>We actually had a request (and obliged) from the stores department that they wanted a flashing "led" in their receiving application whenever there is a pick-slip ready, as the computer is mostly unattended and they want to know if there is something that requires their attention when they walk by, and there is another application that has another blinking led (as requested by the users) but I can't remember what it was.

If there was NO capability to do flashing/blinking text on the screen, then we should sure have by now minimum one
class in downloads here that made it possible to do that in many (flashy) ways.

If not for better reason, then just to annoy M$ standard interface practices committee/board of gurus ! :)

FWIW I do not like anything dramatic, flashing, bleeding, rotating , appearing/disappearing, popping up with with sound
etc on my interface, but there are certainly times/purposes when any of above might be exactly what is needed.