using some user-oriented application. It should listen some HTTP port and allow


to turn on/off wifi,
take photos, 
pause/resume music, 
adjust volume 
adjust brightness
(and so on)


without any bells and whistles, so I can control the device using simple requests like curl http://localhost:8080/wifi/on or curl http://localhost:8080/music/pause.

/* Actually I want good and easy android control from Linux command line tools, but remote HTTP control tools seem more likely to exist, so asking about them */
GTalkSMS is worth a look (not HTTP but does also what you want, even easier accessible).

It's an open source XMPP bot (google code project) that you can add to your Google Talk friends list or communicate to with any XMPP client.

You need to find a suitable commandline/scriptable XMPP client for your solution yourself however (as the 'curl' replacement in your question), not sure what you like to use.

Here's an excerpt from the feature wiki on its Google Code project page:  


  Further Commands
  send and receive files to/from the phone: "send", "ls"
  enable disable bluetooth: "bluetooth"
  [...]
  take a photo and send it via XMPP: "photo"
  [...]
  geolocalize your phone - it will send you google maps links: "where"
  [...]
  get help, using "help:all"