Modder adds Twitter / IRC / email LED to Eee PC, lives to tell the tale

You know, we were cruisin' the blogosphere the other day on our tricked out Eee PC, rocking our newly installed trackball, when we realized that we were enjoying ourselves so much that we had completely lost track of the time -- and the way that news moves around here, that's a very dangerous thing. Like, what if @spencerpratt got to the bottom of the moon landing hoax or the conspiracy to fluoridate our water and we totally missed the tweet? Well, we can thank our lucky stars that a certain Justblair has already given this some thought. With little more than an AtMel AtTiny45 microprocessor, a red / green / blue LED, and some programming chops, this guy has rigged a netbook with a little light that notifies the user when they get a new message in Thunderbird, Pidgin or Twitter. This is definitely not a project for beginners, but if you'd like to take a crack at it hit the read link for the whole low down. As for us, it's back to Loose Change: the Blooper Reel on Google Video.

[Via Liliputing]

[GBeatzRecrds @ Jul 8th 2009 3:38PM]

great. now i'll be notified when some twat twats me.

[b3tan @ Jul 8th 2009 4:05PM]

Haha

Simple but good idea I reckon. I'd like to see more (though done better) of this kind of thing. Rather than having to leave it open, just a nice hardware light. Would be nice on a phone too. If you don't want constant alerts going off when some twat twats you.

[Chad @ Jul 8th 2009 4:25PM]

I wish the iPhone had a light like that for email and other customizable purposes. If my phone is sitting on my desk, the silent vibrate doesn't do my any good if i want things to remain silent.

[Nelson @ Jul 8th 2009 3:43PM]

Looks good -- Until the LED gets crushed or sheared off. I'd give it less than a week, assuming normal portable use.

[Aguiluz @ Jul 8th 2009 3:53PM]

How do you treat your portables then? An LED is very durable as it is. I think the screen will crack before the LED does.

[Nelson @ Jul 8th 2009 3:58PM]

An LED sticking out is a lot more susceptible than a screen. It takes a decent force to cause a screen to break, but placing a computer on it's edge with a protrusion down can cause trouble.

It's like where the power cord is connected. I bet more power sockets fail than screens.

[Aguiluz @ Jul 8th 2009 4:18PM]

You have a point. My power plug on this laptop I made this post on is a hit and miss.

[ilovethewaggle @ Jul 8th 2009 3:43PM]

Great the only website in the world that I could come to to get away from references about that dumb ass has failed me. Thanks for the let down Engadget.

[all things considered @ Jul 8th 2009 3:49PM]

completely agree. i'm seriously not down for any mod that makes it easier to be notified when someone 'tweets' some bs. does anyone else totally loathe twitter and its proponents as much as i do?

[teej @ Jul 8th 2009 3:56PM]

what was that? sorry, i was updating my Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn, Livejournal, blog, Youtube channel, and Second Life with stuff that no one cares about.

[Shadoblak @ Jul 8th 2009 4:00PM]

Hell yeah! It should notify you when something important happens! like when someone comments on an Engadget post!

[PedoJokerBear (aka Deeznuts) @ Jul 8th 2009 4:02PM]

you say this while a huge "follow us on twitter" is to your right------>

[KMAN @ Jul 8th 2009 3:52PM]

Multiple-color LED notifications are the best... Use them on my BlackBerry, saves me the hassle of reading the message it if I know its something I don't want to read.

[ben.grey @ Jul 8th 2009 4:41PM]

Twitter-bashing aside, I love the subtle Dr. Strangelove reference in the article. Keep up the good work Engadget, and don't forget to protect your precious bodily fluids!

[jesse.greathouse @ Jul 8th 2009 4:50PM]

Twitter was less gay before anyone knew about it. Now it's ultra gay.

[NOCknock @ Jul 8th 2009 5:00PM]

All of the best things are, well, best, until they become mainstream. Then you begin to hate it with a fiery passion.

[KGB @ Jul 8th 2009 5:35PM]

If you didnt have a social life before, after this you never will.

[NoAndThen @ Jul 8th 2009 7:47PM]

I personally think Twitter is the dumbest thing since tamagotchi.

[10minutehobo @ Jul 9th 2009 9:04AM]

No, even dumber.

[mdmack @ Jul 8th 2009 9:11PM]

Whats twitter?

[Lundmark @ Jul 9th 2009 4:49AM]

That's horrible.

[Denniis @ Jul 11th 2009 8:58AM]

Hi,
I'm not sure if I'm happy with my python scripts being reduced to just "some programming chop", since I invested a good bunch of my leisure time into making this an easily installabe complete software package incl. incons, config file, install script and such stuff.
(see [url]http://sourceforge.net/projects/dbirdnotifier/[/url] if you don't believe me ) ;)

Other than that, I must say that blair managed to do a very nice job at getting this to run (and building it), without doubt.