Kickstarter: Blink(1) Is A Teenie Weenie Thinger That Lights Up Because Something Happened

Imagine this: you get an email message. Maybe it’s from someone important, like the Dalai Lama or Lorenzo Lamas. But how do you know that it came? Easy. The Blink(1). The Blink(1) is a little LED that lights up when something happens on your computer. You can run as many of these things as you have USB ports and, with a little creativity, you can really start to see the value.

For example, you can program the light with Applescript to blink in weird ways when a contact signs into Skype or when someone contacts you in chat. You can set it as a Linux command-line alert so it will turn red when your hard drive is on fire. You can make it turn green when you’re done downloading Furry porn on your Windows machine. The possibilities, as they say, are endless.

The device costs $30 shipped and they’ve already surpassed their funding goal so you’re definitely getting one. I purchased one for the aforementioned Furry porn download notification system I’m working on but you can install them in your server farm to assess quality of service or slap one on your laptop to tell you when Woot is having a Woot Off.

The Blink(1) is completely open source so you can hack it or even make your own. The creators note:

Definitely. We’re working to make the enclosure openable so you can get at the circuit board. And if you know Arduino or AVR programming, you can modify how blink(1) functions. blink(1) can be programmed with the Arduino IDE. We will include example hacks of how to turn the blink(1) into a USB keyboard and mouse emulator.

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