Yes, I too hate all notifications; I don't want to have anything pushed in my face; if I need something or some information I will go look for it.

That said you can do many things with tray apps and tooltips, if you really need to. I have been making Windows tray apps lately; they're nice to make and to use.

I wonder if there would be an interest for a tray app that would pull some specific (configurable) information at regular intervals, that would be discoverable via mouseover?