It sounds like [Andrew] is trying to build a Pavlovian response into his behavior when it comes to online gaming. He wants to make sure he doesn’t miss out when all his friends are online, so he built this traffic signal to monitor Xbox Live activity. It will illuminate the lights, and drive the meters differently based on which of his friends are currently online. When the light’s green, he drops everything a grabs a controller.

The base of the light is a black project box. Inside you’ll find the Arduino compatible chip which drives the device mounted on a piece of protoboard. A WIZnet W5100 adds network connectivity at the low price of around $25. There is one problem with the setup. The API which [Andrew] found doesn’t use any authentication. This means that he can only see the public status of his friends; anyone who has set their online status set to private will always register as ‘online’. If you know of an existing Xbox Live API that would solve this issue we’d love to hear from you in the comments.

• There's finally an official Arduino Ethernet ($60), complete with RJ45 port. It has an FTDI cable header for programming (no USB), a microSD card slot for storage, and there's an optional PoE daughter card.
• SparkFun also released an Arduino-compatible board with ethernet, the Ethernet Pro ($55), but without the SD card slot. It's less cluttered than the official board, hopefully the price will come down as more people build projects around them.
• Additionally, the Freetronics EtherTen ($70) includes a microSD slot and (mini) USB interface.