[O] Org-Timer has nice popups; how can I use them elsewhere?

[Tory S. Anderson]

So, orgmode timers have a nice popup when they run out; on my KDE, it's gentle 
GUI-box (not emacs) that nicely rises and falls. I would love to have this as 
how my appt reminders work, instead of the ugly minibuffer screeching; but 
looking through the org-timer code didn't give me any ideas. How can I achieve 
this?