I have to disagree that they are not suitable for the "non technically savvy". Programs like ICQ, Zone Alarm, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, Skype, Windows Up

I have to disagree that they are not suitable for the "non technically savvy". Programs like ICQ, Zone Alarm, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, Skype, Windows Update, etc. have been doing bottom right "pop up, on top" notifications since Windows 95. Top right pop down isn't a very far removal from this. I do agree that sometimes more intrusive notifications may be what you require, but don't think that the "top of page/app banner" is often the right use case. The best use case I can think of are control systems, where the screen starts turning red, with the main warning message at the top or the bottom. But this is done to allow the operator to see the entire screen to assess the state of the plant/system, with minimal screen estate taken away, and to allow immediate remedy (which of itself will probably remove the alarm condition, rather than the operator manually dismissing).