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As a first experience in crowdfunding for me, I believe that the blink(1) project was the right way to go.
This tiny USB light "listens to events on your computer, or on the web". It was created and developed by thingM, and successfully crowd funded through Kickstarter.
It can be programmed to respond when you get an email, Twitter mention, Facebook update, computer events (overload, finished processes), you name it! And if you're not a programmer, don't worry: thingM developed an easy-to-use GUI so that the programming of blink(1) is as easy as possible!
However, if you are indeed a programmer, especially if you are an Arduino platform developer, this should make you feel right at home. Among being able to be programmed in C, Java and Python, it can be programmed using the awesome Arduino IDE!
I can wait for the its delivery, announced for October 2012. In the meantime, all I have to do is come up with projects to use this with. I'm seeing the Beaglebone and blink(1) becoming good friends in the future...!
Although the funding has been closed, you can still check their Kickstarter page and revel in the information.