Looking for info: how to add software controlled LEDs to notebook

So I've had this failed project thing going on for a while now. What I wanted to do was to have a visual indicator when something happened on screen.

A small blue light flashing (slowly) when a mail arrived. Having an event at the end of a simulation run that would light the lamp up. Simple stuff.

First attempt was using the existing leds in the panel. They're obviously controlled in some way via a software layer at some point, so I thought maybe it would be possible to hijack those via some acpi control.

Using the wifi-antenna light, for example? Sounds neat, right.

That doesn't work. Turns out they're actually controlled by events on the bus/hardware layer. Not going to be possible to signal those, apparently, without actually triggering the functions. Or, there's no separate hardware layer for signaling the lights.

So there goes the project basically in the bin, because this was the only real option for a non-hardware mod. I.e., if this was possible, I could write a small program that would work on virtually all computers, and just let programs call the function. Like the messaging layer in Gnome, or the same as having a small notify applet for incoming mail.

Second attempt - almost all laptops and EeePCs and so on have some kind of usb-jack without a sugarcube on, that's not actually used for anything. What about attaching a module of some sort to that? Have a simple circuit out from that port, and down on the underside of the usb-slots on the side, for example? That would work. Might just also rewire the camera-led, I guess.

But how to do that? I don't have a clue where to start. What's actually needed to create events on the usb-device, or if there is such a thing as small circuit boards you can program that way on sale anywhere, etc.

So -- anyone have an idea on how to solve this? Something simple, like.. I don't know.. lobbying Intel to add a separate layer for LED lights in their ACPI specification. Or hacking the bios or something would be preferable, obviously...