I hate this kind of thing so much! We already have a mechanism for detecting if the user is busy or not, which activates the screen saver and power management.

I hate this kind of thing so much! We already have a mechanism for detecting if the user is busy or not, which activates the screen saver and power management. If you really need to get my attention, a little flashing icon in the corner (while not preferred) is still much better than stealing my focus.